Blogger Spotlight: Stop the Ride! & 100 Acre Wood

I am so pleased to share an interview with one of my favorite blogging mommas. I have enjoyed reading her blogs for quite some time now and it gives me great pleasure to introduce her to all of you. If you haven't read some of Stephanie's work before, you are missing out! She has inspired me so much in the art of stretching a buck. Stephanie has a way of introducing new ideas for savings to her readers, and actually practices what she preaches. She seems to constantly challenge herself and her readers on ways they can save their family money. I hope that you will stop by Stephanie's corner of the internet and show her some love today! She is a great friend and an incredible mother. In addition to that, she is a talented blogger that can offer you valuable information in learning how to make your dollars scream with mercy.

Please tell me a little bit about your blogs and how long you have been blogging for?

I have two blogs, Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood is my personal blog. It is what I do since I don't scrap book, keep a journal or keep up the baby books. Stop the Ride! is where I blog about simple & frugal living & debt reduction.

I started 100 Acre Wood in Feb '06 and Stop the Ride in Aug '06.

Do your friends and family know about your blog or are you leading a secret blogging life?

I started blogging to keep in touch with family and friends, so yes, they know about it. In fact, many of my family members also blog.

What do you feel you have gained through your blogging?

There really are so many things. We had just moved out of state when I started blogging. It became a source for adult contact for me, and a community of sorts. I found so many interesting people. Many who see the world very differently than I do. You don't get that in the real world as easily. It has increased my understanding of different groups a lot, but has also shown me that we really have a lot in common. We often want the same things from life, but see different paths to them.

What is your favorite feature on your blog right now?

The Make It From Scratch carnival at Stop the Ride! I love seeing all the different ideas, and the interaction of the people who participate. It does take a bit a of time to put together, but I really enjoy it!

What are you doing when you are not blogging? What do you treat yourself with?
Thinking about blogging. :) This time of year you'd find me in the garden or perhaps on a foraging walk. A treat is any time I get alone. The biggest treat I've had lately was attending a retreat with the women from our old church. Tim kept all four kids!

What are some your favorite blogs?
Besides Motherload? The ones I've been reading the longest (except family ones) are:
Frugal Upstate
Butterfly Mama
Homesteading Neophyte
Scribbit

Do you experience writer's block? Do you have a cure for it?
I more often have more ideas than I have time for. Since 100 Acre Wood is more like a journal I really don't have writers block there. I just post when something interesting is happening; a lot!

Sometimes I get stuck for ideas for Stop the Ride! A couple things that seem to help me: First I keep a list of ideas written down. Some weeks I'm overflowing with ideas, almost never with time. The ones I don't get posted I write down. Just a title or a few words to jog my memory when I want to write about it.

The other thing I do is stop, take some deep breaths, or even walk away from the computer for a bit. I think about what I've done the last few days. That is usually enough to give me an idea and get me going again.

What is your favorite thing to write about?
It is hard to choose, but I guess I'd say saving money, especially with food. I consider it a challenge to try to save, and it is a thrill to do it and then post about it.

Please share with me your favorite entry and tell me why it is your favorite?
Even tougher!

100 Acre Wood - Life Languages Live
This is one of my earliest posts. I just love the story and how it shows my kids' personalities. Funny as I reread this tonight I thought where is Vivian in the story. Oh, she wasn't even born yet. Seems impossible.

Stop the Ride!- A Stretched Chicken
I challenged myself to see how many meals I could make from one whole chicken. I had a lot of fun with these posts. There were four posts in the series. This is the last one. It links to the others.

**Would you like to be highlighted here in our blogger spotlight? Please email me at [email protected] and let me know! I am looking forward to doing a variety of interviews and getting to know our blogging community better!**

Blogger Spotlight: Home Ec 101

Inspired by my recent interview with the folks over at Shakadoo, I thought it would be great fun to feature some of my very favorite bloggers. If you don't get an email from me and really want to be featured here, please email me at [email protected] and I will send you some questions.

I was so excited when my favorite blogging gal, Miss Ivy, emailed me to request an interview. She is one of my absolute favorite bloggers. I love her tongue in cheek humor and fun writing style that she offers to her readers. Until I did this interview, I actually didn't realize that I had been reading all of her blogs and never realized that they all were written by her. What talent! I don't know how in the heck she does it, as I struggle to keep up with my little corner over here.

In this interview, Ivy shares the scoop on Home Ec 101. If you haven't visited this blog, go TODAY! Run over there! It is an awesome blog and I love the fifties feel to it. It shares all the tips you wish your momma taught you (or she did teach you and you just didn't listen!)

Tell me a little bit about your blog and how you came to the decision to begin blogging?

I originally started blogging on LiveJournal on the auspicious date of April 22, 2003. I just started blogging on LJ because all my friends were, and I wanted to be one of the cool kids. I started reading NashvilleIsTalking.com in May of 2005 and started up my blog at blogspot shortly thereafter. After fits and starts, I got really involved during the time of Katrina, and have been blogging my tushie off both personally and professionally ever since.

I'm currently blogging in 5 different places- my personal blog, the badbadivy experience; the mommy blog, Love Shak, Baby; the gardening blog, ShakYard; the home improvement/DIY blog, Curbly; and the crowning glory of my personal achievement, Home-Ec 101.
Home-Ec 101 is an advice-style blog that takes a sassy look at the ins and outs of housework. My partner Heather and I cover cooking, cleaning, pet problems, and any other random question that comes our way.

I see you work with another blogger on this blog? Do you live close to each other or are just cyber buddies that decided to pool your talents?

Heather and I are women of many talents, but it's just the two of us blogging at Home-Ec 101. Heather and I met on an AOL message board while we were both pregnant with our three year olds. I was talking to a mutual friend in an IM about how I thought one of the women posting on the message board was totally faking her pregnancy, and the mutual friend told me I needed to meet Heather, because she thought the same thing. I IMed Heather the next time I saw her online and we've been best pals ever since.Heather lives in South Carolina and I live in Tennessee. Heather and I are each other's Motel 6 when we're in each other's area.(Heather says like Motel 6, but without the bugs) Who needs room service when you have friends to crash with?

Do your friends and family know about your blog or are you living a double life?

Most of my friends are bloggers, so they know all about my blogging activities. My family knows about my blogging, but they don't tend to read, which is great- I can talk about them as badly as I would like. Of course, when I do start talking badly about them is the instant they get a wild hair and decide to read my blog, so it's a double-edged sword.

What are your favorite things to do when you are not blogging?

I enjoy reading about blogging, reading other bloggers, hanging out with bloggers, planning blogger parties and playing video games. Sadly, there aren't any video games about blogging.

Since you ladies give out so many tips, what is your favorite tip that you have shared and what makes it your favorite?

I love the post I wrote about doing things imperfectly. It's really easy to get caught up in the vast details of life and end up doing nothing because we want to get things right.

What do you want people to come away with when they read your blog?

If people read our blog and come away with some tiny piece of information they didn't know before, we're happy. If people do that *and* are entertained at the same time, we're deliriously happy.

Who are your idols?

This is going to sound random, but Oprah Winfrey and Willie Nelson are my heroes. Oprah because she is a strong woman who has overcome many odds to come out on top, and Willie Nelson because he makes absolutely no apologies for being who he is. Plus, I love his music, and I'm not a big fan of country music.

How do you separate your blogging life from your real life?

I really don't. Nashville has a really cohesive blogging community, so most of my local friends bloggers. This makes my life tend to revolve around blogging. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way!