Hey there, friend!

I’m Darlene. Here, you will find everything from my planning process, item sourcing and DIYs for home projects and event planning. I want to encourage other beginners to feel confident and empowered to do their projects too. Whether that’s crafting, woodworking, home renovation or events. Some days are fun and exciting, and others are overwhelming fails. My daily reminder is to “be nice to myself”, because we all start somewhere. We may not know how to do everything but that shouldn’t stop us from trying out something new. My hope is that, by seeing little ol me doing these projects, you feel confident and empowered to do yours too. (Check out my Instagram account @deardarlenee for daily stories)

Representation matters. I don’t often see too much of “me” in the trending spaces. But I know y’all are out there! I am Mexican, I am a first-generation American and college graduate. I’m a big girl with an “alternative” style. I love dark, creepy things and oddities. And I just love to create. Here, we focus on authenticity and showing that you can literally do whatever the heck you want to do. It's my goal to empower people of diverse abilities, background, lifestyle or budget to make their space feel authentic to them.

How did I get here?

I am the product of immigrant parents from Mexico who instilled the importance of, quite literally, building the life that I dream of. For as long as I can remember, I was in awe that my dad knew how to fix EVERYTHING and that my mom made all of our costumes from scratch and built beautiful hardwood furniture pieces. At 8 years old, I was handed a paint brush and taught how to use a drill and helped my parents renovate their first home turned rental property. From that moment, I wanted to make everything with my own two hands.

DIY was a constant in my life from a young age but it was never really the main attraction. After graduating college and settling into my career in disability accessibility, my mom signed me up for a woodshop class she started at! In the class, I learned all the fundamentals and how to work every tool but found the *masculine* environment wasn’t for me. So I quit, got my own tools and found other women woodworkers on the internet that I could learn from. Once I found my community online, everything fell into place. I no longer felt like I had to do either or. I could work at a university AND woodwork. I could craft AND do room makeovers. I could jump on trends AND still collect and share my oddities. I’ve worked full time in disability accessibility at a universities in Southern California for the past 9 years and I love it. But I also love creating. So I do both!