Hi and welcome to my first blog post, ever! I’ll start by telling you a little about myself and what you can expect to see on the Queen B Home Blog!

My name is Emily and I live in the sunny (scorching hot) state of Arizona with my husband and our 4 dogs.

Rewind to 32 years ago, to when I was born, and raised in England! My home town of Stoke-on-Trent is a small place just outside of Manchester; about four hours north of London to be more precise. My large and blended family consists of 4 brothers, and 3 sisters, all of whom (minus 1) still live there. When my mum remarried, we immigrated to the States and planted our roots in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona.

When we moved half way around the world, at that vulnerable age of 17, I thought I would never feel at home or settled again. I was plain unhappy. Moving to a new country, and having no comforts of home or friendships and my whole family was extremely difficult. To top it all off, I graduated high school in England, only to have to re-enroll here as a senior. I had to ride the ‘bright yellow school bus’ with the freshmen because I didn’t have a drivers license or vehicle yet. Mortified doesn’t even come close to describing how I felt. I honestly felt like I was living in a movie. I disliked school so much, I even took an online jogging class my second semester, so that I could avoid going to school all day. I got a job at subway and worked there in the afternoons and on weekends. I craved independence, but not being able to drive and living in the desert really stunted that!

Fast forward to college. Things were starting to look up. I attended Northern Arizona University and graduated with a dual bachelors in Elementary and Special Education. From there, I developed friendships, started my career in teaching, and bought my first house! I finally felt ‘at home’.

Oh, and all while teaching, I waited tables at Outback Steakhouse (teaching salary problems…) Enter Mr. Bates. We waited tables together, he took me to dinner and a movie, and the rest is history! We’ve been married for 3 years now and together for 7!

My love for ‘making things’ and creating has always been a passion of mine. Becoming a sign maker was never really in my plans; it just sort of happened one day, as they say. As I learned more about power tools, watched waaaayy too much HGTV, and became an Instagram shop owner, my passion for home decorating, and DIY has evolved. While I don’t claim to be a DIY expert, in any sense of the word, I do channel my inner JoJo frequently, and am usually just winging it half the time!

My hope in creating this blog, is to share, learn, and inspire myself and others to take on projects that they have created with their own 2 hands and mind! From shiplap, to crockpot dinners; I’ll cover it all!

Thanks for joining me on this journey!

~ QB