I Love Em, I love Em, I Love Em!  (In my Molly Shannon SNL character voice) They are just too cute not to make.  And it truly is addicting! I finished my first garland and ran to show Goaty Cody (My husband's show name) and he nods...turns his head and says, "cool but what do you do with it?"  WRONG QUESTION unless you have an hour to spare.  I proceeded to show him all the ways you could hang it, and dress it up, and take photos with it and drape it...and and and and....he still wasn't impressed. Doesn't matter...he is a boy. And sometimes boys are stupid. ;) Both garlands are just about short of 5 ft, end to end of the strings. And my price is undetermined at the moment.  I looked up what others are charging on Etsy and it kinda scared me.  Really high in my opinion.  So, we will see....what do you think they are worth?  Think of fabric, string, and my time cutting and arranging...not my time trying to convince Goaty that girly frilly garlands are super cool and fun.    

Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to #Hashtag... I consider myself an Austinite, even though I was born above the Mason-Dixon Line. My parents moved to south Austin when I was two and this great city has been my hometown ever since. I did move away for about five years to Colorado Springs, Co. and even though it's a beautiful state with so much to do I couldn't wait to get back home. I worked the corporate world for several years and was fortunate enough to work for a company that allowed me to bring my son with me to work right after he was born. One Friday afternoon I was packing up, ready to head out for the weekend, when my boss asked to chat with me, I quickly realized what the chat was about. I was jobless! By Monday I had processed this change and was now thanking God that He had answered my prayers and desires to stay at home with my then six month old son. Fast forward a few years and my family had grown once again, we had a beautiful little girl that completed our family. After adjusting to being a family of four I began to want to scratch the itch to bring home an income. That's where Hashtag began. Jessie and I started turning our creative wheels and making home decor out of anything we could get our hands on, from items left on the curb to friends and family begging us to take pieces off their hands. Since we started, less than a year ago, not only has our company evolved but we have grown in so many ways. Kasey LaBorde

Born in Alabama, raised in Louisiana, grew up in Dallas and settled in Austin and don't plan on leaving. Sorry mom! I have always had the "junk" bug. I can remember decorating the front room of our house when I was 15 with old suitcases, photographs and vintage clothing. It was a useless room but to me it told a story. I wondered who had this stuff before me and why did they throw it away! I met my husband when I was 17 at a church camp in Dallas where I lived and we dated long distance for 7 months before I decided to move to Austin. Austin and I belong together. Weirdos at heart! I was having a group of moms over to play with, well, they brought their kids too, but it really was about the moms hanging out. Looking at all my friends sitting on the floor of our playroom, next to a window with no curtains, I felt ashamed and embarrassed. I realized I had put our house on hold to raise babies...well, time was up. I didn't want to go blow tons of money on decorating and neither did Cody plus, like I said I like "junk"...pretty "junk". I went to a thrift store, found some really cool old floral print sheets and decided I was going to make curtains with them. I drug my three boys into the woods and set them loose...mission: find mom a 6 foot stick to repurpose into a curtain rod and that they did! Is it weird to use a stick and old sheets as curtains...not in Austin! Everyone raved about it. It hit me then that people like to use things in ways they are not supposed to be used, along with saving money! Hello! #Hashtag was born...Kasey and I started selling small home decor items we had repurposed in an antique shop in Plano and when I say the rest is history, I mean, we haven't had time to look back since! We let God take the reigns and we are just holding on tight during this crazy, amazing, shocking, fascinating, rewarding ride.

First, before I tell you what this blog post is about, I have to tell you a funny little story. I received an email from a customer asking if I would take less than the marked price for a chair that was listed on Craigslist. They stated the reason was because the chair looks scratched. Haha...it's called distressed! I beat that chair up on purpose! And once I was buying a cabinet from a sweet elderly woman and her daughter said, "please don't tell my mom you are going to paint it." Yes, ok, and I won't tell her that I am going to whoop it's tail with chains and add chicken wire where the glass currently is either! Speaking of Craigslist (nice transaction, huh?) #Hashtag was contacted by a young couple through Craigslist who recently purchased their first home. They were looking for interior designers to take the dream of a completed move in ready house and make it reality. Hey, we can do that! With budget in hand, Kasey and I went to Chicafila with our tiniest of kids and drew up a plan. The only way for us to stay within their budget was to #Hashtag the heck out of this house. And believe me...we did! For all the new readers, #Hashtagging is taking something old and making it desirable or repurposing an item, like fence wood on the wall as art. I could write a whole other blog just on #Hashtagging. One day.... Stage one was painting the living room, kitchen, dining, office and master bedroom. We complete the fence wood wall in the entry way. (Shout out to Cristi for killing the cutting in) Here are photos of the process through stage one.

The girl likes to paint!

It was probably going on the 14th hour at this point. We added an accent color to sunken wall.



Entry way fence wood wall.



Entry way before fence wood wall was complete.

Had to show this guy...say goodbye to everyone little weird light thingy!



These two pictures were on the listing website. Let's hope we can do better than the way the house was staged to sell.

After 14 hours of working, stage one was complete...on to fun part or so I thought, SHOPPING!

Great way to keep track of what your thankful for! Ours says toys, candy, and swimming pools every year! $25