Hello,

I’m Kari. I live just outside of Hartford with my husband and our son and daughter.

I love stories and pictures and pictures that tell stories. And that is exactly what this space is for — the stories of our lives and the photos that write those stories deep in our memory.

I spend most of my days making home. Laundry, cooking, cleaning, and meals around the table with my people.

I never saw this as magical.

Until I went to Italy and realized, many of the things I romanticize about the Italian culture are the exact same things I do at home every day.

Laundry — hung on a line in the Italian sunshine or hung in my own backyard.

Food — prepared with love and attention, no matter where the kitchen is.

Messes tended by the hands of a mother — making home a clean, cozy space whether here or there.

Family dinners — a gathering of those we love, and those in need of love, meeting a universal yearning for belonging.

It all glows golden in the Italian sunshine. But really, it’s all the same work. What makes the work glow golden isn’t Italy, it’s the heart behind our labor.

We have the choice every day to make our ordinary lives glow with magic.

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder