Welcome!

I'm a full-time mom with a full-time job and several part-time hobbies (and a growing side business).

I do my best to balance it all while staying half sane. I also love to run. That usually helps with the staying sane thing. I even out all of the running with strength training, yoga, barre, and standup paddleboarding. 

The reality is between working full-time, mom life, and a husband who travels, life can get pretty crazy and scheduling my workouts (and other interests) can be tough. Balancing it all isn't easy, and I don't always do it well, but at least I try. 

By day, I work from home for a tech company as a user experience designer and recently got promoted to a senior manager role. If you’re unfamiliar with what UX is and interested in it, check out IDEO’s Design Kit - it’s pretty a comprehensive list of what I do. I have a Bachelor's degree in communications (journalism and graphic design), a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in merchandising, product design, and product development, and I'm always looking for more classes to take and things to learn (like industrial design). 

When I'm not running or doing some other fitness-related activity, blogging, or working, you can find me designing jewelry, painting or drawing, volunteering for animal rescues or ocean/wildlife causes, messing up recipes in the kitchen, or out on bike rides with my family. We also travel a lot, and I’m always up for a good race-cation!

I love going to the beach and spending time outside with my husband (D), our adorable four-year-old son (B), and 4 furkids - Autumn Rae, Ruby Skye, Willow Rose, and Macy Gray (the first three are beagles, Macy is a pit-whippet (maybe) mix).

We also have 3 furkids at the Rainbow Bridge - Stella Blue, who went to the Rainbow Bridge in December 2015; Meadow Beagle, who met up with Stella in February 2018; and Lucy Belle, who joined her two sisters in December 2018. They are forever in our hearts.

Our family circus currently lives at the beach life in Charleston, South Carolina. And while we don't plan to stay in Charleston forever - maybe we'll head to Florida, California, Costa Rica, Portugal, or Australia? - but for now we're loving it.

One thing's for sure - since I went coastal, I'm never going back.

I blog here about the ups and downs of Navigating this crazy liFe while soaking in all the good things in Charleston

 I started this blog when I moved from Pennsylvania to Charlotte, NC, and it kind of morphed into a running blog, documenting my first several years as a runner. But as life goes, things have changed. I still run. I’ll run as long as my body lets me (which I hope is a good, long time), but this blog is not longer just about running. It’s changing, along with me (one of the names I called it “Into the Glimmer” was because I thought that name represented so many possibilities).

So these days, you’ll probably still find some running posts scattered about (and if I train for something in fall 2019, maybe you’ll see some training posts), but now you’ll also find other things like book reviews, travel stories, DIYs, adventures in art, and just other beachy, salty, sunny stuff.

Dive in!

Connect with me elsewhere

Find me on Instagram @IntotheGlimmer and also follow my hashtag #saltwashedrunner. My friend Jenn and I recently started a joint Instagram account to track our training and runcations. You can follow us there @SoleSistersJourney.

And if you're interested, my dogs also have their own Instagram account. Follow them: @TheSaltyBeagles

Photo credits: Top banner and beach bum banner photos by Melissa Griffin Photography