Happy Blogiversary to me

Today I am celebrating the 1 year anniversary of my blog.  After 86 posts, I finally feel like I am getting the hang of this.  I have established a strong readership, gotten positive feedback, and met some great people along the way.  I'm even off to BLOGFEST 2012 in NYC in a few weeks!

So thank you, thank you to all of you who follow, who comment (here, on Facebook, on Twitter, and in person), and who are a part of my conversation.  The world of interior design is changing quickly, so I'll keep doing my best to keep you up to speed...

And, for those of you just getting to know me, here is the post that kicked off the series:

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Let me introduce myself...

I'm an almost-middle-aged mother of four with my own interior design business that I've been running from home for the past six years. Being almost middle-aged, I am new to the world of blogging. Though, standing at my laptop in my kitchen while the kids are eating Asian noodles from a box from Target, I am a quick study, and quite honestly, getting hooked on blogging...

Life for me is full time, all the time. My husband says that I have 2 speeds - on or off. I go, go, go until I hit the pillow, and then I'm shut down recharging until the first kid is up, staring at me from the side of my bed telling me they're hungry for waffles... My kids are aged 3 through 10, swimming in every activity from soccer to drama to Chinese to literally swimming. BUT, they're thankfully in school most of the day. During that time, I'm able to service a handful of clients and keep up on what's hot and what's not.

Interior Design is my second career. When I was a kid, my mother was a NJ housewife obsessed with the D&D building. She would redecorate at every opportunity. Brunschwig & Fils, Scalamandre, and Clarence House were names I was familiar with early on, but Wall Street was calling my name instead, and I followed in my father's trading footsteps and started my career in finance. I went to school and studied economics, moved to NYC and got my first job at one of the oldest banks in the country. I met my husband and lived on the Upper East Side. Life was pretty good.

Soon after we were married, my husband got a job offer in Hong Kong. We were excited at the opportunity and committed to a 2 year contract. I found a job at another bank there and kept up on my career. He travelled to Phuket and Singapore and all sorts of exotic places. I felt left out sitting on my career in a high rise with a great view. 

After much debate, I left my job and decided to travel with him - though I felt like such a slacker. I was 27. I felt obligated to have a job. So, to solve my personal plight, I decided to try something new and flexible and took a position with a local gallery specializing in Southeast Asian textiles and Balinese art. Quickly I took interest in the local cooperative villages, the beautiful Chinese brocades, and Jim Thompson. I couldn't sit still. For the first time in my life, I felt creative and inspired by the beauty around me.

But just as my new life was getting started, I was pregnant and our contract was up. We snuck in an amazing trip to Bali and Australia before heading back to the States and settling down in Brookline to start a family. After such a whirlwind adventure of life-altering experiences, my husband knew I wouldn't take well to becoming a stay at home mom. He surprised me for Christmas that year with an enrollment in New England School of Art & Design's interior decorating program. And, alas, a new found career had begun.

And now, ten years later, I'm still at it. I can now appreciate my mother's influence in my career and would love to tell my late father that the twelve different dining rooms all really paid off in the end...

I LOVE doing what I do. Sitting at my laptop at 9pm when the kids are asleep, I am still talking, thinking and researching some aspect of design (though now there is a glass of Pinot next to my laptop). I am seasoned at this in a different way - My life in the boys club of Wall Street has left a realist in me that thinks more objectively about design than my peers. I think, "How is this going to work in a busy household, in my household? What can I do to keep their kid's puke from staining their new white sectional? How can they afford this when private school is around the corner? What's the trend of this neighborhood, and how can the developer make sure that they capitalize on who their true market is when setting up a model unit? Do people really think purple will stay in style long enough to upholster a sofa in it? Sisal is gorgeous, but olephin that looks like sisal is more practical" - right?? These things I know - they are my everyday life...

XO.