Merry (day after) Christmas!! These days in between Christmas and New Years are some of the ones I look forward to all year – my heart is so full from celebrating with family (the Christmas Eve talent show went crazy); I’m getting together with my long time friends who are home for the holidays and there’s even enough time to sneak in a little 2 day getaway trip with my boyfriend this weekend. There have been many years where the holidays have not felt as shiny and happy as we all know unexpected life events unfold on their own timeline, so I’m just super grateful to be here celebrating with loved ones and with all of you!! OKAY enough sap – we’re here to chat Instagram today!! It’s so fun to write this every year and look back on all that we posted. I know some of you are likely over on Instagram and have seen a few of these (thank you for the likes and comments – they mean so much!), and for those of you who aren’t on Instagram as much, I hope you enjoy seeing some of what we’ve shared over the last year!
At the beginning of the year, we brought on Marlee, who has upped our social game SO MUCH. It’s been so wonderful having someone with her genius brain up in Portland capturing all of this content – she was truly the missing piece to our EHD puzzle, and I’m personally so grateful for her! So some of these Instagram posts were created by our amazing Mar, and others were created by me (Mal), which is definitely not confusing at all. So here we go: the Mar and Mal social gals present to you…
The Soake pool was installed in 2022, but 3 years later, we still get asked SO many questions about it. We posted a few different backyard update videos on our Instagram this year, so naturally, it made sense that we had comment after comment wanting to know more. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a small(ish) pool that can be a regular pool in the day and then heat up to be a hot tub by night. It also has an automatic cover for the winter and is typically less difficult to install than building a regular pool from scratch, since Soake pools are ready-made. It’s perfect for the Henderson farm, and the kids absolutely love it (and so does the internet!)
Speaking of sharing backyard updates – this was one of them! The farm backyard landscaping, outdoor kitchen, and pickleball court were all finished this year, so we wanted to show more of the layout (and give the pigs and alpacas some more much-deserved screen time). This reel popped off, and I’m not surprised! That backyard is pretty crazy and awesome.
Marlee created this reel during one of the Portland fashion shoots, and it turned out SO cute. Em’s style is so fun, and I love the angle Marlee came up with for this! Also, this reel convinced me that long shorts + tall boots is a very cute look that I will be partaking in. The 3k comments also suggest you guys really liked these outfits too 🙂
This was another super clever one by Marlee! Right before Em switched out her sofas to The Alice from our Room Service collection (which has a removable pillow if you don’t want your dogs to sit on it, ha!) I love the text on it – so simple and so funny. Great job, Mar!
This one TOOK OFF, and we were shocked. I had realized we never really did a full “start to finish” art barn post on the grid – and it’s always so easy to forget where a project started! I found a super old photo of the art barn shed before it was upgraded, and then did some handwritten text on it (which was our first time doing that…and we were shocked at how well it did!) I think the story is just so fun, so I’m glad this post got a lot of love. What a cool project that was (I want an adult craft barn now lol).
Marlee pulled this AWESOME carousel together, and I thought it was so genius. I remember we were going back on what the cover picture should be – it was originally a photo of the finished kitchen, and then we decided we wanted to walk you through the story a bit more. Then we found that first progress photo our amazing photographer, Kaitlin Green, took and were like YUP, THAT’S THE ONE. I love the way it walks you through the design process and takes you along for the journey. That kitchen turned out so beautifully, and with that amazing green stone, it’s certainly not boring at all!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from social media this year, it’s that people love when you say “they said don’t do this…” “so I did it anyway” about literally anything. There’s something about that “rule breaker” mentality and then having it look incredible at the end that “proves people wrong” and is all around super fun to watch. It’s kinda similar to a classic “before and after” we all love seeing, but with a little edge. Marlee killed it with this edit and cinematography!!
Speaking of people loving before and afters…this one really popped off! Marlee came up with this one because we wanted to post some more fun organic content (and the farmhouse is such an amazing before and after, so we’re always coming up with new ways to showcase it). These reels are really fun to create because they do pump out to a lot of people that don’t follow us – so it’s helpful to show a bit of what it is they can expect to see around these parts 🙂
This outdoor kitchen is so stunning, so I’m not surprised to see it so high up on this list!! I know people love seeing the functionality of how kitchens, mudrooms, and really any other utility space since those rooms work HARD, which is why I edited together this reel! And having an outdoor kitchen is such a fun thing to think about adding if you’re someone with an outdoor space who hosts a lot – so I hope this reel was a fun watch for people! And for number one…
Big statement here, but this might be one of my favorite reels I’ve ever made – so I’m REALLY happy to see it as number one!! We had so much amazing content of the farm that we’ve taken over the years, so I wanted to pull something together that had the most visually impactful footage and shared the coolest features in Em’s amazing home. The engagement was also wild – at 149k likes, this is our highest liked post ever!
If you’ve made it this far – thank you! I hope you all have a lovely rest of 2025, and I’m truly wishing you the best in 2026. Happy almost new year, friends! Xoxo
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