15 Things You Don’t Know About CoCo

We’re sharing 15 things you don’t know about CoCo today!

A good portion of these questions have been asked on a regular basis via social media or were specifically sent in by you.

The rest are random facts friends, family and my bestie S who helps me run the website thought it would be fun to share.

15 Things You Don’t Know About CoCo…

*This post was updated in January 2024

I know you have a big farm family and several sisters.  Where do you fall in the birth order?

I’m the oldest.

Is your birth name really CoCo?

CoCo is a nickname my sisters gave me years ago.  It’s the reason there are two capital C’s.

For the longest time, I thought it was a play on my middle name. But according to my sisters they started calling me CoCo because my skin is so soft it feels like cocoa butter.

While some family members and friends still call me by my birth name, CoCo is the name I prefer most.

What’s your graduate degree in?

Counseling

Do you have any secret goals or dreams we’d be surprised to know about?

Like most people, I have lots of goals and dreams.

I’d love to become a best sellling author, have my own calendar, stationery, and home organization product lines and host a retreat for fellow creatives.

This year, I’m going to learn embroidery, maybe calligraphy and how to take better pictures too.

CoCo, would you rather live at the beach, the lake, in the mountains or in a big city?

Hands down the mountains! We’d probably already be living there if our pod and extended farm family weren’t such a significant part of our lives.

Do you have any weird fears? 

I have a major fear of balloons.

The balloon arches I see all over Pinterest are so beautiful but the anticipation that one of them is going to pop is too much to handle 😂

I also have a fear of clowns, cats, buffet lines and most bugs.

Do you have any pet peeves?

My two biggest pet peeves are bad manners and passive aggressive behaviors.

You talk about coming from a family of picky eaters. Has that changed since you guys have gotten older?

I’ve gotten better about trying new things over the years.

But I still eat certain meals in a specific combination and I don’t change the combination unless there are no other options.

I just called my baby sister a few days ago to see if I could bring anything to Sunday Supper and she said, “I like salad, salad but I don’t like salads so you can bring a salad, salad if you want.”

Meaning bring a field green type salad but nothing with a mayonnaise base like a macaroni salad.

My other sister doesn’t like for her food to touch.

I think it’s just one of those quirks that runs in our family.

My Dad is probably the worst of all.

I don’t know how my Mom puts up with us.

She’s a saint 😆

What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?

Shrimp and grits with a Bloody Mary for brunch, a little antique shopping, dropping by the bookstore for coffee, magazines and books, a trip to the farmers market for fresh flowers and dinner ingredients then coming home putting on a French playlist and lingering around the table over a candlelight dinner with family, friends and Piper.

What do you do that drives your family crazy? 

I’m sure there are lots of things 🤣

S, take it away…

It’s one thing if CoCo is trying to tell you a story, it’s an entirely different thing if she’s trying to explain something to you.

Half the time I feel like she’s talking in parables and the other half she’s so vague I feel like I need to buy a vowel.

I hear, “I mean, this is 101” a lot.

According to my sisters…

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of speaking with CoCo in real life, you know she’s very animated. Her hands are waving, her eyes are dancing, and her voice immediately gets a Southern drawl.

If she’s telling a funny story be prepared to wait at least 5 minutes for her to get the story out because she’s probably laughing or crying or both while she’s telling the story.

You wrote several posts about having to take care of S after her accident. Was it harder than you expected despite being best friends for so long?

A million times harder!

I’ve had years of experience helping to take care of my Dad after he was burned and my grandparents as they got older.

S is fiercely independent though which made it very difficult.

None of her family lives even remotely close which made it especially tough because she needed a TON of help.

I was trying to navigate her surgical care and recovery, become her healthcare advocate, make sure she made it to all her appointments, balance her greiving process, help my sweet Jelly Bean deal with canine dementia, cook all the meals, do all the laundry, and clean the house, all while trying to run the blog full time.

It was a lot.

My family showed up big time and I’ll never forget their kindness, love, support and prayers.

They’re a huge reason we made it through!

S and I both have a deep, deep appreciation for others in the same position now and I look at the art of caregiving in a completely different way.

While I would never want to go through the experience again, now that we’re on the other side, I can definitely say it changed us both for the better.

I love your From the Front Porch posts on Friday! You share a lot of dresses. Is that what you usually wear?

Thank you so much! The From the Front Porch series was inspired by my baby sister. She didn’t have enough time during the day to read every blog post so she asked if I could do a weekly wrap up to catch her up while she was in the carpool line.

Those posts are always fun to put together and they’re one of the most popular each week too!

As far as my personal style goes, I probably wear jeans more than anything, but dresses definitely come in a close second.

I’m pretty no-nonsense when it comes to clothes and jewelry.  I like to throw on one or two things and feel pulled together without a lot of extra fuss.

How did you get started painting and selling furniture?

I was working at the hospital looking for a creative outlet when I started painting home decor items.  They were small pieces at first like nightstands and entry tables.

Over time though, I started painting larger pieces of furniture.

In the beginning, it was just for family and friends.

Then my Mom and I decided to combine my love of painting with her decorating skills and we started selling our items in several antique booths around town.

It was so much work and so much fun all at the same time.

Even though that chapter of our lives is closed now, it’s one I’ll always look back on fondly.

Have you ever let your bestie S design a project idea or room?

In all honesty, I take lots of opinions under consideration during room makeovers.

I don’t pretend to have all the best ideas or techniques.

That said, more times than not I start out with an idea in my head and work to achieve that idea from start to finish. 

Even if I have to pivot a few times.

(Here was S’s response)

CoCo definitely knows her own mind. She likes things done in a certain way. Most people would call that bossy, but CoCo has been called bossy quite a bit and it doesn’t faze her at all.

We’re pretty much used to her “direction” now and “get on board” pretty quickly. No sense in delaying the inevitable.

Why did you start a blog and how did you come up with the name The Crowned Goat? 

Blogging was never on my radar at all, ever.

One day when I was in graduate school though I was sitting in my not-so-great apartment in a not-so-great-area of town totally embarrassed to invite anyone over and I had had enough.

In my spare time, I would study the pages of magazines and decorating books wishing that apartment felt like home. I wondered aloud many, many times, if anyone else was feeling the same way I was feeling.

I finally decided to quit wishing and started doing something about it.

The first part of my blog career was so our booth customers could follow along on our treasure hunts. That way, we could keep them informed on the items coming up for sale.

I realized after meeting some of them in person though, it would be a lot easier to pass on the tips and tricks I had learned along the way via a blog so they could create a dream home of their own.

As far as the name goes, The Crowned Goat was all S’s idea…

In the very beginning stages of this creative business, I told S I wished there was a place we could treasure hunt, paint furniture, have seminars about all things home, support each other’s business endeavors and eat sweet treats all at the same time.

I wanted this magical place to feel like a British pub where everyone was welcomed with open arms and could receive support, encouragement, and a pep talk whenever they needed it.

While this online space isn’t the brick-and-mortar space I had originally imagined, I’m excited to say this community is something I really proud of.

We’ve rallied around each other through life’s ups and downs. Through projects that have gone really well and those that have been a total failure.

Readers have become friends and given me advice and opinions when I felt stuck, nudged me out of my comfort zone when I needed to branch out and have been the sweetest cheerleaders when I got published in some of those very same magazines I studied all those years ago.

Every day I know it’s an immense privilege to be a part of their day.

I am deeply thankful for the friendships I’ve made along the way.

And I’m beyond blessed to be able to live these wild and crazy dreams out loud.

Let us know which of these 15 things you don’t know about CoCo suprised you the most. Then share something about yourself that might surprise us too!

Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo