About Me

Hi there! I'm Thrifty Artsy Girl, better known as Sherri, and this is my family: My honey Cory, our son Jackson and our daughter Brynlee.

Here's a tiny peek at my life, with tons of pictures! ( I worked in a photo lab for 7 years, so I looove pictures!)

I grew up in a small town in Illinois. We lived on a quiet, dead end street surrounded by a corn field. My childhood was great, full of family, outdoor activities and the general innocence of growing up in a small town.

Can you tell I was born in the 80's?

My older sister Susan on the left, me on the right

Me on the left, my younger sister Amanda on the right

First grade me with my clearly gorgeous beyond words chalk drawing of a rainbow outside of school

 I fell in love with art as soon as I picked up a crayon and saw that I could draw! I won art contests all the time, I even won a bike once! My senior year I was voted most likely to be an artist. I had have dreams of someday doing something with art for my career/life. But alas, I haven't made it to college, I never got my art degree, I've never even had an "artsy" job. It's on my list of SOMEDAY. Life and laziness got in the way, so while I wait for that swift kick in the butt of initiative that will make me completely change my life, I am happy using my creative energy doing renovations, DIY and decorating my house.

When I met Cory he was literally renovating his house, he was full of dust, tearing down a plaster wall in his living room. I met him the summer after I graduated high school. My whole life was ahead of me and I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, and at that moment I didn't have a care in the world. I just worked and partied and hung out with friends and Cory. I found myself falling for him while I helped or watched him as he did renovations and other DIY projects around his 100+ year old victorian duplex.

Cory's duplex circa 1999

I moved in with him and a few years later he bought another victorian duplex... right across the street! This duplex didn't need quite as much work but it was still chalk full of renovations to do.

Cory's second duplex circa 2004

Cory's first duplex on the left (with a brown roof now) and Cory's second duplex across the street

After we'd been together for about 9 years or so the opportunity arose that first time homebuyers would get an enormous tax credit, so I jumped at it. Who doesn't want free money?? We must have looked at a hundred houses but none were quite what we wanted. We finally found a foreclosure that was almost perfect (if it was on a few acres with a lake or river it would be). It had been flooded and had mold on all the drywall. When I initially saw the listing I passed it by thinking: Mold! Yuck!! So when our realtor said I want you guys to see this house, we pulled up and we both said, "It's the moldy house!" But after taking a look and seeing the huge amount of space, the two story entryway, the granite counters, the 9 foot ceilings, etc. etc. I was in love. Where other people would run away screaming I saw a great opportunity to live in a beautiful house and then when the market picked up to sell and make tons of $$$. Plus it was 5 minutes away from Cory's mom and his sister lives on the other side of the subdivision. Pretty much a no-brainer.


Our new house on closing day March 2010.

So we got a rehab loan and actually had a contractor tear out all the drywall, "de-mold" the house, put up all new drywall, put in wood floors on the first floor, and carpet on the second. It was like we had a brand new house, a blank slate. Albeit all construction grade and a completely different evil than renovating a 100+ year old house it was our new project.

Then we had a baby.


Jackson born May 19, 2012

When Jackson was about three years old I decided I wanted to share our DIY journey. I had some extra time during my days off from my full time job and while he was in pre school. Hence Thrifty Artsy Girl was born.

Then we had another baby a couple years after I started blogging. You can see that blog post here.

Brynlee born October 25, 2016

Having Brynlee put pretty much all of my renovations and DIY to a standstill for a while, (that little lady just took it all out of me!) but I am slowly getting back on track. In our house I do a lot of projects myself that Cory would usually do because he is so busy with the apartments and his full time job. I also decorate with a lot of thrift store finds and artwork I make myself.

And there you have it, my story. Essentially why I do what I do. My first blog post To Blog or Not to Blog tells a little more of why I decided to jump into the blogging world.

Join me as I share our DIY adventures of all the blood, sweat, tears, laughter and everything in between (including some of my favorite recipes and the craziness of living life with two rambunctious kiddos) that it takes for us to turn our house and apartments into homes!