Originally from Rhode Island, I moved to the Honolulu, HI for work (educational fundraising) in 2012, where among other dramatic changes, I met my (now) husband Jim (who moved from CT a year before…go figure). Following his lifelong dream, we moved to the Big Island in 2014. Each of us is the proud parents of two fabulous adult children, all of whom are on adventures of their own.

In addition to muddling through the rewards and challenges of everyday life, we left the rural-city behind and went tiny on a fabulous piece of farmland on the Hamakua coast. If you’re interested in our process of going tiny, check out Tiny House: Start to Finish.

In the fall of 2019, in addition to retiring from fundraising and jumping into working in our property, I took a hiatus from blogging. This was a darker time for me than I anticipated and resulted in my disconnection from social media as well. I managed to write on occasion, but the bits never left my draft folder. In summer 2021, I was drawn to publishing once again, even sharing some of those dark-time drafts. Heck, life’s an adventure, right?

And speaking of adventure, in the summer 2022 I got to make a dream of mine come true: we bought a house on Andros island in the Bahamas! Sixth months later we made the move! Jim goes back and forth to Hawaii every couple of months for work and to manage Tinyville Farm (check him out on Instagram). So far I’ve stayed put.

On this quirky, gritty, “backyard of the Bahamas” that is Andros, I have jumped into beach trash art-making and LOVE it. What started as beachcombing and beach cleaning soon became a crazy passion for the beauty of beach debris. Visit Beach Trash: Make Art for a sampling of my pieces, or check out (and follow) BeachThriftLove on Instagram for a more complete look at my “arting.”

Thanks for joining me as I muse, create, emote, and chronicle!