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

A million directions

Gosh, it's been a hectic few months. After moving into the new house it was overwhelming, so we found a nanny after long weeks of interviews and she moved into the boy's room. After all, the brother sister team is inseparable..even at bedtime. Immediately after she moved in I lost my main source of freelance income. Ugh. Jumping a week, we decided it wasn't the right fit and Kate moved in. Soon after my old boss called and offered me a job reporting for a nearby community paper and jumped on it. Work at home, go to the office Wednesdays and make myself known in the city.
A month into it, I'm in love with the city and the people who live there. It's exciting to be productive outside the house again.
Cole started speech classes twice a week and befriended the crying boy by the second week. His mom hugged me after he high fived me and said "Look, I not crying!" My heart soared at my son's goodness. Such a sweet silly soul.

I've also been busy with the Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas 2014-15 calendar. We hired an amazing photographer Courts Griner and the pictures turned out brilliantly. I'm excited for what's to come with THPM.. but that's another blog post.  ;)

Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas calendar peeks!

December 2013, Samantha

Dawn is August 2013

We have the final photos for the THPM 2013 calendar! Yay!
If you like these, you definitely need to go buy a calendar at www.tattooedhippiepiratemommas.com. We'll take preorders while we design them and have the calendars ready to go soon... Hopefully by late October, they'll be ready to mail or put in someone's hand.

Meet the amazing ladies of the Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas 2013 calendar.

Skye is February 2013

Stephanie is January 2013

Leisha is April 2013, waiting for showers

Kendra is sweet in May 2013

Bekah is lovely in June 2013

Bio page for Stacy

Sanja is July 2013

Cover girl Kate

Azure, March 2013

Brook: November 2013

Suza: September 2013

February 2014: a group shot

January 2014: Dawn

October 2013: Lacy

 

 

 

 

I've decided not to be in the actual calendar, just a bio page about the group. I can't decide which picture of myself to use. Please leave a comment with your favorite one! Here they are...

Hair, There & Everywhere

This momma got a new freelance job so I've been trying to balance bringing in some bucks with designing and writing copy for the new Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas website. I'm waiting on the photos from Stewart so I can start putting together the calendar. It's a lot of creative projects at once and I love it. My husband has been working extra hard on it and I'm so appreciative.

Been feeling bored with my hair.. straight and mid-length for so long - so I took a little trip to Sally's and ended up spending my first few days of freelance pay on hair supplies. A crimper, new rollers, a curling iron, feather extensions, the works. Even bought a little tube of red lipstick, wow!

Here's my hair with feathers in and crimped. No makeup; it was late.

My friends made comments like, "Get in the delorean we're picking up teen wolf and going back to the future!" and "Don't forget to roll your z cavariccis...." Haha, but I love it. It makes my hair thicker and alternating strips of crimped and straight hair is retro chic. I'm totally bringing it back. (Besides, my stylist's assistant had her hair crimped during the THPM calendar shoot and it was adorable.)

This is a style I'm loving too, especially for running out with dirty hair.

Onto other parenting things... My friend and fellow momma/calendar model Samantha is featuring some parenting stories on her blog starting this week, so head on over and check them out. Who knows? Yours truly might even have something to say. ;)

Calendar Shoot, Day 3

Saturday morning was a different vibe at the studios, maybe because it was the last day of shooting, or maybe because it was morning instead of evening, or maybe because everyone had stayed up really late the night before. Whatever it was, it seemed to smooth out over the day and everyone came out feeling really accomplished.

I wouldn't have been able to pull it all off if it weren't for my friend Erin, who had all of these amazing connections and did all of the contacting herself. While I know she had fun working with her former colleagues, they all did it because of my vision for Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas, and I'm so grateful for that.

Here are some sneak peek shots from the third and final day of shooting with Stewart, Barri, Aundi, and the team.

Azure

Kate

Kate on set

getting up close and personal with Azure, haha

Kendra

Leisha

Azure