Jessica Otte

1 week ago | dmagazine.com | Jessica Otte

Samantha Sano sits in a cozy corner of the downtown Dallas headquarters of Swoon, the Studio, a multidisciplinary design firm she founded in 2009. Like the woman at its helm—casually cool in head-to-toe denim, cowboy boots, and layered gold jewelry—Swoon’s office is clean yet collected, polished without trying too hard, and instantly welcoming. Mounted on a wall near her perch is a neon sign bearing the company’s tagline—“ITZACULT”—an inside joke about their boundaryless levels of closeness.

2 weeks ago | dmagazine.com | Jessica Otte

There’s an insidious creep to busyness when you’re a parent. Like the apologue of the frog in the boiling water, it builds slowly—swim lessons here, weekly dance classes there. It all seems harmless enough until you’re completely cooked. One minute, your baby can’t so much as hold his own head up, and the next, he’s double-booked with conflicting baseball and soccer schedules. Oh, and Bryson wants to know if he can play after talent show tryouts.

2 weeks ago | dweddings.com | Jessica Otte

Before you relax in newly wedded bliss, there’s one all-important postwedding task you can’t overlook: writing thank-you notes. While these expressions of gratitude can feel formal and formulaic, we wondered how they might read if couples shared what they were truly thankful for. Read on for six guesses, plus expert etiquette on each topic. Thanks for not getting drunk. “Nobody wants to be the ‘Oops, I did it again’ person the day after the wedding. Keep the vibes high and the shenanigans low.

3 weeks ago | dmagazine.com | Jessica Otte

Each year, D Home reveals our annual list of the Best Builders in Dallas. Consider it your cheat sheet for who to call on for your building and renovation needs. But don’t just take our word for it—the 145 builders represented below have been nominated by their industry peers, and vetted by a panel of internal and external judges to ensure they’re not only talented but also names you can trust.

4 weeks ago | dmagazine.com | Jessica Otte

The official name on the website—if he had one—would read: Steven Hild Custom Builder. “But everybody calls me Steve,” Hild says. That’s Hild in a nutshell: unassuming, familiar, and easygoing. But don’t mistake unflappability with complacency. Hild cares—a lot. He cares about doing the right thing, always. He cares about people. And he cares intensely about his work, having built a reputation over the last 40 years as one of the top modern builders in Dallas.