About Me

I enjoy a lively and sometimes intense interest, as well as being fascinated about architectural and interior design, gardening, art, color, nature, animals and the environment, books, and DIY. For me they are very much interconnected.

After college I enjoyed a career in medical technology, bio-tech/pharmaceuticals and farming, while decorating, remodeling, designing additions to my first three homes, then designing and building, first a new horse farm, then the home I am in now, all the way from concept to blueprints to completion. During the time I built this last home, and now a designer full time, I designed and built a few other homes along the way, with my passion increasing for green design long before it was a word the public heard or understood, or that builders and designers embraced. My awareness of the impact building and designing has on the entire design process and on the environment, came early and in large part from my Grandfather, an outdoorsman, who taught me so much of what I learned about nature, the environment, my place in it, and my responsibility to it. He taught by example, emphasizing that we must tread lightly on the environment with the admonition “they don’t make land anymore; what is, is all there will ever be”. I was treated to conversations in his sport shop about the woods and wildlife, and on his fishing cruiser about clean lakes. Those ideas were supported by other family members, various books, magazines and trips, and became a part of my passion and thinking even as a child. My Grandfather was an environmentalist before the word was really coined. He was also a painter, photographer,equestrian among others pursuits, and a person I adored.

My love of design and all its consequences continues to this day as I hope to share what I have learned, including fun projects, as well as design stories from along the way, along with a few unique surprises. We will explore color from several different or varied perspectives so that you can develop ease with it enough that you might let your own true colors show in your home, garden and heart. I was privileged to be able to show dogs and horses, do rescue work, over many, many years, and hope to share some entertaining stories along the way about the animals and people that have touched and influenced my life and others in important ways, including in the design world. I also hope you will feel free to share with me your projects, photos and thoughts or bits of wisdom picked up along your way.

I look forward to having a blog that is fun, educational, where you can sit for a while with a cup of coffee or tea, or wine, and perhaps smile or even laugh out loud at the happenings here at Whimsical Home and Garden. Cheers! charisse