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THE HOME SCREEN
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Wanting to connect with you, an insightful creative homebody, inspired this site several years ago. I had blogged on the regular at Stix on the Beach (popular in early aughts while living, knitting, and crocheting in Newport Beach, CA) for over a decade before posts became sporadic as priorities shifted. I became a mom again in 2016 at forty-one, twenty-five years after the birth of my firstborn, resulting in me taking a longer hiatus than anticipated!
As we rang in 2020, the planets appeared aligned and I was preparing to launch back into the blogosphere. Then the global pandemic struck. Suddenly, the whole world seemed to be staying at home.
These days fellow vaccinated folks I know are feeling comfortable hitting the clubs again (okay, it's Sam's Club). Then there are those of you who, like me, always found the most comfort chillin' at home, making stuff! And we're joined by new faces: those who have altered their lifestyle after discovering aspects of it improved during lockdown, and those who continue to need, for various reasons, to keep quarantine practices in place.
But was I now in the right headspace to blog like I had been twenty months prior? Could I bring an authentic voice to this public space, even one that at times will not be so cheery and bright? Because let's be real, a certain social media platform has conditioned us to curate our lives in the best light, amirite?
I've struggled with the question I posed to myself. Imperfection is a hard sale. But I believe inviting you into our home, albeit virtually, and sharing our everyday life experiences together is a valuable resource we can cultivate to build a caring community that will reach beyond our front doors.
This blog's purpose is not to be a before-and-after project. It's a work-in-progress. It's a crochet shawl that waits mid-stitch. It's the purchased homeschool curriculum that sparks your curiosity to unschool. It's a chance encounter that makes you more charitable. It's thinking outside the four walls to find your way home. It's what goes around, comes around, so make it beautiful.
C'mon in, friends.
About Jill
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I burst out onto the Southern California scene in '75. My eccentric slant on storytelling draws from over four decades of (more-often-than-not) strange life experiences in the suburbs of Los Angeles and Orange County. And now I have somehow found myself in Central Oregon, and have quite a lot to say about that, too.
Since childhood, I've always advocated and brought awareness to issues near-and-dear to my heart. Being a teen mom determined to step out of the shadows of stereotypes, I wrote a life & parenting newsletter for teenage parents that was subscribed to by organizations across the world. My empathy skills were strengthened while working as an Emergency Room admitting counselor. And my love for journalism was put to good use as a writer and researcher for the leading celebrity charity news site, LookToTheStars.org.
I started blogging in 2005 with Stix On The Beach: Tales From The Happiest Hooker on Earth! The humorous, double entendre craft-centric anecdotes combined my love for knitting, crocheting, beach living, and Disneyland. Along with its engaging audience, the blog was the perfect antidote during my debilitating days of fibromyalgia, chronic pain, and fatigue.
In my early forties, I gave birth to my second child, who is almost exactly a quarter of a century younger than her big sister! I chose to put blogging on hold to fully embrace motherhood again. But now she pretends to write her own blog. So I take that as a sign I can. For reals.
Today I live much too far from the sea with my boyfriend (we met in third grade), our anime-obsessed daughter, Emilia Sky, my (somewhere-in-that-haze) hippie-artsy mom, and two very peculiar cats. I'm currently working on my first young adult novel (not really, but it sounded like a cool way to end this introduction).
About Emilia
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Five-year-old reader extraordinaire. Your expert on all things My Little Pony and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Favorite color is brown. Friendship is magic. Personal motto: "download now for free."
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