Stories and guides from Alaska’s wild heart — travel, tea, wellness, and photography.
Autumn in Alaska doesn’t drift in slowly. It arrives almost overnight—swift, certain, and unafraid to change the landscape with its touch. One moment, the trees hold onto the fullness of summer; the next, fog clings to the evergreens and the air tastes of woodsmoke and damp moss.
Discover Alaska by floatplane. From the Taku Lodge and stunning views of a glaciers to remote wilderness lodges, experience awe-inspiring flightseeing adventures.
Photographer Mary Jacquel shares what Alaska has taught her about slowing down, mindful living, and seeing the world through a more intentional lens.
Fair Trade Interior Decor
Sigrid: Quite often, I see home decor stores focus on cost and large production. Big box stores and midsize retailers offer their customers a large volume of artwork and home décor at reasonable rates. I decided to take a different approach. At Sigrid & Co., we source home décor products with the underlying principle that home décor is a gateway for global connectivity and fair trade.
This means that we source our products from talented artisans from around the world and believe that by providing our partners a channel to reach buyers, we help enable a globally connected economy.
You may be wondering why we decided to focus on Fair Trade (we get this question a lot!). By implementing conscious fair-trade practices, we are holding ourselves accountable to helping the world fight against poverty, gender inequality, child labor and migration. As a company, we believe that we can do well AND do good – all at the same time.
We provide our customers the opportunity to purchase home décor that makes a difference in people’s lives. We encourage our customers to research their products and select pieces that are unique and also do some good in our world. Often times, because we source our products from global artisans, we have more unique products than big box retailers.
It also means that we help enable artisans in third world countries to make money to help pay for their own necessities such as food, housing, and education. Artwork and home décor is a language that everyone can speak. It transcends language barriers, cultural divide and borders. By supporting our artisans, you’re supporting a world of positive change with true impact, changing lives one product at a time.
NYC Interior Design - Sigrid & Co
Look out for our third and final blog post from Sigrid & Co. coming soon!
As I sit in a coffee shop with the sunlight pouring in, it reminds me of a nonprofit that I have had the opportunity to donate my artwork to. Just like the sunlight is filling this room, this nonprofit works to fill their recipients lives with donated household goods, dignity and hope.
Humble Design is a non profit organization serving “individuals, families, and veterans emerging from homelessness by transforming their empty house into a warm, welcoming and uplifting home with donated furniture and household goods.”
Across the country, Humble Design warehouses are stocked with donated goods that allow design teams to personalize homes by providing a dignified, life changing experience for clients. We believe in restoring dignity to every family that has suffered homelessness.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Laura Corp - the Operations Coordinator at Humble Design. Before she started working at the nonprofit, Laura had participated in a ‘Day of Service’ which is when an organization sponsors a family, helps put the household goods into the homes, and gets to participate in the reveal. After her experience, she was hooked. She knew she had to be more involved with Humble Design and so she applied for a job. Laura generously took the time to talk me through how Humble Design works.
Humble Design has a few big warehouses where they keep donated household goods. Partnering with other nonprofits, Humble Design works with families who are transitioning into their new home. Once they receive a referral from a partnering case worker, a team of designers will go meet with the family in their home before going back to the warehouse to begin selecting the home goods to be leveraged at lightening speed (about 1.5 days!). The designers also spend time creating custom artwork for the families after getting to know their interests and what they dream of having their home look and feel like. On the third day, volunteers help put the home goods into the identified home. With 4 locations nationally, Detroit (headquarters), Chicago, San Diego and Seattle, Humble Design completes about 7 homes each week.
One of the motivations for starting this nonprofit was the idea that often times, when people get back onto their feet and in a home, they don’t have the means for furnishing it. Sometimes people are sleeping on blankets or sleeping bags - there’s no furniture, chairs or tables. A common issue that people run into when furnishing their home is transporting the goods to their home. At Humble Design, they are able to transfer the home goods to the home.
Check out their videos here:
We all love ‘before and after’ photos as it helps us understand the transformation of the space. Here are a few images of the work that Humble Design has done in Detroit, Chicago, San Diego and Seattle. What do you think? I personally love the dining room transformation!
Before
After
Before - Bedroom
After - Bedroom
Before - Play Area
After - Play Area
Before - Kitchen
After - Kitchen
Before - Bedroom
After - Bedroom
Which of the before / after photos impress you the most? I love the living room transformation space! We especially love how the designers used a neutral palette and leveraged the existing fireplace.
I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to donate artwork to Humble Design. Not only is the nonprofit mission something I can get behind and believe in but the people there are so kind truly helpful. If you’re an artist looking to get involved or help out with this cause, please check out their volunteer opportunities here: https://www.humbledesign.org/getinvolved
Especially the artwork in your home since it’s where you spend a lot of your time. It’s where you and your loved ones create lifelong memories – where milk is spilled, tears are wiped, and family dinner traditions are created.
We know that our artwork is just one piece of what you put in your home, so we partnered with the talented founder of Sigrid & Co., to bring new ideas and inspiration to your interior design.
This is a 3 part series of blog posts and we will be posting helpful hints over the next few weeks as Spring gets into full bloom. Make sure to tag us in your home décor photos on Instagram for a chance to be featured!
Xoxo,
Sigrid exploring NYC for design inspiration
Sigrid: When I begin a home decor project, there are two things that I anchor the room around: color and tone.
Color: The color palette of a room is fundamental to creating harmony and a cohesive space. It should be inviting and easily translated by the viewer as warm and welcoming. As you select décor, ensure that your personality shines through as you curate pieces.
Here are two color palette examples for you to consider:
1. If you would want an airy and calm room, consider combining light neutrals or leveraging the same color in different shades.
2. If you would like to create a warm space, consider combining coral and pink blush tones.
Tone: Once you have defined your color, decide on the tone you would like to convey. Consider combining cooler tones such as blues for your bathroom to remind you of a fantastic trip you made to Maine last summer or perhaps you would prefer warmer tones in a dining room to represent your time in lovely Northern Italy.
Once you identify which color palette you would like as well as the tone, selecting the rest of your decor will fall into place.
Pro Tip: If you are decorating your entire home, consider focusing on rooms one at a time so that you can play with colors and decor styles on a room-to-room basis. This process can be overwhelming so by breaking an entire home into rooms, it can make the project feel more manageable.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog post from Sigrid & Co about fair trade home decor. Sign up for our eNewsletter here so you don’t miss our next post!
Interested in the home decor items you see in this post?
Check out Sigrid & Co’s online store here!
As a photographer, I meet quite a few incredible people. Whether I’m photographing a family session or providing artwork for someone’s home, for a moment in time I get to see into the golden hearts of my clients.
This is such an important part of the job because it reminds me that I’m providing more to my clients than just a transaction - more than just a photoshoot or more than just a photograph for their wall. It’s a reminder that I’m sharing in something greater with them: capturing family memories or shaping how someone’s living room looks for their children to make fond memories in.
Over the last couple of years, I have collected a treasure chest of stories and today, I’d love to share one of them with you. It’s from a photoshoot that I provided to a client while I was working in Florida.
I met my clients on the beach to take photographs of a family. The weather was fantastic, the clients were excited and throughout the shoot, we shared quite a few laughs. It was a picture perfect family photoshoot - I couldn’t have asked for better clients or better photography conditions.
After wrapping up our session and editing their photos, I reached out to the client to share their images. The client’s response took my breath away.
In addition to thanking me for my time and the photos, my client told me that she had terminal cancer. Her family had insisted on getting family photos with her but she was initially hesitant to do so because she had scars from radiation and surgeries. She thanked me for making her feel comfortable throughout her photoshoot.
It was such an incredible reminder that life is short and that we should embrace every moment of our lives, living purposefully and with positive intentions. These photographs would serve as a reminder to her family of the incredible times that they shared together while on vacation.
To my client: Thank you so much for being brave and for letting me see into your golden heart. You continue to provide me inspiration even years after we met.
Have you had a breathtaking story happen to you lately? I would love to hear about it if so. Comment below or reach out to me here.
About Mary’s Mark
I believe we all get a chance at ‘making a mark’ in this world. I’m a Juneau-based photographer, tea founder, and retreat host. My work lives where wildness meets clarity - helping you connect to Alaska (and deeper with yourself) through images, rituals, and nature-based experiences.
