Friday, May 29, 2009

Hi, I'm Marisa. Nice to Meet You.

Marisa is a vivacious Aquarius who enjoys long walks on the beach, blowing bubbles in the wind, and stargazing in the summer. She's as wholesome as hot apple pie a la mode, as sweet as a ripe strawberry, and lovely as ...

Oh sorry, I couldn't resist. Okay, seriously, who am I?

I'm Marisa, wife to Will (who I met in an airport in Ireland), and stay-at-home mom to Gracie (my dreamy and creative 4 year old) and Annelie (my strong-willed and energetic 2 year old).

I'm addicted to blogging about my family, my friends, what I've had for breakfast, what color socks I'm wearing... pretty much just about everything.

I definitely use blogging as a stress-relieving outlet, as I look to find humor in all the everyday moments that make me go just a little more nuts than I was before (which was pretty nuts, if I do say so myself). If I can turn a horrifying event such as my 2 year old giving my 4 year old a black eye by smacking her in the face with a hardback book {read here} and actually have readers tell me that my post was hilarious... then in my opinion, I've done a good job.

I graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Creative Arts, my emphasis being Art and English -- though you'd never guess based on my overuse of commas, ellipses, dashes, and run-on sentences. I hope to one day be a published author/illustrator of picture books for children, as well as young adult urban fantasy writer... but in the meantime, my kids suck up all of my time and energy. And, if there is even a tiny shred left at the end of the day -- well, that goes toward cleaning up their messes.

I'm a sucker for regency love stories (Jane Austen, be still my heart), British comedies, such as Gavin and Stacey, The Vicar of Dibley, Outnumbered (soooo the story of my life), and Little Britain, and I generally have too much on my plate. Yes, I'm talking about food. I love to cook and I love to eat even more.

I have a shop on Etsy.com called Elegant Snobbery, which is filled with my brightly colored illustrations, another shop called Elegant Paperie, which is filled with paper goods featuring my illustrations... and my favorite shop is called Tootsie and Grace, which is a collaborative illustration shop with my daughter Gracie. She does the design work and I have the easy job of coloring in her pictures.

You can find my regular blog, which I fill with stories of my kids, my illustrations and just about anything I can think of at www.tootsiegrace.blogspot.com

And so, to make a long story short, I'm an artsy-craftsy mama and I love my life.

xoxo,