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. 

July 12th

Deborah

From Green Willow Pond

Happy Saturday.  This week I am excited to introduce you to a very sweet blogger Deborah from Green Willow Pond.  Deborah and I share that we both were born and grew up in Michigan.  She unlike me has stayed a resident of the beautiful state of Michigan and has carved out a lovely life with a beautiful family there.  Please sit back and enjoying getting to know Deborah.

When Kris, at Junk Chic Cottage, asked me to share my story on Saturday Spotlight, I was excited and honored. I love Kris' style and the passion she shares on her blog, as well as her generosity in recognizing others. Thanks Kris for inviting me!

My name is Deborah from Green Willow Pond. I blog about my attempt to restore our old farmhouse little by little.  We have a long way to go, so I guess I'll be blogging about it for a long time!

I also love to craft and sew, paint and decorate, garden and whatever else I can figure out how to do.

I have lived in the same hometown  in northern Michigan, since third grade,where we get lots of this:

 I married my high school sweetheart almost 34 years ago.

We have three children, ages 24, 20 and 14.  This is the fam about 10 years ago.  

...and about two years ago.  I think it's time for an update!

My three children are the delight of my life.

 We also have two fur-babies, Tux (cat) and Lacey (dog).

I hold a degree in marketing, but chose to stay home and homeschool our children. That is a story in itself, but the short version is I felt led to do it, didn't want to at first, decided to try it anyway, and never looked back.

We love to camp and have adventures.  Here are the kids and I about six years ago while camping...

and the whole family getting ready to walk a rope bridge and slide a zip line in northern Michigan.

When I was a teenager, my dream was to open a store in an old barn, filled with beautiful home decor, with lots of little "rooms" within, full of vignettes and ideas for decorating.  That dream never happened, and now that I'm older I wouldn't want to be tied to store hours.

My decorating dreams took second fiddle to raising and schooling our three kids and all the activity that goes with it.  Most of the time my home looked like a library threw up in it...books and papers everywhere.  Kids sprawled on the couch, floor, or at the kitchen table doing their school work.

Science projects were right outside our door with 32 acres that includes a pond with large willow trees, hence the name Green Willow Pond.

I spent many years as co-cordinator of our local homeschool group, which met at our church for many years. I was a busy soccer mom, as well as driving to the kids to activities from dance classes, 4H, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and many more. Besides that I was very involved in our church, serving in many roles from Sunday school teacher to Delegate and many more.  Currently I head up one of four refreshment teams that take turns setting up and cleaning up our weekly refreshments after church.  I also serve in the nursery once a month.

I started my blog a little over five years ago to record my journey of taking back our home after years of accumulation of stuff...kids stuff, homeschool stuff...and yes my stuff!  My decor was out of style and I wanted a fresh start.  I am still sputtering along with lots of starts and stops along the way, but it is slowly getting there.  One of these days I will feel like I can give a virtual tour of my home...but it's not ready for prime time yet!

Here are some of my favorite projects that I've shared at Green Willow Pond.

Now that my two oldest are in college, and doing very well, and my youngest is in high school (still at home), I have a little more free time, so I am working part time and also started an online Etsy store, which also goes by the name Green Willow Pond. So my dream of owning a store lives on, but in a different way.

Thank you again, Kris, for inviting me to share a little of my story here on your beautiful blog!

Now that you got to know Deborah a little bit better please hop over to Susan's blog and meet another wonderful blogger Kathleen from Charm Bracelet Diva.

Have a wonderful week end.

Kris

:)