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

Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas t-shirts

We finally got our Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas shirts made! It's only something I've wanted to do since we started the group in 2011. Two years later.... Pre-orders are being taken and they should be ready in less than three weeks.

They're only $20 and you're representing some of the coolest mommas on the block, so go get yours here. And thanks for supporting Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas!

Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas 2014-15 Calendar Sneak Peeks

Look for the calendar details on our Facebook page. It's going to be available for purchase at Atomic Candy, Vader Vapes, Wycked Vapor and many other places to be announced. We're also selling ad space this year and it's going fast!

Calendar Sneak Peek: Me!

We've been working on the 2014-15 Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas calendar and all of the photos are finally turned into me. SO.EXCITING. I know it's kind of wrong to start with myself, but I wasn't going to pose this year and one of the models backed out the morning of shooting, and we had booked this sweet little vintage candy shop. How could I let the opportunity go to waste? Besides, you're only going to see one of them in the calendar.

All photos were taken by Courts Griner Photography out of Texas. Some are just outtakes.

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.  ;)

This is what depression looks like, Part 1

The first time suicide crossed my mind I was maybe 12 years old. Along with typical teenage angst, my parents were constantly at war with eachother. Police were called. Threats were made. Bruises were laid. So many tears were cried, I felt nothing. Numb. I remember distinctly standing over the sink washing dishes and one of the glasses shattered. This feeling hit me ... what if I run this sharp piece of glass down my arm?

At 15, on a hotel balcony on a gorgeous sandy beach next to the blue ocean, I imagined leaping off. Angry with life, confused about why I felt invisible, hurt, heartbroken and sad.

At 19, my sister introduced me to the wonderful world of meth.. I had just flunked out of college and was feeling so hopeless, so meth was my comfort. Only I did it in secret, alone, never any needles but too many scary encounters. I lived it. I loved it... until I nearly overdosed. remember laying in my bedroom at my mother's house, shivering and sweating, coming down.. detoxing. It honestly felt like I was going to die. And it would have been okay. It only went downhill from there, as I learned I was pregnant by a younger guy I hsd slept with once. He reacted badly to the news and denied it was his child, so when I finally convinced him to drive me to the clinic, it took two failed attempts. When it was actually time for my appointment, he left me to go through everything alone and left me waiting, wondering if he'd even return to get me. (He did.) Then I dated that asshole for three years. He liked to hold me down and scream in my face. Once he threw a bottle of spit from his nasty chewing tobacco habit at me while I was out with friends. He ruined my white dress, my friend's boyfriend threatened to beat his ass, and cops were called. That ended that relationship.

Twenty-one was a bad year. Living alone in my own for the first time, I turned my focus to meth to get through the days. I wonder how I ever managed to keep a job. My loft had a working stove but not a working oven, so my health was seriously neglected. One weekend I felt so bad after work I walked into my mom's house, weak and in tears, and asked her to take me to the hospital. After IVs and tests, doctors said my potassium level was so low it was affecting my heart. Not good since my diagnosis of a heart valve defect earlier in life.

At 23, my life changed with the decision to move to a bigger city out of state. At first I latched onto the wrong people to do drugs with and my "friend" and neighbor of a year took everything I owned when I kept my stuff at his place while moving into a new apartment. When I returned to pick it up, he refused to answer the door and that's the last time I ever saw him - through a peephole.

The next few years were great. No drugs, no hurting myself. I was also drowning myself in martinis nightly, so of course life was wonderful. At 26, my husband and I got married and the first year was full of therapy.

To be continued...

Mom Guilt

My son has been asking for two hours for me to lay down with him and my response was, "I can't, mommy's working. Just a minute baby." He finally gave up on me as he was tucked into his blanket when I got to a stopping point... sleeping sweetly, I kissed his forehead.

This mom feels like an asshole. May this be a reminder that time with my babies, my loves, my hearts, is precious. Work can wait. Snuggles are better for the soul.

Memory lapse

Must remember my twitter password to post thoughts from my phone. It takes too long to get them out if I wait to sit down at a computer .. if they haven't been forgotten.