(We love the Mac Photo Booth camera!)
I am married to the most wonderfully supportive hard-working husband who just happens to be my best friend. We met in college in 1997 and dated until 2001 when we were married. He also happens to be the best father in the world. My husband, daughter and I have lived in Palm Desert, CA since 2006. We moved here from Charlotte, NC to pursue a more balanced lifestyle. I found out I was pregnant the day we moved!
MY BACKGROUND
DIESEL
How could I forget Diesel! Diesel is our 2.5 pound Yorkshire Terrier. He will be 9 years old this year. He is so small sometimes I think he could be the smallest dog in the world. You can read more about him here.
:: My daughter and I LOVE to make dance videos:
I've always loved creating things. I grew up with a very crafty, creative mother and I have two very crafty, creative grandmothers that I was fortunate enough to spend a little time with at a young age before they passed away.
I learned to sew at an early age. It was the best "crafty" skill my mother taught me. I learned to paint in college at Wake Forest University from an amazing art teacher Page Laughlin. I was a mathematics major and ended up going into the financial industry, sometimes working 100 hours a week. Don't ask me how.....but I ended up in Leveraged Finance structuring and underwriting financing for oil companies.
After 6 busy years in investment banking (and somewhere in there getting my MBA), I started accepting painting commissions for colleagues in the little spare time I had. One day I just quit my job (well, actually I asked for a leave of absence to go and caddy for my little sister Perry). I was tired of never coming home the same day I went to work. I never ended up caddying for her....I ended up painting, sewing, drilling, journaling, mitre-sawing.....full time!
How could I forget Diesel! Diesel is our 2.5 pound Yorkshire Terrier. He will be 9 years old this year. He is so small sometimes I think he could be the smallest dog in the world. You can read more about him here.
RANDOM FACTS
A couple things that people are surprised to learn about me:
:: I used to fly airplanes...I was so close to getting my pilot’s license….solo flight and everything…..but decided I just didn’t “get it” and having to take Dramamine before flying was not a good sign. (I can't even drive a stick shift, should I really be flying a plane?!) My dad flew as a hobby and wanted us kids to be able to land it if something happened to him. You can read about him here, talk about someone with an abundance of energy.....
:: I love reading memoirs….of anyone, famous or not.
:: I once met Johnny Cash in a dream. I swear to God it was really him.
:: I used to show horses competitively and regret selling my thoroughbred Andy when I went off to school because I would probably still be riding.
:: I love being a mother but never had any desire to breastfeed or experience labor and I could not stand being pregnant. I’m a little scared my daughter will inherit my OCD, ADHD, stubbornness etc and be impossible to control.
:: I love being a wife and taking care of my husband. Sometime amazed that he puts up with my OCD, ADHD and stubbornness.
:: I eat 1 of two things every morning for breakfast along with a diet coke…..cheddar goldfish or McDonald’s bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. My mother made us eat a lot of organic, barley, super-green algae, aloe juice etc growing up....and I think it backfired.
:: I studied abroad in China during college to learn Mandarin Chinese.
:: I can recite all the old testament books of the bible in under 14 seconds.
:: I can’t stand to drink water. I drink about 5 diet cokes a day and only drink water when I run. I’m trying to change this.
:: I have thought about opening a gun range. I am a really good shot....even with a heavy M-4 (similar to an M-16).
:: I love watching movies while I paint and as a result I have seen thousands (once I had Blockbuster print off movies I had rented from them…..it was a roll of paper about 10 feet long...I've switched to Netflix now to save money). I love movies that are based on true events.
:: I love mustard, bacon, broccoli, brussel sprouts, vinegar, deviled eggs, onions, chips and salsa, pancakes, peanut butter, chicken tenders, movie popcorn, nachos……but not together.
:: I hate asking for help…..for anything. I also don’t like feeling indebted. But I love helping people and giving things away.
:: I used to fly airplanes...I was so close to getting my pilot’s license….solo flight and everything…..but decided I just didn’t “get it” and having to take Dramamine before flying was not a good sign. (I can't even drive a stick shift, should I really be flying a plane?!) My dad flew as a hobby and wanted us kids to be able to land it if something happened to him. You can read about him here, talk about someone with an abundance of energy.....
:: I love reading memoirs….of anyone, famous or not.
:: I once met Johnny Cash in a dream. I swear to God it was really him.
:: I used to show horses competitively and regret selling my thoroughbred Andy when I went off to school because I would probably still be riding.
:: I love being a mother but never had any desire to breastfeed or experience labor and I could not stand being pregnant. I’m a little scared my daughter will inherit my OCD, ADHD, stubbornness etc and be impossible to control.
:: I love being a wife and taking care of my husband. Sometime amazed that he puts up with my OCD, ADHD and stubbornness.
:: I eat 1 of two things every morning for breakfast along with a diet coke…..cheddar goldfish or McDonald’s bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. My mother made us eat a lot of organic, barley, super-green algae, aloe juice etc growing up....and I think it backfired.
:: I studied abroad in China during college to learn Mandarin Chinese.
:: I can recite all the old testament books of the bible in under 14 seconds.
:: I can’t stand to drink water. I drink about 5 diet cokes a day and only drink water when I run. I’m trying to change this.
:: I have thought about opening a gun range. I am a really good shot....even with a heavy M-4 (similar to an M-16).
:: I love watching movies while I paint and as a result I have seen thousands (once I had Blockbuster print off movies I had rented from them…..it was a roll of paper about 10 feet long...I've switched to Netflix now to save money). I love movies that are based on true events.
:: I love mustard, bacon, broccoli, brussel sprouts, vinegar, deviled eggs, onions, chips and salsa, pancakes, peanut butter, chicken tenders, movie popcorn, nachos……but not together.
:: I hate asking for help…..for anything. I also don’t like feeling indebted. But I love helping people and giving things away.
:: My daughter and I LOVE to make dance videos:
This one is my favorite though:
This was fun to read :)
ReplyDeleteI just found your site and I'm in love... with your ideas! I think I should learn to sew better. Your little girl's hair reminds me so much of my baby girl Jocelyn's. Thanks for all the fun tutorials and ideas! Keep posting!
ReplyDeleteUm... I'm feeling a bit like an underachiever. What a colorful palate you have of life experiences.
ReplyDeleteClearly, God has blessed you abundantly.
you sound like a pretty interesting, fun and loving person.
ReplyDeletenice to meet you.
lisa renata
ok, how am i just reading this now!? so fun to read. love all of the little random facts about you :-)
ReplyDeleteI just recently found you blog and I love it. I also like to paint and have just recently gotten my first few clients. I alos do children's nurseries and canvases. I really enjoyed reading about you, love you sense of humor. I kept reading it out loud to my hubby while he was trying to watch a ball game, I think I was driving him crazy, ha! Anyway thanks for being so inspiring!
ReplyDeleteI just found your site and have read almost all of it already. You are so talented, amazing, and so, so generous! Thank you for your tutorials. I am getting super excited to go brush off my piles of empty canvases and try some landscapes. Your blog is my favorite kind, the kind that lights a fire under me. Keep up the awesome work, and thanks again!
ReplyDeleteWOW! it sounds like you've had quite an interesting life, and are extremely talented and generous! how kind of you to not only share your tutorials, techniques, ideas, etc. - but also your private life! i spent the last year of my life learning to do all kinds of fun things that i swore i would when my younger when started school - i started with spackle and paint, and moved on to learn electrical and plumbing too! i am now inspired, in part by you, to have hemmed my first pair of pants (by hand) bought my first sewing machine - even though i don't know how to sew! next up is a class i think, and then some creative refashioning, and maybe costumes, home dec.... thank you so much for sharing so much with all of us!
ReplyDeleteI think we would be the best of friends if we lived next door! Finding your blog only yesterday, I have got through it upside and down. You are inspiring me to put my ideas to work for me. I am also running to my purse to purchase your dress patterns for my little people. I, too, search for finding 'cool' patterns for boys. My son humors me and wears tshirt pants and shirts with appliqued ties on them. I will follow your post faithfully! Keep it coming!
ReplyDeleteI think we could be best friends . . . except for the gun part. Guns scare the dickens out of me. And at one point in my life I drank so much Diet Coke that I had to give it up cold turkey. No caffeine now for 10 years! It didn't help with the water consumption though.
ReplyDeleteI am off to shop in your Etsy store!
Wow i just stumbled across your website and am amazed at how talented you are! You have also done so much in your life - you seem like a beautiful, down to earth, energetic and brave soul!
ReplyDeleteI cant wait to try out some of your projects. I am very creative (so i'm told) myself but always need a boost for ideas. I have a 2 yr old son and am a stay at home mum.
I am looking forward to making loads of things. I will show you what i make (if you like) as it progresses.
Oh my, you are amazing!! You can absolutely see from your blog that your daughter has inherited your energy! I love to sew too. I much admire the combinations of pattern and color in the clothing you make. It's inspiring me to wonder how to create similar combinations in clothes for myself even though I'm not a child, I'm 42! It must be possible -- even to combine prints and color, and woven fabrics with knits in a unique T-shirt or something. I also love to fly, my husband has a pilot's license and a plane but I have no desire to be a pilot. I'm too distracted looking at what's on the ground from above. LOVE your blog.
ReplyDeleteI love love LOVE the dance videos!!! :)
ReplyDelete