Do you have a question to ask? Ask me through my contact form & I’ll add the answer here :)

Where on the prairies are you from?
I’m from Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada, which is right in the middle and surrounded by the prairies. If you’re more familiar with the US, it’s directly north of North Dakota.

Do you ever think about growing your hair long?
I’m always growing it out (a little) and then trying a different style- but I don’t think I’ll ever grow my hair below my shoulders. I really love having short, fun hair- I think it suits my personality.

What kind of dogs do you have?
Ash & Mal are Schipperkes (pronounced Skipper-keys or Shipper-keys). They are brothers and are full grown at 18 lbs each. Ash is named for Bruce Campbell’s character in the Evil Dead movies, and Mal is named for Malcolm Reynolds, the ship’s captain in Joss Whedon’s TV series Firefly.

How did you meet your husband?
We met in university, he was the teaching assistant for one of my classes :)

How do you manage to keep up with all this blog work, comment on other blogs, and maintain an active outside life, being a wife, business owner, worker, etc.?
I think the best answer is just that sometimes I handle it better than others. In the year a lot has changed and I’ve definitely had to make sacrifices. I don’t have much time for friends, I wake up quite early and drink coffee and Jesse and I have to re-worked our priorities to chase down the dream of me working for myself. That being said, the biggest thing that’s helped me feel like my time is balanced and manageable is planning my time very carefully and being realistic about what I can achieve during a day. I work hard to stay positive and I’m sure to ask for help when I need it.

How many tattoos and piercings do you have?
For tattoos I currently have a koi fish on my back and a three quarter sleeve. I wear jewellery in four piercings & have gauged ears that are almost 7/8ths of an inch.

Did you design your tattoo?
Not the finished product, but I had lots of ideas about what I wanted and wanted to be involved so I pulled together pages of reference photos for what I liked and what I really didn’t like so my artist would have a good idea of what I was looking for. This is my planning post with my ‘yes’ and ‘no’ images, this is the finished outline, and this is my post about the experience. You can see a close up here :)

How did you get started in blog design?
I started by exploring HTML and learning how to use Photoshop when I was in junior high. I’ve always loved using computers and learning new things- and with design there’s always something new to learn! I took a basic Photoshop couse in school but am largely self taught, and have benefited from knowing lots of amazing people who didn’t mind me asking them tons of questions :)

What kind of camera do you use?
I use a Canon 7D now, but up until 2011 I used an old Canon Rebel XTi. My first fancy lens was a nifty fifty lens, and the lens I use most of the time now is a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8. I’ve worked as a second shooter for weddings and love playing with my camera- it’s one of my favourite hobbies!

I love how open you are in your posts, but do you ever struggle with how much to share on your blog? Any advice for how to be open without feeling like you’re sharing too much?
I think the line is different for everyone, but for me it comes down to walking the line between what’s personal versus what’s private. For me, personal things are what I’m doing, my reactions to things in my life, my plans, projects & inspiration. Anything that I get a “Oh I have to tell this to a friend!” feeling about. Private things are the intricacies of my marriage & family, and my friendships. If I write something I’m not 100% comfortable with, I don’t publish it and instead I’ll share it with a friend instead.

Which blogging platform do you use? I noticed that you have a .com instead of a .blogspot.com or a .typepad.com
I blog on self hosted WordPress, which you can find information on at WordPress.org. That means that I had to buy a domain name, which is the .com part, and hosting account, which is where my files live online. My choice was based on wanting the ability to have a lot of flexibility and to be able to tinker with the technical side of my blog. If you want to have a .com but aren’t into the technical side of things you can actually have a custom domain on whichever blogging platform that you’re using- just search through the FAQ or Help topics on your service’s website. If that’s too overwhelming you can e-mail me at hello [at] frecklednest.com and ask for a quote on a custom domain- I do lots of little technical jobs for clients and it’s really affordable :)