Today, I am really excited to be swapping questions for Ask Away Friday with Shelly from D.I.Y Mama. Shelly is a Disney expert, a D.I.Y and crafting fanatic, and really appears to enjoy life.  I adore reading her blog and really admire her style. See? How cute is that scarf?

DIY Mama

If you are new around here, Ask Away Friday is a weekly link up. 2  bloggers trade 10 questions and answer them on their blogs. It has been a really great way to get to know some of my favorite bloggers and to meet some new friends!

MrsTeeLoveLifeLaughter

 

Do you practice what your blog title suggests? My great grandpa would always have dessert first and I’ve picked that up from him.

I don’t eat dessert first very often. I typically wait until the kids are in bed before I grab a treat from the kitchen, mostly because I don’t want to share. However if Malone comes to me while I’m cooking dinner and asks for a cookie before dinner, I indulge him from time to time.

 What are you most looking forward to this summer besides your blog conference? Any family travels?

This is the first summer where our travel plans are up in the air. We’ve had to move some things around and there isn’t a single trip (besides my conference) that is set in stone. We will spend some time on Cape Cod and head to Illinois to visit my family. We always head to Illinois during my hometown’s annual festival. Malone will ride carnival rides until his little heart is content and I’ll have a chance to catch up with friends. I live in a town of 2500 people and a lot of people come “home” for Town and Country Days.

Malone is turning five and Lola is turning one this summer. Both feel like a huge deal, although we don’t have any parties planned for them yet.

Instead of lavishing our kids with tons of gifts on their birthdays, our tradition has been to head to the local toy store and let them pick out their present (one thing). Malone LOVES doing this and it is so much fun to see his decision process. It is a special treat to get to go to the toy store, we don’t otherwise go. He has been chattering about a light saber but I have a feeling he’ll come home with something completely different.

 Your favorite post cracked me up! I can TOTALLY see myself doing that! What other blush inducing pregnancy stories do you have?

If you haven’t read that story, you need to read it! That really is my most embarrassing pregnancy moment!

 You mentioned you were headed to BlogU next week!! Exciting! Have you been to a conference before? What are you nervous and excited about?

I went to a mini event in Boston hosted by the SITS Girls a few weeks ago. I learned a TON in the few hours I was there. It also really affirmed that blogging and working in social media is what I want to do as a career. I don’t need to make millions, but I am taking myself a little bit more seriously.

I’m really excited about meeting a few of my favorite bloggers at BlogU. I’ve known Tamara forever…since before Scarlet and Malone were born. We live near each other and see each other from time to time.

But Michelle, Dana, Lisa, and Tara will also be there. They are some of my favorites, and I’m excited to meet them!

I’m hoping to come away from BlogU with some fresh perspective and new strategies to implement.

I am a bit nervous about how things at home will be since I’m not taking either kid with me. I know Mike is nervous about it too. He’s especially worried about Lola, who is day weaned, but up once or twice at night to nurse.

The only East coast city I’ve been to is NYC. What about your town would encourage me to come out East again?

Holyoke is really charming. I live in a really old neighborhood full of Victorian homes.

It also has a great Children’s Museum, the Volleyball Hall Of Fame, and some spectacular hiking.

 What musician do you love that you think you could totally hang out with and get along with after their concert?

NKOTB. I loved them as a kid and I love them now. I’m sure they would likely be up to all sorts of sin that I likely wouldn’t want to be a part of, but I’d still go along for the ride. My grandmother called me recently to tell me she saw them on the Today Show. Her exact words were “my… they’ve ripened well, haven’t they?”. She’s adorable. And she’s right. SWOON.

 Have you ever been skiing (on the snow or water), zip lining or bungee jumping? If not, would you ever do any of these?

Yes to all of the above, I’ve done them at least once. I am an adventure lover. Michael on the other hand, is a lover of safety. He will walk 3/4 of a block just so he can cross at the crosswalk. Meanwhile, I’m the one who is totally stepping out to see if they cars will stop so we can jaywalk and save a bit of time.

 Without picking up, what does your blogging space look like? What do you want to change about your space?

I keep my desk fairly clean because I my brain doesn’t function well with a lot of clutter around. I get to distracted by the piles of things that need to be organized. My desk is right in the middle of our main “hub” and in between the kitchen and the living room.

We live on the second floor of an old Victorian home. All of our rooms are near each other and I can vacuum our entire space from one plug. If I could change anything about my writing space, it would be that I had dedicated office that was AWAY from the noise. I really love to hear myself think while I write and there aren’t too many hours of the day where someone isn’t making noise. Even at night after the kids go to bed, I can still hear Michael watching TV in the living room.

More often than not though, my blog space is at a coffee shop. I usually sneak away on Saturday mornings to get as much writing as possible done.

 Finish this sentence. Sometimes, when no one is watching, I _______.

Sometimes, when no one is watching, I take a selfie. I have an iPhone full of selfies. They mostly involve the kids and I. I don’t have a ton of pictures of my childhood with both my mom and I in them. Likely, because she was behind the camera. I want my kids to know that I was there with them playing, painting, and having fun!

 What’s something you or your husband did as a child that you want to make sure your kids get to experience?

Mike grew up on the beaches of Cape Cod. He is a 4th generation Cape Codder and if we lived there, Malone and Lola would be 5th generation. His family line goes back to some of the original families on the Cape. His parents built a small modest house 3/4 a mile from the beach and Mike went there almost everyday in the summer.

We both want our kids to have memories of swimming in Cape Cod Bay, walking to the beach down the bike path, and running across hot sand when the ice cream truck comes by.

Cape Cod holds a huge piece of our history and we’re looking forward spending another summer there this summer. Mike and Malone are headed there this weekend to help his 93 year old grandmother move to a new house. We will spend the long weekend around 4th of July there and likely take a full week in late July or early August there too.

Shelly had great questions for me this week! Make sure you head over to DIY Mama now to read her answers to my questions!