WHO AM I?

Gilderoy Lockhart published a book of the same name after his own spell rebounded and he obliviated himself!

Anyways, I realized that I had no information about myself on this blog, no pictures of anything but my minis and my fingers holding them, and not even an email address to contact me at. I read somewhere that half of being successful as a small business owner is advertising yourself, not just your products. That made sense to me. It's nice to know a bit about the person making and selling the items you are buying - especially in the more intimate realm that I shall be trying to sell in. The blogs I most enjoy reading are ones where I feel more connected to the writer; by reading a little bit about their lives, families, other interests, etc... I feel like I know them- even though I don't.

And because before, when I first started this blog, I was woefully ignorant of the technology and didn't even know how to post a profile picture, and just figured out how to get back to the "old blog setting" or whatever it's really called, I just kept putting it off.

But hello! To my 7 followers... nice to meet you :)

My name is Anna and I am 27 years old, though most people assume I am much younger (it's those Asian genes). I have 7 year old son nicknamed "Roo" who is extremely artistic himself (I have posted some examples of his artwork in a previous post), a chihuahua mix named Lola, my son has a bearded dragon whom he named "Spirit," and a boyfriend called James.

I recently moved to Los Angeles, having previously lived for a year in San Diego, a year in New York City (on Wall St.), and grew up in Western Massachusetts.

I love Hello Kitty, Harry Potter, my family, friends, food, and God. But not in that order.

I graduated with a Bachelor's in Psychology from UMass (University of Massachusetts) which has come to no use thus far in my career path.

If you read my blog, you know that I was accepted into the MSW (Masters of Social Work) program at USC recently and was overjoyed that I actually got in. My dream in life is to be a social worker/caseworker and to work with children and families in the foster care/adoption field. However, it has become apparent that I really need an MSW to do this, so for now, I work at a company that makes airplane parts doing marketing and sales. I started here as a receptionist but got a promotion after 3 months! Now I have my very own first cubicle ever and in general, like my work.

After filling out the FAFSA (financial aid) paperwork and mailing it in, I was able to get government loans for school but scholarships are not even available to graduate students. So I am not able to go to USC and pursue my MSW degree right now because I simply can't afford it.

After much thought (and some tears) I decided to defer my acceptance until January of 2013 (you can defer for up to a year) so I have some time to apply for outside grants, and try to save money so I can go back to school to get that pesky degree. Being $100,000 in debt after 2 years isn't worth getting a degree where the most you can get paid is around $50,000 in that career. Sad.

I had my son earlier than was desireable for me (I was 18 when I got pregnant and 19 when I had him), and it's been a bit of a struggle since then to do what I want to do with my life, as I had a more important one to look after. My parents are a HUGE support and are the best people I know, and I love my family more than anything. Roo's father isn't very involved in his life and just last year started seeing him on a (semi) regular basis (one weekend a month). But that's another story.

In the meantime, I have decided to sell my minis to try to raise money for my post-grad savings fund.
I have been working really hard, every day, to crank out some inventory so I can open an Etsy.
So know that if you buy from me, you are helping to send a hopeful social worker to graduate school!! :)


Well, there's an introduction and now for some pictures!


                                                               The one and only Roo!

Roo and our dog Lola



Spirit, Roo's Bearded Dragon. Roo built him this jungle out of Legos...and pushed him on the swing...

This is me and my boyfriend James at his Army Ball

Snazzy!

Roo and James vegging out

My brother and Roo

My sister and Roo

Roo, my mommy, and me hehehe we were goofing around with her new iMac's photobooth. This isn't even the weirdest picture we took... trust me.

The ONLY picture I could find of my dad that I had on the internet!

Family picture! This is from 2008.

Family Picture with my parents' dog Charlie, I think taken last year, 2011.

Well that's everybody I mentioned I think!

It's funny, as I was looking for pictures of the people in my family, I realized that ALL the pictures I could find of my family members had Roo in them too! Obviously we know who is the most popular person in the family hahaha. Really! I couldn't find any pictures of them alone!

I'm an open-book type of person. Welcome!