At 3:01 pm on a cold January afternoon, a baby was born to her young, nervous mother only 2 weeks late. The first of six children, she was named Catheirne Erin Garchinsky, Katie for short. On the day Katie's mom and dad brought her home from the hospital they were hit with a blizzard, covering baby Katie's world with a blanket of fresh, deep snow. With great trepidation the new family of three traversed icy roads in their 1970s powder blue VW Beetle to their home in Norwood, Pennsylvania. From that day forward Kate's dad called her his Snowbird.

Snowbird's first word was "birdie." Her first drawing was a snowman.

It was a time when avacado was the color of kitchens, and just about everything else was equally drab. That is, until this Snowbird got her first big box of Crayola crayons and jumbo pack of construction paper. In the next few decades Kate would draw hundreds of snowmen, paint a plethora of purple unicorns and then finally be sent on scholarship to art school. In 1997 she received her BFA from the University of the Arts, as well as an award for Excellence in Illustration. She specialized in children's illustration.

From there Kate's career path took her on several detours, from toy store retail clerk to Senior Designer and Illustrator at FAO, Inc. In the meantime she became a master at grown-up things like corproate identities, marketing collateral, product development, packaging design and brainstorming in a team environment.

Kate now lives and thrives in the sleepy mountain town of Winter Park, Colorado where she designs a bunch of collateral for Winter Park Resort, freelances to old cronies at Childcraft Education, and awaits her true love's arrival.

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