Interview with Amy from The Idea Room
Do you know Amy from The Idea Room??
I first met her when she was my assigned ‘star’ in the Crafting with the Stars competition. She is such a nice, down-to-earth, person and was such a great help to me during the contest. If you haven’t ever visited her blog, The Idea Room, you need to now!! She has some seriously amazing ideas and her candy cane heart suckers were even recently featured in Family Fun Magazine! I have loved getting to know Amy.
Why did you start your blog? I started a personal family blog that I started adding some crafts and projects to when friends and family kept asking how I made them. I decided to start a second blog so that I would have one place for all my crafts and projects. Thus…The Idea Room was born.
Where do you get your ideas? I get a lot of inspiration from items I have seen in catalogs, magazines or online. When I see something it sparks an idea that starts me thinking about how I could make something similar on my own or add my own little twist to it.
How do you have time to do everything you do? Hmmm…I don’t. It is always a balancing act. I always try to make sure and put my family and their needs first. For me…being organized and having a schedule is very important to keeping the balance.
What do you think was the biggest contributing factor to the growth of your blog? I think early on, the turning point came when I was featured on another larger blog. My page views had been around 100 a day and then one of my projects (Marshmallow guns) was featured by Laurie from Tip Junkie. That day, my page views shot up to 3,000 or so. Then I steadily grew from there. But I think my main growth has come from my awesome readers from linking and sharing my site with others.
Did you ever get discouraged when you were first starting out? When I started out…I had no idea that there was even a Craft Blog Community. So I was just doing my thing and enjoying seeing my numbers and site grow. So I can’t say as I had any growth goals for my blog. I kept thinking that it would level out at a certain point. Then the larger I got and the more features I got, I began to realize just how big the blogging community was.
What keeps you blogging? I blog because I genuinely love it! It has given me a creative outlet that has helped me to become a better mother. I actually seek out fun things to do and create for and with my kids. The trick is making sure that the actual computer time doesn’t interfere with my family time and responsibilities.
If you could give one piece of advice to a budding blogger, what would it be? Just enjoy the process and the small successes. Don’t focus on the numbers. Don’t compare yourself to others and what you see others doing or how quickly another website is growing. Do what works for you and be YOURSELF!
What gets you out of bed in the morning? The alarm clock! Though I am definitely not the type that jumps out of bed in the morning…LOL!
What is a typical day like for you? Tu/Thurs/Sat. I go to the gym at 5:30 am. Then I get the kids out the door for school. Then I spend an hour answering emails and work on the blog. Shower. Clean House/Run Errands. Eat lunch. Play with my 3 yo daughter for an hour with no distractions. Then daughter has quiet time {coloring, watching a movie, nap, etc.} while I craft. Kids come home and the computer is off while I do homework, dinner, afterschool activities…etc.
What do you do with your evenings? We don’t watch a lot of TV in our home…simply because there isn’t much on that we are interested in. So I will craft or work on the computer. Or my husband and I will work together on some home remodeling projects together. We also like to play games together.
What are your hobbies other than crafting? I love camping and being outdoors. I love to play sports and enjoy running and swimming. I also have an addiction to my ipod.
What is your favorite thing about being a mom?
The snuggles! I also love just hanging out and being silly. Sometimes we blast the music and dance around the kitchen like a bunch of crazies.
What is your guilty pleasure? Chocolate!
What is your most embarrassing moment? Most definitely my most embarrassing moment was when I was 10 years old. I was sent outside to weed and was given a brown grocery bag to fill with weeds before I could come back inside. I placed the bag over my head {cause I thought it would be fun} and skipped down the grass on the side of my house. We had just put in a retaining wall and there was still an open ditch on the edge of the grass…Yep! I fell right into the ditch. One of the metal spikes sticking out from the new wall went through the back of my knee. Everyone came running when they heard me crying. My mom just pulled down my pants right then and there to see the extent of the bloody damage. My neighborhood “crush” was standing right there staring at my rainbow underwear!
How did you meet your husband? We met at BYU my second day there. I was still 17. He played football and he and his FB buddies lived right across from my apartment. I came home from the first day of school and walked into our apartment complex and they were standing on the balcony flexing their muscles…I was NOT impressed J!
Where was your first kiss? Three years later…LOL…in my apartment. It took a couple of years and some funny coincidences to actually figure out we really did like one another.
What is the most romantic thing he ever did for you? Surprised me with a new wedding ring for our 10 year anniversary! It is a long story.
What is your favorite Valentine’s Day tradition? A candlelight dinner for SEVEN!! The kids LOVE it!
Thanks so much for letting us get to know you a little bit better Amy! Amy blogs at The Idea Room and has a fun new site called The Idea Room Community. She is also a DIY Club Dare Blogger. Please go check her out!!
Thanks for the fun interview Heidi!
LOVE this interview!!! The line I identify with most: "The trick is making sure that the actual computer time doesn’t interfere with my family time and responsibilities."
Amy, you ROCK!