I am a Florida girl, shaped by the very best of an unhurried southern childhood in the middle of the state. Life was picking oranges in the backyard, going to church every Sunday (and Wednesday night), heading across Tampa Bay for beach weekends on the Gulf, flying with my daddy to tiny little airports for a special lunch, exploring every antique shop for miles with my mother or driving up I-75 to my great-grandparents' white farmhouse in the hills of southeastern Kentucky. Life was always proper but also spontaneous. I learned to appreciate both a perfectly set table and a perfectly timed adventure. It was a childhood full of fun and beauty in its simplest forms — and I have been chasing that feeling ever since.