Welcome to A Beautiful Mess! We're Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman. We're sisters. Together we own A Beautiful Mess, a women's lifestyle company focused on creating happiness every day through a homemade lifestyle. On this blog we share home decor projects, recipes, and crafts, as well as bits of our life here in the Midwest. 

In addition to writing A Beautiful Mess, we've created two bestselling photo apps (A Beautiful Mess and Party Party) and we teach online classes at Shop A Beautiful Mess. In 2013, we released our first book, A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book and in 2014 we released our second book, A Beautiful Mess Happy Handmade Home and our own product line.

Cheers to doin'-it-yourself, always learning, trying, failing, dreaming big, enjoying the small stuff, and above all else ... embracing imperfection. Life is better when it's a little bit messy. 

You wanna meet our staff? We work with an awesome team of people! 

Elsie Larson (me!), Founder and Creative Director 

I started A Beautiful Mess in 2007, but didn't truly find my groove until I teamed up with my sister and business soul mate, Emma, in 2010. Today I mainly focus my energy on the creative side of the business. I oversee the look and feel of A Beautiful Mess's online content as well as products and side projects (like our apps, books, and products). I would say I have just enough free time to keep redecorating my home but never enough to get bored. ;)

Emma Chapman, Co-Owner and Editor

Emma is my sister and the co-owner of A Beautiful Mess. She oversees the business side of what we do and made it possible for us to be where we are today! Recently Emma has also taken on an editorial role for both the blog and our online education program. Most people know Emma for recipes, which she is amazing at (see here for proof), but what people don't often know is that she has a talent for business. She's a forward thinker and pushed to create our first app despite family and friends discouraging the risk. She's also a real big sucker for photos of baby pigs. 

Philip Bowles, Developer

Philip oversees the development behind our websites. Our shop site was his first big project. Currently we are working on updates for the blog, so when you see them happen later this year you'll know that it was Philip (and not just magic) that made those updates happen. In addition to being the only person on our staff who understands CSS, Philip is hilarious and became a dad last year! 

Trey George, Business Development, Product Manager 

Trey was hired to manage our sponsorships program, so that covers pitching and managing sponsored content, ads, ad networks, and overseeing our ad server. Also, his role has expanded to overseeing the development and updates of our apps (we have another app coming out later this year). He's extremely talented, and we have a lot of happy hours celebrating his many accomplishments! 

Spirit Animal: Potoo
Go-to road trip snack: Sour Patch Kids or almonds 
Favorite movie: Cool answer—No Country for Old Men, Honest answer—Multiplicity or Home Alone 2
Celebrity Crush: Tina Fey
Guilty pleasure: Law and Order: SVU
Non-blog hobby: Camping
Childhood Hero: Emmett Smith. Probably still is.

Laura Gummerman, Staff Writer

Laura is a staff writer for the blog and produces weekly posts that include home and fashion DIYs, healthy recipes, lifestyle articles, and purrrrfect cat-related projects. She also helps out around the office as a project assistant for other writers as well.

Spirit animal: Snow Leopard
Road snacks: Latte and Cheez-Its 
Favorite movie: Charade or The Way We Were 
Celebrity crush: Old School—Robert Redford, New School—Christian Bale, Young Buck—Liam Hemsworth
Non-blog hobby: Singing karaoke by making my husband play Amy Winehouse and The Cardigans songs so I can sing along. 
Childhood hero: Audrey Hepburn, always and forever 

Jeremy Larson, Staff Videographer 

Jeremy has been creating videos for ABM since last summer. At first it was just for fun, then freelance, then we offered him a part-time position because we loved working with him! We love the travel videos he's created for us (see Austin, Nashville, Palm Springs and Costa Rica), and currently we're creating a series of cooking videos together, so stay tuned! 

Spirit animal: Llama
Road snacks: Coke Zero 
Favorite movie: The Deer Hunter
Celebrity crush: Brad Pitt
Guilty Pleasure: Bar Rescue 
Non-blog hobby: Cooking
Childhood hero: Dinosaurs

Joshua Rhodes, Project Assistant 

Joshua first started working with ABM as a contributor. He's an exceptionally skilled craftsman. You'll be seeing lots more projects created by him with step-by-step instructions as the year goes on. We're so excited to have him around and bring our projects to the next level.

Spirit animal: Basset Hound
Road snacks: Sunflower seeds, Mamba
Favorite movie: The Sting
Celebrity crush: Martha Stewart
Non-blog hobby: Painting, running
Childhood hero: Hardy Boys

Jacki Moseley, Community Engagement Manager

Jacki manages and coordinates our social media and keeps things running smoothly around the office. She also assists with all sorts of tasks within our sponsorship program and digital publishing program. We are so excited to have her around to help us keep some order amongst all the chaos. :)

Spirit Animal: Boston Terrier
Go-to road trip snack: Sonic (tots forever)
Favorite movie: Rosemary's Baby
Celebrity Crush: Aaron Paul 
Guilty pleasure: listening to 90's R&B and dance music like it's nobody's business
Non-blog hobby: Yoga, cycling, and running an Etsy shop.
Childhood Hero: Ramona Quimby

Janae Hardy, Photographer

And now, our contributing writers ... 

LaTonya Staubs, Writer

LaTonya shares style tutorials and tips from home in Brooklyn, New York. We love her quirky style and practical, everyday tips! See LaTonya's full archive here.

Mandi Johnson, Writer

Mandi creates incredible projects for us (from big to small!). She has an eye for interior style and great ideas for budget living. See Mandi's full archive here. 

Katie Shelton, Writer 

Katie writes beautiful hair tutorials and kiddo projects for the blog. One of our favorite ABM traditions is Katie's yearly Halloween costume ideas for families (see 1,2,3,4). See Katie's full archive here. 

Rubyellen Bratcher, Writer 

Rubyellen is an inspiring mother of four with a contagious enthusiasm for handmade living. Her beautiful home is proof of both. Her most popular post of all time was her a-frame tent project. Our personal favorite was her paint-by-number pillow project. This spring, Rubyellen is working on a series of gardening tutorials for beginners! You can see Rubyellen's full archive here. 

Rachel Denbow, Writer

And last, but not least, just for fun ... 

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Thanks for reading. Love you!!!