Hello there! My name is Amy Allen and I live in a constant state of creativity and craziness. My husband and I have been married for 17 years and we have an 11 year old son and a two year old daughter. We live in the foothills of the cascade mountains outside of Seattle Washington and love living here.I own a small vintage and primitive graphic design shop called Amybug's Attic. I love working with other small business owners from all over the world. I have a large customer base in Australia of all places! I feel so lucky and blessed to be able to work from home doing something that I love.
Our son Roman was diagnosed with high functioning autism when he was three years old. He has a muscle condition called hypotonia, which means that his muscles are naturally much more relaxed than an individual with normal muscle tone. So we have been in occupational, physical, and speech therapies since he was 18 months old. He is incredibly smart, impossibly funny, and devilishly handsome like his father.
To add to our craziness, I was formally diagnosed with the same high functioning autism and hypotonia at age 35. Three years prior I was diagnosed with celiac sprue (a.k.a. celiac disease), an auto immune disease that reacts to gluten. Both diagnoses answered some long standing questions I've had about my health and all around well-being (you're seeing where the "crazy" part is starting to come in, right?). Thankfully I transitioned fairly easily to eating gluten free thanks to some amazing blogs and websites out there (check out my "Favorite Gluten Free Sites" link on the right) and I'm learning how to better deal with my physical and emotional dysregulation that comes along with having autism.
Having autism isn't always an uphill battle. I think I see the world differently than the average person. I find joy in the little things in life (something that made my husband fall in love with me 18 years ago). I feel an incredibly deep connection to people, nature, and animals. I write HTML and CSS from memory. I can identify almost any font I see. I am able to have a one-of-a-kind connection to my amazing little boy. When he is having a hard time I can genuinely tell him, "I understand, I love you and I am here to help". I find significance and importance in the "everyday" that is life in our home.
Thankfully I am married to a man who appreciates my craziness and is an amazing father to our kids. I am able to hand over the reins when he gets home from work (sometimes the second he gets home), close myself in the craft room, crank up the music and get my creativity on!
I love to take pictures. I'm the girl who will take a hundred photos of one event just to capture the "right" moment. I also love to scrapbook and I scrapbook it all; the good, the bad, and the ugly. All aspects of my crazy creative life. Creating art helps me be me. If I don't do something creative on a regular basis, I get cranky. And you don't want to see me when I'm cranky. Ask my husband.
This blog is a hodge podge of crafting, scrapbooking, interior design, living with autism, living with a child with autism, graphic design, and living a gluten-free lifestyle with celiac disease. So if you don't like today's post, come back tomorrow. Actually maybe this blog should be called "Amy's Crazy Creative RANDOM Life". Or something like that.
Thanks for dropping by to learn more about me, my family, my business, my creative endeavors and this blog!
Love and Craziness,
