National DIY DAY Ambassador| Julie Hoag | Centerville, MN
I write blog posts about motherhood, kids, family, recipes, DIY, pets, travel, and faith. I started my blog because I wanted to write and be a published writer. I started the blog because I love to express myself creatively through recipe creation for both vegetarian and hybrid vegetarian/meat recipes; I believe cooking is a form of art. My desire to start my blog also stemmed from my desire to express myself creatively through my DIY and other creative ideas. I love to share information and helpful tips with people for life, cooking, and pet care. I enjoy sharing lifestyle topics for the enjoyment of life as well. I am also an amateur photographer so I love taking pictures, and this of course works well with a blog because I can use many of my own pictures in my posts. At times I will write about faith and travel topics as they pertain to families.
The most challenging part of running the blog for me is finding enough time to do it all. I have so many ideas but they all take time to develop and prepare for presentation on my blog. The technical side of the blog takes time also as does content promotion so these tasks eat into the pie of time I have for working on the blog. I love learning new ways to present my posts but this also takes time. I'm a busy mompreneur. I love that word because mom is at the forefront of the entrepreneur and I am a mother first.
Please share your favorite creative quote:
"You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out." Steve Jobs
Please share a link to your most creative (or favorite) DIY or craft project blog:
http://www.juliehoagwriter.com/2016/11/23/diy-fort-bag-gift-kids/
Can you tell us your biggest craft fail?
I attempted to use a form of liquid this past Christmas inside plastic bulb ornaments. They worked well and were beautiful until one fell off the tree and the liquid leaked out despite having been sealed with hot glue. They were just too heavy. I did not make a blog post about it, but perhaps I will need to modify it and try it again in the future. Make it, learn from it, modify it, and try again is my moto.
What is one piece of advice would you give someone wanting to start a blog or creative business:
Be ready to constantly being open to learning new things and dealing with frustrations. When you have your own blog, it is just you working on literally every aspect of the blog. Make connections with other blogger groups to create a professional peer group for yourself for support and for asking questions when you just don't quite understand something. Bloggers are so kind and helpful to each other. I have been amazed to see what a great group of people bloggers are as a whole. The blogger community is strong for people who work hard, are honest, and reciprocate help to other bloggers. Bloggers are a generous group and they pay it forward to help newbies.
Where do you get your creative inspiration?
Ironically I get many of my ideas while I'm in the shower. They just come to me and I think it's because my brain is more free and I'm not thinking about what I need to do next. While in the shower, my brain is allowed to wander about my thoughts unrestricted by outside influences and that is often when I have aha moments or ideas. Other ways I have come up with ideas are when I've needed to solve a problem or desired to create something I feel would be helpful, beneficial, or fun.
What are you most excited about for National DIY DAY?
I'm super excited to be a part of a big event with other mompreneurs.
In 5 years, what is your goal for you and your blog?
I would like to have published my ebooks and have them be a part of my blog. I would like to further expand my recipe creation and DIY projects on my blog. By five years from now I would love to have added 400-500 more blog posts.
Please share with us a fun fact about yourself:
I'm a vegetarian who also cooks meat for her meat-eating family, and I am infatuated with aged cheese and dark chocolate. I love gardening and taking pictures of the plants and flowers in my garden. I love spending time with my family and our pets.
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