Touring the Parade of Homes is a favorite pastime for my husband and me. We love to see all of the new design inspirations, popular building materials and interesting takes on creative spaces. Many people leave home tours inspired to update rooms or replace their entire house, making dreams collected in pinned images on social media collages finally come true. This month, I get to indulge in another of my favorite activities, writing about home design. Read more about Read the October/November 2021 Digital Edition

Nancy Figueroa has always enjoyed cooking and baking. Throughout her life, friends would encourage her to become a private chef or open a restaurant. But it was a trip to Washington D.C. that inspired Figueroa to open a spice and tea shop in downtown Stillwater in 2012. “I was invited to parents’ weekend with our host daughter [an international student from Guatemala] who was accepted into the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Read more about Spice Up the Season

“If you had told me 10 years ago that I would become a chicken lady with a 3,000-square-foot garden, I would have told you [that] you were crazy,” Emily Bretzel says. “When we bought our house, we were simply looking for a beautiful outdoor space. But, once we realized the potential for hobbies, we went for as many things as we could.” Read more about Home Grown

“Really what it was inspired by was definitely personal experience when it comes to anxiety and depression,” Paige Boner says about the impetus for starting her podcast titled It’s Hard in 2019.

Before the It’s Hard podcast, Boner had been sharing some of her personal struggles through diaristic social media posts, although it wasn’t always easy. Read more about Making It Easier