Wow.  I am so excited to get this blog going!  As awesome as it is to talk to other moms about our children – what they need, how to take care of them, how to provide them with every opportunity we can – what I really want to talk about is what we need, how to take care of ourselves and how to create our own opportunities.  Because let’s be honest, motherhood doesn’t stop in the middle of the day and say, “Hey, you doin’ alright? What can I do to make you feel better about you?”

I guess I should tell you who I am before we start talking about how great we all are…

My name is Katie.  I am an artist – as in ‘dye my hair crazy colors, paint up to my elbows, wear “unique” outfits, make my own pillows’ kind of artist.  I live in a hundred year old furniture factory that was converted into lofts thirty years ago – perfect place for an artist, huh?  I am also married to Chris (most beautiful blue eyes you’ll ever see) and I’m Mommy to Addison, my ridiculously smart 21 month old daughter.  The three of us spend every single day together and we love it.  My job doesn’t have set hours and Chris is a professional poker player so our life doesn’t exactly follow a schedule like most families.  But to be honest with you, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  If you asked 16 year old Katie what she thought 28 year old Katie’s life would look like, she wouldn’t have been able to see this one coming.

There are a million things I could tell you about me, but we’ll get to know one another as this blog progresses.  But this is not my autobiography, it’s a chance to have a conversation about CONFIDENCE and SELF-ESTEEM … because I see a lot of women out there (including myself sometimes) who could use a nice big dose of confidence.  I want to talk about why it is so easy to be judgmental and critical of other women rather than being supportive.  I want to talk about how to make small changes in your daily life to make you feel better about the person you are presenting to the world.  And I want to discuss how incredibly difficult it is to focus on ourselves when there are forces coming from all angles telling us that as mothers we should sacrifice so much of who we are for the good of our children.

So, lets talk.  Let’s figure out how to make you feel great about who you are, and also recognize how awesome it can feel to boost someone else’s confidence when they need a lift.  We may disagree about some things, and that’s okay.  In fact, I think its kind of great – if we all agreed on everything the world would be one boring place to be.  And I may be a lot of things, but I am NOT boring and I bet you aren’t either.  Let’s get this conversation going!