I’m in love with the idea of intentionally creating a unique life, and hearing the stories of people who are in the process of creating inspired lives for themselves (whatever that means to them) is fascinating, and always a learning experience for me. Two years ago I started this as a series called the Creative Life interviews, and this year I'm bringing them back as a regular feature!
Today we're talking with Meredith from the beautiful blog One Sheepish Girl. I was first drawn to Meredith's blog because of her simple, beautiful photography style and was drawn in right away. Meredith is kind, warm, creative and quirky. She has a distinct gift for dreaming up unique projects and showcasing colourful pieces of her everyday life that give you a peek into her world. Her way of writing lets you in without sharing too much, which just makes her more fascinating.
Let's go behind the scenes in her creative life, shall we?
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Please tell us about yourself and how blogging & knitting became part of your life.
Hello! My name is Meredith and I have a blog called One Sheepish Girl. I am writer, blogger, and yarn-crafter living in Dallas, TX. I taught myself to knit and crochet during my junior year of college. This new, creative skill came at a time when creative joy was lacking in my life. I knew something was missing I just had no idea that something was a colorful ball of yarn! As I began sharing my new love of yarn crafts with my friends they suggested I start a blog. At the time, I never read blogs or had any experience with blogging, but I decided to give it a try. My blog quickly became my sanctuary. It was (and is) my place of creative freedom. Blogging constantly pushes me to learn more about my crafts and, more importantly, myself.
How did you first start to recognize your passion knitting and photography, and realize that it could be something more? Was there a turning point or “Ah-Ha” moment for you?
I think my “Ah-ha” moment came when I realized my dreams of doing something I love for a living might actually come true. However, I never expected the opportunity to come so soon! Also, the support and encouragement of readers, fellow bloggers, and other creative people in the publishing industry really pushed me to see that what I am doing is something unique. That realization caused me to look at my web presence in a whole new way.
Take us through a day in your life.
The Morning
I wake up early, around 7:00 a.m., and have a bowl of cereal and a bowl of coffee. Ha! After breakfast, I spend some time alone with my notebook and my Bible. This is really important to me and gets me in the right mindset to take on the day.
By 9:00 a.m., I am dressed and responding to emails at my computer.
Next, I usually start working on freelance projects. That involves setting up a photo shoot, writing the copy, and organizing the project materials.
Afternoons & Evenings
I break for a quick lunch and get back to work. At this point in the day my schedule tends to vary, but I try to maintain some form of structure. Some days I stay on my computer late into the night and that is becoming a problem. I try to unplug from everything on the weekends. It helps me stay sane and keeps my contacts from drying out! Haha.
Do you keep an editorial calendar for your blog? If not, how do you capture & plan your post ideas?
I try to plan out posts for each month, but my blog calendar is very flexible. My goal is to consistently post high quality work that reflects my personality and unique point of view. If a project idea doesn’t work or if life becomes overwhelming, I take a step back and remember the many reasons why I love to blog. I enjoy blogging about my creative passions and I am working hard to turn those passions into a career. Instead of pressuring myself to reach a certain level by a certain time, I continue to blog about what inspires me and work with companies and publications I enjoy.
Who are your role models?
My parents. My mom and dad are the most supportive, encouraging, and strong people I have ever known. I also look up to so many people in the blog world (like you, Kyla!) who actively pursue their passions. It is so inspiring to be part of this community!
You have an amazing social media following- over 50,000 followers on Instagram alone! When did your notice your followers start to take off, and what are your tips for ladies who'd like to grow their community online?
Thank you! Sometimes it is a little overwhelming. I try not to think of it as a following but as a community. I don’t want to perform for an audience; I want to contribute to a community. I think that is my best tip for bloggers who want to grow their online presence. Finding unique ways to share your work through social media will allow you to reach a larger group of creative people!
How do you stay balanced, or get back to centre when life happens?
Balance is really important to me. I work hard at everything that comes my way and do my best to put good work out in the world. However, I know that constantly working and being plugged in is not the way I want to live. I stay balanced by keeping the majority of my life off of my blog. I don’t want the usual ups and downs of daily life to dictate my creative space. My focus is to maintain my love for blogging and work hard to turn my creative passions into a career.
Find more of Meredith…
On her blog, facebook, pinterest & instagram
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Takeaways
The stories of bloggers making their hobby into their passions were everywhere in the early 2000's, but as blogging blossomed and advertising rates started to be less exclusive it became much more complicated to attract attention to any one site.
I think Meredith is a fabulous example of how understanding your strengths and what draws people to your site can do for a blogger. It can make you jump out from the crowd! She's obviously a wonderful photographer, and has naturally built her blog around that strength and naturally focused on the highly visual Instagram as her social media outlet of choice. Since they play on her strengths, it's no wonder that she's so widely followed.
What I like best about Meredith's blog is that her design is in sync with the colours in her home, which instantly makes her posts feel tied together. And her photography style reflects how she writes. Both her subjects and close up framing of each shot reflects what you get at her blog: an invitation into a private, stylish, work room where she's been keeping her hands very busy.
What's one of your natural strengths?
Let's make it work harder for you, together!
Let me know what one of your natural strengths is in the comments below, and an example of how you use it in your blog, work or in social media. I'll reply to everyone who comments this weekend with a suggestion for how you could leverage that to make yourself even more irresistible to new followers, or to start seriously ramping up your success & satisfaction.
Stuck on your strengths? It can be a specific skill, a way of communicating, or a personality spin that you put on everything. Try these on for size: day dreamer of possibilities, encouraging teacher, productivity whirlwind, eye for detail, mastery of sarcasm, super intense laser focus, strategic thinking ninja, unofficial president of the league of self care…
LAST UPDATED ON: April 26th, 2013
CATEGORY: All Business & Blogging Posts
Thank you so much for having me, Kyla! :)
Thanks for participating, Meredith! It was lots of fun to quiz you :)
Fantastic post! I’m going to need to check out her blog! I’ve tried twice to get into knitting and I cannot seem to make it stick. Maybe it’s not the craft for me?
I feel like writing informational content is a strength of mine. I’m currently working on a post series about OkCupid for college and 20-something kids because of how many questions I’ve gotten from friends about dating. I’d love to figure out how to reach a bigger audience or use my writing to reach out to other publications.
Ooh interesting, Sarah! Is this kind of op-ed post something that you love doing? I wonder if, instead of posting it on your blog, you should consider pitching it to a website like The Frisky or xo Jane if you change it around a little.
If this is something you’re passionate about and you want to get it in front of more eyes, I’d look into what those sites (or others that are better suited for you) have published along those lines before, and use those as a guide for directions to not steer your pitch in. You can connect with the submission section of the sites and put the series as you had imagined it on hold for a couple of weeks- and if they’re not interested, then you still took a HUGE step toward being published and have some awesome pitching experience under your belt.
One thing that I’d recommend before you do this, is to make a page on your site that’s password protected and is only for publishers. Include information on who you are, a photo, links to your social media accounts, and samples of your best blog writing that’s “on topic/tone” for the series or post you’re pitching. You can send them the link and password in your inquiry, and already you’ll stand out as someone who takes her writing seriously and is completely creative!
I hope that helps- let me know how this works for you if you try it out, or if you have any questions or ways that you made your results even more awesome xo
Hi Kyla! Thanks for giving us this opportunity!
My top talent that comes up over and over again is my people skills. Someone once told me that I have an ability to sense what people want and deliver just that. I am good at communicating and relating to people. I own a boutique, so I use this skill frequently when working with customers and vendors. (We’re known for having topnotch customer service.) I’m also working on my real estate license, so it’ll come in handy there too.
I have a new blog and I’m still struggling with the direction it should go. I enjoy writing about my experiences, whether that be traveling, redoing a piece of furniture, decorating (my fav!), or just about everyday life. However, I feel a little unfocused and unsure. I still struggle with wondering why people would care to read anything that I write. If you can offer some suggestions, I’d appreciate it a ton!
Hmm…It didn’t post the link to my site. It’s http://www.pamelapetrus.com.
Thanks for the link to your site, and for letting me know what you’re working through, Pamela. It sounds like you’re in the thick of figuring out if your blog is going to be personal, and if so how personal, and what you’ll write about. That’s a big question, and one that I still struggle with myself!
I think it could be helpful for you to come up with a blog mission statement- so like a tagline, but what you’re hoping to do with your blog. It can be anything you like: make new friends, learn and share new skills, become a Pinterest super celebrity (lol) but it can be a filter that you use to help guide how you write your posts and which posts you choose to publish.
Since you have such great people skills, I’d recommend that you use your ability to relate to others and create a great experience for them in how you think about your blog. It’s a space for you, but it’s also for them, so if you put on your customer service hat and start thinking about ways you can answer their questions and get the same feeling from your posts as they would from being around you it could be a natural extension of what you’re already doing.
If you own a boutique, you can also approach your blog from a visual merchandising perspective: what are you showing off? How are you telling readers to interact with you, based on what you’ve made prominent in your sidebars? Make sure those visual pieces in your design, and in your posts, align with the connection you want to make.
My last piece of advice is that people want to read what you have to say because you’re uniquely you! No one else on the planet has your experiences, opinions, thoughts, or perspective. The more you can ground yourself in that knowledge, the faster you can jump over that mental hurdle and start shining so the people who are looking for exactly what your voice has to offer can find you & fall in love already.
I know, it might sounds far fetched now, but I’ll pinky swear you on it :)
I’ve love to hear your thoughts, or your experiences if you put this into action! Have a great week xo
Hi Kyla!
I love Meredith’s blog and her positivity so this interview cheered me up. Also, I love your blog too! I adore the positivity you spread to your readers :)
Anyway. I think my natural strength is not being afraid to be myself and say what I think and do what I want. I love to express my opinion – mainly through writing and share it with my friends (usually on FB haha).
I graduated last year and in between jobs, but I aspire to be a writer (or maybe an illustrator) and work from home.
But. Although I love writing and drawing and art in general, I’m more like ‘someone who wants to do things but don’t do them’. I get easily distracted and always forget my dreams and my goals. I always feel I’m not good enough. I procrastinate. SIGH.
Haha sorry for ranting here. Looking forward to more inspiring blog entries from you, Kyla! :)
Thanks for sharing what you’re working on, Nurul. Knowing what you want to do, but not taking action is a tough thing to come up against. But I bet you can use your natural strength of expression to help make it easier to overcome.
If writing and sharing is a way that you usually use that creativity, I’d encourage you to work through the why of why you’re not taking that next step in areas that you want to make progress. What’s taking priority?
Are you craving time to rest, but the way you’re trying to rest isn’t charging your batteries? Are you trying to get so much done that you’re not accounting for how long each task will take so you end up with a to do list that never seems to end? It might seem in the moment like you’re just delaying, but there’s probably something deeper there. It could even be that your ideas of what you “should” be doing come from what you liked doing a few years ago and you need to try some new things to find what you can’t get enough of right now.
If you have an iPad, or can get to an Apple store to test one I’d highly recommend downloading the app “Unstuck”. It’s a step by step tool that you can use to work through essentially any kind of problem, and it’s absolutely genius. It’s also worth checking out- and then taking action on :)
Ha! I forgot my most obvious suggestion, Nurul: keep an inspiration journal. This isn’t a daily writing space, but somewhere for dreaming up the best life you want to be living and then breaking up the steps to get there and goals that align with it. Write out your goals, schedule them into your weekly and monthly schedule- and change them if they aren’t fun or get you the results that you want. Come back to it and read through them every week or month, and make sure that they’re staying fresh in your mind. You can totally make this happen xo
Hi Kyla! Thanks for the reply! I love that inspiration journal idea – might try this. Also, thanks so much for the encouragement & support. Appreciate that :)
Hi,
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading the post and the blog. It is so lovely to be able to read about how others have gained success and how they push themselves forward.
I am a fledgling blogger and have only been blogging properly for a very short time. As a result I feel that I am still finding myself and my own particular style when it comes to the blog. I suppose when I actually look at my work, my strength would be how I write. I know I have a long way to go until I actually establish a “style” and my technical knowledge needs to be greatly improved, but with all certainty, I can honestly say I am at my happiest when I am working through the creative process for ideas for future posts or features.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your inspiring posts and hopefully I will be able to learn something from the other comments and the feedback.
Many thanks again
Kathryn x
I love that you’re in love with the process of writing and coming up with ideas. That tells me that blogging could be a sweet spot where you creativity is really rewarded!
Since blogging is your happy place, I’d say that your current blog design isn’t letting you shine and something simpler could serve you better. Right now, I notice that your blog design doesn’t let readers see your posts without clicking, and then your blog only shows one post per page. It might sound silly, or even hard to believe, because it sounds like you’re a curious person, but getting people to click on a website is incredibly hard! Every time people have to click to get information, you’re going to have a huge drop off of participation. If you can change your design so it shows your most recent posts you’ll already have a big advantage.
The other thing that I’d say is that your current background colour and text colour are really close to each other so it’s visually hard to read your site. Most readers form their first impression of a website within the first twentieth of a second (!) so having the text stand out at first glance is an important visual cue.
I hope that helps, Kathryn! Let me know how it works for you if you give it a try xo
I believe that one of my strengths, both outside and inside of my blog, is my willingness to be open and honest about my struggles with mental illness, AS WELL AS the moments of joy in my life. Coupled with my original photographs, this has been what readers have commented on time and again as what brings them back. However, I still don’t have the traffic that I’d like, and I’d love to hear some of your wisdom with regard to what I could be doing better. Thanks for this opportunity.
x
Es
Thanks for letting me know about where you want to grow, Esme. Your blog is beautiful, and your photography is really gorgeous! It’s clear that you’re putting in a lot of heart, and I know how frustrating it is to not see the results that you’re hoping for.
I have a few ideas for how you can build your blog, in a way that has meaning and isn’t sales-y :)
– If you don’t know of a blogger who is doing what you’d like to be doing, and is where you would like to be in 3 – 5 years, Make it you mission to find this person and to look through their blog. (Susannah Conway jumps out to me) What were they doing a few years ago? How were they posting? How are they posting now? Are they only sharing from their experiences? Are they teaching a skill? When did their comments and traffic appear to start picking up? The point isn’t to copy them, since no one person’s success is really something you can copy, but to look for patterns and see where you can learn from them.
– Once you’ve found that person, then to check out the people who are commenting on their blog. Through connecting with their readers, and the readers of those people through commenting is a fabulous way to find people who are engaged and want to interact.
– Consider buying ad space on a blog that has solid traffic, or adding a sidebar to your blog and trading blog ads with bloggers you genuinely love whose readership might be intrigued by your style and voice.
– In a more concrete way, I would encourage you to show most posts per page on your blog (5 – 10) so people can get more of your posts without having to click, and find a way to add text to the social media sharing tool on your blog under posts. Right now it’s beautiful, but not 100% intuitive, and having a word that says “share” or “comment” is a way to help tell your readers how to interact with you, and gets them sharing it with their network so they can fall in love with you too!
Okay, this is a novel but I wanted to make sure that I gave you lots of actionable pieces. If you try them out, please let me know how it goes!
Oh my gosh, thank you heaps for replying! You’ve given me a lot to think about. I’ll let you know what happens. :)
I love this post! It just further supports my own resolution to live an intentionally creative life, and thanks to following your blog, I think I’m off to a pretty good (decent? humble?) start. :)
One of my natural strengths is writing. I’ve had people tell me that I have the ability to effectively convey my emotions and distinct voice via the written word (even text messaging), but I haven’t quite mastered that in the blogging universe…
Thanks! Your blog is my morning cup of coffee. Or tea. Or hangover remedy.
~A~
Thanks for letting me know that my blog has been a help to you, Alyce. That’s a huge encouragement :)
Having a strong & distinct writing voice is a fabulous strength that will serve you well! If you’d like a way to dig into that and get more comfortable in it, I’d recommend looking at a mix of your personal writing (even those text messages!) and your favourite blog writing pieces- but to look at pieces that are at least a few weeks old.
Then work through them and look at what you feel is so you about them. Is it the tone? The perspective you bring? Work through the pieces that make that up, and then make a list of the things that your voice unique. When you work on writing your next post you can read the list before hand, and then do an edit afterward that’s just focused on voice. I’m sure that as you keep working with an awareness of where your strength is you’ll “sound” even more like yourself so your personality can really shine through and jump off the screen. Let me know how it goes if you try it!
What an absolutely beautiful post, full of so much inspiration. Thank so much for sharing.
I think one of my more natural strengths would have to be encouragement, I love encouraging other people and tend to do so as often as possible.
Thanks again! Really love the blog. :) x
lemon-freckles.blogspot.co.uk
Thanks Toni! If encouragement is one of your natural strengths, a way to leverage that could be looking at some of your upcoming blog post ideas and finding an opportunity to issue your readers a challenge where you can be their cheerleader.