Liz Marie

Okay, so I just had to share something exciting that happened last week. I heard Liz Marie (as in the amazing blogger, who has been invited to Magnolia to meet Chip and Jo, and invited to tour HGTV's dream home) was going to be in Colorado! I HAD to see her! When I was first getting started with my business I followed her and was so inspired by her beautiful neutral farmhouse style. She was a vendor (at the time) at a store called Painted Farmgirl. And I just thought that was the cutest name ever. And I was inspired to start Farmgirl Furniture! 

I've always tried to stick to a semi neutral or at least cool toned color pallet so everything would flow together because of her. (I am so anti-red I can't even tell you! Probably because I thought it was so cool back in my embarrassing college days and painted a huge red accent wall in my bedroom! And now I associate red with awkwardness and being out of style and my "global style" phase where I bought everything at world market and decorated with all my souvenirs from overseas trips). There are a few exceptions to my hate of warm colors (Coke merch being one, and I pull out cute red vintage cash registers and old sleds with red accents at Christmas).  

So ANYWAY I had to see Liz Marie! She was going to be at a market up in Loveland, CO which is about an hour drive from where I live. So I planned a trip up with my friend Jackie (a vendor friend who owns Studio Shambora and is an EXCELLENT stylist and merchandiser, btw.) We just moved into a cute shop in Fort Collins called Fox and Clover, and since it's a bit of a haul we planned it to coincide with the market so I could be a crazy fan girl. 

So we're working late at the shop trying to whip our booths into shape for the weekend and switching out some things to take to Simply Vintage Market (this coming weekend!) And we finally get to the market around 7p.m. I thought it was going to close at 8 so I rush around the perimeter of the market shouting hi's at all my vendor friends and frantically asking if they knew where Liz Marie was! Finally I spot her right before she's about to give a talk in front of a group of people. (I kind of only realized this after I rushed her). But I didn't want to miss my opportunity to meet Liz Marie! 

I rushed up to her in a frenzy and said Hi!!! Can I meet you??? Totally acting like a crazed fan who just met a movie star. She said she was getting ready to give a talk and was a little nervous, and I was like who? you? nervous?! No way! But it humanized her for a minute and I was like hey, she's just another girl here tonight and I assured her she would do great. I blabbed on about how this was like meeting Chip and Joanna to me. And asked her if I could take a picture with her and she graciously agreed. I gave her one of my farmgirl hats because she is the true farmgirl! (She lives on White Cottage Farm where they are renovating an old farmhouse and they have a cute lamb named Grace and a Goat named Baby that they let come in the house. She and her husband Jose (who is an awesome builder and really nice too!) told us a story later about how sometimes the grace runs havoc in their house.

SO she's like, I'll talk to you after! (A polite way of letting me know she was about to go on). So I go sit down and she and Jose sit on a cute little church pew with a lovely vintage backdrop and said they just wanted to have a chat with us like old friends. How AMAZING are they? Totally sweet and humble. So we had about an hour? Half hour? (time stood still really) of Q & A where they graciously answered all our questions about blogging, owning a store, managing their time and schedules, and I found out that she's a night owl like me and is most creative at like 1 am too! 

She let us in on some secrets (She used an iPhone to take most of her beautiful pics and edits them in VSCO and Snapseed). Some of her advice was to take yourself (and your work) seriously and other people will too. She recommended (for those of use without regular job hours) to set work hours and have a place set up to be creative in. And if you're a blogger or a business owner to be consistent in posting (on your blog or social media) once or twice a day. She said that she gathers content and has certain topics scheduled for certain days. That seems like it would make it a lot easier to come up with content! 

Someone asked how she describes her style and she said she calls it Cozy Cottage but also Farmhouse since they live in one! She also let us know that Instagram is just the highlight reel. That they are real people and they don't have everything figured out. (See what I mean, so darn humble!). She told us to just be ourselves and to share our journeys to connect with people.

So after the inspiring talk I shopped around the market for a little bit while others went up and met her and then I came back and she and Jose chatted with me like we were old friends about places they needed to go see while they were in town. I <3 her so much! If you haven't followed her yet, definitely get over there and like her page! So much creativity flows out of this lady! 

I hope someday I can make it out to Michigan to visit her store, The Found Cottage. It would be a pilgrimage of sorts like people take to Magnolia in Waco. It's a beautiful place and the way everything is styled is so lovely! That would be my dream to have a store of my own like that some day!