Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger

Susan from Must Love Junk, and myself wanted to do a regular feature on our blogs, something unique that hasn't been done before.   So we came up with an idea to 'spotlight the real life behind the blogger' in a more personal way.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland, and we thought it would be fun to bring you a closer look at the person behind the blog.

Every week on Saturday we will spotlight a blogger and have them tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs.  You will be able to see and read about each of the bloggers on both Susan's and my blog. 

March 29th
Kim from Tidbits & Twine

Good Saturday to everyone.  It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to a fairly new blogger Kim from Tidbits & Twine.  Even though she if fairly new to blogging when you visit Kim's blog you will think she has been blogging for a long time.    It is a beautiful blog.  Enjoy getting to know Kim on a more personal level.




Hi everyone! I'm Kim from Tidbits &Twine and I was so excited when Kris asked me to participate in the Saturday Spotlight Feature. I'm still fairly new to blogging and have been greatly inspired by her style, so this is truly an honor for me. For the most part, my blog provides decorating tips, ideas, inspiration, and little by little, glimpses of my home as I complete decorating projects. I don't share too much information about myself on my blog, though. In fact, for those that have visited my site before, you might have realized that I don't even have a picture of myself on it! I'm much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it. :) So if you've ever wondered what I look like, this is me.


 

My husband and I met when we were both in college and married the month after we graduated. He is truly my best friend and my greatest role model....and my antiquing buddy. :) We have been married for almost 16 years now and have two kids, ages 9 and 6. {Uh-oh...I just realized that with a little math, you can figure out my age!} 



This is my favorite wedding photo and was captured by a guest using one of the disposable cameras we provided. My husband and I were married under this tree.}    Here's my hubby with his "other" love - his astrophotography telescope. He's taken some amazing pictures of galaxies and nebulas from our backyard!

The Rosette Nebula as photographed by Hubby in our backyard.

The supportive Hubby waiting in line at the antique faire with me at 5:45 AM. It was dark and freezing cold that morning. Note the headlamp for hands-free shopping!}    We live in a tract home in small town of 43,000 in a valley of the California Bay area with our two kids. Tract homes are very common where we live, so my goal has always been to make my home feel like me even though it looks like everyone else's. But I absolutely love the area that we live because we are surrounded by hills and are only a short drive to destination spots like San Francisco, the Redwoods, the beach and the mountains.




  My family is my greatest joy and we spend as much time together as possible.

This was taken three years ago, which is the last time we ever dressed so formally! We have about 10 photos similar to this one and my daughter isn't looking at the camera in any of them. Lol!  My son is one of the most caring people I have ever met. He is my little home body and loves to relax on the weekends and spend time as a family. I am constantly inspired by him and love him to the moon and back!

 My daughter is a bundle of energy and never stops moving - literally! She loves to sing and dance and do runway fashion shows for us, which she always makes me emcee.

 We also live with a cat named Kitty la Belle. She is loveable and snuggly but also totally independent.




  Kitty thinks that we bought her some chew toys, but really, they are our two pet finches, Sparky and Lola.



  

 We also have a Beta fish and are soon to be the proud owners of a miniature Labradoodle puppy like this one!

  My love of decorating started early. When I was little, my grandpa made me this amazingly detailed, three-story dollhouse and my grandma wallpapered and added curtains to each room. As a child, I don't have any memories of actually playing dollhouse, but lots and lots of memories decorating and meticulously arranging all of the furniture!









  

 We gave the dollhouse to my daughter for her 5th birthday. She definitely plays with it, as opposed to decorating it. :)


  

 In college I studied Marketing and Japanese. I took Japanese "just because." I was fluent by the time I graduated but now, after not using the language for many years, I can barely remember anything! Anyway, just after college, I put my Marketing degree to use working at an advertising agency in San Francisco for clients like Dockers, Microsoft and Sega. One of the perks was that we received free copies of any and every magazine available. When the new stacks would come in, most of the 20-something year old girls would quickly snatch up Vogue, In Style and Vanity Fair. Not me! I took home all of the decorating, design and DIY magazines I could find, tore out pages of things I loved and filed them away for future reference. {This was before Pinterest of course!}





  After many years in advertising, I then transitioned to work as a Brand Manager for a video game company, marketing games for the latest PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo systems. My job included working on the package design, writing advertising copy, creating websites, print ads, TV commercials, trailers, etc. It was a very demanding job with a ton of deadlines, but also allowed for a lot of creativity, which I enjoyed. I stopped working just a few years ago and while the kids were at school, I started tackling a few decorating projects. One of the first things I dabbled with was Olioboard and after making many, many boards just for fun, I entered one in a contest and won 2nd place! What's interesting is that this board then unknowingly became the inspiration for my master bedroom remodel.

The design for the room was created around the look and feel of the artwork.}    One year ago in March 2013, I decided to start my blog, Tidbits&Twine. Up until that point, I was constantly telling my husband about all kinds of decorating ideas or pointing out to him why certain things "worked" and certain things didn't in the home, and he always politely listened, but really, I needed to find some like-minded people who shared my love of design and passion for decorating! I had a lot of ideas I wanted to share, but no idea how much technical knowledge was required. For me, the learning curve was steep! I also didn't know anything about taking photos, but have always wanted to learn photography and have been slowly teaching myself so that I can share better pictures on my site. 




A glimpse of my master bedroom.    I chose the name Tidbits&Twine for my blog because it contains tidbits of information about my life, my home, and decorating, all wrapped up in one place. It also describes my decorating style, which is a little of this and a little of that, all tied together under one roof. I would describe my home as classic, European-inspired, elegant, a little bit industrial, and curated. I love to mix together a lot of opposites to create texture and interest. My dining room is a mixture of furniture styles, finishes and wood tones using pieces that I've purchased over the years. I recently added the numbers to the backs of the chairs {post here} and updated my chandelier by adding a bit of bling to it {post here}.









  We partially updated our 1980's kitchen by adding a new countertop and backsplash, and painting the cabinets. We also removed the two small cabinets above the cooktop to make room for a chimney hood. Funny backstory about this photo: I gathered everything together for this picture and when my son came home from school, he asked if he could have a "DC". I had to ask what "DC" meant, to which he replied, "Your display croissants! Am I allowed to eat them or are they only for photographing?" Yes, even my family now understands the life of a blogger and the importance of photos. :)



   Little by little, I'm transforming a house into our home and our story.   So that's my life behind my blog! I'm slowly finishing up my master bedroom remodel and starting work to redecorate my living room, so I hope you'll stop by Tidbits &Twine sometime to see how these projects are coming along, as well as to get ideas and inspiration for other home projects. And a big "thank you" to Kris and Susan for having me over today!  

   


Thank you Kim.  It was fun to get to know you better and your family pictures are so sweet.
Now that you have gotten to read about Kim.  You can hop over to Susan's blog to learn about another wonderful blogger Stacey from Poofing the Pillows
Have a wonderful weekend.
Kris
:)