Guest Feature and a Giveaway

Today please welcome Jozen, the blogger behind lola's girl blog. I immediately loved Jozen's blog upon visiting it-- she loves being a mama, and she loves blogging about her everyday life with her sweet family as well as fun crafting projects, ideas, and great inspiration links and pictures. She also has a regular feature "Crushing on" - one of my personal faves! Welcome, Jozen! :)

1. Tell us about yourself. Hi! My name is Jozen. I married my high school sweetheart who also happens to be my best friend and my biggest fan. We have two beautiful little girls, Zoë and Pia. Our little family lives in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia CANADA. I am a recovering “bagaholic”, a lip balm junkie, a fabric fashionsta, a self-proclaimed ‘’etsy-holic’’ and I absolutely adore anything pink. When I am lucky enough to get a moment to myself, I like to sew, crochet, blog, watch reruns of SATC, read (HUGE Twilight fan), drink tea, soy lattes, and eat Haagen Daz Coffee ice cream (not necessarily in that order) I am inspired everyday by God, my two beautiful daughters and my wonderful husband. “Lola” means ‘’grandma’’ in my language. I am a lola’s girl and my daughter’s are the epitome of lola’s girls.

2. How long have you been blogging and why is blogging important to you? I have been blogging for close to one year. When I first started my blog it was because I wanted a place to write about my Etsy shop, sewing adventures, fabric obsessions and other crafty things. But alas, I got too busy to keep up with the sewing demands my Etsy shop required and had to take time off from my shop. Surprisingly, I kept up with my blog. I think it was mainly because of my hubby. My hubby would often tell me, “I liked your blog post today..” or he would say “I think you should write about this tomorrow...” (see he IS my biggest fan!)

And then eventually my blog evolved to become a place to record everyday moments of happiness that would otherwise go unnoticed in my day to day life.

3. What types of things do you blog about? I blog a lot about my family. I usually blog about activities we have done together. It can be something as special as our Christmas or something as ordinary as our Thursday afternoon. How do you decide what to blog about? I usually ask myself, would this be something that my girls would want to read when they grow up? If the answer is ‘’Yes’’ then I blog about it.

4. How often do you blog and do you have a schedule of what type of posts happen each day? I blog up to 5 times a week. I have a weekly feature called ‘’Smile’’ (a post about ‘’things’’ that made me smile i.e. a tea latte my hubby brought home for me one time, something sweet that the girls did). I really enjoy writing this post because it makes me appreciate my family and all the little things they do that make me smile.

I also have a weekly feature called “Crushing on...’’ This feature focuses on persons, places or things that I am “crushing on’’. I have written about items such as scarves, the colour combination of grey & yellow, people such as Zooey Deschanel (I have yet to write about a place... will get to that soon hopefully!!). I really like to write this post because anything goes! If I happen to like it, want it or just bought it, I write about it!

5. Describe your process for creating posts. I am a super organized person. So of course, my method for blogging is organized as well. I like to write 3 or 4 posts at a time and then schedule when each post gets published. I think this method really works for me because I am not sitting at my laptop each day trying to figure out what I am going to write about.

6. Do you promote your blog? If so, how? It’s funny, but no, I don’t intentionally promote my blog. But I do have a handful of blogs that I read daily and comment on. These ladies have become my friends. And what’s so wonderful about the blogging community is how intertwined we all are. I may comment on a blog and then someone will click on my comment, jump to my blog, make a comment, and then I will jump to her blog and make a comment, and then someone else sees that comment..... see what I mean?

7. How do you keep track of things that inspire you or ideas you have for posts on your blog?
I make a list... is that nerdy of me?

8. What challenges do you sometimes face when blogging? There are some weeks where I have so many ideas for posts, I can’t wait to get to my laptop but then there may be a week, where I have no clue what to write about.

9. What goals do you have for your blog? I hope when my girls grow up and read my blog, they will think they have a really cool mom.10. What advice would you give to someone who is new to blogging? Try not to emulate someone else’s blog. Look to other blogs for inspiration, but blog about things that you love. Your posts will come off as genuine and honest and your readers will see that.

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Jozen has graciously offered to do a fantastic giveaway for 2 yards of beautiful designer fabric from her stash (see picture below)! Head over to her blog, become a follower of her blog, peruse her beautiful blog and then head back here and leave a comment on this post about what you like about her blog to be entered to win. Winner will be chosen at random and announced Tuesday morning, April 13. Thank you Jozen!
*All images and interview content are by Jozen of lola's girl