I've been following blogs since the summer of 2010. I was working a summer internship that was both exciting and stressful in the PR department in a car racing organization. I would start each day by soaking in the content on This Is Glamorous and Gal Meets Glam.

I had always toyed around with the idea of starting my own blog - I think I had an Emily Lewandowski blogger blog at one point - but college was a busy time and I knew I didn't have the mental space to keep one up.

My last year of grad school I had more "free time" (although I was working full-time and also getting my master's degree). My boyfriend was a big hobby guy and was spending the evenings teaching himself how to code and design websites. As a solid enneagram 3 the free time was driving me crazy. One Christmas break I was scrolling through a blog and thought, "if she (the blogger) can do it, why can't I?"

I came back from break after getting my boyfriend to agree to be my photographer and the rest was history.

In a perfect world both my husband and I would be employed by my blog and be able to travel and create a brand of content that speaks to so many people. Long-term I see it developing and strengthening with my style and my passions.

I've already seen it take on a new form this past year with all the home content. I never expected that side of the blog to attract so many readers and brands. I think if a lifestyle blog doesn't grow with you, you're cheating your readers out of a truly authentic experience.

I can see the blog continuing to grow and affording me the opportunity to do things I would have never dreamed possible working a 9-5 job. I want to grow my content in so many areas - like videos - but I think this new version of the website is a great step in that direction.

Yes and no. Two years ago I left my job at a creative marketing agency and struck out on my own. My blog work was ramping up but not ready to support me so I took the skills I had been honing and started out with a few digital marketing clients which led me to develop Some Pretty SEO - a boutique SEO coaching business.

We currently shoot with the Sony A7R III and the Fujifilm X100F. We have a fixed 35mm lens on the Fujifilm and rotate between 3 prime lenses for the Sony - a 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8, and 28mm f2.

My gut reaction is to say a camera, but with the quality of phone cameras nowadays, honestly a good quality laptop is the one essential for blogging. If you're wanting to get into the influencer space (i.e. you don't have a blog) then definitely buy a camera first.

I started off with a simple Wordpress website with a theme I bought. We built the second design on Wordpress as well but with the growth and direction of the blog/ internet technology we decided to transition away from Wordpress.

The website is now build on Dato CMS - a headless CMS that’s connected to a React/ Gatsby JS front-end and hosted on Netlify. All of that to say it’s on a more modern Javascript tech stack that allows us more control on the content, structure, and design of the website.

Lighting is everything. Use natural light whenever possible and get to know how light interacts with your camera. A lot of that is trial and error while shooting so also don't be afraid to overshoot. The joy of a digital camera is that you can shoot 3,000 photos and use only 7 if needed.

Also, get to know your camera. Even if you're in front of the camera, know how it works, what the settings are and how they function for different scenarios. If you've had a camera for any amount of time and are still shooting on manual mode you're missing out.

Yes! I'm married to my best friend and the love of my life, Lee. We got married September 2017 after meeting in college and dating for 4ish years.

Lee and I live in Greenville, South Carolina. We bought our first house in April 2019 and September 2019 has marked 10 years of living in the South. Both Lee and I grew up in Indiana (although we didn't meet until school) but I was born in New England and still claim that's where I'm from.

Favorite overall place? There are too many to choose! Greenville is growing so quickly and the number of amazing places to eat, shop, hang out, and get coffee is expanding. I honestly love spending time at my house. It's literally one of the most peaceful places in the world. But I love the Village of West Greenville for its funky shops and good restaurants

I did! I went to Bob Jones University - a small-ish Christian college in the heart of Greenville. My undergrad is in TV Broadcasting and I also received my Masters in Communication.

Minimal. Neutral. Feminine. Sometimes haphazard. I go through phases - I think everyone does - where they love or hate different things in their closet. I definitely gravitate toward neutrals and love feminine details like a small ruffle, bit of lace, or well placed bow. My favorite season to dress for is fall because I love the depth you can create with layers and truly believe Chelsea boots should be worn everyday.

I'll actually give you three things... Instagram isn't everything. Grow your audience slowly and organically. Good work never goes unnoticed.

Pretty intentionally now. I sometimes miss those haphazard, spontaneous shoots Lee and I used to do when we were younger and had much less to do. Often when we're on vacation we get to revert back to those days, but normally it involves location scouting, picking a good time of the day (both for lighting and in the summer for the heat), choosing the outfit, and creating a mood board to help with the creative direction and angles.

Pinterest! Pinterest! Pinterest! A focused strategy on this platform changed my blog.

I do think there is a distinction between the two and will classify myself as a blogger. My blog is my passion - Instagram is a branch of that but not my sole platform. I think the future of Instagram influencing is murky but the future of blogging is bright. As a blogger I have ownership and control over my platform whereas Instagram is owned by a large corporation and all the hard work could disappear in seconds if they wanted. I have lots of thoughts on the topic so if you want to start a conversation, comment on my blog post and we can chat!