Special Feature Intermew with Dana Moody aka DanaPixie

Earlier this month you read #6 Things You Don’t Know About Dana Moody. 

Today you’re going to learn much more. Since Miz Dana is a very active and busy lady, I had to tackle her in order to get her to answer my intermew questions. But even while I was sitting on top of her, she was sewing a quilt, baking bread, designing a wedding dress and stretching for a forthcoming marathon. She exhausts me! 

So…without further delay…meet Dana Moody:

Herman: Of all of your creative outlets, which of them gives you the most satisfaction?

Dana: I have always been artsy-crafty…even when little. Over my lifetime I have drawn, painted, done pottery, sewn clothing and quilts, calligraphy, needle felting, paper laminated earrings, to name a few. I like to create things. To go from one thing, to create something else. Like the roving it takes to make a felted critter. Or the pieces of fabric cut and sewn to make a quilt. I like to bake too….. but don’t like to eat the end result :) And I really enjoy creating the Anipal Weddings. Using a graphics program I can take an image and totally transform it to the wishes of the bride and groom so no matter where they want the wedding to take place we can make it happen.

How did you discover Anipal tweeting?

I think I joined twitter in 2009, just to follow some cyclists (@LanceArmstrong @leviLeipheimer @ghincpie ) and some local news and weather folks. But they were kind of boring…. so in looking around I found @sockington (and later met his person Jason!) and thought it was the coolest thing that a cat named Socks was tweeting. From there I became friends with @PrincessGwenie, @Super_Muffy, and @SmokeyPoodle and from them I found a whole bunch of tweeting cats, dogs, stuffies, etc. So now most of those I follow have four legs and fur! :) The anipal community is one of the most caring and loving groups of pals I have ever come across. 

Was the #AWP already in place before you joined the Anipals?

The very first anipal wedding was @hanseebundee and @poppy_dog. It was very sweet. The images were of Hans and Poppy (as themselves ) with cute dog wedding outfits on. They did the wedding themselves and I think it started the wedding trend.

The first wedding I helped with was @wildboutbirds Honeybell and @thatstripeycat's wedding. It took place on September 2, 2010. My sweet friend Pawsome, @holliecatrocks was the original Wedding Planner. We did quite a few weddings together, just the two of us. Over time the Anipal Wedding Planners has added more members since the Anipal community seem to be the marrying kind! :) 

You can see the weddings we have done here: http://anipalweddings.blogspot.com/

 

#BelleHerm Epic Wedding, Cast of Thousands

#Pawcircle is now a huge part of the Anipal community. Did you create #Pawcircle?

#Pawcircle was created by @jinjindoggy and @bigboybosco years ago. They were chatting about their pal @BrunoTheDog, who wasn't feeling well. Bosco asked JinJin to take his paw and form a "pawcircle” for Bruno. JinJin put the hashtag on it ( #Pawcircle ) and quickly many anipals were joining paws in the #pawcircle. That is how it began! 

I thought it was such a lovely gesture that whenever I saw someone use that hashtag I retweeted it. Soon pals were asking to be put in the #pawcircle or have a #pawcircle for one if their friends or family. If it weren't for Jinny and Bosco the #pawcircle wouldn't be what it is today. 

 

@BrunoTheDog

@JinJinDoggy

@BigBoyBosco

You are very Sporty! Please tell us about your accomplishments.

I have always been active. As a youngster I took ballet for many years. Swam on a swim team and ran track in school for a bit. Have alpine skied since I was 11. Can Nordic classic and skate ski. Am a road and mountain bike cyclist. But not until I was an adult did I ever enter any events. I participated in some triathlons (swim-bike-run) and even won them in my age group! From there I entered some running events. 10K and half marathons. Then ran my first marathon. The California International Marathon. I trained hard for it, hoping to just finish. I finished in 3:30, and found out that qualified me for the Boston Marathon! I couldn’t pass up that opportunity, so took a month off and started training again for Boston. I ran it in 4:01. I was happy with that. Now I just run for fitness…and ski and cycle. 

In all of your travels, what place do you consider most memorable?

Gosh, that’s a tough one. Each place has been memorable. We have been to Bali, quite a few places in Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Canada, Guatemala, Ecuador, Italy, Nepal and Thailand.

France was great, we followed the Tour de France around a bit while we where there. Italy was fun, we took our bikes and rode in the Maratona d’les Dolomites. The dolomites are spectacular. And great cycling there…and food! Nepal was awesome. We did a 14 day trek on the Anapurna circuit. The mountains there are breathtaking, the people so kind. In Bali monkeys stole my sunglasses! :) In Ecuador we saw whales and Blue Footed Boobies!

There are places we have been that I would like to go back to….yet it’s a big world and there it allot more to see! 

Would you share with us a bit about your family life?

I was born and raised in California. My parents were from New York and moved to CA when my older brother was little. I have two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister, neither of whom are on twitter. :)

Jim ( @jim_moody and aka Mr Pixie) and I have been together for 16 years, married for 5 years. We have the sweetest kitty, known on twitter as TSK. We have many names for him… Toaster Strudel, Kit Kat, Jingles, Goose (as in silly…). You can read his story on my blog, Meandering Moodys. := 

We moved from California to Bend, Oregon just over a year ago, and we love it here. 

Thank you so much, Dana! We thought you were pawsome before…but now we know you’re super pawsome!

Dana: You’re welcome. Can you get off me now? I have a marathon to run. *brushes white cat floof off her shirt, sprints out the door.*

You can follow Dana on Twitter at @DanaPixie and on her fun blog, Meandering Moodys.