Get To Know Me

I’m participating in a Getting-to-Know-You game of 20 Questions with Kris (With a K) from the With a K Writing Academy. I’m excited to get to know my own blog-readers better & to find other bloggers to play with too. You know – friends who just get it. If you want to participate, you can too! Just go to check out Kris’s post about it here, & get started.

I love how Kris coaches writing. It seems much simpler and she concentrates on pulling out your personal voice. She is why I connected photography with writing, so I couldn’t help playing a little game with her!  Here is me in 20 questions:

1 – What’s a ridiculous nickname you’ve had?
Uggh – Leen leen or Mary K

2 – Why do you write a blog? Have your reasons changed over time?
I started it because I think I needed something of my own to do being a new stay at home mom. Some place to put my voice. Now I want to use it to combine two of my passions, teaching and photography. Which I guess is something similar except it’s a more direct purpose.

3 – Where do you like to be when you are writing?
In my little office that is also my girls’ playroom. Perfect for the three of us to ‘work’ together.

4 – Peanut butter & __________.
Honey – ’cause that’s what my girls eat almost every day! For me it’s just plain straight up peanut butter, thank you.

5. What does your Writing Process look like?
I begin with ideas in one of my many notebooks (I’m trying to scale back, really). Then I choose one, outline it and write all in another notebook I keep specifically for this part. Then it gets transferred to the computer.

6 – What keeps you up at night?
My daughter. She routinely wakes up at 3 am. Otherwise I check out by 10 pm and am asleep by the time my head hits the pillow unless of course there is a super great book that I can’t put down.

7 – What was your last online purchase? Did you hide it from anyone? (I see you, impulse buyers & shame shoppers)
Books. I can’t help it.

8 – What do you honestly think of elastic waistbands?
Oh, the comfort! There is a reason yoga pants and leggings are now outselling jeans. But I do love the way a good pair of well fitting jeans looks and feels.

9 – What blogs or magazines do you love to read? Why?
There are way too many – my Feedly is bursting and I’m surprised they don’t try to charge me for having so many. Magazines I love include Click, Real Simple, and Our State (for North Carolina) because it is beautifully put together with stories and photos.

10 – What is your favourite way to express your creativity?
Doodling and sketching (sketchbooks in addition to notebooks), coming up with ideas (those notebooks again), photography – both capturing and processing, and DIYing everything.

11 – DSLR or iPhone?
Both! They are so different and require a different mentality because their functionality is different. I find both are simple for different reasons, and both have the ability to push my creativity.

12 – How do you feel about the semicolon? Do you have any feelings about punctuation marks, in general? (it’s ok if you don’t)
Nope, except it can be so darn confusing!

13 – What is a skill you really want to learn?
How to write like I teach in person, film photography, and off camera flashes.

14 – Do you use a planner or journal to keep your life from derailing? What kind?

Bullet journals! I’ve filled three moleskines so far and it travels with me from room to room and everywhere I go. I also have a month at a glance calendar for each aspect of my life on walls around my house. And finally a calendar and to do list on my phone, you know, just in case. Somehow I still get derailed.

15 – What does your dream Sunday look like?
Ooo! This was yesterday for us. Rainy, foggy, don’t need to be anywhere. We all lazily snuggled on the couch with our morning drinks and read. Then the rest of the day made a big lunch, happily ate it while watching football, took naps, took a walk (when it quit raining for half an hour), and finally cuddled up with some books again after a bath.

16 – Do you have a full-time business or a side hustle?
Photography is side hustle but a couple of ideas have me pushing to make teaching photography and this space a full time biz!

17 – Coffee or tea?
Coffee is a requirement every morning. Sweet tea is a usual in the afternoon.

18 – What is your favourite outfit?
Jeans, t-shirt and long cuddly cardigan or leggings and long tunic t-shirt.

19 – What scares you?
Failure (I’m really working on dumping the perfectionism), horror movies, and heights.

20 – Cats or Dogs?
Dog person!