Family, Home, and Me with Marilyn

Next up on the FHandM series is Marilyn. She is the first friend I made in this bloggersphere when I started Gracefully Kensie which makes her super special in my book. Her and her husband, Kaleb, have their blog, Brewed Together, where they cover just about everything. Seriously! Photography, design, recipes, DIY, fashion, travel- all of it! And they LOVE making new friends so head on over and check them out... right after you read what she wrote here. :0)

Kaleb and I have been married for a little over three years, but have actually been together for about seven years. It's crazy how time flies! I still feel as if I am 23 years old most of the time even though I'll actually be 27 in a few months. Kaleb is my best friend and truly my soul-mate. One of the things that brought us together besides our instant magnetic attraction to each other, was our love for being creative. When I met Kaleb, he was currently living in Ireland, but just visiting Oklahoma City for a few weeks to see family. He was largely into more of an urban style of art and specifically graffiti. I was intrigued by this unique creativity that I had never explored before. 

While graffiti never became my passion, it encouraged me to be more open to different art forms. From there I really learned to find my own style while exploring and enjoying other art forms. Together we now use our blog as an instrument to share our creativity and ourselves with others in different ways. We hope through our blog that we can encourage others to blog or do something creative every day. 

One of my hugest pet peeves for myself and our home is to always have it clean and presentable. We really enjoy working on our blog every day, but I have a hard time focusing on anything else when our home is dirty. It ruins the photographs and if we ever have unexpected visitors, which is relatively often, I just love being able to have a home others aren't afraid to step into. When I think about our blog and home, I feel that our home is an extension of our blog and it reflects a lot of our work. I believe that we will always be innovating and creating our space to suit our style. And with that comes cleanliness! If followers of our blog were ever to come over, I would want them to feel like they are stepping into the photographs (which hopefully seem clean to our readers). 

This past weekend I actually did a spring cleaning through our tiny closet. And I removed three large bags worth of items to donate. It was one of the best feelings in the world. I truly feel that in order to do your best work for others on your blog, it begins with yourself and your home. If your home is the space you are creating from, then be sure it is an environment that inspires creativity and not something that is lingering over your shoulder like a 'to-do' list. I really also enjoy keeping fresh flowers in our home. This a small and personal thing to me, but my day just tends to be happier when there are flowers around. I feel that it also helps our space to look a little more alive.

One of my favorite things to do for myself is to go out and buy a new dress. I've always enjoyed doing my hair and make-up as well, but since my hair is actually extremely thick and does it's own thing when it's humid, it is not something I necessarily enjoy doing. I enjoy doing my make-up for fun and taking photos as well, but when it comes to weekends I don't really wear it so that my face can have a break. It's also really freeing to leave the house and be a little more natural sometimes.

When it comes to clothing, I can wear a dress any day of the week. In fact I wear them on Saturdays and Sundays as well. I believe the key here is to find one that suits your unique style. Confession: I might have owned about 50 dresses until I went through my closet this weekend and decided to give away about 1/3 of everything in it. A lot of times I will buy less expensive ones so that it's not a big deal if I get them dirty or spill something on them. I can run around in them and it's sort of like I am wearing shorts, but more lady-like.

all photos courtesy of Brewed Together

Thank you so much, Marilyn! Check out more by Marilyn and her hubby over on their blog, Brewed Together. 

If you would like to contribute to our FHandM series, please email me at

gracefullykensie [at] gmail [dot] com.