About

Me in pool_edited

Hi there! I’m Kath Achtenberg…

I’m a newly retired, former communications strategist and public information officer for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Pure Michigan. I’m also a mom, dog mom, passionate home cook and workout junkie who’s always taking on new projects and finding inspiration in unusual places. Last year I battled stage 2 breast cancer but am in full remission now. In 2015 I married Rich, the love of my life and my best friend. He and I (as well as various kids, family members and friends) enjoy spending time during the summer months in beautiful West Michigan at our lake home on Spring Lake. Our primary home is in Punta Gorda Isles, Florida on a canal about 15 minutes (by water) from the Gulf of Mexico, where we spend most of the year.

What you’ll find here is a journal of our home life as well as favorite recipes, gardening and decorating projects, the occasional crafty endeavor, shopping finds, restaurant discoveries, fashion and beauty tidbits, and various musings and observations on things that inspire, please, or intrigue me. I hope they do the same for you!

Some random things about me:

  1. I’m left handed
  2. I studied Spanish from seventh grade to sophomore year in college, but today I can barely remember a word
  3. I can drive a stick shift
  4. I’m a complete grammar/spelling perfectionist and have been known to get out my pen to correct menus or signs in public locations
  5. I learned how to knit in college and knitted sweaters for everyone in my family, but haven’t knitted a thing since my children were born
  6. I do not have much of a sweet tooth, but I love salty and cheese-y foods
  7. My favorite drink is wine, especially dry whites. I also enjoy a nice red in the fall or winter too
  8. Cooking is my favorite hobby
  9. I hardly ever watch TV shows, except cooking programs on Food Network
  10. For 10 years I had a sideline business making handbags. It was called “Kathy Fagan Handbags” (Fagan being my former married name)
  11. There is a poetry professor at Ohio State University named Kathy Fagan. We’ve never met but we are Facebook friends. If you Google the name “Kathy Fagan” she comes up 1,000 times more often than me
  12. I had a poem published in the Alma College newspaper when I was 10 years old
  13. I no longer write poems, but for many years I wrote press releases for a living
  14. I really don’t like the name Kathy anymore and have decided to go by Kathleen or Kath for short. Dropping the Y!
  15. I’m not a neat freak, but can’t stand getting into an unmade bed and have been known to make the bed at 9:00 at night
  16. I also can’t stand wrinkles and am a compulsive ironer
  17. I used to read books on tape for blind students when I was in college
  18. When I was a kid I guessed the exact amount of jelly beans in a jar at a carnival
  19. I love all kinds of workouts, but my most consistent one is walking our six-year-old husky, Luna. We go on long walks every day (I should say she walks me!)
  20. For a few years in my 20s I was an aerobics instructor
  21. I collect serving trays
  22. I was a cheerleader all through high school – my specialty was the splits
  23. I could eat pasta for dinner every single day
  24. I am forever on a quest for the perfect lipstick.

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