Katie Davis Skelley grew up in a small town in Tennessee, the daughter of a homicide investigator and a gift shop proprietor. A voracious reader from the age of six, she was also a big fan of book reports and writing in general, which culminated in her appointment to the highly coveted position of co-editor of her junior high newspaper.
High on success, she spent the following summer entering in Reader's Digest joke contests. Sadly, she never won the $400 prize. Discouraged and disillusioned, she put her writing away for a time and focused on her other passions: show choir and tap dancing.
While matriculating at Middle Tennessee State University (Go Big Blue!), the Southern Sociology Symposium invited Katie to present an original paper at their annual convention. Katie also served two years as a Student Government Association senator, enjoying the active role in campus politics. She is proud of the fact that she received the most votes for office (although that could be attributed to the fact that she was the only candidate who made fliers). She participated in several campus organizations and honor societies, and graduated with a bachelor of science in Criminal Justice Administration and Sociology in 1998.
Ready to take the world by storm, Katie spent the next two months on her mom’s couch, eating Doritos and watching the movie Independence Day on a continuous loop. Eventually a private corrections company offered her a job, and Katie proceeded to spend her early twenties in various Middle Tennessee courts, recommending jail sentences for a large majority of her clientele. During this time, she also met her husband, Marc, and settled down into domesticity with him and their infinitely lovable but highly destructive basset hound, Jake Flash. Marc made his living as an aerospace engineer, and possessed both a high intelligence and a charming smile. Katie was smitten (still is).
Although putting bad guys in jail was a satisfying way to spend her time, Katie opted to leave the full-time workplace with the arrival of their first child, Cooper. She had practiced yoga for several years when her gym offered her a chance to turn her personal yoga interest into a part time instructor position. After acquiring the proper certifications, Katie embarked on a new career path- teaching Hatha Yoga with a southern drawl. During this time, Cooper became a big brother with the arrival of Alexa, and a new, thankfully calmer basset, Baxter, joined the family.
photo credit: Life Simply Photographed
In 2009, after spending their entire lives in Tennessee, Katie and Marc undertook a new adventure. It was an out-of-state move that would uproot their family and transplant them south……to Alabama. A new job position was offered to Marc, and the Skelleys moved to a suburb outside of Huntsville. During this time, to combat homesickness, Katie started a blog and rediscovered her love of writing. This is not that blog. That blog is alive and well and full of Katie’s decorating disasters and pictures of her garden. This is her professional website. You can tell when Katie is in professional mode by whether she is wearing her reading glasses. The glasses signify that Katie "means business", or that she is operating a motor vehicle in the state of Alabama.
photo credit: Life Simply Photographed
In 2009, after spending their entire lives in Tennessee, Katie and Marc undertook a new adventure. It was an out-of-state move that would uproot their family and transplant them south……to Alabama. A new job position was offered to Marc, and the Skelleys moved to a suburb outside of Huntsville. During this time, to combat homesickness, Katie started a blog and rediscovered her love of writing. This is not that blog. That blog is alive and well and full of Katie’s decorating disasters and pictures of her garden. This is her professional website. You can tell when Katie is in professional mode by whether she is wearing her reading glasses. The glasses signify that Katie "means business", or that she is operating a motor vehicle in the state of Alabama.
Katie currently resides with her family outside of Huntsville, where she enjoys gardening (when not combating her mortal enemy, the Japanese beetle), fitness, singing in her church choir, traveling to exotic lands such as Orlando, and to the consternation of her husband Marc, frequently redecorating rooms in their home.
