A couple of weeks ago I told you the real story of how I became a designer. This week is the fun stuff, the pieces that didn't make it into that story but probably explain more about who I am than any of it did.
Growing Up
I was a full tomboy growing up. Building forts, making mud stews, generally covered in dirt. I did gymnastics for nine years, and in high school I was the basketball team manager for all four years, which is the single best PE loophole I have ever found and I regret nothing.
I became a vegetarian at 15, in Texas, in 1999, which was not exactly the easiest place or time to make that call. I had to give a public speaking paper on it in school and truly, nobody wanted to hear it. I gave it anyway. This is also, for the record, a vegetarian wearing a dead animal around her neck, taken during a mock yearbook photo shoot with a friend in San Francisco. I contain multitudes.
That same instinct turned into something bigger in high school. I was part of Food Not Bombs for three and a half years, a vegan collective that served unhoused people three times a week, and my college essay was actually written about this work. In the winter I would pick up beanies, gloves and mittens, blankets and coats from thrift stores, load them into my car trunk, and bring them along so people could take whatever they needed.
When I moved to San Francisco I tried to join the SF chapter. I cooked a big batch of pasta, drove it down there ready to help, and they looked at it and told me they didn't need me or the food. That was that. Some chapters just don't need extra hands I guess, but it still makes me laugh that my enthusiasm got turned away at the door.
Vintage shopping has been part of my life since high school too, long before it was my job to have an eye for it. Back then it was about lower budgets, not curation, so I would fill up my trunk with clothes and always keep a few outfits on hand, since I did most of the driving and needed to be ready to change at any point. I guess not much has changed. I'm still the driver in my family now, mostly because my husband drives a little too slow for my taste.
Junior Prom
In high school I protested the circus. I also bought a wedding dress at a thrift store for $23, dyed it black, and wore it with combat boots to junior prom.
No notes. I would do it again tomorrow.
The Honeymoon
This is also where a good chunk of the treasures in my house came from. If you want the full story on that, I've written about a few of the pieces before, in This Isn't a Hallway, It's an Archive and Cabinet of Curiosities: How I Style My Étagère.
We went to Amsterdam, Croatia, Bosnia, Berlin, and back to Amsterdam.
I cried the second we landed in Amsterdam because it was so beautiful, cleaned myself up before we got to our incredible Airbnb, and spent the next two days shopping, eating, trying every bar we could find, and stumbling into a free concert in a park. We also found a taxidermy shop run by the son of a couple who had owned a medical supply and antique store, and we ended up buying quite a bit there.
Our AirBnb in Amsterdam, we splurged on this place and it was totally worth it
Hanging with parrots in Dubrovnik
From there we flew to Dubrovnik for three days. We went to the local club, the Irish pub (apparently the coolest bar in Dubrovnik), had a five star meal with fresh sushi and a bottle of wine for a quarter of what it would have cost back home, and I ate gelato every single day. We toured the wall where Game of Thrones was filmed, had a beach day, and took photos with parrots, one of whom stole a piece of my husband's watch band and flew off with it.
Dubrovnik
A tour guide took us on a day trip into Bosnia to see waterfalls and explore Mostar, where I had one of the best meals of my life.
Bosnia
Mostar
We hiked up the old turret for a better view of the bridge, and the call to prayer started right as we reached the top. I burst into tears. Some other American nearby asked his partner, quietly, why is she crying, and I just turned and said because this is truly beautiful, how can you not cry, and walked to the other side.
We also spent a day in Split touring Diocletian's Palace, which was incredible, then got up at 5am for a four hour bus ride to Plitvice to see the waterfalls. Yes, I cried the whole time. I told the tour guide not to even look at me, I just love waterfalls and this was pure beauty crying, nothing else.
Diocletian's Palace
Plitvice
Then we flew to Berlin, caught up with old friends, drank beer that was somehow cheaper than water, and went to a few clubs.
Berlin
Berlin is the one city on the trip I didn't cry in. Sorry Berlin, you're great, you just didn't break me open the way the others did.
We ended the trip back in Amsterdam for two more days, meeting up with a foreign exchange student who had lived with me for two years in high school, exploring the city further, and yes, doing more shopping. There are some genuinely great clothing stores there.
Now
So that's a few things about me that have nothing to do with paint colors or sofa fabric. I still vintage shop at least once a week. I'm a Walker patron member and genuinely love art, and I love fashion just as much, I spend a lot of time curating clothes and hunting down the perfect outfit. Right now I'm deep into matching sets and printed dresses, and I always, always have fun shoes and a good bag to go with them. I go to a lot of shows, music genuinely gets me through things. These days you'll also find me in a walking group downtown, at a crafternoon with a group of older women in downtown Saint Paul that I adore, or somewhere between kickboxing, weight lifting, and yoga trying to balance out all that sitting and driving. I host dinners and brunches constantly, and I am always, always working on my house, it never really ends. I love cooking, hiking, foraging, camping, swimming, and time at the cabin. Pretty well rounded, I guess, or at least pretty consistent, since apparently I was always going to end up somewhere that involves a trunk full of things other people might need.
