In the News, Again

A friend and former coworker of mine came by in the midst of my normally chaotic day to interview me for a story on Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas for The Dallas Observer. The kids made mudpies and then poured them all over each other so of course Stella needed to use that as an excuse to get naked. I'm not sure he'll be able to hear my voice over dogs barking at squirrels and kids shrieking. Good thing he took notes.

The new nanny needs a salaried job so I'm trying to find her something locally while simultaneously conducting interviews with potential nannies without any certainty of next week, next month or next year.

On top of that, it suddenly feels like there are 500 women who are all looking at me as a sort of role model or mentor or something, which scares the hell out of me since I dislike the spotlight and like disappointing people even less.

Tomorrow there will be cuddling with my babies and playing in forts and swinging high into the sky on the swingset. Nothing better than sweet kiddo squishies.

How THPM Came to Be

Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas was founded in July 2011 when my daughter Stella was 7 months old. The mom groups i joined trying to meet other mothers was a disappointing and discouraging experience, so i went online to meetup.com and started my own. In the description was, "For out-of-the-box unconventional renegade moms who aren't afraid to speak their minds and be themselves."

After a year or so I started the THPM facebook group for moms from all over, not just in the Dallas area, to come together. As more women found a safe place to be open where their children were involved too, the group became larger. My friends started asking to run groups in their own cities.

My friend and fellow hippie pirate mom Chrissy helped launch our second branch in San Antonio. She is the organizer of that branch. Their group is about 50 members strong and just celebrated one year together.

Colorado came about 6 months after San Antonio kicked off, when SA member Tauri relocated to Denver. A few months later, my good friend and co-organizer for the Dallas group also moved to Colorado Springs, so the two formed a north and south Denver branch. It helped to have Texas girl Shannan in the area since she originally started with the Dallas group. Each of them stayed true to the THPM vision.

Next came Austin, organized by my friends Danielle and Cassie.
Danielle moved to her home state of New York in summer 2013 and we started the NY branch last week.
In between that time, I kicked off a THPM branch in Missouri, Corpus Christi, and California.

After the story on Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas ran in Daily Mail Online last week, i teamed up with amazing women to form branches in Florida,  Wyoming, and the DC metro area. Oh, and London -- the branch there is just a baby and will need to take time to grow.

Who would have known a search for moms would turn into a worldwide movement?  Definitely not me.

Whirlwind Week

At the beginning of the week my good friend Danielle contacted me to say she was ready to kick off the New York branch of Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas... exciting because I'd been waiting for her to settle down after her move back to her home state after helping with THPM in Texas when we kicked off the Austin branch.

The next day, Daily Mail Online caught a glimpse of the calendar sneak peeks and called my landline. I had only been answering it because my cell phone has been glitchy so it's been my way of communication for my day job. The story went live that evening and my phone started blowing up.

When I wake up, there will be 10 moms at my door ready to show the world just how amazing we are. The crew from Inside Edition will be here to interview us in exactly ten hours from now for a spot on the show. It's surreal to think how far it's come.

I'm so proud to be part of a group of such special women. It's almost astounding thinking that I created this group because motherhood was lonely without like-minded mom friends. It's become so much bigger than me... girls who deliver meals after a mom has a baby, who listen and give advice, who understand what it's like to be frustrated and sometimes clueless and totally freaked out. Women that are okay admitting some days are hard and being a mom is a damn tough job.

These women have thanked ME, but it's me who should be thanking them. Without them I wouldn't be where I am today. I needed them more than they will ever know.

Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas 2014-15 Calendars Ready for Pre-order!

The 2014-2015 Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas Calendars are now ready for pre-order! They will be ready by Thanksgiving, if not before. Get 'em while you can.. I don't think they're going to last long. Here are a few of the 32 beautiful moms featured in the two-year calendar. Note: These are not the actual calendar pictures.

All photos by Courts Griner Photography.

THPM news

We finally got our shirt design for Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas and there has to be a minimum of 25 pre-orders before they're screen printed and shipped to customers. With the man in charge of shirts (my husband) out of town on business for two weeks, he'll place an order when he returns and the shirts will be done within a week. Only four moms have purchased shirts so far but i just opened my etsy store to accept credit cards. I also changed the shop name to tattooedmommas since our entire name was too Long. The store will feature THPM merchandise and possibly more in the future.

One of the San Antonio ladies is relocating to the Omaha area so there will soon be a branch of pirate mommas in the Midwest. Let me hear from you if you're in Iowa or Nebraska!

This week i finally got around to ordering business cards. Only two years behind. Why didn't anyone tell me about vistaprint before!? 250 cards for shipping only?  Sweet deal.

Going to start laying out the anticipated 2014-15 THPM calendar now that the final photos have been chosen and my photographer is working on edits. Selling ads is something i struggle with... out of eight or ten people i emailed, zero replied. Two years of 32+ hot moms with tattoos from ages 22 to 40s in all shapes and sizes. Guess it's time to put a team together to hit the streets. It's for two amazing charities and you can't go wrong with spending $50 on a full color ad on the back cover of a pinup calendar. You'd think selling them in your store and doing a signing event would bring in business, but no one has reached out except a loyal vapor shop owner friend and fan and a gun repair and supply store in ARKANSAS of all places. At least they know a good thing when they see it. ;) I'm so proud of this calendar and want to donate as much as possible to Children's Advocacy Center of Denton County and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Oh! I almost forgot : we are going to be in the news. CentralTrack.com in Dallas did a story on us and so did San Antonio Express -News.  As soon as the links are up I'll post them here.

xx