• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • MEET CHRISTY & AMY
    • IF YOU’RE NEW HERE…
    • WORK WITH US
    • 11 MAGNOLIA LANE 101
    • DISCLOSURE + PRIVACY (the fine print)
    • BEST OF 11 MAGNOLIA LANE
  • TOUR OUR HOMES
    • TOUR OUR HOMES
    • CHRISTY’S MAGNOLIA COTTAGE
    • CHRISTY’S MCC HOUSE
    • Christy’s Stuttgart Flat
    • Amy’s Virginia Craftsman Home Tour
    • AMY’S VIRGINIA CRAFTSMAN Building Process
    • HOLIDAY HOME TOUR SERIES
  • CELEBRATIONS
    • EVENTS + ENTERTAINING
    • GIFTS
    • HOLIDAYS
    • RECIPES
  • HOME
    • CLEANING
    • DECORATING
    • ORGANIZING
    • ROOM BY ROOM
      • BATHROOMS
      • BEDROOMS
      • CLOSETS
      • CRAFT ROOMS + OFFICES
      • DINING ROOMS
      • KIDS’ ROOMS
      • KITCHENS
      • LAUNDRY ROOMS
      • LIVING + GREAT ROOMS
      • OTHER SPACES
      • PANTRIES
      • PLAYROOMS + BONUS ROOMS
      • PORCHES + OUTDOOR SPACES
    • TIPS
  • SHOP
    • SHOP OUR INSTAGRAM
    • SHOP OUR AMAZON STORE
    • FRIDAY FAVORITE FINDS
  • PROJECTS
    • CRAFTS
    • DIY PROJECTS + TUTORIALS
    • FURNITURE
    • PRINTABLES
    • WINDOWS, DOORS, + WALLS
  • LIFE
    • FRIDAY FREE FOR ALL
    • HEALTH
    • SIMPLY ON SUNDAY
  • TRAVEL
  • CONTACT
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

11 Magnolia Lane

Sharing our easy DIYs, decorating, entertaining and more!

All About Us

{If you are a potential sponsor or advertiser, please click {here} or email us at admin@11magnolialane.com}

We are:

christy-amy-11-magnolia-lane-laughing

Amy & Christy

 

Thank you for visiting us at 11 Magnolia Lane. We are Christy and Amy, two long-time friends who share an interest in decorating our homes, tackling DIY projects, organizing our homes and lives and entertaining friends and family. We’ve been sharing our projects here at 11 Magnolia Lane since 2010.

You can tour our homes HERE.

Read our five-year anniversary post HERE.

If you’re curious, here is the story behind 11 Magnolia Lane….

Our little blog started with three friends who joined creative forces to start a website.  You can see part of our original gang, Terry, the brunette, pictured with us below. Terry has returned to event planning and isn’t blogging currently but you’ll still find her posts in our archives.

 

Super Cute-- laughing

So here is how it all began….

I, Amy, started a {different} blog as part of my event graphic design business in 2009. Whenever I did a project for a wedding or event, I posted it on my little blogspot blog. Most of my followers were my supportive friends. I met Terry during that time, as our sons were in preschool together, and since she is an event planner there was an instant connection. We started working on weddings and events with our respective businesses, quickly becoming close friends as well. We soon needed to create a website/blog to promote the wedding and charitable event work we were doing together. As we tried to think of a name for the site, we both decided we liked the southern motif and were kicking around using “Magnolia” in the name of the event business.

At the same time, I was reading “party/event” blogs for my business, which quickly led to reading home blogs {there were fewer at that time}, and I was instantly hooked. After all, I love to work on my house as much as I love to entertain! It occurred to me at the time how segmented the blogs were—there wasn’t much crossover at the time between the party/event blogs and home décor/DIY blogs– and the idea hit me to recruit some talented friends to create a magazine-type blog covering all those things like-minded people want to read about.

11 Magnolia Lane button

I have known Christy since my first day of college when– thankfully –the computer assigned us a roommates. We couldn’t be better matched as far as our tastes {y’all probably notice similarities in our decorating, and we tend to reconvene after separating while shopping to find the exact same items in our baskets!} and have stayed close friends in the years since our college days though we haven’t lived near each other since that time. Each time I visited her I could see how talented she was at decorating her home and entertaining her house guests.

sidebar-Christy-Headshot-2015

{Christy}

As luck would have it, about the time this type of magazine-type blog idea was kicking around in my head, Christy and family had just moved into this stunning home in North Carolina. Each time I visited her I felt like the world needed to see how lovely not just the home was, but the creative ideas she used to decorate and keep her family organized. Before too long, I roped her into joining up with Terry and me to work on our blog. Her pretty house became our initial “brand” and we used a {made up} address of 11 Magnolia Lane, liking the concept of the house and our readers being our welcomed guests.

nc house

We sort of played at blogging our first few months, just posting when we felt like it, making a few connections in the blog world and having fun with it. Most of our friends and families probably didn’t even know we were doing it, but it was fun for us.

Garden Shot-1

Things suddenly changed for me when my husband was unexpectedly transferred across the state shortly after we got the blog rolling. This admittedly threw my life into chaos–I had to close my design business, halt the event work Terry and I were doing, unexpectedly sell our home, find a new house, and start completely over in a new area. Terry was working on a major event about the same time and Christy was also moving {since she is military she rolls with it better than I did!} so we all pulled away from the blog in the summer of 2011, not really thinking or knowing if we’d continue working on it. {Note: that summer was the time Christy remade her new kitchen which eventually got published in Better Homes & Gardens Kitchen & Bath Makeovers, lest you think grass grows under her feet!}.

BH&G Kitchen + Bath Makeovers--Christy's kitchen

photo courtesy Kitchen + Bath Makeovers

After awhile we all missed blogging; after all, we’re pretty Type A girls so we constantly have projects going, and a blog provides great motivation to keep going, going, going! By fall of 2011, we got back to posting again. I had plenty to share about the house we’d just finished having built, Christy was quickly completing makeovers on her new home  and pretty soon we were back in the swing of it all.

In the spring of 2012 we planned a weekend to meet up in person to get better organized and get some photography of the three of us done. We had a great time that weekend, came back with renewed energy, and suddenly 11 Magnolia Lane became not just a hobby, but a business.

amy photographed

Fast forward a few more years later–we’ve decorated a few new homes, attended a few Haven conferences, and enjoyed some amazing sponsorships and growth opportunities. We never knew this fun creative outlet would turn into a business {you can read more on that HERE} but we love every minute of it.

Thanks to all of you who read us, and especially take time to interact with us via comments, email or on Facebook. As bloggers we all have many, many days where we think—“What am I doing posting my pantry on the internet or Pinterest?! This is totally nuts!” But we enjoy the relationships that we’ve built online and it’s been fun to be a part of this virtual community.

Did I answer everything you might be wondering about? If not, please leave questions in the comments. As always, thanks for stopping by!

XO,

name-amy-new-headshot-summer-2016-2 copy

Please contact us at admin@11magnolia.com, or follow us on social media using these links:

icon-facebook-1icon-instagram-1icon-pinterest-1icon-twitter-1NEW Google+ 
Click here to subscribe

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kathy Evans says

    November 16, 2020 at 1:43 pm

    Thank you for your beautiful story. I, too, was a military wife; happily retired now. The challenge of making each ‘new’ home feel ‘just like home’ for the duration of the posting can sometimes be overwhelming, especially if you have children. Your blog is so inspirational and full of great ideas. I truly bless the day I came across it on Pinterest and am now a devoted follower.
    Cheers, Kathy Evans

    Reply
    • Christy says

      November 17, 2020 at 2:18 pm

      Hello, Kathy–

      Thanks so much for taking the time to write such a lovely comment! We are so glad that you found us and that you enjoy following along with us. How nice that you are now in your “forever home” and you don’t have to uproot and move every few years, although you probably still feel the urge to pull up stakes and start anew every few years! My guess is that it takes awhile for that feeling to go away, if it ever does!

      Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and thanks again for taking the time to write. We really do treasure every comment!
      Christy

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Lowest prices. Straight Teeth,

•Don’t Miss A Thing!!•

•Do You Know Jesus?•

•Featured In•

Holiday Gift Ideas

Footer

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2023 · 11 Magnolia Lane· Blog Design by Little Blue Deer
Privacy Policy

11 MAGNOLIA LANE IS A PARTICIPANT IN THE AMAZON SERVICES LLC ASSOCIATES PROGRAM, AN AFFILIATE ADVERTISING PROGRAM DESIGNED TO PROVIDE A MEANS FOR US TO EARN ADVERTISING FEES BY ADVERTISING AND LINKING TO AMAZON.COM AND AFFILIATED SITES. AS AN AMAZON ASSOCIATE, WE EARN FROM QUALIFYING PURCHASES. WE ALSO PARTICIPATE IN SEVERAL OTHER AFFILIATE PROGRAMS; THIS INCOME ALLOWS US TO MAINTAIN THE QUALITY OF YOUR USER EXPERIENCE AND KEEPS OUR CONTENT FREE. WHEN YOU PURCHASE THROUGH ANY OF OUR AFFILIATE LINKS, WE EARN A SMALL COMMISSION AND YOU DON’T PAY A CENT MORE THAN YOU WOULD OTHERWISE; THAT WOULD BE TACKY!   READ OUR FULL PRIVACY AND DISCLOSURE POLICY {HERE}.
  ©11 Magnolia Lane 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s authors and/or owners is strictly prohibited. Please email us at admin@11magnolialane.com for more information.

  • MEET CHRISTY & AMY
    • IF YOU’RE NEW HERE…
    • WORK WITH US
    • 11 MAGNOLIA LANE 101
    • DISCLOSURE + PRIVACY (the fine print)
    • BEST OF 11 MAGNOLIA LANE
    • Back
  • TOUR OUR HOMES
    • TOUR OUR HOMES
    • CHRISTY’S MAGNOLIA COTTAGE
    • CHRISTY’S MCC HOUSE
    • AMY’S NEW HOME BUILD
    • HOLIDAY HOME TOUR SERIES
    • SPRING HOME TOUR SERIES
    • Back
  • CELEBRATIONS
    • EVENTS + ENTERTAINING
    • GIFTS
    • HOLIDAYS
    • RECIPES
    • Back
  • HOME
    • CLEANING
    • DECORATING
    • ORGANIZING
    • ROOM BY ROOM
      • BATHROOMS
      • BEDROOMS
      • CLOSETS
      • CRAFT ROOMS + OFFICES
      • DINING ROOMS
      • KIDS’ ROOMS
      • KITCHENS
      • LAUNDRY ROOMS
      • LIVING + GREAT ROOMS
      • OTHER SPACES
      • PANTRIES
      • PLAYROOMS + BONUS ROOMS
      • PORCHES + OUTDOOR SPACES
      • Back
    • TIPS
    • Back
  • SHOP
    • SHOP OUR INSTAGRAM
    • SHOP OUR AMAZON STORE
    • FRIDAY FAVORITE FINDS
    • 11 ML ETSY SHOP
    • 11ML ORGANIZING SHOP
    • Back
  • PROJECTS
    • CRAFTS
    • DIY PROJECTS + TUTORIALS
    • FURNITURE
    • PRINTABLES
    • WINDOWS, DOORS, + WALLS
    • Back
  • LIFE
    • FRIDAY FREE FOR ALL
    • HEALTH
    • SIMPLY ON SUNDAY
    • TRAVEL
    • Back
  • CONTACT
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest