I’m Krysta!

Right now, I am sitting in my master bedroom, shades drawn, with apple cinnamon tea in my monogrammed mug, a candle is lit, and my feet are swaddled in a heating pad because it’s snowing and freezing.

I live in the mountains. I’ve called Steamboat Springs, CO home for the last nineteen years but I’m originally from the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. For those who don’t know, this makes me a bonafide valley girl.

Like, for real, like.

But I’m a mountain woman now (not really—I just learned to ski last year and refuse to wear those vest material, insulated skirts) so I hope we can still be friends.

I am married to Jeremy, a wonder of a man who runs a successful general contracting company (JSM Builders represent!) and together we own three restaurants in our small town: Mambo, Besame, and our newest, Yampa Valley Kitchen. We build our own houses and spec houses and I love getting to do interior design when the occasion calls. And it does a lot. The thing is, when you’re married to a home builder, you tend to move a lot. We have moved seventeen times in seventeen years in this town but are looking for something a little more permanent—maybe with land so I can have a garden and chickens.

We have four kids. Isabella is nineteen, Jeremiah is fourteen, Olivia is twelve, and Ellie is seven. My kids and husband are my favorite, which I understand is a very basic mom thing to say, but it’s the truth and so I will allow it. Olivia, our middle daughter has Angelman Syndrome which means we are a special needs family too. Never heard of it? Don’t feel bad, neither has anyone else.

Cooking, writing, and reading are my jam. Jesus is my jam. Home life is my jam. Pizza and chianti are my jam. Saying things are my jam is my jam.

I guess the first thing you should know, now that the backstory is out of the way, is that I’m a writer. And listen, that might seem obvious now, but on my first blog bio I wrote “I am not a writer” because I tend to be super self-aware. But at a certain point, after writing consistently for years and years, I had to look at myself in the face and be like “self, you write everyday. You read books on writing. You string words together in your dreams. I don’t think people who are not writers do that.” So here I am correcting falsities.

In 2008, I started a food blog because I love food. I make my own chicken stock and salad dressings. I brine meat. I take dinner way too seriously. In this way, I don’t mind telling you I’m kind of snobby about it, so all this to say, if I share a recipe here, be assured it’s quality.

Quality is my jam.

Sorry.

I quit food blogging in 2013 (RIP Krysta’s Life In Food!) and started this “lifestyle blog” four years later which means I can write about anything I want and nobody can get mad. With a food blog, you have to write about food. But everything fits under the lifestyle umbrella. Just everything. This blog was originally called Feels Like Home, but now-a-day’s I’m just using my name to keep things simple. You’ll find I write a lot about faith, food, family, and writing, but I my apologies if you’ve stumbled here on a day that I talk about celebrity crushes or make-up instead. But, LIFESTYLE.

You can’t even be mad.

I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s be friends.