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... welcome to our creative merry-making in the country …
… about us …
Steph's desk
2025
If you're like me, you spend hours viewing homes, décor, crafts, gardens, and so much more in photos and videos. Collecting design books and searching the early web, I found one website on restoring an old house. Now there are so many, it's a dream come true for a design devotee like me.
at Grandma's house, Western Maryland
There was a time when I studied the world as my parents drove through the mountains to Grandma's house. The Victorian houses, some very much in need of care and a gardener are still in my thoughts. I think about the French-blue plaster walls in the kitchen of one Grandma, and the cheery red wallpaper in the kitchen of the other. I'm a sentimental that way.
Yearning for heart-felt décor is my way of reconnecting with the happiest days of childhood.
Then as a grown lady, I became the owner of a very old house — two hundred and thirty five years old, as of this writing. I met Patrick, my husband the same month and because he had stars in his eyes at the time, he agreed to join me in the adventure.
Luckily he's an engineer, athletic, and doesn't mind a challenge.
I worked as a designer in the DC area and as an Assistant Art Director "in the movies," for documentary channels like The History Channel, AMC, The Country Channel, and The National Geographic Channel.
We tackle projects that are in our skill level and divide work into segments that we can accomplish while still working for a living. We're not spring chickens, so we pace ourselves and prioritize.
It's worth it!
I still moon over old houses when we go for drives in the country. The difference now is that I really have one of my own. I still pinch myself sometimes!
´*•.¸Faith works miracles. ¸.•*´
Pat and I also design original projects to share.
It's our way of contributing to the grand community of creative people who yearn for a place of their own, or who are already in the thick of creating a world of their own.
It's never an easy thing to write about yourself, but it's a bit easier to post photos from years of documenting my life.
My Instagram link if you'd like to follow me is here:
My life is amazing, and also very ordinary.
My brother Marty was Batman and I was Batgirl.
Our dad told us he was Superman, so
this was bound to happen.
As years went by, I believed I could sing well enough
to join The Beatles.
My fifth grade teacher told my mom
with some disgust, "She thinks she's going
to write music with Elton John!"
My mom said, "It could happen!"
(It still could happen! Elton, are you there?)
I didn't know I could draw when I first started out.
I only knew I would try.
I believe that if you look a little like Hieronymus Bosch
it can only help.
I call my town "Little Dimple, West Virginia" and
I work as an illustrator pretty much every day …
every day when I'm not restoring
the 235 year old house with Pat.
Roofing, scraping, painting, cleaning …
you get the idea!
I do lots of ordinary things
like pulling weeds and washing dishes
taking care of cats and dogs.
But I still think I could be a rock star …
About my Old House Studio
click on the door for a few photos of this project …
A little bit more…
Whenever I design a craft, I strive to make it as
original as possible and something I'd like to
have in my own house or garden.
In other words, something any rock star would love!
I contribute to
