the blog that Caitlin started when she went west.
I remember it like this: It's January 2009 and our infant son is sleeping. We are sitting in our rented apartment in Los Angeles, one of the most expensive cities in America, where we had dreams of "making it" in Hollywood....
It wasn't that I didn't want children; I just didn't yearn for them the way some people do. I had tried babysitting as a teenager but was more interested in testing the mother's makeup after the kids were asleep than singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."...
The week my husband Dan and I went west to seek our fortune, I got unexpectedly pregnant with our first child. In January of 2009, our son was born....
The Crazy Lady Upstairs
By CAITLIN SHETTERLY
Published: January 14, 2011
Before we took the apartment on Rialto — a palm-tree-and-bougainvillea-lined avenue a few blocks from the Pacific — the landlord told me about her. He said there was "a kind of daffy older lady" who'd be living above us...
A Conversation with Caitlin Shetterly author of MADE FOR YOU AND ME Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home
(Voice; Hardcover; March 8, 2011)
Q: What is your book about?
A: Made for You and Me is the story of what happened when my husband, Dan, and I went west at the start of this recession. It's about not only the dreams we had for our lives then, but how we continue to believe in the green light of the American Dream...
Every once in a while a dream gets made. Rarely does this happen with just one person toiling away; more often than not it takes a village. In my case, it took something more like a small city...
to the audio diaries that inspired listeners across America.
Marketplace interview with Kai Ryssdal - A family struggling, traveling and surviving in the Great Recession - March 10, 2011
Caitlin Shetterly, author of "Made for You and Me," and her husband Dan Davis discuss their troubles during the Great Recession, and how it brought them on a journey across the country.
A Man, Woman, Baby And An Empty Bank Account - March 21, 2009
A year ago, Caitlin Shetterly and her husband, Daniel Davis, left Portland, Maine, and moved to Los Angeles. The country was headed for a recession, and Davis' job as a studio photographer...
Recession Diary: The Long And Winding Road Home - May 16, 2009
Earlier this year, recession-related money troubles led Caitlin Shetterly and her husband, Dan Davis, to pack up and leave Los Angeles with their 3-month-old baby to move in with Caitlin's...
Recession Diary: From Mom's Home To Their Own - September 5, 2009
Back in May, recession-related money troubles led Caitlin Shetterly and her husband, Dan Davis, to leave Los Angeles with their 3-month-old baby, drive across the country and move in...
Recession Diary: A Turn In Fortunes - December 5, 2009
Back in March, Caitlin Shetterly and her husband, Daniel Davis, had a 3-month-old son, an empty bank account and an apartment in Los Angeles they could no longer afford...
videos of the author
and the playlist for
Made for You and Me.
Caitlin Shetterly sings 'This Land Was Made for You and Me' - March 7, 2011
Caitlin Shetterly sings 'This Land Was Made for You and Me' at a reading in Portland, Maine
Caitlin's Playlist for Going West... or Any Other Direction the American Dream is Taking You Today
"California on My Mind," by Merle Haggard and the Strangers...
Caitlin Shetterly: A Thanksgiving Recession Story - November 23, 2010
A Thanksgiving special on WCSH6 that tells the story that inspired the book: Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke and Finding Home. Caitlin Shetterly, Daniel Davis and Robert Shetterly discuss Caitlin and Dan's decision to come home to Maine and move in with Caitlin's mother during the recession.
Caitlin Shetterly Reads in Expressing Motherhood Show 2010 - November 21, 2010
Caitlin Shetterly Reads from Her Essay "Dreams and Bones" in the 2010 Expressing Motherhood Show in Cambridge, MA.
6 Things Your Unemployed Husband Might Never Say Out Loud
Love My Son. Yours? Not So Much.
10 Things My Mother Always Says to Me