Well, here it is. My blog. As you get to know it I hope you get to know a little bit about me, not just as a designer for Northland Design & Build, but as a mother, business owner, wife and just all-around human being.
“It’s a new age,” they keep telling us. “Women in the workforce!” they demand. And I say, “Amen, sisters.” As a small business owner with lots of drive I couldn’t agree more. Women bring unique, vital, fresh, and gender-distinct abilities to business that men just simply can’t. Because of this women march into the workforce as Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” roars in the background. Again. Amen, sisters. However, as us working women embark on our determined journey we forget to leave behind that housewife of old. We march in, but don’t stop cooking, cleaning, birthing, carpooling, organizing play dates, attending soccer games or washing the unknown elements off the dog. Instead we piggy-back the homemaker into society, living dual lives as she hides underneath our pantsuit like superman under Clark Kent’s slacks. Okay, so maybe I’m getting a bit dramatic, but you get the point. The point is not that women should shirk from either role, or that one is necessarily better than the other. The point is we work hard. Continue reading
If you know my mom at all you know her personality is pretty out there. She’s crazy and quirky, yet wildly creative and passionate about what she does. Trying to tame her ENTP personality is like trying to teach a cat to fetch. As impossible as it is, I’ve often tried to embark on this endeavor. In fact, we often joke that the parent-daughter roles are reversed as I’m always trying to discipline her and keep her focused by setting clear boundaries. At Trader Joe’s, for example, I’ll say, “Fine. You can have five minutes in the wine aisle. But after that we’re leaving.” And often when she’s talking a million miles a minute, switching from one topic to the next, then going back to the original topic five minutes later, assuming I was following along with her whole train of thought, I have to reign her in to decipher her actual point. Over the past 24 years I’ve gotten pretty good at this. But the truth is, while my mom’s über curious and impassioned nature may make her seem a bit nutty at times (which she undoubtedly is), it’s also what makes her so good at what she does. It’s also this 24 years of experience that gives me both the resources and liberty to dispel the following myths and unveil facts about my mom, the woman you know as the Vice President and Designer at Northland Build, you may have otherwise never known. Continue reading
In the last decade it was all about finding those colors that would remind us of our favorite neighborhood coffee shop. Consulting fees were paid to experienced designers who would artfully combine 7 different colors from all ends of the spectrum–and that was just on the first floor. Continue reading
stretch. sketch. design. 