Teacher Appreciation Week!

It's that time of year when teachers are wrapping up the year, and they get their due appreciation after a long year. After 12 years of teaching, I've had countless friends talk to me about what to get their kids teachers. Now that I am no longer teaching, I can...

This is how we roll. (John A. Gessner Photography)

Starting a business on your own comes with lots of unknowns. After my first photo shoot, where I hired myself as the creative director, I learned to never do that again. Being the creative type does not mean that everything I do comes across well edited and clean for my...

Nearly 102, and designing a new home

Nearly 102, and designing a new home
You simply won't believe what my grandmother, Janie is up to now. For anyone who read my last blog post about Janie, you might understand why I feel partially responsible for this. Perhaps going down memory lane about all of the houses built/rehabbed/redecorated started this ball rolling in her mind....

This is how we roll. (Cyndie Spiegel + The Collective of Us)

Welcome to a new series on the blog where we introduce a team or team member that holds us up to bring this business to life. In other words, without these team members, we would not exist as a whole.  Last summer when I attended Alt Summit, I really didn't...

How do you Leland gal? (Volume 6, sisters edition)

Meet Louise and Hadley. Since the day they were born, these blondies were drawn to color, and thus my perfect test market. Whether they liked it or not, they've also been major customers of Leland gal since the beginning, which tends to happen when your mom is the owners oldest...

How do you Leland gal? (Volume 5)

How do you Leland gal? (Volume 5)
Meet Janie. At 101, she redecorated her living space with my fabric. I felt she was a natural start to 2015 for this series. She also happens to be my grandmother, and where much of the creativity in my family stems from. Here she is as a blushing young bride...

How we decked our halls.

This was our most edited holiday decor to date, and oddly enough, I think my most favorite. Tommy is almost two, and while he might not have pulled the tree down on top of him, I just didn't feel like spending the weeks leading up to Christmas scolding him. So,...

Challenge Accepted...

As someone who takes major pride in their home and interior design, I will admit that when my husband brought home a "free" 9 foot long sailfish this week, I was less than amused. Picture the pride of the dad from "A Christmas Story" when he wins the major award...

Charleston and back in five days. Yes, we drove.

Confession: The initial idea of this "Pop up" was to get a girls weekend in Charleston. While we had talked about it, it wasn't until one early morning on the treadmill two months ago, that I really started devising a strategy. First, I needed an accomplice. Of course, I thought...