Katie-who?

I started thinking about starting a blog for a very long time before I actually did it. Years and years, really. Way back when I was planning my wedding, I participated in message boards and had a journal that I kept up with until after the birth of my first child. I think I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed sharing that part of my life and the things I made for for the wedding and beyond. I also think I must have decided at some point that maybe I didn’t have anything worth writing about. Thanks to a lot of encouragement from friends and family, and a lot of time to think, I’ve decided that maybe I do. Here are a few of my favorite topics: 

I love creating. I almost always have at least one project in the works. Some are big, involved projects; others are a lot simpler. I work with a wide variety of materials. I try to upcycle whenever I can. Even when I go through a creative slump, it’s not necessarily because I don’t have any ideas, but because I have too many. I love getting my kids involved whenever I can. It’s a lot messier that way, but it’s often a lot more fun. I love sharing what I’ve made with my friends and family and sharing what I’ve learned—even sometimes when the best advice I have to give is what NOT to do. I hope that by posting about what I’ve done I’ll inspire other people to maybe try something new.

I have a tendency to go all in on projects that I get really excited about. Sometimes I see something somewhere and think, I could do that! and just figure out how to do it. Other times I research the heck out of everything and seek out the very best deals on supplies. In both cases, I often have to hold myself back from buying ALL THE THINGS to start new craft hobby. Or I end up with, say, enough metal stamping supplies to open my own business. Thankfully I have an exceptionally understanding and supportive husband. Except maybe about the kiln I want… but I haven’t given up yet.

I spend a great deal of time with my camera outside, photographing plants and birds and other wildlife in our backyard. Hummingbirds are my absolute favorite, but I’ve developed a fondness for all of the birds and other wildlife we have around us—and there are a lot of them. Birds, deer, squirrels, rabbits, turtles… I love them all, and I take thousands of pictures of them every year. My favorite wild animals to photograph are, of course, my children. 🙂 

Since 2010, we have traveled to Disney World almost every year and have learned a lot along the way. I was raised a big Disney fan, my husband was raised a big Star Wars fan, and our kids have been raised fans of both as well as everything else that Disney World has to offer. It is one of our happy places, and we are sad to be missing out due to Covid-19. On the plus side, I have more time to dream (and write) about the things I can’t wait to do once we’re able to go back.

I love to read. If I enjoy a book by an author, I’ll seek out everything they’ve written. I’ve accumulated a long list of authors who I do my best to keep up with, and the list keeps growing. I recently reread the first fifteen Nancy Drew books (all that the library had in ebook form) because I wanted to remember why I loved them so much as a kid. 

I love music. My dad got me hooked on MTV at a very young age (Thanks, Dad!), and music is one of the very first things my husband and I bonded over. I grew up playing both the organ and violin, though I was always much better at the organ. Dance parties are a fairly regular occurrence in our house. I firmly believe that sometimes you just have to dance it out. Toto’s “Africa” is my favorite song of all time, but I love songs from just about every genre.

I’m hard of hearing. I’ve had some degree of hearing loss since I was a child, but I didn’t realize how bad my hearing had gotten until our youngest was diagnosed with hearing loss and his doctor asked me to get tested. I’ve been wearing hearing aids for almost two years now, and it has been life-changing. The two of us who now wear them feel pretty cool wearing our “super ears.”

More than anything, I just love life. I love my family and friends. I love the little things. I drive my daughter crazy looking for rainbows when it rains, and I spend hours stargazing with my sons. I love sunsets (and sunrises on the rare occasions I’m awake to see them). I love music and glitter and all the colors of the rainbow. I will almost always turn any project into something more colorful and/or sparkly. And that, as my husband would say, is how you make something “Katieish.”

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