And why should you care? Allow us to introduce ourselves.
We are Gabe Pressure and Monica Topping. We’re in our early 30s and we live in Eureka, Calif. Gabe’s got two daughters, who’ll be 9 and 10 next month (oh my!).
We also have a baby (named Peanut, for now) on the way, due in late June.
As a family with most-of-the-time custody, we spend most of our nights helping with homework, learning to tame curly hair, making dinner, reading bedtime stories and attempting a normal bedtime. Daytimes include art (seriously, we have the most artistic/creative young ladies in our house), learning to roller skate and listening to baby heartbeats with a fetascope.
Gabe and I (Monica) also work full-time, and together we have a business called Music Lives On. We make musically inspired clothing, jewelry and accessories with a focus on environmental sustainability. What’s that mean? I make jewelry and hair stuff out of vinyl records, cardboard record jackets, cassette tape, and the like. It’s called Rock Chick Designs. Gabe’s side, Pressure Drop Apparel, is t-shirts (so far), sweatshirts, tote bags and more, with an aim toward using environmentally friendly inks and organic, domestic cotton materials. We were finalists in the 2011 Economic Fuel contest and love what we do.
I spent the first 31 years of my life with lots of interest in eating, but no interest in cooking (thank goodness for Gabe!). With Peanut on the way, that seems to be changing, with absolutely no control of my own. I crave being in the kitchen. I love asking friends for new Crock Pot recipes and dehydrator suggestions, and making cookies with healthy/ier substitutes. Who am I and where did the old me go?
I am also a graduate of Humboldt State University, who’s always worked multiple jobs and always had trouble making all the ends meet. I’ve avoided my credit issues until now — we’ve decided we want to work toward buying a house — and since I’ve always worked better with a goal, now’s the time to tackle all of that.
So that’s who we are and we hope to spend time, here and there, sharing our own recipes (with links and with our own substitutions, as well), talking money (ouch! …or is it not as scary as it sometimes seems?), listening to a lot of positive music and reading books with our kids, and sharing our adventures with you.
Why are we doing this? Because we’re pretty sure there are a lot of other late-20-somethings/early-30-somethings who are facing some of our same struggles, and we’re kind of shameless. So, if we can tackle new adventures and old hassles, then you can, too. Join us!
Topping-Pressure House 