About

This blog is a collection of things I’m building, learning, and loving — from visual design and affiliate strategy, to cozy gaming and coding for fun. If it’s creative, curious, or calming, it probably lives here.

Hi, I’m Lisa.

Redcypress Designs is where I share practical ideas for making everyday life a little more functional, comfortable, and fun — whether that means finishing a room that doesn’t quite feel right, finding a product that solves an annoying problem, trying something new in the kitchen, or occasionally building something just because I want to see if I can.

The topics around here can be a little varied.

One day I might be figuring out why a living room feels unfinished. The next I’m testing a juice recipe, putting together an Amazon list, designing something for Pinterest, or writing code for a WordPress project.

As it turns out, that’s actually pretty on-brand for me.

Redcypress Has Been Around Longer Than This Blog

The name Redcypress goes back much further than this website.

My dad originally gave me Redcypress as an AOL username decades ago. Years later, when I needed a name for my web design portfolio, I brought it back as Redcypress Designs.

My original portfolio had a cypress tree growing beside the page, water underneath it, and the tagline:

“web creations from a native of the bayou state.”

Very early-2000s.

I loved it.

Back then I was building websites and interactive projects with tools like Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, ASP and Microsoft Access.

At one job, I put an entire party store’s inventory into an Access database and built a website that let customers browse it. I even created suggested products based on the item’s category.

There was also a Flash banner.

Naturally.

Today the technology looks completely different, but I’ve realized I never really stopped doing the same thing: organizing ideas, solving problems, making things look good, and figuring out how to make them useful.

Eventually, Redcypress Designs found its way back to me.

What Redcypress Designs Is Today

Today, this site is my creative space outside of my work as a software engineer.

It’s where my design brain, developer brain, homebody tendencies, Amazon finds, kitchen experiments, and general curiosity are all allowed to live in the same place.

You’ll find things like:

  • Functional home design ideas and small changes that make a room work better
  • Products I actually use, plus well-reviewed finds that solve everyday problems
  • Beginner-friendly recipes and juicing ideas
  • Party and entertaining ideas
  • FSA/HSA shopping guides
  • Cozy gaming
  • Design, WordPress, and coding projects
  • The occasional appearance by a certain cocker spaniel

I don’t believe everything has to be complicated to be useful.

Sometimes the answer really is moving a lamp, adding a tray, buying the cord organizer, serving dinner on a big board, or putting a grass skirt around a folding table.

A Little About Me

I’m a software engineer by profession, but I’ve always bounced between technical and creative projects.

I like figuring out how things work almost as much as I like figuring out how they should look.

That’s probably why this site has never fit neatly into one tiny niche.

My mom is an interior designer, my dad was an artist and educator, and somehow I ended up writing code while rearranging furniture, taking pictures of food, designing Pinterest graphics, and creating very specific Amazon lists.

It tracks.

And Then There’s Gizmo

Gizmo is my cocker spaniel and the unofficial Red Cypress quality-control department.

He occasionally appears in photos, tests anything remotely soft enough to sleep on, and has his own opinions about which toys are worth keeping.

His compensation package remains extremely competitive.

Why I Keep Doing This

Stylized tree illustration representing growth and creativity for Redcypress Designs.

Redcypress Designs gives me a place to make things.

Some posts come from problems I’ve solved in my own home. Some start with something I’ve bought and genuinely liked. Others come from a recipe, a project, a question, or an idea I couldn’t leave alone.

I share the things that worked, the things I’m still figuring out, and hopefully a few ideas that make your own home or everyday life a little easier.

More than twenty years after that first Redcypress Designs portfolio, the tools have changed quite a bit.

The curiosity hasn’t.

Thanks for finding your way here. I’m glad you did.