Ask Away Friday with Brittnei from HomeMaking with Style

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Welcome to Ask Away Friday! The bloggers involved this week will all be linked up here. Take a moment to click on them and make some new friends!

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When Brittnei from Homemaking with Style asked me if I wanted to join her for this, I thought it might be fun. Brittnei is one of my newer blog friends, and she just launched her second blog! Her original blog is Get Fit, Healthy Life, and it is about healthy living. Her new blog gives her the freedom to talk more about her day to day life.

When we were chatting online the other night, I found out she is originally a Jersey girl (I live in CT) and now lives in Arizona, which is one of the places that I grew up as a child! I thought it was interesting we have lived in the same places! The East coast is so compact I can get to New Jersey in a matter of a couple hours. And I did actually live there for two summers while I was in college.

Meet Brittnei

What I like most about Brittnei is that she is so engaging. By that I mean that she comments, engages on social media, and is genuinely interested in making new friends. And that is the kind of blogger I aspire to be too, so I think I was drawn to her for that reason. I hope you will take a minute to check out her answers to the questions I sent her at Homemaking with Style!

Here are the questions Brittnei asked me.

Why did you start your blog and how long have you had it? I started my blog last September, so my 1 year anniversary is coming up!

What are your kids names and ages? I try not to mention my kids’ names on my blog, but they range in age from 12-16, and I have two boys and a girl. My daughter is the middle. Teenagers are kind of conscious of everything you say about them online, and I try to be considerate of that.

What do you do for a living besides blogging? I would love to make a living with my blogging! For years, I worked in the photo management industry. I love photography and helping people create keepsakes with their photos so that they can enjoy them every day, rather than having them tucked away on their computer. I still work with a few clients on photo gifts, but my main source of income now comes from social media marketing, which is another passion of mine. Join me on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+…I love to make new friends!

 How did you meet your spouse? I met my husband Mike in college. We both ran cross country and track for the University of Colorado. We started dating the summer after my sophomore year. He graduated ahead of me, and I followed him to the east coast…with a ring of course! I grew up out West so I wasn’t coming East without getting married! We’ve been married 21 years. I believe there were 3 couples that ran for the team that ended up getting married!

 What is a hobby of yours and how often do get to do it? Photography is one…and I get to do it pretty much every weekend at my kids’ soccer games. I need to get it out more often for everyday life. My boys give me a hard time about pictures and make faces. Running is also still a hobby of mine. I try to run most days, and I also help coach a high school team.

I know you’re a dog lover. How many do you have and what are their names? How did you know I’m a dog lover?! Haha! I do write about my puppy’s antics a fair amount. He gets into everything. My favorite one was when he went to school. He squeezed through the fence and followed a bunch of students to a local private school. Then he went into a building and to a Spanish class. I was out looking for him when I got a call from the Spanish teacher. You can read more of the story here if you want. We have 3 dogs. Most people think we are nuts and we probably are, but they are part of the family! We had Saint and Clara first…Saint actually picked Clara out at the shelter. Murphy joined us last year when a friend’s dog had puppies. He’ll be 2 in November…the other two are older. Murphy is our only animal out of 7 (we have 4 cats too) that did not come from a shelter. I am pretty much forbidden by my family to visit the shelter these days!

What’s the funniest thing one of your kids has ever said to you? This is where I wish I had written more stuff down. One thing I remember though is when my oldest was little, he asked me why the squirrels were carrying so many nuts back and forth. I explained that they were stocking up for the winter. He looked at me quite quizzically for a second and then said “That’s because they don’t have a pantry like us, right?” Every time I think about him saying that, it brings a smile to my face.

Now I know that I said I try not to say too much about things that might embarrass my kids, but we have gotten a lot of mileage on this one. About a month ago, this same son, who is now driving age, did not realize that the ice machine made ice in our freezer. He thought I went out and bought ice every day. We gave him such a hard time for that one, and now it is a running joke. He’s pretty good natured about it.

Whats one skill you feel like you want to perfect or get better at? I could definitely improve on my organization skills. My dining room table is piled with papers that need to be filed! But in terms of things that are really important to me? I’m always working on improving my writing and photography.  I am just learning to shoot on manual now…I’ve primarily used the P and AV settings.

What is your highest level of education and are you looking to go back to school? I have a BS in Business / Marketing. I’m not planning to go back to school, but education is a continual process, and I do enjoy the fact that I am constantly learning new things with blogging and social media. It’s fascinating to me how our marketing strategies have shifted over the years.

Are you doing your dream job? If not, what would it be? I think I could be happy doing a number of things. But I really like working for myself. I’m entrepreneurial at heart, so when I am consulting for companies or even working corporately (as I have done as well), I tend to like positions where I have the flexibility to think creatively and outside of the box. The funny thing is when I was in high school, I wanted to be a journalist. Of course as you already know, I ended up going to a Business School and over the years, I’ve worked in purchasing, product management, sales, and marketing. Now I’m writing again, but I’m also using my marketing skills. I feel like I’ve kind of come full circle!