Blogversary – let me introduce…..ME :)

Yep, today’s my blogversary!  2 years today I started – and look how it’s grown – wow!!  So, I meant to do a re-grand-opening of my now-empty Etsy shop to celebrate, but I thought this day was more mid-February and was surprised that I actually started at the end of January, 2009.  So anyways, no big celebration today (although I AM going to through a big jewelry party next week – jump in on that fun!)  – – BUT – – since I’ve gained followers here and there along the way I’m not sure all of you know who I am.

So today I’d like to introduce Myself – and some key players in my blogness.  Here we go:

Hi, I’m Mandy!  I grew up in the midwest near Kansas City, went to college in Joplin MO, graduated (in 3.5 years – I like to speed through things) with a BS in Sociology.  I worked for the State of Kansas for a couple of years while my husband finished school and then turned the working-to-support-the-family over to him.

I met Trevor my freshman year in college on a blind date (we were both 18 – so young!) and we dated for about a year – he went on a 2 year mission for our church and when he got back I was still around.  We were married 10 years ago in May.

After he graduated we moved to Wichita, KS where we lived for about 5 years.  We loved our town and friends, but had a goal to move back closer to family – so we did.

We’ve lived back in the Kansas City area for about 2 years now – we love being close to family and the new friends we’ve made here.  Our kids get to grow up around cousins and enjoying monthly sleepovers at their Grandparents’.

If you haven’t noticed, I love crafty things.  I have a craft blog.  I enjoy it all!  My hope for this year is to meet one of you.  Like this:
 random person “what do you enjoy?”
me: “oh, crafty stuff.  I love looking at craft blogs, etc”
random person “oh, I like craft blogs too”
me “do you have favorite sites”
random person -“blah blah, (lists lots of big-name blogs)
me “have you heard of……Sugar Bee Craft Edition”
NOW – all of this previous conversation has happened to me before, more than once, but I’ve never heard this last part:
random person – “oh yeah, I like that one”
THAT’S what I’m waiting for!!!

Um, what else do you want to know? I have 4 kids – 8,6,4,2 and get to stay home and do all that fun stuff.  I am a member of the LDS Church.  I love to read.  I love to sew.  I love to take pictures and do a small photography thing on the side. I am frugal – and a big fan of Dave Ramsey.  I love my little spot in the blog world. Oh, and I bought myself a new camera bag that came today – cute, right?? (what’s with little kids heads always popping up in the corners of my pictures??  comes with the territory I guess)

Some other players on this blog:


Trevor – I always feel weird referring to “my husband” so now you know, he’s Trevor.  He’s amazing.  He puts up with the crafting craziness and even gets in on the fun sometimes.  Did I mention he’s building a bigger-than-life castle in our backyard???  Snow has slowed the progress…..

Kate – Kate is my cousin but I always feel weird referring to “my cousin” so now you know, she’s Kate. She is who I bounce all my crafty ideas off of, etc.  We grew up together, hanging out every day in the summer, and all that fun.  I just have one brother, so she’s more like a sister than some distant cousin type.  Now that we moved back, we live less than 10 minutes from her and our kids are great friends.  They call us “the moms” just like we called our own moms “the moms” when we were growing up – and so the cycle continues.  She has a family blog and here’s Kate during a recent snow:

Side note – we like the same things and often end up somewhere wearing matching clothes – not on purpose!  The funny part is that I am very short and she is very tall – quite the sight!  Case in point, I wrote this post yesterday, then today I show up at playgroup, and there’s Kate – dressed like me – of course I snapped a picture.  We’re both in jeans, strippy socks, black shirts – she stepped it up with a scarf and I stepped it up with a necklace –

We took a couples’ trip – cruise to the Caribbean – last January: Trevor and I on the left, Michael and Kate on the right- –

Anyways, was that all you needed to know and more about me??  Any other questions you’ve been dying to ask??  Bring’em on- – –