First of all, let me start by saying how excited I am to start a new interview segment here on Living Locurto!! I love to feature creative ideas, but want to learn more about the women who come up with amazing crafts, recipes and printables… then have time to blog about it! I hope you enjoy the interviews to come. I’ve lined up some amazing creative bloggers that I can’t wait to reveal!!:-)

Kicking off my first interview is with the talented team from HowDoesShe?

This gorgeous trio recently jumped into the blog scene full force and have now created quite a name for themselves! How Does She? is full of creative ideas as simple as writing love notes in the shower, to getting out tools and making something unique with wood!

I first stumpled across their blog with this awesome Banana Nut Muffin recipe. Yum!

Their Oreo lollipop treats are absolutely adorable.

I hope you enjoy learning more about Shelley, Missy and Allison. Thanks ladies for answering my questions!

When did you start How Does She? and what inspired you?

We started HowDoesShe in November of 2009.  Inspiration?  Talent and ideas.  There are so many amazing women who have certain areas “figured out”, we wanted to combine all this talent into one place and so it was born…HowDoesShe? – Missy

How do all of you know each other?

We all live fairly close to each other and we all share mutual friends. We also happen to go to church together. -Shelley

Do each one of you have a specific job?

We all take on different responsibilities on HowDoesShe. Alison is the business guru, Shelley takes cake of design work, and Missy is our photographer.  We all take turns posting and pick up each others slack sometimes!  -Shelley

Your blog seems to have really taken off! Congrats… now tell me your secrets:-) No really… please tell me some things you did to get the word out.

One thing that has really helped is the design of the blog.  Thanks to Shelley…she has an eye for design (and she stayed up way passed her bed time to get it perfect) and also, add Missy’s beautiful picture taking and editing ability into the mix.  They both are too modest to admit it BTW, but the presentation of your blog is HUGE!

Some other things that have helped us getting the word out is getting featured on others blogs.  (Thanks Amy for featuring us:-).  And feature back. We love finding other blogs that are amazing and telling our readers…everybody loves link love!

But make sure to obey copy write laws! Ask blogs that have about the same amount of followers if they want to do a trade.  Right now we are ‘swapping secret craft envelopes’ with Dollar Store Crafts.  She sent us some things and we sent her some things and we will show off each others crafts soon…big reveal.  Make if fun!

We have noticed that you really don’t just get ‘discovered’ you have to be proactive in getting noticed.  Submit your stuff!!!  If they like it things will happen if not no biggie…not every one gets back to us.

We just discovered Taste Spotting for our recipes and that brings in traffic as well as StumbleUpon.  We are grateful for Kari over at U-Create.  I think we about fell out of our seats the first time we were ever featured.  We saw our 10 things to do with a block posted over there the first couple weeks we started!  We kept hitting refresh to make sure it wasn’t going to be deleted.

We try and leave comments on others blogs especially the ones who link back to us and let them know how grateful we are for them.  Amy you are good at that too…we loved getting your  ‘thanks for the shout out’ comments! -Alison

Now that you have such a popular blog, what are some things you had no idea about before now? Things you wish someone would have told you about blogging.

We had NO idea how complicated maintaining a site would be. From web-hosting, to search engine optimization, and web coding,…yuck yuck yuck.  We just wanted to post fun ideas and feature other creative women!  We had NO idea what we were signing up for!  As fun as it is, there are some not so fun ‘business’ aspects.  It has taken a lot of time and dedication.  Thank goodness for supportive husbands and the fact that there are 3 of us. -Shelley

What do you do to find balance with blogging, work, crafting, parenting and family life?

I wish I had the answer – I am still trying to figure that out.  One thing that has helped me focus on my kids more is turning off my computer as soon as the kids get home from school.  This way I am not tempted by the dinging of a new email:) -Missy

What is the MOST fun thing that has happened since starting How Does She?

We started our planning meeting at Carl’s Jr play-land.  Our kids would play and we would plan.  We though that was great, but not so much.  We weren’t as efficient because we were taking kids to the potty and wiping ketchup out of hair so we switched to Wednesday night meetings.  They start at 8:30pm and go as late as 3:30am.  We have a hoot!  We get laughing so hard we cry.  The funny thing though…we get a lot done.  We have learned a lot from each other and I do think the most fun thing would be the Wednesday night plannings.

I know that’s not the funnest answer for everyone to read, so maybe I will just make one up…how about…The time Ellen came to our house and gave us $50,000 to make crafts for her show.  We flew out to her studio and helped design the gifts she gives her guests.  The funnest one was Justin Timberlake!  Whoo! -Alison

What’s in store for How Does She? Any big plans you can give us scoop on?

UMMM…sure  We are bound to get featured on I Heart Faces {{wink…wink}}  Our link did get deleted once…dang it.  I’ll keep trying though!

  • Note from Amy: I cracked up at this, but have no idea why you were deleted?? Guess you didn’t follow our rules:-) Whoops! {insert evil laugh here}

We will be on Good Things Utah (Channel 7) on the 17th of May and in the life section of the Idaho Statesman the Tuesday before Mother’s day.  Those are always fun and nerve wracking!

OOO… I know one you will really like.  We are giving a Silhouette Craft Cutter away sometime during the month of May!  $300 worth of pure crafting goodness:) -Alison

Wow! For only blogging for such a short time, I’m amazed by what all you’ve accomplished!  I’m sure you have inspired many people today. Way to go ladies!

**FYI – The girls are featuring me today and I’m giving away three Mermaid Party Packs!!! Go check it out and leave a comment to enter.

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18 Comments

  1. Love this! You can bet I will watch you on GTU! I watched when it was just one of you before…your site is great! I will tell all my other Utah ladies to tune in on the 17th!

  2. Hooray! I was one of the Mermaid pack winners!!! Can’t wait until my daughters 4 yr old bday party in June!! THANK YOU so much for sponsoring the contest AND for introducing me to yet another awesome blog!!!!

  3. @Amy, It happens on occasion doesn’t it? My wife and I both pretend to be crafty. I do the computer graphics and photography while she has mastered the paints, paper and glue. We both enjoy looking for ideas for the kids and us as well.
    .-= Philip´s last blog ..They Just Come That Way =-.

  4. Whoo hoo! Gosh we are feeling extra special today! Thanks for featuring us and for making us look so cool. 😉 You are the best Amy.

  5. I’ve had so many of my blog friends start up these interviews that I’ve been thinking about doing it myself. I’ve even been interviewed a few times. It’s a great way to find other blogs. I’ll go check them out.
    .-= Screwed Up Texan´s last blog ..Table Talk =-.

  6. Great interview. As one of the few men that hang around these blogs let me say thanks. You women are an inspiration to my wife and an encouragement to me. Neither of us have the talent you do, but we enjoy trying. It is also fascinating to read how some of our favorite blogs started out. Keep up the great work!!
    .-= Philip´s last blog ..They Just Come That Way =-.

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