From California, to Italy

Throughout my upbringing just outside Pasadena, CA I always felt compelled to create! From a young age I was doing crafts, hand-sewing clothes for my stuffed animals, playing the piano, or getting dirty in the garden. Both of my parents had their own forms of creativity –– my dad expressed himself through writing, leatherwork, woodwork, calligraphy and tending to the garden. I still strive towards his level of green thumb. My mom has been a nurse for over 40 years and claims she isn’t creative, but in the obvious sense she has always been creative in the kitchen!

That’s where my love of food was born! My mom made homemade meals often, always bringing people together for holidays around the dining room table filled with dishes she put all of her love into. My dad packed me a handmade lunch throughout my school years complete with a handwritten note.

A thread that symbolically and literally kept me together throughout my upbringing and even today, was my parents constant encouragement to follow my dreams. They were never concerned with me becoming a doctor or lawyer, or other stereotypical jobs that make you a lot of money. They knew from a very young age that I would probably not do anything in a conventional way.

I went off to college at Cal Poly SLO to major in Graphic Communication with a Design concentration. After college, I moved back home not knowing what I wanted to do (a la millennial problems). I worked at Starbucks, then started nannying for a wonderful family. I was watching a baby that napped on me most of the day, so I had ample time to scroll Instagram –– that’s when I noticed an abundance of food photos being posted onto there. 

I already loved food and was documenting my favorite dishes when I would go out to eat, so it was only natural to create a food-focused Instagram. Since then I grew my account, started exploring and delving into my hometown of Los Angeles even more, experimented in the kitchen, continued networking while meeting like-minded humans (my favorite part of social media), attended events, traveled, and even tried out a corporate job! That corporate job was a wonderful way to learn the back end of everything I do now –– I started as a Social Media Manager and evolved into Influencer Partnerships Manager at a Public Relations firm in Downtown Los Angeles.

Nowadays I manage various Social Media accounts for brands, while also creating and shooting content for mostly food, beverage and travel brands. In my spare time, I love to thrift, sew, paint, garden, and spend as much time as possible outside.

In 2019, I got to show my mom around my favorite country (Italy) for a month, then traveled solo for another month. During that time, I met my love (he is from Bologna). Since then, we traveled back and forth to see each other, spent 4 months together & 9 months apart because of the pandemic. I got to go to Turkey for work, then spent 3 months with him in Italy Summer of 2021! During that time –– we learned a lot about each other, explored new places, got engaged, and learned all about the bureaucracy and difficulty of getting married to someone who isn’t from your home country. I headed back home and in the meantime, planned our upcoming wedding. We got married in December 2021 in Italy, along with our closest friends and family!

We're currently making our life together in Bologna, but aren't sure where we will end up settling long term. Feel free to follow along this adventure with us!