Daune grew up among a family of entrepreneurs, artists, and gatherers in North Carolina. She owned her first business when she was six and created pen and ink drawings of the beach each day after school, and then went door-to-door selling them. Morning walks in the garden, markets, coffee, fresh flowers, books, a beautifully set table, delicious food, faith, family, travel, adventure, great company….these are a few of her favorite things.

Daune and her husband, Keith, are former professional ballet dancers. After spending many years performing professionally in companies nationwide she and Keith have found themselves nestled in a cottage in Eastern NC, where they love to gather people, dream, and launch adventures. After homeschooling their three children, they are new empty nesters.

She believes our homes are our most powerful place of ministry, and with a passion for home, gathering, creativity, and travel, Daune launched The Cottage Table Experience and hosts long table gatherings, live workshops on creative home + hospitality + gathering, and creative retreats abroad and in the U.S. While being very content with where she is, she is homesick for places she has never been, and believes wholeheartedly that we should seize the common occasions and make them great!

I believe that our creative power enables us to make not just beautiful things, but also a beautiful life.

As an artist and creative mentor, I merge mixed media and encaustic medium to create luminous art that invites others to honor the complex stories while also simplifying (and elevating) the continuing stories they tell themselves about themselves. It's all about inviting a spirit of peace AND exuberant trust, heartache AND hope, defining moments AND recreating yourself anew.

I am the creator of over a dozen popular online art courses and eBooks which provide easy, step-by-step guidance on how to improve your metalsmtihing skills in my signature “homesteader” style, how to combine plaster, paint, and encaustic medium in two-dimensional work, and how to create original sculpted forms with plaster and found objects.

Marian Parsons is a paint and textile enthusiast and lover of all things home. She started her business, Mustard Seed Interiors, in 2008, as a way to earn extra money for groceries and diapers. What started as a local decorative painting and mural business has grown into a popular blog, Miss Mustard Seed, a fine art and design business, and a podcast – The Creative Exponent with Shaunna Parker. Her original products and fine art prints have been sold at Hobby Lobby, Creative Co-op, Decor Steals, TJ Maxx, and more. Her first book, Inspired You, was nominated for the ECPA Christian Book Award in the category of Best New Author. Her second book, Feels Like Home, walks through the journey of customizing a suburban home. Marian currently lives in Hagerstown, MD, with her husband and two sons.

Marian has contributed articles and photographs to Cottages & Bungalows, Romantic Homes, Land-Leben, Traumwohnen, and HGTV.com, and her work has been featured in Country Living, In Her Studio, Woman’s Day, Better Homes & Gardens, Romantic Homes, American Farmhouse Style, Cottages & Bungalows, Where Women Create, Fresh Style, Make It Over, Watercolor Artist, Mary Jane’s Farm, French Style, Washington Post, and on Fox News, NBC, CBS, and The Nate Berkus Show.

Not everyone has a wanderlust, some are content with home, where the comfort of the familiar is enough. I am a wanderer, I find comfort in the unfamiliar and the road less traveled. If home is where my heart is, and it is, I bring a piece of my heart with me on my forays into the wider world. Home is more acutely appreciated upon my return. And, like a pilgrim, I return with a fuller heart. To receive and be received by another culture is a treasure to my nomadic ancestry. We are one family on a tiny blue speck in the cosmos.

When I am home, I live with my husband of 45 years and our blue heeler dog Jasper. We reside on 23 beautiful acres in north Idaho, where we are restoring a turn of the century homestead. We are living out a dream by hosting art, writing, and healing retreats, on a beautiful bit of heaven we call Hunter Moon Homestead. In the spring and summer, nature's pull to growth is ramped up, and the herb, vegetable, and flower gardens overflow with beauty. In the autumn, harvesting the bounty here is in full force. In the winter season I move inside: I paint, and write, and ponder, and rest, and dream of my next adventure.

Hi, I’m Jennifer Rizzo, owner and the creative behind Jennifer Rizzo Home + Studio and Jennifer Rizzo Design Company. It’s become a place where you and I can be creative in our homes. Where we can make handmade home decor, decorate with new and vintage finds, make art, and express our creativity through design, decorating and getting messy with hands-on projects.

I am a mom of 3 teenage girls and live with my kid and hubby in the suburbs of Chicago. I love paint, coffee, making things, and my garden. I started late in life in my creative journey after years of doing other career paths like firefighter/paramedic, dental assistant, and healthcare company recruiter… It feels so good to be where I belong.

Over the last 14 years (eek! Time flies!), it’s been fun to share art tutorials, painting furniture, room redesigns and more. I want you to feel empowered to go with your gut in your home, to try a new project you’ve never done, and to decorate your home in a way that fits you and your family’s life and style, and that you feel free to put your home together in a way you love.