Dallas is my home and I love it.
But what really shaped my design aesthetic was being raised in one of Mississippi’s most beautiful, historic and hospitable cities: Natchez. It was there, growing up downtown in a four-story Victorian house/clothing store owned by my mother and grandmother—and being a young docent at several antebellum houses—that I learned the joy of cooking, entertaining, storytelling, architecture, interior decorating and gardening.
It’s not surprising, then, that my career would be inspired by both my grandmother, Freddie Bailey, who wrote two regional cookbooks, and cousin Lee Bailey, a design guru who wrote and styled 22 nationally acclaimed books on good living. I had the great joy of working with Lee on one of those books,
Lee Bailey’s Southern Food and Antebellum Houses—winner of the 1990 James Beard Award for “Best Regional Cookbook” (and set in Natchez).
I’m author of the Chronicle Books releases Southern Cocktails: Dixie Drinks, Party Potions and Classic Libations (2007), Porch Parties: Cocktail Recipes and Easy Ideas for Outdoor Entertaining (2010) and the forthcoming Sweet on Texas: Lovable Confections from the Lone Star State
(fall 2012). I also styled the recently published Mansion on Turtle Creek: Haute Cuisine, Texas Style (Rizzoli, 2012). My forthcoming book, Southern Casseroles: Comforting Pot-Lucky Dishes, will be published by Chronicle Books in fall 2013. All these cookbooks were photographed by
I’m also a freelance writer, editor and stylist for leading national magazines, and have worked in senior editor roles for Better Homes and Gardens, Coastal Living, Organic Gardening and Southern Living.
