Although I can write all day about art, crafts, techniques, making things, my kitchen or my dog, I find it difficult to write about myself, so I generally avoid it. Besides, I like preserving the illusion that I sprang fully formed from nowhere (I wish I could claim credit for this line, but it’s something someone wrote to me in an email, and it cracked me up). I’ve had a wandering, interesting life if viewed from the inside, but I’m not so sure how interesting it is when I try to give the Reader’s Digest condensed version. Here goes:

I was born in New York City, and raised in Southern California. I did my undergraduate work at Cal State Long Beach, and received a BA in technical theater and design. I earned a scholarship to the University of Michigan, where I did my graduate work, and received an MFA in theatre with a design emphasis. I walked out of school qualified to design costumes, lighting, scenery and makeup, or to teach those things at the college level. In other words, I had successfully completed a professional training program that would keep me broke and/or wandering for the rest of my life.

On my way to grad school, I stopped off at my first professional design job, and the Virginia Shakespeare Festival. I did four seasons there off and on, plus the first season of the Texas Shakespeare Festival, and two seasons at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. (Did I mention that I started reading Shakespeare at age 8?) For a while after I left school, I was a freelance costume designer, milliner, and costume craftsperson (a nice term for “girl who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty”). I worked at Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger, Arena Stage, Studio Arena in Buffalo, the Goodman Theatre, Yale Rep, Stages Theatre in Houston, and Virginia Stage Company. After wandering from job to job, working my way up to resident designer for a decent sized, fairly reputable theatre company, I had to decide whether to move back to New York and go the Broadway route, or find some nice school and try teaching. Since I’d already done some work for folks who were doing the Broadway thing, and saw how much they lived their jobs, I opted for plan B.

For a few years, I taught college here in Texas, but teaching doesn’t pay well, so I also had other jobs at the same time. I worked as a design assistant for a girls’ dress manufacturer, and had two designs of my own make it into the JCPenney catalog. I designed my own line of very expensive artist teddy bears, and sold to shops in the United States and Europe. I designed web sites for other teddy bear artists. I wrote for various online content communities, including About.com, where I spent three years as the Guide to Miniatures. I worked two local craft stores, first as a class coordinator, and then as head of the floral department, which was the start of my journey through the craft industry.

In 1997, my friend Wendy gave me a job listing from the Dallas Morning News, for a position in the merchandise presentation department at Michaels. (We were both forever having to redo the merchandise layouts sent to us by our own company, so it really was funny at the time.) As a reply to her joke, I applied for the job. In all seriousness, Michaels hired me immediately, so I moved down to Dallas, and worked in merchandise presentation for three years, while still designing my teddy bear line, freelancing as a web designer, and writing for About.com. When Michaels.com started up, I sent in my resume and was hired, first as an associate editor, and then bumped up to editor six months later. I coordinated content for the web site, designed a bunch of floral and wedding projects, and eventually worked on the Michaels end of Michaels Create magazine. All the while, I continued to do freelance writing work online.

In 2003, bored and disillusioned with the whole corporate routine, I parted company with Michaels, and went in search of a smaller company. I found it right up the road, at Design Originals in Fort Worth. I spent two years with the company, writing books and designing products. I also did two very smart things while at DO: first, I got my finances in order, paying off all my debts and socking away as much cash as I could, and second, I took endless notes about the things going on there that I would not do when I started my own company.

Armed with as much cash as I could rake together, a pile of notes, and a fierce determination not to work for anyone but myself ever again, I started my own company, Ten Two Studios, in 2005.

I live in Euless, which is exactly midway between Dallas and Ft. Worth, with my little rat terrier, Weevil. In my spare time, I make art and renovate my house, which was one step up from a pile of rubble when I bought it in 2000, and is only just beginning to look like a place where I’d consent to live.

That’s it. Pretty dull when I get down to the nuts and bolts—but trust me, I’ve had a ton of fun living it.