Monika

I'm the older of the two of us, I would say wiser too, but that would be lying :) I'm married to a very kind, wonderful man, nicer than I deserve, that's for sure! I have a 20 year old daughter, whom I love to pieces...when she's not driving me to madness. I also have a crazy dog named Basil, a German Shepard/Chihuahua mix, and 2 cats who are equally nuts.

I've spent most of my married life as a stay-at-home mom, happily, and loved it for the most part. Nothing is ever perfect, but being a mom has been very important to me. It's partly why Cherish & I became such good friends, we had so many of the same feelings about what being a mom means.

To supplement our income, I started selling online. I began with Ebay and did well but really wanted to be creative and sell things i made myself. So, thus began my crafty career...if you can call it that! I started with freelance graphic designs, I taught myself how to write HTML and then added CSS as needed. I did very well with that for a while. After that, I launched a shop on Etsy selling digital scrapbook paper and other digital items. That did so well that I decided to open other Etsy shops for different things that I make. I now have a shop for novelty jewelry, a shop for tile coasters, magnets, art prints and more, and my newest shop, where I sell handcrafted soaps. It's been so fun & rewarding. Now, I'm a work-at-home mom, although my daughter is an adult now, so I guess I'm just a work-at-home me :)

And now, Cherish & I are ready to start eating better and feeling better about ourselves. Our diet starts January 6th and we'll be chronicling our successes and, of course, our failures. We're mostly doing this for each other, to read and share what we're going through during this time. But if anyone else is reading this, feel free to share, comment, or even laugh!

--Monika