Sifting Kimberley, 

The most important thing to know about me is that Jesus is my first love. I became a follower of Jesus 32 years ago and I have never once regretted that day of surrender. He is daily growing and changing me through the ups and downs of life. 

Also, at the top of my list is my English (now American citizen) husband Graham. We’ve been married for 17 years. We met on the internet, in a Christian chat room back when that was a thing! We had a long distance relationship (via phone) for 5 years before we were married in my home state of Texas. We then lived in England, where we served together in our church for the next 7 years. We currently reside in Central Texas and enjoy working together flipping houses.

My love for thrifting really started to thrive while living in England. I couldn’t resist the great charity shops there and loved the idea that the purchases I was making were contributing to a special cause. The occasional car boot sale was also lots of fun! 

I’ve since discovered about myself, a love for the old and forgotten and a desire to rescue and reuse/repurpose those items that we all so easily discard. I’m especially drawn to vintage items such as colorful Depression era glass, shapely architectural finds, homey linens and dusty old books.

My favorite kind of sale is an estate sale but it’s very hard to pass up a garage sale too. I have a favorite thrift or antique store in every town we frequent and much to my husband’s dismay I’ve even been known to pick up freebies (aka trash) left on the side of the road!

My love for design goes back to my early teen years when I chose to do a school report on Egyptian design. My eyes have always been drawn to beautiful homes and décor. This was vibrantly refreshed in my life when I was diagnosed with breast cancer (now in remission for nearly 10 years). While going through my cancer treatment and healing, I started collecting design magazines and scrapbooked ideas for our home. Then when I was feeling better I began searching for those ideas/finds in thrift stores and on Craigslist. I fully furnished our home for under $1000.00! 

Other loves and hobbies; 

Our children and grandchildren, family and friends both far and near and our two rescue fur babies. I love sharing my faith, writing, photography, taking long drives with Gra in the countryside and discovering new interesting places to take our family and friends who visit us from England and the USA.

One further note of interest about me is my nickname Barley, lovingly given to me by my husband who tends to shorten and change everyone’s name! Maybe it’s an English thing! It started with him jokingly calling me KimBarley and it eventually became just Barley. It stuck!