The beginning….

Well here we are, everyone! Welcome to Pennies and Courters! I’ve been daydreaming about this day for a really really long time now. I’m not entirely sure when the idea for this blog first entered my mind, but I do know it’s been years in the making. I kept it pretty tightly under wraps though–so tightly that not even my husband and closest friends knew about this desire until a few months ago. And if you know me, that’s kind of a big deal. I was affectionately dubbed a “Large-mouthed bass chatterbox” from a very early age. But I digress. When I finally did start sharing this secret dream I had, so many people gave me nothing but encouragement and it was the kick in the pants I needed to propel me to turn this into a reality. It may be humble, but it’s a beginning. And if I’ve learned anything over the last few years, it’s that there’s nothing to be despised about that. So here I am. And here you are. Let’s start by way of a little introduction, shall we?

I’m Mallory Courter, wife to Aaron, and mama to our 3 children: Owen, Etta, and Edmund. My days are full of diaper changes, homeschooling, laundry, and general child-wrangling. It’s far from flashy, but I truly believe that this is my greatest calling and I wouldn’t change one thing about it.

Once the kids are tucked in at night, and in between the late night nursing sessions and scary dream soothings, I’m usually browsing Pinterest for the latest home decor trends, sewing costumes, or planning the next birthday party for my kids while binge watching Netflix, of course (I am a millennial after all) .

I’ve lived most of my life on a really tight budget. And I used to be ashamed of that. In the world of social media absorption, perfectly curated homes and spaces fill our minds and whisper to us that what we have is not enough. We spend more than we should because we think we have to, or we feel crippled by our limitation, wring our hands and say “If only!” I’ve fallen prey to both and I can tell you from personal experience that neither one left me feeling particularly grateful for my lot in life.

And sometimes the limitations are ones of our own making. We label ourselves as “uncreative” or “unskilled” or even “lacking the time”. and we subconsciously build barriers that keep us from exploring our own potential. I’ve been there and done that as well. A decent portion can be attributed to human nature and is something we’ll all still struggle with from time to time, but the truth is we can strive to do better.

Lately I’ve been working on shifting my overall thinking into viewing these limitations as less of a hindrance and more of a challenge. And I’ve always loved a challenge. And what I’m finding out is that embracing the limitations that you can’t change and pushing past the ones that you can, can yield some pretty surprising and pleasing results.

So that’s my passion and the overall big picture of the why behind this blog. The specifics will probably look a lot like me sharing the projects that I busy myself with and the tips and tricks I’ve learned in making beautiful design truly affordable for everyone. The majority of what you’ll see will come from either thrifting or DIYing and that’s all with the end goal of saying “See this? You can totally do it too!”

So thanks for stopping by! I hope you’ll continue to follow along as I share and break down some of my past projects and endeavor to turn all the ideas for future projects whirling around in my head into a reality. In the meantime, I’ll keep on pinching my arm to reassure me that this is real, and pinching pennies because, you know, that’s kind of my thing.