Meet Our Bloggers

Adriana Velez grew up in a Mexican family on the suburban plains of Colorado. She eventually left the west for New York City. As a young graduate student she found herself mooning over the cheeses at Zabars and the Belgian pralines at Leonidas instead of studying at the library. This dalliance with food continued through a career in educational publishing until Adriana used the birth of her son as an excuse to quit her job and pursue her real passion, cooking and writing about cooking. She is almost tediously committed to locally grown and raised food, sustainability, and good health, but deliciousness is all. You can read more about her culinary adventures on her personal blog, What I Made for Dinner.

Holly is a writer and interior stylist who splits her time between homes in New Hampshire and Germany with her husband, Thorsten. She is the founder and author of decor8. A southern girl at heart, she grew up in the South Carolina lowcountry and attributes her love (borderline obsession) for Georgian, Classic, and Greek Revival architecture to her life there. She loves a laid back coastal lifestyle, complete with hammocks, pastel hues, magnolia trees, floral wallpaper, golden brown hushpuppies, and preppy little alligator logos. She also loves children—she started babysitting when she was 10-years-old, spent three years as a nanny, and dreams of someday publishing a children's book and opening a storefront with Saturday morning storytime complete with homemade cupcakes.

Gabrielle talks too much, so most people call her Gabby. She grew up in Utah and moved (with husband and 2 kids) to New York in 2001. Then promptly had 3 more kids. Then started a blog called Design Mom. Then realized this web 2.0 thing had some potential—so she started Kirtsy. She has a BFA in graphic design and loved working as an art director and designer up until the internet took over her life. Now she gets her creative fix by spending her time investigating, writing about, and giving away all things well-designed. Gabby and Ben live with Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar and Betty in the NYC suburbs.

Tina grew up in mountainous Switzerland, where she was inspired by simple, elegant Swiss design and a lot of fresh air. In 1999, she crossed the Atlantic to start a design career in New York City. Since then, Tina has worked at several prominent NYC design firms, including Thinkmap, Inc., where she served as design director and designed the award-winning Visual Thesaurus. She now runs her own design studio, swissmiss, and her recent clients include the Museum of Modern Art and the Food Network.

Jordan Ferney is a San Francisco-based event planner. She graduated from Utah State University with a BA in English Literature and has worked for former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and renowned party planner Stanlee Gatti. She likes picnics, balloons, Parisian macarons, and any kind of party. She does not like long lines, low-quality ice cream, or stubbing her toe. She enjoys spending time printing on her 2,000-pound letterpress and blogs daily at Oh Happy Day. Jordan lives on Nob Hill with her husband Paul and her baby Moses.

As the oldest of 12 cousins, Joanna spent her childhood in snowy Michigan making sure no one's mittens fell off. She has always loved kids and all their quirky coolness. Now she's thrilled to be contributing to Cookie's Nesting blog, where she posts about cool family homes, mini furniture, and almost anything Scandinavian. In her spare time, Joanna is the editor in chief of Bene, a magazine about Italian life and style, and a contributing editor to Topic, a quarterly about the adventure of living. She lives in Manhattan's West Village.

Christiane is a mother of two and a half: daughter Isabelle (3), son William (18mos) and Big Old Lab (dog) Jake (12—who comes to the office every day). She is married to Josh, who is also her business partner. She is the Founder and Creative Director of DwellStudio and DwellStudio for Target. Christiane graduated from the Parson's School of Design with a degree in Fashion design and also has a degree in Art History from Queen's University in Canada. Christiane is inspired by design, all things creative, and travel. (Canadians love to travel because it's so cold up there, and they are always looking for some sun.) Most importantly, she is trying to figure out how to live an adventurous life and bring her kids along to make everything more fun. The concept of working, being a parent, a spouse, and an all-around good person while living a balanced and inspired life is intriguing to Christiane. She has in no way figured out any of it, but she is trying.

Growing up in a family of six kids in the Midwest, Sarah learned quickly the art of sharing and playing nicely. A master of the french braid (and a seeker of the perfect apple pie recipe), Sarah is thrilled to be contributing to Nesting where she hopes to inspire others with quick tips, tricks, and new products. Sarah's work has appeared in Country Living and Real Simple. She lives in Manhattan's East Village and is marrying her best friend next fall.

Heather (a.k.a. Ez) is an adjective-loving, indie-supporting, inspiration-seeking gal. She makes her home on the Central Coast of California, where she lives with her daughter and two dogs in a geodesic dome (affectionately named "the igloo"). She is thrilled to have a chance to share some of her many interests on Nesting. You can also find Heather on her design blog Creature Comforts where she has combined her lifelong passions for fashion design, art, home decor, and more into one inspirational place.

Brooke Williams is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Her career has taken many twists and turns involving everything from photographing alligators in the Everglades to singing with the Beastie Boys. She comes to Cookie's Nesting blog from the late, great Domino magazine, where, as a contributing editor, she wrote profiles and blogged about her own neverending home renovation. As she now spends roughly all of her free time online looking at cute stuff for her 1-year-old daughter's room, she finds Nesting to be a particularly appropriate place to land. The curious can find out more on her website, which she hopes can provide an answer to the nagging question "So what do you do?"

Melissa Biggs Bradley is the founder of Indagare Travel, a website, community, and booking service for the world's most sophisticated travellers. She lives in New York City with her husband and her son and daughter, ages 8 and 10. Before launching Indagare, she was the founding editor of Town & Country Travel, and was the features and travel editor at Town & Country magazine for more than a decade. Melissa regularly appears on radio and television programs, including Good Day New York, CNN's Headline News, and specials on the Travel and Discovery channels. In 2001, her article "Far and Away," about a 23-day trip around the world by private jet, was selected as one of the Notable Travel Writing Selections in The Best American Travel Writing of 2000 (Houghton Mifflin).

Kena Frank writes about family travel for See Jane Fly, an online resource for the woman who wants to simplify and enhance her travel experience. A mom, city girl, and traveler at heart, Kena lives in San Francisco with her husband and their two-year old daughter. She has lived abroad in Spain twice, and has traveled the globe, including India, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, New Zealand, Morocco and throughout Europe. While her travels these days don't always take her to such far-flung destinations, she's become a pro at navigating airports and new cities with her tot in tow. Kena has worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts here in San Francisco. Now that she's a mom, she still keeps a close eye on the local art scene, even though sometimes that means the kind that's been scribbled on her wall with crayon.

Amanda Jones is a travel writer and photographer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her travel stories appear in Town & Country, Travel & Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, and the Los Angeles Times. Her short stories have been published in anthologies, including Salon.com's Wanderlust (Villard), and Lonely Planet's The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has her and her daughters, Indigo and Sofia, ages 10 and 8, circling the globe non-stop.

Elisabeth is a jet-setting child-care professional. For the past three years, she has been the nanny for Charles, the 4-year-old son of globe-trotting fashion photographers. Elisabeth has traveled to 14 different countries with Charles—and in that time, she's become a pro at seeking out exciting things to do. A former high school teacher, she knows how to immerse kids in the culture of a place, while keeping it fun.

James Lohan and Tamara Heber-Percy are the husband-and-wife team behind the Mr & Mrs Smith guidebooks and website. Their books and their site allow visitors to find and book the most stylish and luxurious boutique hotels around the world, from Amsterdam to Zambia.

Since the inception of Mr and Mrs Smith, James and Tamara have spent much of their career in marketing, living and working abroad in South America and traveling throughout Africa. They have visited more than 500 hotels together. They have a son, Tom, now just over a year old, but their wanderlust remains unabated; as well as traveling to review hotels across the U.K., they have visited five countries with Tom in tow.

Linda Meadow, is an author and 'guru' of City Baby L.A. (2003) and City Baby L.A (2005), and has been featured as a style and parenting contributor in InStyle, US Weekly and People magazine. Linda has also appeared regularly as a correspondent on E!, Style Network, Access Hollywood and KTLA.

After 10 years spent co-authoring two editions of the highly successful and popular guidebooks City Baby LA, coupled with seven-plus years raising three children of her own, author and "guru" Linda Meadow has created gurumommy.com, a website destination for all mom's who want to be "in the know." Linda, who will serve as the ultimate 'gurumommy,' will give her reader's insider tips and tricks for everything from baby gear to sleeping tips to preschool admissions and personal splurges for the busy L.A. mom.

Prior to writing, Linda was an attorney at Sony Pictures. Linda and her husband, Cary, have three daughters, ages 8 1/2, 7 1/2 and 3 1/2, they live on the Westside of Los Angeles, the 'epi-center' of all things mommy in L.A.!

Amie O'Shaughnessy is the founder of Ciao Bambino, a travel blog and worldwide guide to the best hotels and resorts for families. She lives in Oakland with her husband and her son, Devon, age 6. Amie has traveled to 8 countries with Devon-in-tow. She decided to join the travel industry after taking a 9-month trip around the world with her husband (pre-kids). Prior to this, she spent 11 years working for high technology companies out of London and Silicon Valley.

Nancy Solomon is a travel enthusiast and writer for Ciao Bambino, a website dedicated to providing families with the best child-friendly vacation lodging. As a mother of four children 10 and under, she combines her background in International Marketing and her travel experience, to share helpful tips with families looking to travel. With a passion for finding unique and educational experiences both at home and abroad, she hopes to uncover ways for families to connect with each destination they visit. Her posts can be seen on multiple blogs, including Wander Lust, Traveling Mamas, Travel Muse, Uptake, Tango Diva, WhyGo Italy and Delicious Baby. Currently, she lives outside of Boston with her husband and four children (10, 8, 6 and 1 years old).

Helen has worked as a travel writer and photographer for the past 17 years, and was previously the travel editor at Executive Woman magazine. She now divides her time between Los Angeles and London with her two sons, George, 12, and Jack, 3. Helen is the author of Take the Kids: Paris & Disneyland Resort Paris, and a contributor to international travel television programs and publications. In her extensive travels with her children, Helen has learned invaluable information about where to go, what to see, and how to do it with the kids.

Anna Winger was raised by anthropologist parents in Kenya, Massachusetts and Mexico. Her first novel, This Must Be the Place was published in 2008. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She was educated at Columbia University and then worked as a photographer for many years. She is also the creator of Berlin Stories, a literary radio series about the city for NPR Worldwide ( BerlinStories.org). Anna lives with her family in Berlin and travels frequently, both around Europe and to Mexico and the United States. Having grown up in an adventurous family, she loves nothing more now than exploring new worlds with her husband and daughter.