Meet the Rookies: Bridget

Welcome back to the DIY Playbook! On behalf of the both of us, we would like to say how truly thankful we are for all of the love and support we received on yesterday's launch. We are overwhelmed by all of the support and want to thank YOU, our fabulous readers, for all that you have done to make our launch day so special. We have lots of projects ready to go and we can't wait for you to see what's in store!

Now, back to your regular scheduled post....

Welcome back to the DIY Playbook, we are so thankful that you're here. If you've stopped by for the same reason I think you you have (some DIY fun, of course).... you can do this! Whether you're a hall-of-famer or just a rookie like me us, I hope the Playbook can provide you with some inspiration that will lead you to a new project, idea, or gift you can be proud of. For all the rookies out there that are a little hesitant or intimidated by all things tools, paint, or mini construction, join the club. We understand these fears, but urge you to dive right in anyway... what do you have to lose? Like my dad always told us girls growing up.... "Get a mitt and get in the game!"

I hope that this blog does just that.... urges you to "get a mitt, paintbrush, stencil, hammer, or drill and get in the DIY game"

My name is Bridget O'Connor, and I grew up in a southern suburb of Chicago. I have a wonderful family that doesn't necessarily love, love, love DIY as much as me, the middle sister, but supports my crazy ideas anyway. I have two sisters that are my best friends, and we share parents that are the most selfless, supportive, and hardworking people we know. 

Growing up, we lived in a modest ranch that we affectionately named the Chestnut Club. My parents treated the Chestnut Club as another member of the family, showering him with endless love, sweat, and commitment; keeping him up-to-date, fashionable, and always a proud staple of the O'Connor clan.

This commitment, hard work, and creativity that my parents always showed towards the Chestnut Club mixed with my passion for crafts, scrapbooking and organizing paved the way for my grown-up passion; DIY-ing. #thankspatandmike

In high school a few lockers down, I met my creative match. With two irish names that started with O', we were bound to be best friends. We spent one night a week scrapbooking, many endless hours making puffy paint t-shirts, and later graduated to helping each other decorate college dorm rooms. Over ten years later, we live in separate cities, see each other far less than we want to, but still share a love for DIY. Although our projects and decorating styles have changed (thank goodness), we still share our O' last names (not for long...tear) and we still share late nights DIY-ing (like this one or this one) and gossiping like old times. We're teammates, best friends, and starting this blogging journey as complete rookies.... together.

My other DIY partner-in-crime and teammate is my uber creative and supportive boyfriend, Matt. After Matt created a scrapbook of pictures and commentary of each of our date sites in honor of our first Valentine's Day together.... I knew he was a keeper. From our small town tours (complete with a favorite small town voting ballots) to hilarious rhyming stories he created to celebrate big events in our relationship, Matt is definitely a DIY-er at heart, and I'm so lucky to have him! I definitely could not have created this without his help and support of my garbage picking habits. More on that later...

Outside of my passion for DIY-ing, I work as a high school Family & Consumer Sciences/Special Education teacher. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember... read more about that here. This is a career that I absolutely love and a career that I am extremely thankful for everyday.

Join me as I try to juggle time with my family, friends, main squeeze, career, grad school and anything else that pops up along the way to continue my love for all things DIY. I hope to take my Rookie salary and Rookie status to transform my new house to a personalized masterpiece that I can call home. Just like my parents did for the Chestnut Club, I hope to mix the perfect ingredients of love, creativity and hard work into our new ranch in hopes that the Longview Lodge can be just a part of the family as the good old Chestnut Club. Take a tour of our new home here and check out our home announcements here!

Now that you know far more than you probably ever needed to about Bridget, it's Casey's turn to step up to the plate. Get to know more about my favorite teammate and DIY rookie, Casey, in tomorrow's post.