Hi there! I’m Kath Achtenberg…
By day I’m a communications strategist and public information officer for Pure Michigan. I’m also a mom, passionate home cook, workout junkie and wannabe stay-at-home wife. I’m always taking on new projects and finding inspiration in unusual places. 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) spend every weekend during the summer months enjoying beautiful West Michigan at our lake home on Spring Lake. We also recently purchased a home in Punta Gorda Isles, Florida on a canal about 15 minutes (by water) from the Gulf of Mexico. We are so excited to start spending time there and updating the house to really make it our own.
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:
- I’m left handed
- I studied Spanish from seventh grade to sophomore year in college, but today I can barely remember a word
- I can drive a stick shift
- I’m a complete grammar/spelling perfectionist and have been known to get out my pen to correct menus or signs in public locations
- 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
- I do not have much of a sweet tooth, but I love salty and cheese-y foods
- My favorite drink is wine, especially dry whites. I also enjoy a nice red in the fall or winter too
- Cooking is my favorite hobby
- I hardly ever watch TV shows, except cooking programs on Food Network
- For 10 years I had a sideline business making handbags. It was called “Kathy Fagan Handbags” (Fagan being my former married name)
- 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
- I had a poem published in the Alma College newspaper when I was 10 years old
- I no longer write poems, but I do write press releases for a living
- I really don’t like the name Kathy anymore and have decided to go by Kathleen or Kath for short. Dropping the Y!
- 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
- I also can’t stand wrinkles and am a compulsive ironer
- I used to read books on tape for blind students when I was in college
- When I was a kid I guessed the exact amount of jelly beans in a jar at a carnival
- My favorite workout is Zumba. When I’m taking a class I pretend I’m in a Zumba competition, and I’m winning
- For a few years in my 20s I was an aerobics instructor
- I collect serving trays
- I was a cheerleader all through high school – my specialty was the splits
- I could eat pasta for dinner every single day
- I am forever on a quest for the perfect lipstick.
Kath Achtenberg 