First post. Yay!

Let’s keep it simple, shall we?

WHO:
Hi. I’m Hayley.

My dad taught me at a young age that a woman with a firm handshake makes a great first impression and I’ve found this to be true. Since we can’t really shake hands through the interwebs, just pretend you’re wildly impressed with my perfect form. (side note: Wikihow has you covered if you need to brush up on your skills) But, I digress.

Artist by trade, professional homemaker/mother by choice. And by “professional” I mean paid in frozen yogurt and rugrat hugs. I am a believer in the power of creating things by hand and giving my kids opportunities to do the same – even if glitter in the carpet does make me wince. My days are a perpetual balancing act between my desire to “make neat stuff” and the demands of a military way of life. I pride myself on handling power tools alone, baking a mean batch of peanut butter cookies, knowing a bargain when I see one, wielding a sailboat against a breezy afternoon, and being a fiercely loyal friend. I also love Jesus, a lot.

Handsome is my husband, Songbird is my 5-yr-old, and Bug is my 1-yr-old.* We recently relocated from California to Virginia and are knee deep in learning the ways of a new coast.
*names have been changed to protect the innocent. Or guilty… depending on the day.

WHAT:
This blog will be a marvelous mix of do-it-yourself tutorials, artistic endeavors, military life musings, home decor adventures, and whatever else I find inspiring. Ultimately Grey House Harbor is a landing zone for all the ideas and stories that would otherwise keep my brain up past it’s bedtime. I’ll toss my two cents to the wind and hope you leave richer for having read them.

WHEN:
Gonna try my darnedest to post twice a week, at least!

WHERE:
Most likely I’ll be writing to you in my jammies, much too late at night, from my church-door-turned-craft-table-desk (post on that soon!) in our guest/craft/office/”bonus” room.

Oh wait. You probably wanna know where to find all this awesomeness… www.greyhouseharbor.com, of course! Bookmark it – click and join the Facebook, Instagram, RSS, and Email follow icons on the top right or bottom of the page too. Whatever you do, just be sure to spell it GR-E-Y and not gray, because I’m partial to the proper english spelling, thankyouverymuch.

WHY:
is it called Grey House Harbor?

We live in a house. It’s grey. Shocker, I know…

This blog is the true story of my adventures in making that house our home – in both literal and intangible ways. Regardless of how far we travel or what the world hands us outside these walls, my hope is that once we step across that threshold we feel safe. Safe to try new things, speak our minds, dream big, and make mistakes knowing we will be forgiven and loved unconditionally.

It’s not really about the house, but rather what happens within that makes it our safe harbor.