Since the Last Time We Spoke, or Views from My New Office

When I look back on the life of this blog -- an almost three-year endeavor, started in October 2009, officially because I "wanted to have a blog," unofficially because I needed a creative outlet to mourn some personal changes I had just been through -- I am amazed at where it's taken me and what it's all meant. More than anything, it's been my little engine that could: my space, my place without an editor, my inspiration for digging back into photography, my neck of the woods. 

I've recently gone through some personal changes again, but this time it's more of the happy sort. I've been holding back on sharing it here for some reason, like it's been my secret to savor -- or perhaps because, when I post this, it makes it all officially official. But it is official. And here's the deal: About a month ago, I left my job at Real Simple in order to become a freelance writer.

(Freelance! Don't you dig that word in every way?)

Now, to actually go freelance, you have to work to build a client base for a while -- and since the start of the year, I've been working around 80 hours a week to make sure I could comfortably make this shift. (Which should explain why my blog has been so quiet.) (Also: I'm exhausted, y'all.) I've been spending time saving and asking questions and consulting friends and family, and around mid-July, I announced my plans to my co-workers. They took the news with such grace, generously giving me love and enthusiasm for my decision -- a big one for me, especially since I had been at the mag for five years. I could not be more grateful for those friends and that amazing team. Their support meant the world to me.

I credit much of this new step to the work I've done on this little blog. It's the place where Cerentha Harris, then-editor of the Lifework blog at Herman Miller, posted a comment saying she wanted to do a tour of my studio. I started writing as contributor for her after that, and today, now that Cerentha left to launch Mom.me, I am the editor of that blog. And who replaced me as contributor? The amazing Jamie Latendresse, whom I met on this blog after I featured his "4 Seats on the 1" print in October 2010. (The print got a particularly awesome reception when I mentioned it in an Apartment Therapy tour of my digs -- another result of M-Dashing.) It's been connection after connection, blessing after blessing. All because I wanted a blog, and needed to deal with my life. And now here we go.

I'll continue to fill you in as this adventure unfolds -- there's much to share (like, much much), but I am, admittedly, still slightly overwhelmed with the possibilities and the flexibility and the opportunities that come with being my own small business. There.is.so.much.to.learn. And change finally feels so good.

xo

Visit me at Pantry Confidential

Hey, hey! I'm cookin' over at the always-lovely Pantry Confidential today. Co-founders Hana and Christine stopped by recently to watch me whip up a buttermilk pound cake first created by my long-distance cousin Betty Feezor.

Betty was a beloved talk show hostess in the 50s, 60s, and 70s down in Charlotte, NC--the first Martha Stewart if there ever was one. I never had a chance to meet her before she passed, but I sure don't mind making the recipes she left behind. Come on over for a slice of cake and sit a spell.

Photo: Pantry Confidential

My Tech Top 10 on Unplggd

Cerentha Harris, my editor over HermanMiller.com, recently interviewed me for an Apartment Therapy Unplggd series called "My Tech Top 10." Want to know what made the list? Head over to the site and take a gander.

Want to know what almost made the list, but fell off, soley because I didn't have a chance to run down and take a photo? The relatively new electronic arrival-time clocks in (some, but not enough!) NYC subway stations. I can't tell you how much I dig those things. They aren't always 100% right, but they 100% reassure me that, yes, there WILL be another train, lady--just calm it down.

(I kind of wish you had those sort of signals in all areas of my life, you know?)

Thanks, Cerentha.

Gettin' the Blues in Gowanus

The one Brooklyn neighborhood I've been wanting to explore a little more these days is Gowanus. I am intrigued by its pockets of abandoned areas, the gross/fascinating canal running through it, everyone else's gross fascination with the canal running through it, and its cool/hip factor anchored by places like Four & Twenty Blackbirds and The Bell House.

Also, I dig the cool graffiti near the drawbridge on Union Street. Also: a drawbridge! Who doesn't dig a drawbridge?