How did this all begin? It’s kind of a crazy story, actually. I wish I could say that I am doing exactly what I dreamed of as a little girl, but that would not be so true. (I actually wanted to be a secretary named Barbara!!) I grew up in Houston, went to Lamar High School then went to UT Austin for undergrad. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I majored in Plan II – basically got a liberal arts degree.

Upon graduation I worked for a year at (then) Texas Commerce Bank and a year at Aim Investments in the Marketing department. With my dad’s “encouragement,” I decided to return to school, went back to UT and earned my MBA. I worked at Enron after graduation and had a fantastic experience. I rotated around the company and spent most of my time in gas origination – both on Houston Pipeline and in California. Sadly that came to an end in December 2002!!

I took a short break and went back to work as a consultant in acquisitions for Oxy Energy Marketing (part of Occidental Petroleum.) I was there from 2003 – 2009 and was laid off as a result of the “economic downturn.” I was very sad about being laid off but knew God had something great in store for me.

So…I decided to try my hand at a little interior design. Very natural transition, right??!! We built a house in 2008, and I never thought I had any creative talent before that point. But I LOVED the whole process of building. I loved the architectural plans, designing my kitchen, picking out paint colors and slabs and thumbing through magazines every night for a year. Our house is not spectacular by any means, but it is home! It was very important to me to make our house a welcoming, fun yet calming place where my kids and their friends wanted to be…and I didn’t want to be constantly freaked out that a million dollar sofa would be ruined. So it’s warm and cozy, and we’ve already made lots of great memories here. I love people, and I really love making people as happy at home as I am in mine.

So that’s a very long “profile” and probably WAY more than you wanted to know! But I have a passion for interior design and working with people to make their homes a special place. I am blessed to have to have been laid off (twice!!) because it helped get me where I am today. My BIGGEST blessings, though, are my husband, Corby, and our four children (Will, Kate, Corby & Mary Pete.) God is so good!!