About Us - My Sister's Suitcase - Packed with Creativity

The sisters behind the suitcase.
(Then)

(Now)

Here’s a quick rundown of us.

Holly:

Older sister, mom of four, freckles, 5’10”, loves to sing, Netflix junkie, home decorator, Junior Mints addict (actually any chocolate will do), perfectionist, procrastinator, power shopper.

Instagram: @sisterssuitcaseholl

Nat:

Younger sister, mom of two, 6′ tall, loves to sing, night owl, Photoshop master, Dr. Pepper/Diet Coke connoisseur, children’s book junkie, Disney fan, former elementary teacher.

Instagram: @mysisterssuitcase

We started this blog together in September of 2011. After moving 8 hours away from each other that year, we were looking for a way to stay connected and share our latest creations. Now, we enjoy getting to build a business together, and we have loved the journey! Our blog has definitely evolved over the years, but we try to share simple ideas for decor, DIY projects, gifts, printables, and parties that anyone can replicate. We also post about activities we enjoy doing with our kids, and some of our favorite holiday ideas. That’s kind of our blog in a nutshell, but there’s a lot more to us 🙂 If you want to stick around and read more about our story, here it is….

My sis is my best friend. (We call each other “My Sis” instead of our names. I have no idea how that started, but it stuck.) Yeah, I know that is cliche, but it’s true. She’s the person who totally gets me. She inspires me to be better. When I have one of those days where I have to lock myself in my room to maintain my sanity, she is the person I call. And when something good happens in my life, she is the person I want to share it with.

We weren’t always so close…. we are seven years apart. It seems like nothing now, but when I was 15 and she was 8, I was probably the bossy older sister and she was the annoying little sister I had to share a room with. Honestly, I can’t even remember ever being annoyed by her, but I must have been because I strategically placed a huge bookcase in between our beds to divide our room in half! (Sorry my sis!!)

WARNING: Scary picture from our childhood. Isn’t Nat cute? I can’t even comment on my fashion choices.

I graduated from high school when I was 17 and Nat was 10. That summer, she moved and I went to college. Two years later, I moved back in with my mom and got to be roomies with my sis. At this point, I was 20 and she was 13. That six months was one of the most amazing times in my life.

I got to really know Nat, and be there for her as a friend, not just a sister. We went on late night shopping trips together, stayed up and listened to music, talked and laughed, and I even got to be the first person to ever wax her eyebrows! Hahaha…. good times.

At the end of the summer, I moved away to go back to school and it was so hard to be away from her! I got married that year, and in some ways everything changed but we still stayed as close as ever. I was there for her prom, her graduation, and when she went to college, I loved visiting and hanging out with her and her roomies. We went on trips together (Hawaii, New York, man…. those were the days!) concerts (Josh Groban), scrapbooked together, and always looked forward to our Wild Women Weekends. Right after I had my first baby, my husband was blessed to find a job in Southern Utah and we were finally moving back home!

We had so much fun being in towns close to each other… one of my favorite things to do with Nat is sing with her. We were able to be in a choir together for several years and that was an amazing experience. I got to be there with her when her first baby was born. Those are memories I will always treasure.

Then in 2010, my family made the decision to move away for a good opportunity for my hubby’s career. We packed up and moved all the way up to Idaho, 8 hours away from my sis! Being so far away was really hard for me, and after having my third child at the beginning of my first Idaho winter… I started to feel really isolated and depressed. I missed that part of me who was always a better version of myself when I was with her. I missed singing together, I missed her silliness and her creativity.

About this time is when I discovered the world of blogs. A few of the blogs I read first were Natalie’s Sentiments, House of Smiths, and Vintage Revivals. I distinctly remember one day when I literally stayed in my pajamas all day, glued to my computer, until it started getting dark outside and I realized my husband was coming home and my kids probably needed to eat 🙂 I was blown away by what these women were doing, and how they were sharing their creativity and their lives with us.

I knew then that this is something I wanted to do. And I wanted it to be something I could do with Nat, something to connect us when we were so far apart. She was a young mom at the time too, and both of us were craving a creative outlet, something that we could share with other moms who might be looking for the same thing.

We called our blog My Sister’s Suitcase because I always looked forward to those times when Nat would come visit for a few days and I got to see her suitcase sitting in the hallway. With young families, it is hard for us to see each other more than a few times a year. So those times became very precious!

Now that we have been blogging together for a few years, we are blessed to be able to take “business” trips together and celebrate what we have built together. We love the sense of community we have found in the creative blog world, and we have made wonderful friends along the way. It is a dream come true to share a business and a passion with my sister. We really just love to make things and share them with you guys!

If you have made it this far into our story, congratulations!! Here are some random facts about us so you can get to know us a little better. If you haven’t already been traumatized enough by the old pictures 🙂

Random facts about Holly:

1. I am pretty tall. 5’10” barefoot. But, if you ever meet me IRL you’ll probably think I’m much taller. Why?

2. I love shoes. Not just any shoes. High heels, platforms, super cute, bright-colored, out of the ordinary shoes. One of the requirements when I was single and on the lookout for a man, was that he had to be tall enough that he would STILL be taller than me in my 4″ heels. Luckily, my husband passed the test!

3. I’m pretty much always late. I blame this on genetics, as it seems to run in the family. As my husband says, if I tell him a time that I will be ready, or home from somewhere, etc. he always says double it and add 10.

4. I love dark chocolate Reeses Peanut Butter cups {cold from the fridge}…. mmmmm! I’m eating cold Junior Mints right now cuz I’m out of pb cups 🙂

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5. I stay up late doing dumb things (like watching Netflix or stalking on Instagram) so I love naps! Also seems to run in the family…

6. I sing to my kids every night before they go to sleep. I love these 4 humans more than anything else in the world!!!

7. My favorite season is Fall… the cool weather, pumpkin patches, hot chocolate, Thanksgiving, and my birthday 🙂

8. I wanted to be an Interior Designer all through elementary school and most of high school. In college, I switched majors too many times from Pre-Law, to Family Counseling, to Music Education, and finally settled on Marketing Communications. I think I graduated with 60 extra credits! Now I wish I would have followed my 10-year-old heart and kept at the design thing. Maybe someday I’ll go back.

9. I am somewhat indecisive 🙂 My brother bought this shirt for me a few years ago and it pretty much sums it up:

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10. I love to dance in the living room. Family tradition from way back 🙂

Random Facts about Nat:

1. You think 5’10 is tall? Well I’m 6 foot. So there! Just kidding. But not about the height. Luckily my handsome husband is a mere 6 foot 5! I love it.

2. Weird thing is, even though I can wear tall shoes with such a tall guy… I rarely do. It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s that I fall off of them. (See #3) I just can’t chase kids down the hall at church on Sundays and it’s kinda a dealbreaker for me. So flats & flip-flops are my thing!

3. I don’t use my height to any sort of athletic advantage. Pretty much just to reach things on high shelves for people. When people ask if I play(ed) sports, I laugh. That sums it up for you quite nicely I think!

4. I have 2 freaking cute kids. Seriously. Look at ’em. I love being their mama. {Even on days when I have to abandon my full grocery cart at the store and go cry with them in the car before returning to buy my stuff. Yup, that happened Saturday.}

5. We nap in this family. Sleep is (how do I put this?) very sacred. My mom taught us well when we were little. We knew if Mom was napping, we should be quiet and let her nap. I seriously thought everyone (like, even adults) napped! I converted my husband when we got married, and now we nap religiously. Oh, except my 4-year old who thinks she’s too old for that. She’ll come around….when she’s 20.

6. I’m a die hard Project Lifer. True confession: I don’t have a single year actually completed. But what I have I treasure. And I’ll finish someday. I hope.

{Just a little excited when I got my first kit back in 2010.}

7. I like kid’s stuff. Growing up, I always wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher. Then I went to college and found out how CRAZY intense Kindergarten is now (no naptimes like back in the day…) and decided on anything but. So I taught 2nd grade for 2 years. It was crazy in it’s own way, but great. I will always have a special place in my heart for my little Bloomington Hills Bobcats, my very first class.

8. Speaking of kids, I kind of obsess over children’s lit. If I had all the money in the world I would want to own a cute little “shop around the corner” type bookshop. Buuut, since my priority right now is Mommy, I settle with the public library. And I’m okay with that. I get pretty excited. Yes, over books for my kids.

Scholastic Book in NYC {faint!} source

Here are some authors you need to check out (literally. At your local library.) if you haven’t already:

Mo Willems {Elephant and Piggie Series, Pigeon series}
Chris Raschka
Rosemary Wells {my daughter is going through a Max & Ruby phase and I kinda love it.}
Anna Dewdney
Bob Shea

“Books, check ’em out!” – California Raisins

9. Our family loves Disneyland. It’s kind of our brother Bryan who is passionate about it and has shared that with us. I mean, we have always loved it and were lucky to go as kids, but he is the best tour guide when we go as a family!

So I talked my husband into going when our first was a baby (on my birthday) and we went again when our little boy was the same age (on my hubby’s birthday).

10. I was obsessed with Hanson in 6th grade. Don’t judge.

Hope you feel like you know us a little better now and that you’re not freaked out by our bangs in the 80s.

(We love our mom, but clearly, she could not do hair.)