077: Katie del Castillo Vail of Life With A Dash Of Whimsy

Find Katie del Castillo Vail here:

Website & Shop // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // Pinterest

Katie del Castillo Vail is a West Point grad, a former Army Captain, and a war widow. All her hopes and dreams were shattered when her sweet husband Dimitri was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2011, and over the past 4+ years she's learned the importance of choosing joy even when life knocks you down. Katie is also an interior design enthusiast and wanna-be fashionista at heart. She has lived all over the place the past 10 years (New York, Hawaii, Afghanistan, DC...just to name a few), so she knows the importance of getting settled and making a place cozy, no matter where you live! In the fall of 2014 Katie finished up her time in the Army while working at the Pentagon. She is happily remarried to an amazing man who is also an Army officer they we are expecting a baby boy in November!

Despite her previous day job and the Army camo she wore daily, Katie has a passion for all things pretty, whether it's a beautiful dress, an amazing sofa or a breathtaking sunset. Katie loves to entertain, run marathons, thrift, cook, and travel. If she could she would spend her life at the beach. Katie is a bit of a vintage-loving nut, so she also run the shop DashOfVintageWhimsy on Etsy. Katie believes that everything in life should have a little pizzazz, and that a dash of whimsy is the key to making a house a home.

We were so honored that Katie agreed to share her story with us.

We start out asking Katie what her definition of success is:

"I think for me success is being happy with who you are and where you are in your life right now."

"I know that everyone has a journey so you've gotta be happy with where you are - i obviously don't want to be in the same spot in ten years from now - but you have to be flexible and figure it out from there."

We talk with Katie about how she used running to work through the pain of loosing her husband as well as how she found beauty, even in the broken.

"Every dream that I had was built around the life I had with my husband but I never had a day where I just stayed in bed after that. There is still beauty in life even if you get thrown this massive curve ball that destroys everything... you have to see the beauty in the little things and eventually that will grow to the bigger things again."