Hi from Skimbaco.com!
We are officially blogging!
And I have to start the blog with a thank to Joey at Kidpoop for creating the above banner (Joey, sorry, I just had to exploit your work and share it with everyone here).
An introduction might be appropriate for those who still don’t know us… we are the owners of the Skimbaco.com.
I’m Katja, and me and my husband Matt, opened www.skimbaco.com, our upscale children’s boutique, a few months ago. Skimbaco is more like an extension of our lifestyle for us. The weird name comes from a Finnish word “skimba”, that means downhill skiing, and “co” is for Colorado, and even though “skiing in Colorado” is just one fun thing to do with the family, we picked that for the name, since we happened to live in Durango, Colorado at the moment (which is the coolest Rocky Mountain town!). “Whale watching in Cape Cod” might have done it for us, or “shopping in NYC”, or “castle-hopping in Germany”.
I guess you could say that we are those crazy people who never wanna grow up, life is a big adventure for us. It doesn’t mean that we don’t take responsibility, oh, we do. But we just like to enjoy life, see some world and have some fun together and with our kids. It all started ten years ago when our worlds collided. I’m from Finland, and Matt is from Austin, Texas, so it must have been destiny.
By the time I was 22 I had had my own radio show (only with a two-week contract, but who’s counting). Danced in theater. Traveled around Finland teaching people to use cell phones, I was a PR person for the biggest phone company in Finland. Met Eileen Ford, and worked as a runway model. Studied Mechanical Engineering majoring in Production Management in a technical college. I had a job doing marketing for a big Entertainment Arena. There were a few things that I wanted to do in life, so I had started early.
Matt on the other hand, had only one thing he really wanted to do, fly. So he joined the army, since those guys know how to teach a boy to fly. Army sent Matt to Korea, and then luckily to Germany, where I was taking a break from my busy life. We met in an Irish Pub in Frankfurt am Main, and knew it instantly that our lives had changed forever.
On the first date Matt took me for a drive in the German countryside to see a castle (with his brand new sports BMW, which I also fell in love instantly). On a second date I moved in with him. On the third day, I introduced him to my aunt, the only family I had in the country. Two weeks later we were already planning how we could spend our lives together, and a week later Matt had to fly back to the US to start his flight school.
Oh yes, it was like a Hollywood movie, it was saying goodbyes at international airports, European train stations, and army hangars. Sending overseas love letters, spending all money on international phone calls… and having all friends call you crazy. But we did it. We got married ten months later we had met. No, we didn’t have the Cinderella-wedding, we got married at a courthouse, on Matt’s lunch break from flight school. I had a white dress, he looked handsome in his dress uniform, and the courthouse was packed with his flight school class, all wearing their flight uniforms. Very Top Gun. And who cares about the wedding, I got The One.
After Matt got “his wings” we headed back to Europe. He was one hot pilot, and when he said he wanted to have kids, what else could a girl have said but yes..? We were lucky, things in that department were working pretty well for us too. We had three kids in three years. In three different countries…
So.. now we have our own united nations, two girls and a boy. Matt got out of the army, flew for TV for a while. We got a taste of the corporate America. Didn’t like it. I wanted to do things that made us happy every day, so we moved to the Rockies. Matt saves people from the mountains with his helicopter and I started Skimbaco to spread some sunshine to children’s lives. I love spoiling my kids, so I thought, why not make a cool shopping destination, where other people can find things for their kids too..?
I am a jet setting world traveler. I am a marketing-loving-business-woman. I am a cinnamon-bun-baking-housewife. I am a “let’s-jump-some-more-on-the-couch-kids”-mother.
Hope you enjoy the blog. This is just the beginning.
Hi from Skimbaco.com!
We are officially blogging!
And I have to start the blog with a thank to Joey at Kidpoop for creating the above banner (Joey, sorry, I just had to exploit your work and share it with everyone here).
An introduction might be appropriate for those who still don’t know us… we are the owners of the Skimbaco.com.
I’m Katja, and me and my husband Matt, opened www.skimbaco.com, our upscale children’s boutique, a few months ago. Skimbaco is more like an extension of our lifestyle for us. The weird name comes from a Finnish word “skimba”, that means downhill skiing, and “co” is for Colorado, and even though “skiing in Colorado” is just one fun thing to do with the family, we picked that for the name, since we happened to live in Durango, Colorado at the moment (which is the coolest Rocky Mountain town!). “Whale watching in Cape Cod” might have done it for us, or “shopping in NYC”, or “castle-hopping in Germany”.
I guess you could say that we are those crazy people who never wanna grow up, life is a big adventure for us. It doesn’t mean that we don’t take responsibility, oh, we do. But we just like to enjoy life, see some world and have some fun together and with our kids. It all started ten years ago when our worlds collided. I’m from Finland, and Matt is from Austin, Texas, so it must have been destiny.
By the time I was 22 I had had my own radio show (only with a two-week contract, but who’s counting). Danced in theater. Traveled around Finland teaching people to use cell phones, I was a PR person for the biggest phone company in Finland. Met Eileen Ford, and worked as a runway model. Studied Mechanical Engineering majoring in Production Management in a technical college. I had a job doing marketing for a big Entertainment Arena. There were a few things that I wanted to do in life, so I had started early.
Matt on the other hand, had only one thing he really wanted to do, fly. So he joined the army, since those guys know how to teach a boy to fly. Army sent Matt to Korea, and then luckily to Germany, where I was taking a break from my busy life. We met in an Irish Pub in Frankfurt am Main, and knew it instantly that our lives had changed forever.
On the first date Matt took me for a drive in the German countryside to see a castle (with his brand new sports BMW, which I also fell in love instantly). On a second date I moved in with him. On the third day, I introduced him to my aunt, the only family I had in the country. Two weeks later we were already planning how we could spend our lives together, and a week later Matt had to fly back to the US to start his flight school.
Oh yes, it was like a Hollywood movie, it was saying goodbyes at international airports, European train stations, and army hangars. Sending overseas love letters, spending all money on international phone calls… and having all friends call you crazy. But we did it. We got married ten months later we had met. No, we didn’t have the Cinderella-wedding, we got married at a courthouse, on Matt’s lunch break from flight school. I had a white dress, he looked handsome in his dress uniform, and the courthouse was packed with his flight school class, all wearing their flight uniforms. Very Top Gun. And who cares about the wedding, I got The One.
After Matt got “his wings” we headed back to Europe. He was one hot pilot, and when he said he wanted to have kids, what else could a girl have said but yes..? We were lucky, things in that department were working pretty well for us too. We had three kids in three years. In three different countries…
So.. now we have our own united nations, two girls and a boy. Matt got out of the army, flew for TV for a while. We got a taste of the corporate America. Didn’t like it. I wanted to do things that made us happy every day, so we moved to the Rockies. Matt saves people from the mountains with his helicopter and I started Skimbaco to spread some sunshine to children’s lives. I love spoiling my kids, so I thought, why not make a cool shopping destination, where other people can find things for their kids too..?
I am a jet setting world traveler. I am a marketing-loving-business-woman. I am a cinnamon-bun-baking-housewife. I am a “let’s-jump-some-more-on-the-couch-kids”-mother.
Hope you enjoy the blog. This is just the beginning.
