One Room Challenge: (Shower) Stalling

Round 6 of The One Room Challenge!
(Need to catch up? Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5)

Remember when I said I'd probably have to stall this week? Well...could I try to work a "shower stall" pun in here to distract from the lack of progress? Surrrrrrrre.

We're still painting the vanity (the "royal" we, aka Dustin), and for no other reason than blind optimism, I fully believe it will be finished next week. Yes. I'm just going to manifest that. (It's easier, if less reliable, than you know...actually helping paint). 

So in the meantime: let's talk showers.

Oooooh. Ahhhh.

Is it pretty? No. Is it functional? EXTREMELY. 

It's a super standard set up, and while I don't love the look of the textured plexiglass doors, and all that chrome, I DO love the solid, grout-free surface inside. It's so low-maintenance; I never worry about the kids messing it up, or needing to clean it obsessively. It's just works. It's a shower only- no tub- which works great for the big girls, who at (alllllmost) 8 and 9 are just now starting to become independent enough to shower on their own (though they all still love sibling party bath in our giant corner Jacuzzi).

So when we started to plan this bathroom, I knew we wouldn't be touching this shower. It doesn't seem smart to rip out something so functional just to replace it with things that require more care and upkeep. Plus, any fancy-shmancy tile and glass enclosure we'd want to do would be more expensive than a kids' bathroom really deserves. I was totally prepared to just live with the look of it, until I saw a bathroom reno by @thosebyrnesgirls. She updated her bathroom on a similar budget (meaning as close to $0 as possible) and just put a shower curtain in front of the doors to cover them up. 

Um, what? Why did I never think about that? 

For some reason I had it in my head that if you had doors you had doors. It didn't occur to me that I could just put a curtain in FRONT of them. Keep the functionality, but add an aesthetic layer!

I had also been thinking about doing wallpaper in this space. I thought it would bring in some color and pattern, and give the room personality. But, it was going to be pretty time intensive and expensive. The curtain brings in all the brightness and the fun, for a fraction of the price, plus it's temporary, so if we want to swap it, we can easily change the look without having to embark on another project.

We just popped up a tension rod (bonus- we already owned it but didn't have a need for it in this house) and we were good to go. (you can actually see it in the "before" pics because I was experimenting to make sure it was going to work). I had an old white shower curtain that I layered behind the peaches to give it a bit more fullness and make it more opaque. When it's closed you'd never know what's behind it, and it easily scoots out of the way for access to the shower. (In case you didn't know how shower curtains work. Why do I feel the need to explain in such excruciating detail? Do I get paid by the word? Do I get paid at all?!)

So there you have it. An epic-ly drawn out story about a $30 bathroom upgrade. Now let's just give you the 87 pictures you likely scrolled directly down to anyway.....

And now- for a little vignette that I swear not to belabor with my long-winded yammering:

This wall was blank, and we desperately needed someplace to hang towels. I feel passionate about hooks vs. a towel bar (especially in kids' rooms...they cannot seem to hang things up no matter what, but the hooks at least make it semi-possible for them to clean up after themselves, if still very unlikely). These little wood + white hooks were the perfect natural accent, and provide more than enough spots for me to hang the multitude of towels it apparently requires to dry tiny, lazy bodies.

 

The art piece is one of my very favorite things in the room. It's a photograph, but is SO realistic. It just makes me happy every time I see it.

So.....with all that said, maybe I should check on Dustin and the vanity. Surely after all that rambling, he could be done by now?

See you next week!

Sources:
Shower Curtain
Shower Curtain Hooks
Towel Hooks
Flower Art  
Flamingo towels- old, but similar here

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One Room Challenge: The Plan

Alright...you've seen the before...now it's time to see the FUTURE!
Not the "after". No, we're not ready for that. This is a sneak peek into the possible.

I'm actually going about this whole room design in a wonky way...I didn't really have a vision before I started. Oh- and is now a good time I tell you I have, in fact, already started? I'm not sure if this whole "One Room Challenge" is supposed to be in real time (it doesn't have to be...but I think that's sort of the spirit behind it) And actually the room is about 1/2 done already? Well- we did all the decorating but none of the major "DIY" parts. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Again. What I'm trying to say is, I didn't really have a vision before I started. Sometimes I have a ton of inspiration collected, with a plan for what I'm going for and how it's all going to come together. And sometimes...I just start doing stuff. (In either case the follow through is typically in fits and starts, so in that way we're right on schedule with this one!) This bathroom was definitely the latter. I pretty much just knew I wanted to update the room, found a thing or two I loved, and let the whole thing unfold from there. So now that I'm sharing my "inspiration", it's a little retroactive. Most things on this board are just documenting what's already been done/purchased, but there are a few "up for discussion" items left. 

 

What we've already done (spoiler alert!):

• Painted the walls and trim 
• Hung a shower curtain
• Painted the existing mirror frame
• Swapped out a light fixture
• Hung art, hooks and a shelf

Things we still need to do:

• Paint the vanity
• Update the floor

So...that to-do list isn't long, but it's definitely the most time consuming part, so I'm thankful for this challenge to motivate me to actually tackle those components of the transformation. We finally bought the vanity paint and started prepping the cabinet doors, so we're inching towards real progress here!

Next week I'll share the work we've done so far. Even the simple changes have already made a big difference!

Sources:
Vanity paint color: Behr Dark Everglade (inspiration collage image is via google- meant to represent the color I'm imagining, more so than the actual full look of the fixture)
Wall paint color: Sherwin Williams Worldly Grey
Shower Curtain
Groutable Vinyl Tile
Towel Hooks
Flower Art
Light fixture inspiration
Pear shelf

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The kind of mom who...

This post is sponsored by Basic Invite: makers of stationary, announcements, and flat-out adorable kids birthday invitations. 

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 Me, pre-kids: 

"Someday, I'm going to be the kind of mom who..."

...sews matching taffeta Christmas gowns for my daughters."
...makes wholesome, adorable lunches full of healthy options and those cute little heart-shaped toothpicks."
...teaches my kids Spanish, and guitar, and maybe even Spanish guitar."

*cut to: me, six years and three babies later...*

"Someday I'm going to be the kind of mom who...

...wears matching clean socks."
...sets out the right number of forks for each meal. (how many kids do we have again?!)"
...doesn't hide the 'good ice cream' under the frozen broccoli in attempt to avoid having to share."

Funny how things change, huh?

I used to think I was going to be all kinds of a mom...An organized mom, a patient mom, a crafty mom (and not in the devious sense), a mom who found her zen, a mom who doesn't yell things like "I'm not going to say it again, DON'T LICK ALEXA" (the Amazon assistant, not a real human. Though I'm not sure which is worse...)

Yeah, I had all kinds of lofty parenthood predictions for myself. Some were pure crazy (I've seen movies that lasted longer than my foray into cloth-diapering), most were well-intentioned (I did manage to sew matching holiday outfits...but may have cancelled out the adorable-ness when I invoked the fear of God to make the kids actually wear them), and a few of them ended up being not too far off.

On my success list? 

• I always thought I'd be the type of mother who saved (too many) of my kids special mementos and masterpieces. One glance around my basement will tell you that one came true. (I didn't exactly picture myself downing in the hoards of my own sentimentality, but that is slowly becoming a very likely possibility. But what a way to go!) 

• I dreamed I would be the kind of mother who adored reading books, and doing crafts, and playing board games with my kids. Yep, yep, yep, those are some of my favorite activities. (I mean, if we're being totally honest, those things rank below eating nachos and watching reality TV, but we're talking about parenting activities here...)

• And I knew I'd be the kind of mother who just loses all reason when it comes to my children's birthday celebrations. Uhhh...Accurate. (Exhibit A: #bowdenbdays)

It's- DUH- impossible to truly know what type of parent (or spouse, or boss...or anything) you're going to be until you ARE it, but that doesn't seem to stop us from imagining anyway, does it? Thankfully, I didn't make too many grandiose/embarrassingly naive statements in my younger days that I'm regretting now. I didn't have much of a clue on life as a mom, but I think I was at least wise enough to know that making a bunch of "I'll never..." proclamations was a bad idea. (it's not that I didn't think them...I just-mercifully-didn't always say them). 

But while I'm thankful I don't have an endless laundry list of expectations for myself to point back to (and lament on), I don't think having some lofty dreams of who we want to be is a bad thing. It's helpful to orient around a goal, and keep focused on living with intention. It doesn't all have to be huge stuff, or perfect stuff, it just has to be the stuff that matters to me.

Examples?

I still want to be the kind of mom who diligently documents all my kids milestones. So even though things may have gotten a little hazy around month #2 of kid #2, I'm slogging through old medical forms and consulting the growth curve details to fill in the gaps. My cutesy wooden growth chart is going to have to be carved retroactively, but it turns out I'm the kind of mom who truly believes in (/embodies) the spirit of "better late than never".

And I'm an awesome texer, emailer, DM'er, and Voxer, but really struggle with sending mail of the old-fashioned variety. I manage to send family postcards most Christmases, but thank you notes are a rarity (what's the word for a never-ity?) and party invites tend to be sent between GIF jokes on a group-thread. Classy. But I do love the formality of a real, printed missive and really want to be the kind of person who makes it a priority to connect with loved ones in non-virtual ways from time to time.
  

Enter: Basic Invite.
If "being the kind of person who sends more snail-mail" is on your list too, then you need to know about Basic Invite. They have it all: photo holiday cards, baby announcements, cute birthday invitations and about a zillion other offerings in between.

A little bit about what makes Basic Invite, basically awesome:

Nearly unlimited colors: For each element on your card, there are over 180 color options to select from fensuring you get everything exactly how you want it. And as the kind of person who stood in the ribbon aisle for nearly an hour debating the merits of “lemongrass” vs. “lime” for our wedding invitations, I can tell you this is PRETTY important).

Custom samples: You can order a printed sample of the invitation before placing your final order, so you can check the print and paper quality before you commit. Will I ever be the kind of person who has my act together in advance enough to take advantage of this route? Of course not...but that doesn't stop me from wanting to have the option anyway.

Address Capturing and Printing: Get this...they will address cards for you. Praise hands! Because we are all the kind of people who love getting mail, but hate the effort of actually sending it. No excuses when someone else does the hard part for you!

Pretty much, Basic Invite makes it easy to be the kind of party-throwing, thank you-sending, hob-knobbing, Holiday-rocking, person you always dreamed you would be.

And because we all want to be the kind of person who shops smart….here’s the deal hook up:

Right now Basic Invite is offering 15% off with coupon code: 15FF51. So head on over there, browse their selection of party invitations online and start making good on some of those "someday" promises. 

So if you need me, I'll be staying up too late:
...writing punny, sticker-laden lunchbox notes  
...buying alllllll the Halloween themed art supplies for surprise "crafternoons"
...printing some honest-to-goodness cards and actually sending them (!) to people I love

Because I'll apparently never be the kind of mom who manages to go to bed at a reasonable hour but I am the kind of mom who believes in making ordinary things as special as possible.
 

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What about you? What kind of mom did you think you would be? What are the someday wishes you're still holding out hope you'll become?

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Stitch-it-together (again)

Remember how I was just going on and on, sharing about how I'm an all-in person, for better or for worse...? Well, I've done done it again, and the project I'm diving into definitely falls into the better AND worse categories. Ready for it?

I'm quilting again!

I got bit by the quilting bug (not the quilting bee...I'm pretty sure that's a whole 'nother thing) a couple years ago, and my (relative) success with my first experiment lead me to attempt an even bigger challenge, and organize a Quilt-Along + make a full size (well...twin sized) quilt. As usual, I didn't let a little detail like- I have no idea what I'm doing- stop me from diving in/dragging people in with me...but I'm glad I went for it. It was fun to have some sewing solidarity, and I made a pretty sweet piece in the end (if I do say so. And I totally do).

So...why not do it again?

We're going to keep it real casual this time around...it probably doesn't even count as a real Quilt-Along due to the complete (and intentional) lack of organization, but who cares, it's just for fun, yes?
Here's the bottom line. I'm going to make two quilts. Yes, two. Because I'm crazy, and because I decided that as we transition the girls into a new big-girl shared bedroom (which we're also doing because I'm crazy) that they need special, one-of-a-kind, made-by-mama, big-girl quilts for their big girl beds. (For the record, Piper would be happy with a store bought anything as long as it was purple with sparkles...And Fin doesn't care if she sleeps with aluminum foil on, as long as she has Jelly. So this, as always, is a need/mess of my own making. P.s. Piper's quilt will not be purple or sparkly. It probably goes without saying that this undertaking is at least 98% about me).

Anyway- I'm making two quilts, and aiming to have them done...eh...sometime before Summer...of 2015...is over. And if you're up for it, I'd love to have you join! Make a quilt, or four, or a quilted potholder...finish a quilt you started last time I started this silliness, or just finally sew that button back on a pair of pants...Whatever your talent/time/interest/energy allows for. Because the better of this whole better or worse situation, and the reason I'm doing this is because I want to. It's more expensive, and more time consuming, than buying something, but I love the process of learning and experimenting, and know that I'll be so proud to give the finished products to the girls. So even with the worse parts (agonizing over details, making a mess of my house for months on end while I have pieces here there and everywhere...) it's worth it. And anything worth doing, is worth doing with a friend.

Oh, and if you're intrigued but confused about this whole thing, don't be intimidated by the term Quilt-along. Basically, it's a just group of people who all commit to making a quilt, sharing our progress and encouraging each other along the way. There are some groups where they all work on the same pattern or project etc, but that'll all a little too confining for me. I just wanna make cool stuff, and see your cool stuff, and share in the process of getting to said cool stuff. Let's do it. 
Details: 

• Anyone is welcome. Beginner to master. 
• If you're interested, leave a comment here, or post it on social media, or email me, or tell me in person, or really just do what you want. See how formal we're making this? I just want to know you're in, so I can check in and rave about how awesome you are. 
• Participants can share progress and pics on social media using the hashtag: #stitchittogether
• There's no real deadline...But if it's a helpful motivator for you we can make one up? How about June 20? (the last day of Spring). No promises.....
• And the more the merrier. Feel free to grab a button, post on your blog, pinterest, tweet it, instagram it, email your friends. Spread the word and let's make it a party!

I'll pop in later this week with some details on my quilt(s) so far. Spoiler alert- they're already shaping up quite nicely. I'm trying really hard to make this as stress free as any quilt/Courtney project can be, and so far, so good.

p.s. If you're interested, you can see where my quilt-love started, see my results of the last Quilt-Along or check out all my stitchittogether posts. 

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Solly Baby + Oh Joy!

If I were to list all the the things I'm passionate about, here's a few things that would be near the top of the list: 

Design, motherhood, blogging, authenticity, creativity, hard work...

(yes, there are big giant family/faith things on the list as well, and of course some littler passions like Coke Slushies/afternoon naps that would make the cut for sure, but stick with me, I'm headed somewhere with this...)

So to have all of these topics come together in one post? Oh yeah...that's the stuff. 

I was chatting with the team at Solly Baby, kicking around a few ideas for a feature on their brand when they mentioned they had a designer collaboration coming up, and offered to have me interview Elle (the Solly founder) and the guest designer. Heck, yeah! Oh- and then? They announced that the partnership was with Joy Cho of Oh Joy! Stahhhhhhp it...

So I acted cool completely geeked out, and set up some time to chat with them. If you're familiar with either Solly Baby or Oh Joy! I don't have to tell you that a collaboration between them is pretty much guaranteed awesome.




I could go on and on about how beautiful the wraps are, how fun the Oh Joy! limited edition print is  and how talented both of these designers are...But for me, the story goes way beyond the product. It's really about the passion each of these women have for what they do. I was honored to have a chance  to talk with them, and I'm thrilled to share pieces of their experiences and perspectives. 

(OK...inspiring business ladies aside, the wrap is pretty awesome...And that baby might be just perfect):

Click to read the full story...

A mini house for a big sister

One of the tips I've heard for parents who are prepping to bring home baby #2, is to get the older sibling a gift "from the baby". The idea is that then the "big kid" feels special, and thinks the baby might not be so terrible after all. Piper is a little young to understand the concept of gratitude, so I wasn't actually convinced she'd like the baby better if she got a present, but I figured if we could get her something she'd really enjoy, that might take the edge off of all the "no", "wait", and "not right now"s she was going to inevitably have to deal with once the baby came home.
I decided I wanted to get her a dollhouse, and after very little searching, found the perfect one:

This version is a handmade project from the DIY experts at Young House Love. As soon as I saw it, I pretty much fell in love, and immediately set about convincing Dustin to help me make our own.

And I have absolutely no shame in telling you I knocked off in its entirety. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

John and Sherry have detailed instructions on their site...part 1 is how to build, and part 2 is the details. For our effort- Dustin did the building, sanding, painting and caulking, and I did the furniture shopping, art creating, doll procuring, and wallpaper choosing. So after a few weeks of work (it probably only took a few hours in total, but we spread it out over several evenings) and less than $100, we had ourselves our very own doll house. Behold:

Yeah....I'm kind of obsessed with it.

After spending an hour or two placing all the furniture just so and organizing all of the art to my liking, I realized that maaaaaaybe I was getting a little too into this. Remember- we were handing it over to a 19 month old, so some my attention to detail was going to be lost on her. But I had so much fun, it doesn't matter. I tried to keep it as simple as I could, as I quickly found out that you could get in really deep (in time and money!) on recreating a teeny tiny world for these silly pigs. I used YHL's version as my guide, and tried to make something simple and modern to fit in the vibe of Piper's nursery.

Our sources:

• furniture- a vintage lot from ebay (around $30 for all of it)
• "dolls"- Olivia the pig and her family
• rugs- fabric and felt pieces
• mirrors, tiny canvases, "p" letter, and wood for chalkboard- Joann's (all of the art is put up with sticky tack, so it could be changed out later if we/she want to)
• wallpaper, art and floor covering- Dear Lizzy scrapbook paper (and a few plain solid papers)

And while I found YHL's directions almost flawless, I do have a tip for the wallpaper. Put it on the backer before you attach it to the house walls. I followed Sherry's method of cutting templates and decoupaging them to each room, but 1: it took forever, 2: it was hard to get the paper cut to the exact right size and 3: no matter what I did it bubbled and looked like a hot mess.

So after a couple tears (my house is ruined! ruined!!) we ripped off the back and started over. This time we held the backer up to the finished house frame, and traced each room. (hard to see, but you get the idea) Then I cut the paper slightly larger than each room, knowing that the thickness of the walls would cover up any excess. Then I was able to decoupage on a flat surface (use a smooth craft roller vs. a brush for best results), before nailing the backer onto the house. SO much easier. (also- 12x12 paper was large enough for all of the rooms except the top floor. For those I had to seam two pieces together, so I chose patterns that would hide a horizontal line well- geometric designs work much better for this than florals)

  Look at that bump in action!

So that's the scoop, care for the full tour?

Who doesn't want a 3rd floor dining room with vaulted ceilings? (We'll pretend there's an invisible dumbwaiter to bring things up from the kitchen. What modern convenience!)

The nursery...It might be my favorite room. I originally had different paper in the back, but I kept messing it up, and didn't like the way it seamed, so I picked up two honeycomb patterned sheets at Michael's.

Bathroom...my "tile" floor doesn't cover the whole room, but it's just for fun, so I'm not too worried. (the furniture came with that blue piece in the corner, and I don't know what it's supposed to be, so I pretend it's a trashcan...)

 Super manly bedroom, for a super manly daddy pig.

 Brother pig hangs out in the den, watching his chalkboard "TV".

 I pretty much want this living room set to be my size.

 Ok...the kitchen is a little wild...but I've seen crazier things in some 1960's era homes. (and wouldn't this room be cute with a little pretend window above the sink?!)

So after all that work, it was time to present it to Piper (and hope she didn't tear my dream house to bits!) We sneaked it up to her room, and paused for a minute to admire how good it looks with the rest of her decor. I can totally picture a miniature version of her nursery fitting right in with her dollhouse (or a large version of her house, with her nursery inside!)
 

I worried that she wouldn't understand it (she is pretty young still) or wouldn't like it, but I figured worst case we could take it out and save it for later if she wasn't ready. (Or if it wasn't her thing, I suppose I could just keep it for myself....) But those fears evaporated about 2 milliseconds after we brought her in for her Big Sister Surprise...she loved it!

She was absolutely smitten with those piggies, and immediately started playing, putting them in different rooms and examining all the different pieces.

I wasn't sure she grasped the whole "pretend play" thing yet, but boy was I wrong. Pigs were placed in chairs and on beds, and furniture was rearranged to her liking. 

I tried to get her to smile for me, and show me her toys, but she was so into it she refused to turn around!

She played and played until bedtime, ignoring me snapping away in the background. When it was time to put on jammies, she insisted on bringing all of her piggies with her to get changed.

Since then, she's played with it a ton...Her favorite thing to do is tuck the piggies into their beds (she's a little frustrated mommy pig doesn't fit into the crib with the baby...). She insists that they need blankets though, so she takes blankets from her bed and shoves them into each room to keep the pigs warm. (each blanket takes up takes up an entire room, virtually smothering the pigs...but that doesn't seem to concern her.) I think my next step is to cut a few pieces of flannel so they can have some fresh- appropriately sized- linens.

Piper- I'm thrilled you like your gift...You're a good mama to your piggies, and a great sister to the baby. We love you to teeny tiny pieces.

Parents: The Magazine

Parents Magazine.

Ever heard of it?

Well, apparently, somehow, through the magic of the internet, they had heard of me. For real- there are not enough italics in the world to make the sheer absurdity of that sentence make sense to me. But- it’s true. I got an email from one of their editors a few months ago, saying they had seen our nursery, and wanted to include it on a story they were doing about incorporating books into kids’ rooms.  I think I died first, and then emailed them back somehow from my heavenly coma. I’d like to say I played it cool, like these opportunities come all the time, but I’m pretty sure I my response was something eloquent like:

WHAT?! YES! SQUEEE…OH EM GEE THAT WOULD BE LIKE, SO TOTES AWESOME, ARE YOU SURE? OH MY GOSH I HAVE TO CALL MY MOM RIGHT NOW, HOLY CRAP, THANK YOU, YES PLEASE AND GOOD DAY TO YOU SIR. GAH- MA’AM! I’M SO SORRY, PLEASE DON’T BACK OUT NOW…I WANT YOU TO LIKE MEEEEEEEEEEEE.

EMOTICONS!!!!!!!!!

It’s possible that my freak out was kept fairly internal, but I for sure used a smiley face at one point. Because that’s what big-wig publishing gurus do, obvs.

But somehow, (italics- somehow!!) they still wanted to work with me, and requested the original picture of the room that they had liked, a quick blurb about who we are, and told me it would run in an upcoming months’ issue. Huge for me, mundane for them…end of story.

Well…somehow (somehow!!) it snowballed from there and I got a follow up email- they’d actually like to use it as the front page of the home section- could I get them a larger picture to work with? Oh- and their readers really love it when kids are featured in the photos, would I mind getting a shot with my daughter in the space too?

Um? Yes! I would be delighted to begin my daughter’s inevitable, and surely wildly successful, modeling career. Also do you need me to work with you as a part time editor, party attendee and first birthday cupcake taste tester? P.s. can we be BFF?!

(Again…I managed to use my inside voice on that, and actually said something to the effect of- Oh sure. No problem! And then rushed to coordinate a bedroom photoshoot complete with two tiny costume changes, a complete restaging of the books, and my mom holding a lamp over her head to get the lighting just right.)

I sent them one-milliondy photo options, apologizing if (IF! Ha!) I had gone overboard, and that was that. A few fact check emails later, they told me it would run in the May issue.

And somehow (?!?!) I managed to keep my big trap shut, just in case this whole thing never came to fruition. But it DID. And I’m pretty excited about it. 

Turn with me...to page 147: 

Aka: the front page of the home section: 

 Tada!

They ended up using a photo without our little reader...And sure, I'm a little bummed her adorable face (and outfits!) won't be seen by the masses, but the shot they picked shows the book wall off the best, so I understand....

I know that to some it might not be a big deal…it’s just one little magazine photo. And it’s completely silly to get too wrapped up something that will end up in people’s recycle bins in a few weeks. But our room, our blog, will be in recycle bins nationwide. I mean…how many people can say that? 

And yes, maybe a teeny part of me wishes that I was that cool girl who was all….

NBD. Just a little magazine photo, and posted a quick- “Delighted to be featured in Parents Magazine this month!” tweet and moved on. But….that’s not me. I’m a spazzy, everything-is-a-big-deal kind of girl that doesn’t get these opportunities all the time, and for sure doesn’t take them lightly. (Oh. And I rarely tweet….)

It’s old hat for big-time bloggers that find their work/photos/stories going viral and cropping up all over, but frankly- I’m still at the stage where if someone repins something of mine, I’m pretty shocked.

This blogging world never ceases to amaze me with how inspiration is shared and connections are formed. I’m beyond grateful for any amount of exposure or success I’ve received through this space (resisting the urge to downplay that statement in some sort of charming, self-deprecating way…though it probably does deserve some sort of disclaimer about what “success” means…). But mostly I’m humbled by how many awesomely talented people there are in the world, and thrilled that somehow (yes, somehow) someone out there thought something I did was kinda cool.

So- I want you to know that if you ever get a similar email, from a company that geeks you out…you have my express permission to go ahead and geek out. And then write a 781 word blog to brag about how awesomely weird your life is sometimes.

Squeee!

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If somehow you found me via the Parents article… I am, in fact, delighted you’re here. Please, feel free to stay awhile. Poke around. Get to know us. I’d love to get to know you too.