We are Sarah from the pines of Northern Arizona, and Naomi from the prairies of Wichita Kansas. We are sisters. Friends. Kindred spirits and creative mentors to each other. The cliff notes on our lives thus far? More or less, we spent our first decade of life in South Africa, the second in Canada and the third in the United States. To make a very long story short we come from an incredibly wonderful and culturally/ideologically diverse family. Our heritage includes botanists, scientists, farmers, preachers and creatives. Lots of creatives. We were raised around photographers, writers, decorators… all of the best kind. Resourceful, imaginative and whimsical people who saw beauty all around them and infused it into their homes, travels and belief systems. It definitely is the reason that Omi and I (that’s what I call her!) see the world the way we do. But our biggest influence? God! Our parents raised us with deep reverence for our creator, and a knowledge that our gifts were given to us for a purpose… and that our talents were to be used to enhance our family’s lives. Though we married and moved to separate States, we have stayed each other’s best friends. The common ground that we share on is our faith… and our latest projects.
We were always taught not to see boundaries, whether they be time or money, and to pursue what we wanted using our creativity to conquer any obstacles that arise. On the last couple of occasions that we sat in each other’s houses, my sister and I contemplated how neat it would be to share what we’ve learned with others. We considered our unique perspectives.
Naomi’s Perspective:
Naomi’s husband Jason is a realtor in Wichita Kansas (the prairies). As any veteran of the realty business knows… income drastically fluctuates and it’s always feast or famine. She lives as though she’s permanently in a famine even if she isn’t. It’s one of the things that makes their family truly admirable. They don’t do anything without careful consideration of the cost. But she has great fashionable and classy taste, so she’s thought up incredibly intelligent and crafty ways to get what she wants on very little money. The unique spin she brings to this blog is that she’ll be able to show you crafts, recipes and renovations that cost very little. Whether it be parties for her 3 adorable kids, or a kitchen remodel on $200 (yep!)… she’s going to shatter your expectations of what you (yes YOU!) can do in your own homes, for your own families.
Sarah’s Perspective:
My take on the world is slightly different. I married a river guide in Flagstaff, Arizona (the pines) who made under 20K a year. He drove a 20 year old truck. I was a graphic designer so fortunately I was able to supplement our income to the floating point in his very expensive home town of Flagstaff. It turned out that the “laid back hippy” I got hitched with however had buried an extremely ambitious side to his personality which only emerged after our daughter was born. The days of being gone all summer were getting old as milestone after milestone was missed. After one failed van tour business, he aggressively pursued the idea of getting a bike rental shop into Grand Canyon National Park. In 2010 hard work paid off and we were awarded a contract to operate the Canyon’s first bike business. My perspective is a very fortunate one… while I love the challenge of doing more for less… I definitely have more monetary resources, so my blog posts whether they be recipes or renovations will speak more to those who have a looser budget. My favorite projects of furniture up-cycling which will be speak to everyone and I’ll also be doing some photography tutorials and showing you ways to help brand market your small businesses.
The Bigger Perspective:
It was with a lot of prayer and contemplation that we considered our common and unique skill sets and decided that this was a way to share them with our friends. This is how we can fund trips to spend more time together. We both know that our God-given commission is to be great Christians, moms and wives . Anything that lands on top of that has to compliment the latter and never exceed it in time or effort. So this blog will be for the times where we have a spare moment to share our projects. We will do so always giving God the glory for the resources and health to be able to accomplish our goal of helping our families financially. And also purely for the joy of sharing our hearts and our skills. We both believe that ANYBODY who has breath can make their homes and lives a little more beautiful with a bit of imagination. We’ve been blessed to be raised with the door to our right brain wide open… so we’re going to try and help those of you who need a little oil in the hinges to find your own inner creator.
What Will This Blog Be About?
It’ll be all over the map. Literally and figuratively. As moms we both love cooking and home making so it’ll be recipes and house projects mostly. On top of that, Naomi loves parties (be they showers or birthdays) so you’ll see a lot of that. I have a bit of an obsession with free bulk-pick-up-day furniture finds so you’ll see a lot of pieces being revived. We both have family businesses that we do a lot of marketing for so we’ll share practical ways to create your own marketing materials. We both have photography businesses… here’s Omi’sand here’s mine. So you’ll likely hear a bit about that. Lastly, or should I say mostly, we are Christians and that’ll underscore everything we do – we look to Proverbs 31 as a template for what we can and should be as wives.
