Creating Home, What it Means to Me

My Home! My kids are my art!

Well, I guess I want to start by introducing myself and why I have created my business. My name is Shannon Handley and I am a C.I.D, a Certified Interior Decorator. I also have a degree in Psychology and worked in Special Education as a Program Director for UCP for several years. With my first pregnancy I decided to make some sacrifices and become a stay at home mom. At the time, my family lived in Florida and we were in our first home. It was a difficult transition from working to being at home all day with my little girl (well, just the being at home all day, I loved being with her!). However, it was very important to me to make my family a priority. With that choice, as you may know, comes some challenges. I kept feeling this need to make our house a home, especially now that I was home more. I think it is an instinctual need that most women and maybe some men have, but I needed to feather my nest, if you will. I wanted to create a warm and functional home for my family. The challenge was that, as a one income family, there wasn't much of a budget for decorating. So I had to be creative. So I started creating my home using creative budget friendly and family friendly design ideas.  

So since then, I have been helping friends and family for years with their homes, they would come into my home and say "Hey this looks great! Can you come and help me?". I love that I got the experience and I was really loving the process! I became obsessed with design and subscribed to every magazine I could and watched design shows on HGTV. Then it hit me, I could do this for a living and get paid to do what I love, share my ideas and help other families create beautiful homes.  So I got certified as an Interior Decorator and set out on a mission! My belief is that everyone deserves a home that makes them feel good, regardless of budget!

Yes, aesthetics are very important to me, maybe its the Virgo in me. My friends always joke that I would be ready to entertain at the last minute, because everything is always perfect! I know that most people don't live that way, let's be real between kids and pets, now-a-days I need at least a 30 minute warning! No seriously, I do feel that, just because we have a family, now two beautiful kids, a girl and a boy running around, it doesn't negate the need for a beautiful home. So that's where Creating Home was born, and no, I am in no way saying we should live in a model home! I look at the homes in the magazines and I can't relate to most of them, but I can be inspired by the design and make it work for real life. My belief is that our homes should reflect who we are and how we live. I hope that through all the avenues we now have, I can reach out to thousands of frustrated homeowners with the practical and family friendly design advice. I want to help you create a beautiful, yet livable home for your family! 

In my blog each week we will be creating a new space in our homes, so one week it may be family spaces and the next work spaces. Then daily I will tackle a different topic.

• Monday is "Color Me Happy", I will offer great color advice or whats hot! 

• Tuesday is "Tip Time", offering practical design tips for your room. 

• Wednesday will be "High Style, Low Cost", showing you how to achieve a high end look on a budget.

• Thursday is "Three-way Thursday", don't get excited, it's just showing you three ways to style something or use something in your home. 

• Friday is "Fantastic Find", each week I will source a great product for your home. FYI, I looooove flea markets and you will see me using items I found and turning them into something great for the home.             

I can't wait to get started and hope you will follow my blog and tell your friends to come along and together we can have fun Creating Home!
This coming week is all about creating restful spaces! My sister is getting married and I wanted to tackle what I consider to be the most important room for newly weds and every couple,  the bedroom!