dear diary

(not bragging because I'm like that to my own detriment as well. It's just my nature.)

Mom and feminist first, I am also a creator and curator, and I have called Orlando home for over 10 years. 

I'm also a new small business owner - after jumping the Corporate Ship (more like Death Star) in 2025. 

My favorite thing is to thrift shop. Then rot with a weighted blanked and watch documentaries about early reality TV or investigations into corporate fraud and the patriarchy. (side note: self awareness is hot. Watch 13th on Netflix, read Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, add black voices in your media algorithms on social media, and amplify and engage those that are doing the hard work resisting. Your voice matters.)

I created Craftshop Orlando to connect to the community around me after spending December 2024 in New Zealand, I realized that Orlando needs more third spaces to hang, create and connect like I saw abroad. 

I saw that the Kiwis made resource-sharing seem easy and business feel collaborative over competitive. Eco seems to be their first priority rather than last. Living with the land and honoring its natives was woven into everything.

A true Sagittarius, and year of the Tiger, I'm always daydreaming and thinking of ways to make living on Earth more fun. I've had to learn that looking on the bright side is a habit you need to practice often to maintain. Being more creative has allowed more room for positive thinking.

I grew up moving around the East Coast and went to college in Boston. I'm fond of real seasons (less though, as I get older).

During childhood, I lived in a small town in New Hampshire (where our main thing to do was play in the woods... my dad took us canoeing frequently), then moved just outside our nation's capital, and finally landed in middle school in the music capital and home of ACL (and my favorite) - Austin, Texas.

My family's first move was before I turned 1 year old. That's why constants like my family vacations to the same place in Maine or a decade of summers in the woods of New Hampshire are semi-religious for me.

In high school I attended School Year Abroad - Italy. I am still in contact with my host family. I dated my host brother senior year and flew him to Texas for my prom. He spoke to me in Italian and I spoke back in English for a year.

Italy is everything.

I recently returned to SYA while pregnant to help facilitate a day-long lecture and sessions on racism, diversity, equity and inclusion. My friend and I created the opportunity through sheer will power. That experience reconnected us, back in Medieval Italy where it all began.

I held on to best friends from each place and time - and they were all in my wedding party as a tribute to how much I loved them too.

This trip sparked Craftshop Orlando into motion.

During my major, I studied the different ways humans seek connection and how easily groups can be manipulated en masse. My senior project was on ethical consumption and Product(RED) which I was obsessed with as a new business model - sell products that do good. 

After liberal arts, I started to focus my life back on fashion and eco living. The big heros that stood very alone at the time were Patagonia and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. They stood at the pinnacle of good business.

I was totally hooked and started to apply my passion for fashion with business - believing there was a way for people, planet and profit to all win. 

After returning to summer camp as Program Staff and leading the Small Crafts Division, I moved to New York City where my aunt, who worked in eco advertising lived in The Upper East Side. 

I burnt out at the fashion company and decided to quit and move to Australia with absolutely no plans except to stay with Australian friends I had met working at ABC Kitchen.

Sydney was the time of my life. I worked from a mansion in Tamarama and walked the steep coastline path to Bondi Beach every day. It felt amazing to work for myself. After 7 months, I was running out of money and needed to return to the States for my childhood best friend's wedding. (I was sharing Maid of Honor duties with her friend Alexandra. We stood with her in the church and I gave a hilarious speech that just flowed out of me onto paper that early morning. I wrote it down once, practiced a few times and then nailed it. People came up to me after the speeches on the dance floor and congratulated me on a great performance.)

When it was my time to come back to the USA after traveling alone up the coast of Australia and diving the Great Barrier Reef, I secured a job at a well respected luxury swimwear retailer based in New York City and Orlando. 

I thought I'd be in Orlando for one year while I figured out my next move. Fortunately I found my partner and we now share a life together raising a child and holding on for dear life.

Six month in to living in a place I did not feel connected, I met my husband And now we have been together over 10 years and have an amazing son and two weenie dogs.