Get to know Abbey Co.!

Hi there to all my lovely followers, and thank you for being here! I was thinking recently that though I have been sharing Seattle-area and foodie content with you for years, it has been a good long while since I have written about myself. Not that I want to be self-serving, but I feel like you might have more connection with my blog if I shared a little more about who I am, what inspires my writing, and what I want to share with you! If I am wrong in thinking this please feel free to X-out and pick back up on my next recipe post (haha), but here I go with a post to help you get to know Abbey Co.!

Ok, so who am I? My name is Abbey and I am a Pacific Northwest transplant. I moved to Seattle 15 years ago right after high school (okay this makes me feel old), and I have not looked back since. I absolutely love my life here in the Northwest, and years before starting my blog considered myself to be very involved and ‘in-the-know’ when it comes to the Seattle social and foodie scene. Professionally, I do boat/yacht sales for a company on Lake Washington and love my job. For close to a decade I was working in a more corporate setting and having a career where I get to be outdoors and in the sun is fantastic! My coworkers and I decided we would like to have some kind of credential that set us apart from other boat dealers, so we all went out and earned our Captain’s License with the United States Coast Guard! It was a fun experience and the boating knowledge I gained from it was fantastic. In regards to hobbies I am a total mixed bag… I love outdoor sports (golf, snowboarding), I love watching sports (football especially), I cook & bake, I cross-stitch, I boat, I love fashion, and I am a total foodie. It seems like a lot of random things to combine into one person, but that’s me I guess!

On to my family! I am a lucky wifey to a very supportive husband named Gus (don’t say that’s cute like Gus Gus the mouse from Cinderella, he hates that haha!). We were married in 2014 have two beautiful daughters together, Vivienne and Vienna! We were married at the Arctic Club in downtown Seattle and I was 7 months pregnant for my wedding… we had put full deposits down on EVERYTHING and I found out I was pregnant a month later so we just went with it!

Vivienne (the wedding crasher) is our eldest at 4 years old and her soul is made of fire. This girl has busted every myth about what it is like to be a girl mom, and is so much more personality than I thought ever could be shoved into one body. Her energy is incredible, and her ferocity unmatched! She loves rock music and is a self-proclaimed rock star, knows every Marvel movie character and demands every person she meets play the Cranberries song “Zombie” on their phone so she can show them how to rock out to it. People ask me what I am going to do when she is a teenager and I tell them I honestly don’t know, because she already has me hanging on for dear life! As her momma I am here for the ride and am so excited to see her future.

Vienna has to be the polar opposite in regards to personality, because even at 10 months old I can tell her soul is much more peaceful and she is simply happily here for the ride. We call her our ‘koala baby’ because her favorite spot is on your hip being carried around, and when she is getting attention she is the silliest and sweetest little chunk of love I have ever met. However much like her elder sister, she knows exactly what she wants and she isn’t afraid to tell you when you messed up (AKA DON’T PUT HER DOWN, haha!). Having these two girls in my life has filled my soul with so much more love than I ever thought one person could feel and I am so thankful they are in my life. They are the sweetest sisters, and Vivienne often spends her time at home marveling with me at how cute her baby sis is.

Now, on to “my why”. In life I think it is good to know your “why”. We talk about our why statements at work… why do we do our jobs, why do we choose this over a different career path. Well I have been thinking a lot about my “why” for my blog and think I have it. The very honest truth is that becoming a mom knocked the wind out of me. I left my adorable loft apartment in downtown Seattle for the suburbs and jumped into mom life hard, and about a year into my life as a new parent got hit by a truck better known as postpartum depression. Not only did I suffer from an insane hormonal imbalance that never corrected on its own, but I was having a hard time grieving the change in myself as a person. I felt like I had a baby and was tossed in this ‘mom’ category that took away from who I was. Just because I had a kid doesn’t mean I’m not fun anymore! I still know all the best restaurants in Seattle. I still like to go out with friends and enjoy a fun time downtown. Though I have less time to dedicate to cooking intricate meals, my skills in the kitchen are still badass and are always improving. My blog was a way for me to prove to myself that I am still all the things I thought I was before having kids. To remind me that I am badass, and that I am not just one thing.

This leads to my blog and what I write about. Basically I write about all my favorite things, mainly my life here in the Northwest. The restaurants I try, the events I attend, my days on the lake, a new vacation spot I wanted to check out… as I do it, I blog it. I think the act of writing it down on and adding pictures reminds me that I do all this fun stuff and solidifies my personality with myself. I am a momma but I am all these other things too! Plus, I am a very social person and I love to share all this info with you, and also use my blog as a social platform to meet other Seattle-area Northwest lovers like me. If there is a fantastic new restaurant or local business, I want to support them and share their info with you. If there is an event happening in the area, I want to be there and I want to write about it! If there is a new place in the Northwest I discovered that our family loved, I want your family to know about it too. If I poured my heart into a new recipe and thought it turned out great, I want you to try it and enjoy it too! If you are a mom worrying about what is happening to the planet like me, I hope you read my sustainability posts and are inspired to live a little greener. Basically, if it inspires me I surely will blog it and hope it inspires you too.

So that is Abbey in a nutshell! Did you learn something new about me or what my blog is all about? I hope you enjoyed my little story and are looking forward to some of the things I have coming this year. I have been off and on the blog for years but really am at a point where I want to get more serious about it, so more content and ideas are surely coming your way! Also, if you are a Seattle-area blogger or business and are interested in collaborating, shoot me a message, I would love to learn more about you too!

X.O. – Abbey Co.

Photo Cred: Kelsey Graham
Shot at Golden Gardens Beach, Seattle WA

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Abbey Co. Seattle is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. These fees are small and do not cover the cost of my website, but are an appreciated contribution to keep my hobby going. I am not sponsored by any of these products, but am bringing you info on how to purchase them because I LOVE THEM!!!