Letter from TeriLyn – August 2025

The summer is coming to an end, and unlike so many people (or at least so it seems), I’m thankful to see it go. Our summer felt more stressful, hard and chaotic more than anything else. Maybe it’s just the age of our kids or maybe I do better with a routine more than I realize, but we had so many changes over the last few months with childcare and my team that I’m craving any sort of normalcy. Although “normal” is ever-changing these days.

LIFE

August was a hot mess. I swear I spent more time coordinating childcare logistics than I did working. Okay, that’s not really true, but it did feel like a lot of juggling schedules during one of my busiest work months of the year.

Bree, our nanny we’ve had for 4.5 years, started nursing school, so her availability is scaled way back, so we’ve had a few other sitters filling in the gaps. I miss the consistency of one person, and I honestly just miss having Bree around because she’s the BEST.

We visited Utah the last week of August and it was honestly a hard trip because Charles got sick the second day, and by the time we came home, I was so worried about him that as soon as we landed in Charlotte, we drove right to Brenner’s Children Hospital in Winston. Tommy dropped me off (and he took Thomas home until Bree could come over), and after seeing multiples doctors and running tests, Charles was eventually admitted at 4am the next morning and then spent 3 days in the hospital. (I shared more in this IG post.) He’s doing better now but it was just a really scary time after an already rough month.

Thomas started a new school this year, and I love getting to walk him to his classroom. It just feels so special and also like I can see him growing up before my eyes (I could do the drop-off line, but I love walking him in for some reason).

I’m hoping September brings some more normalcy, but I think that season of life that we’re in — with us both working and having young kids — is just going to feel chaotic, THAT is the normal. I always remind myself that everything will be different in six months (I remind myself of that often, in many aspects of life) and truly this time is so fleeting and I will miss it. But it doesn’t mean that some days and weeks are just HARD.

WORK

Salem has been full-time for a few months now, and I feel like we’re in a really good groove. Once again, I am so thankful for the team I have in place. There were definitely growing pains when I first started hiring assistants about 10 years ago, so I don’t take it for granted that I have a team now that works hard, is smart, understands my brand, and I genuinely love being around.

Hannah told me at the beginning of August that she wasn’t planning to return to work from maternity leave. Honestly, I never thought she would so it wasn’t that big of a shock to me. She wants to focus full time on her sweet new baby — and that’s the Hannah I know. She was my very first full-time employee and worked alongside me for over six years, and truly helped me build the business I now have. It’s hard to put into words how much she’s impacted my work (and my life). But then, a few weeks later she told me she is moving back to Winston-Salem — now THAT shocked me. I’m beyond elated and I also cannot WAIT to meet Harris!!!!

August was fairly packed with a lot of small brand partnerships, but I’m enjoying the new type of partnerships through ShopMy. They’re less structured than typical partnerships I have (with very detailed content guidelines, specific deliverables, brand reviews and deadlines) and it feels much more authentic to just share the things I want to share when and how I want to share them. And, it’s easier! For me anyway – Salem stays on top of it and it’s a lot to track. Some of my favorite partnerships last month included:

• Tuckernuck – I got a super cute brown set for Turks & Caicos, which you can see in my women’s resort wear blog post.
• FRAME – I was so excited about this one since I’ve loved FRAME denim for years! And their petite palazzo jeans are so so so good. (The Le Slim Palazzo come in a full-length too.)
• Abercrombie Denim Sale – this is a sale I’ve always covered since I love their jeans and have for years, so it was fun to get some of their jeans sent to me to review.
• Colleen Rothschild – I recently got hooked on their clarifying shampoo and conditioner. I keep it in Boone and it really makes such a difference in how my hair feels and styles. (See here!)
• ShopMy launch – ShopMy released an update so you can favorite things and navigate more easily and I got to help with content for the launch. I especially love the new Most Popular tab, since it’s so interesting to see what y’all click the most!
• Natura Bisse – I absolutely LOVE their Diamond Lip Booster, but I’m not sure I could stomach buying it myself since it’s insanely expensive! (It was gifted to me.) I’ve been using their vitamin c and like it too – it’s definitely stronger than other brands I’ve used so we’ll see how the results are.
• The Shirt – this is another brand I’ve loved for years, and I love their perfect button-downs + unexpected tops.
• Vineyard Vines – since preppy is back, this brand is having a resurgence and I’m here for it.
• Rag & Bone – I got the cutest and softest pants for Thomas. I sized up since they look cute even when they’re too long and bunched, so he’ll wear them for a long time, and then Charles will after.

And these are my favorite blog posts that went up last month:

• Women’s Resort Wear – this was fun to update because I had new pictures at a resort! It was a long-overdue vacation.
• How to Style Barrel Jeans – I was so anti-barrel jeans last year, and now I love them so much that I wrote an entire blog post on them. They’re perfect for transitioning from summer to fall too.
• F74 Review – I love this moisturizer so much that it’s still the one I buy, even though I get lots of moisturizers sent to me for free.

Alright, I’ll wrap this up and go get dinner ready. Thank you for being here, for reading, for following along, and for supporting my business – I don’t take it for granted that I somehow seem to have the nicest followers and readers who truly seem to be in my corner when life feels hard.