Tagged...

I was tagged by fellow photographer Jen, so now it's my turn to share some little-known facts about me!

1. The name "speckledbird" comes from a song by a band called The Choir. I've loved the band since high school and when it came time to choose an email address for myself, all the versions I liked of Jessie Baldwin were taken... so I decided to create a fun name, and chose speckledbird. This was back in 1999 or so, I think... and it's been my identity ever since. It seemed natural, then, to keep the name when I decided to go into business. Of course when I decided to buy my domain name, some spaz out there snapped it up and is trying to sell speckledbird.com for $350. No matter... I like speckledbirdart.com better, anyway ;)

(oh, and I did end up snagging JessieBaldwin.com a couple weeks ago... not sure just yet what I will do with it, but at least it's miiiiiiine... allllll miiiiiiine!)

2. I married my high school sweetheart. Even better than that... I met him at summer camp and we were a long-distance relationship all through high school. We didn't even live in the same state until I went to college! We just celebrated our 12th anniversary and we have two gorgeous children. :)

3. I actually have a list I have compiled called "Things I Want To Do Before I Die." I have all sorts of interesting things on there... like see the Northern Lights, ride a bike in New Zealand, Take a weeklong train trip and sleep in a sleeping car with a fold down bed and everything, Poke a pencil into hot lava on a live volcano (I know this one sounds really weird, but I am dying to know if all the wood will disintegrate leaving just a stick of graphite!), See all 50 US States, and much more.

4. Some of the things I have accomplished on my List include: Travel to Europe, catch a firefly (seriously I just did that last summer. Believe it or not I had never even *seen* a real, live firefly until last summer when we went to Virginia. I could not believe how stinking cool they were!), See a play on Broadway in New York City, work as a TV News Anchor, swim with dolphins, have my work grace the cover of a magazine, and have a home birth (yes, this means without an epidural!).

5. I love to collect birds... but only anatomically incorrect ones. Birds that have detailed wings or feathers or things like that are creepy to me. I like the cartoony, stylized, simplified ones. And of course, if they are speckled - even better! I have bird stationery, ornaments, prints, and jewelry. And speaking of jewelry, my logo was actually created by my sister, Liane. She's a jewelry designer and a few years ago made me a pendant with the bird shape you see on my logo. I loved it so much, I designed my logo image directly from the jewelry she made me.

Alright... that's enough blabbing from me! I am going to do some tagging. Therese, Kimberly, and Ursula... you are up! :)