Friends, I cannot believe I’m actually sharing this news with you– it feels surreal: I made the cover of 100 Ideas Flea Market Style!!
Remember when I shared my experience about the crew from Meredith Corp coming to my house at the end of February? Well, this issue is FINALLY OUT and I’m so excited to tell you about it! You can find this magazine almost everywhere magazines are sold (I got mine at my local grocery story) from now until September.
And I know this is a funny picture of me– all my kids cracked up when they saw my close-eyes laughing face. But let’s be real– this is what I actually look like when I’m laughing! Haha!
This feature was a long time coming. Let’s rewind to September of 2013. My very first Vintage Market Days. I had the first booth at the entrance of the barn and I had all my furniture and vintage decor that I had been working on and collecting for months and months, displayed and ready to sell.
I nearly sold out at the first VMD in St Louis which was thrilling, but one of the highlights I remember very clearly was meeting Shaila Wunderlich. She introduced herself to me as a freelance writer for some national and regional magazines and asked if my home look anything like my booth did.
At the time we were still renting– a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath home. Having a cute romantic farmhouse style home was still a dream. Little could be done with our budget and within our lease agreement. I told her we were saving for a down payment on our first house and hoped to make improvements to get a new (old) house that matched my style. She gave me her card and said to stay in touch.
(our house when we first bought it)
Every year Shaila would email me and ask how things were going. She really believed in me. Our first year we slowly tackled a few things on our new house– painting our kitchen cabinets,
sprucing up the back patio with some new plants, getting a few new pieces of furniture for our living room.
The second year, Bruno started his MBA, so that meant I didn’t have extra help with furniture. I decided to spend more time improving my home instead. I started working on making over our master bedroom, our master bathroom,
my daughter’s room, and by the end of the year we had finished with our living room pallet accent wall and built-ins, and kitchen makeover. Shaila asked me to put together a file of before and after photos of our progress so she could pitch it to some magazines. We had made some solid improvements but it wasn’t quite there.
The third year I started to really fine tune things– I made some pretty updates to our back patio, painted and added molding accents to our front room and added some new furniture in there, continued to make improvements to our master bedroom, gave the boys’ shared room a makeover, and built more furniture than ever before. Shaila asked me to update the file again and pitched again. This time I was ready.
And that was when I got the email from contributing editor, Jessica Holtam, asking if they could come photograph my home for 100 Ideas Flea Market Style, a Special Publication of Better Homes & Gardens. Of course I was over the moon excited! We scheduled it shortly after Bruno finished his coursework for his MBA, almost exactly 3 years after we bought our home. 🙂
I’ve never been someone who focuses on ‘numbers’ or blog stats. I know they are important for certain things, but I always felt like experiences and relationships with other professionals and businesses was more valuable to me. Being featured in print has always felt like it would be more rewarding than a paycheck. Don’t get me wrong– a paycheck is important–essential even to keep this blog running (because gosh does it get expensive!)… but this experience is one I have dreamed of and I honestly think was a combination of hard work and pure luck. I don’t think I have the most beautiful home out there or necessarily deserve to be in a magazine– but it IS pretty cute ( 😉 ) and I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time, made the right connections and friendships– all things that individually may seem insignificant, but collectively made all the difference.
To top it all off I got a fun surprise a couple weeks ago when I found out that in the July issue of Better Homes and Gardens, they chose to feature me and a few photos of my home taken at the shoot, in order to promote the 100 Ideas Flea Market Style issue!!
SO! That’s my fun news! Celebrate with me and go buy an issue! hahaha Or don’t, I mean… you can celebrate without buying it but there are some other really beautiful homes featured in the issue, plus some very cool and unique tips on how to use vintage finds.
The end. 🙂 Love you all! And thank you for supporting me through the years!
xo, Rachel
Rachel, congrats! Can’t wait to buy the issue!
Such a wonderful way to be recognized! Congrats!!!
Congratulations, and please know that lots of us live in homes just like yours! I am excited to see a home like this featured in a magazine, it’s real, I can relate to it and feel like it is obtainable to me!
You go girl!
Congats. I saw you in the BHG July edition. Your hard work paid off.
Your house looks great.
I am so thrilled that I discovered your blog. I will definitely celebrate with you by buying a copy of both magazines. Best wishes! I will continue to follow and glean from your ideas!
So very proud of you Rachel and so excited for you! What an incredible accomplishment and so well deserved. Can’t wait to keep watching you conquer the DIY world!!
That is so awesome! You are the Inspiration for my blog in so many ways! I hope to get where you are in the future!
Mama’s Sweet Tea is so happy for you and proud of your much deserved success!
Congrats, well deserved. I have so enjoyed your blog and now I get to see all your hard work in print. How cool is that! Blessings as you move forward and onto new endeavors.
what great style!! you inspire me to try the decor using stuff i have thanks
Ah!! So exciting!!! Congratulations! I discovered you when looking for tutorials on chalk paint and have followed you ever since on Bloglovin! Can’t wait to see more!
Congratulations! Your hard work and down to earth personality is going to take you places! I’m so happy for you!
Congrats! I saw your booth at Vintage Market Days. Great job
Hi Rachel, I just popped over from Vintage Market Days on Facebook. I remember seeing your booth, it was lovely. I love all the work you’ve done on your new home. Congratulations on your feature article! I’m looking forward to following your blog and I’ll be sure to share it with my group TreasureJunkiesSTL on Facebook.
Congratulations! It looks like a beautiful feature and it’s so well deserved. Your home is lovely 🙂
Very Exciting!! Congratulations Rachel- you have a beautiful home and you’ve worked hard.
Hi Rachel! I saw you featured on the Vintage Market Days Facebook page and remember seeing your booth at the market. Congratulations on the cover and article…how exciting!!!! I love your ideas and hope to see you at the October market.
Congrats, your house is gorgeous!! I just love your living room and those beautiful built-ins! We just moved to the St. Louis area (Edwardsville) and I’ve been hearing about Vintage Market Days from shop owners here – can’t wait to go in the fall!
Congratulations well deserved love your style would love to get a copy of the magazine but alas I live in Ireland.
Great things happen when you work hard and don’t give up. I love this story of steadfast perseverance. Your talent alone is enough to be featured. But I love how humble and real you are at the same time. You are very relatable which I think is important. Anyway, Jodie and I are so happy for your success and loved this story. Congrats again! Blessings, Julie & Jodie
The spread in the Flea Market Style magazine was quite lovely. In the BHG spread, I found that I had pulled those pages to put in a special notebook that I keep. I am on my 10th notebook. (How did I get this old so fast????) You’ve done a fantastic job and I am now following your blog to keep up with your projects. When is the next VM in St. Louis? ?? Might be a good road trip from NE Oklahoma. Best of luck, K. Mills
I saw that issue and loved it!!! Wow for you, Girl!
Congrats! You’ve done a fab job! Carolina at Ironmongery Experts