Amanda Hunter
I have called Texas my home since early 2010, and spent most of that time living in Dallas. Both of my daughters were born in Dallas. My husband and I made frequent trips to visit Austin over the years and enjoyed bringing our two daughters down I-35 for long weekends. I never could have imagined we would end up raising our girls in the city we loved to escape to.
Before Texas, there was New Mexico and then New York. I grew up in New Mexico, Albuquerque, to be specific (think Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) where I attended college at the University of New Mexico. After college, I began working at an advertising agency where I met my husband. We secretly dated for about a year before we found out that everyone in the office, including our bosses and clients, knew we were ‘secretly’ dating. Turns out, when you leave the office together every single day, people start to notice. Life was much easier once the cat was out of the bag.
My husband, then boyfriend, moved to New York to work in advertising. About 8 months and a ring later, I made the move to the big city. The first few months were sort of a blur of adjusting to city life and literally working all of the time. I hopped between a couple big agencies before I settled in working on global campaigns for Nivea and absolutely loved my time there.
Once we found out we were expecting our first daughter we decided we wanted to be closer to family and headed back to the Southwest. My husband had a really good opportunity at an agency in Dallas and that’s when I began my new career as a SAHM. I had the pleasure of being a contributor for Dallas Moms Blog and eventually joined the executive team. We lived in Dallas for seven years, and I don’t care what anyone from Austin says, it is a wonderful city. We met some of the best friends we could have asked for, made some amazing memories, and promoted our older daughter to Big Sister with the addition of another baby girl.
Cut to summer 2017 when an opportunity came our way that we just could not pass up. My husband is a creative director at an agency here in Austin that was started by some of his colleagues from New York. As much as we didn’t want to leave our friends and life in Dallas, we knew this opportunity meant better things for us in the years to come.
We bought our current house from my husband’s aunt and uncle, who were some of the original homeowners in Circle C Ranch. We are walking distance from my daughter’s school and surrounded by lots of wonderful families. I am still relying on GPS 97% of the time to get me around but am starting to feel like Austin is my home.
That’s my backstory and here are a few things you should know about me: I am creative and crafty and love all sorts of projects. Everyone has a ‘home’ and ‘travel’ glue gun, right? I love margaritas and queso and have been enjoying all the great restaurants Austin has to offer. I monogram everything. I keep an Insta of all my favorite things, @HunterHeadsUp. My love of sweets knows no limit – whether it is something I’ve baked myself (love to bake), or a treat I have picked up at a bakery…sweets are the way to my heart. I am thrilled to be part of the Austin Moms Blog team and can’t wait to put down some more roots in this city.
