Home · Family · the Everyday
A life, collected.
I'm Amanda — wife to Justin, mom to Weston, chronic organizer of cabinets that don't need organizing. This is my little corner of the internet: home, family, books, thrifted finds, and everything in between.
About
I've always been a collector of little things.
Not necessarily expensive things, or even physical things. Books I keep thinking about. A good recommendation. Family rituals that somehow happen every single night without anyone deciding to start them. Pretty rooms that are actually lived in. Places that feel like home. Shows I can't stop talking about. The perfect cup of coffee. Things that make an ordinary Tuesday a little easier — or a little more special.
I grew up in Richmond, built a life with Justin, spent a chapter of it out in the Bay Area, and we've since made our way back — this time as parents, in a house with green kitchen cabinets and a porch I'm slowly falling in love with. I'm a homemaker in the fullest sense: the planning, the pantry systems, the school forms, the Costco runs, the decorating, the noticing. I like things to feel intentional without feeling formal. Pretty, but real.
This website is basically all of that in one place — a running archive rather than a highlight reel. I'd rather it feel like walking into my house than scrolling a portfolio.
Amanda
Family
The people this whole house is for.
Family is the foundation of pretty much everything else on this site — the home, the routines, the little rituals. Here's who's in mine.
Justin
The one I've built this whole life with — through a cross-country move, a new baby, and now a house we're slowly making ours. He's my favorite person to talk through a plan with, and my favorite person to abandon the plan with when something better comes along.
Weston
Curious, busy, all-in on every book, walk, and playground he encounters. He and Justin and I became a family through adoption, and he has completely rearranged my sense of what an ordinary day can hold.
Our people
Grandparents who show up for every holiday and every Tuesday, friends who feel like family, and a neighborhood full of kids Weston's age. Richmond gave us roots, and I don't take that lightly.
Home
Pretty, but real.
Our house is in the Short Pump/Wesley area of Richmond — four bedrooms, a half wraparound porch, two crepe myrtles I'm convinced are watching me, and a kitchen with forest-green cabinets and gold hardware that I will talk about unprompted if you let me.
The aesthetic, roughly
Warm wood, natural texture, baskets that actually hold something. Classic and collected over trendy — I want rooms that look like they've belonged to us for a while, even the ones we just finished.
The obsession, specifically
Organizing. Not the aspirational kind with matching labeled bins — the kind where I finally figure out where something actually lives, and the whole kitchen breathes a little easier.
Currently Loving
A running list of what's holding my attention.
This is the part of the site I'll keep adding to — books, shows, coffee, the thrift-store lamp I almost put back. Small things, worth documenting.
Books
- Fourth WingRebecca Yarros — currently rereading the middle chapters, again
- Anything by Sarah J. Maasromantasy is the whole personality right now
- A stack of library holdsthe librarians know me by name at this point
Shows
- The TraitorsI have theories, and I will share them unprompted
- Southern Charm & Vanderpump Ruleswatched for the drama, stayed for the editing choices
- A true crime documentaryalways, some things never change
Found & loved
- A cognac tote that fits everythingwarm over black, every time
- A stoneware bowl with a storyI don't know it, but it clearly has one
- Good coffee, spiced & a little sweetthe cozy, nutty kind — never bitter
Roots
A little Richmond love.
Justin and I both grew up here. Moving back — after a chapter in the Bay Area, and now with a toddler in tow — feels less like starting over and more like finally exhaling. There's something about raising a kid down the street from where you grew up that I didn't know I wanted until I had it.
- Neighborhood parksOur go-to for burning off a preschooler's morning energy.
- The local libraryHalf errand, half favorite outing — Weston picks the books now.
- Short Pump & beyondHome base, and slowly becoming genuinely home.