Q & A Featuring Allison @ A Farm Girl’s Life

There are many bloggers out there who dream of reaching their blogging goals. Maybe it’s to reach 50 followers. Or 100. Or maybe it’s to grow their mailing list. Or to have an organized schedule.

Today, I’m interviewing Allison from A Farm Girl’s Life. She recently hit 3,000 followers! That’s a huge milestone! In light of this, I thought it would be great if I asked her some questions related to her blog, life on the Farm, and her Etsy shop. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I did!

Rebecca: Wow! So you recently just hit 3,000 followers. How does it feel?

Allison: Incredible! I’m still so shocked – I can’t believe it! O.o

R: What year did you started blogging, and what prompted you to?

A: I started blogging in May of 2014. I’m not entirely sure what prompted me to start, but I think it was because Megan had to do a blog for school and I thought it looked fun.

R: Did you have any blogs other than A Farm Girl’s Life, or do you right now?

A: I did use to have a blog on the Blogger platform but I only posted, like, four posts and they were all terrible.  No one really saw it either, so I just kind of stopped. Yes, actually I do have another blog currently! Well, it’s a collab blog that I’m part of, called The Art Lab. A few other bloggers and I take turns posting art inspiration and tutorials.

R: Who are some of your favorite bloggers or people you look up to?

A: A few of my favorite bloggers/blogs are Clara & Co, The Barefoot Gal, Purrfectly Inspired, Lucillian Photography, Charis Rae and many more!

R: What is your favorite topic to blog about?

A: I think photography. The possibilities are endless, and I love experimenting with my camera! Although I also love blogging about art. Not surprisingly, art and photography are my favorite things to read about as well.

R: Other than reaching 3,000+ followers, what was your biggest and best moment in blogging?

A: Definitely being featured on WordPress Discover, a website that features “A daily selection of the best content published on WordPress,” and currently has over 17 million followers! I’m still blown away that they featured me, and I don’t exactly know why – but I’m sure glad they did. Being featured gave me a huge boost that got me where I am today. I didn’t know this until recently, but you can actually submit your best post(s) here to get a chance to be featured.

R: What do you see happening in the future for A Farm Girl’s Life?

A: I’m pretty satisfied with how my blog is going at the moment, so I’ll probably just keep doing more of what I already do, although I might eventually purchase a more professional theme. I think I’d also like to start sharing more thoughts on a deeper level (like in my Thoughts on Beauty post) rather than only “fun” posts.

R: What is your favorite part(s) of living on a farm?

A: I love… practically everything, the whole experience! But a few of my favorite things are…

• The freedom and beauty of living in the country with hundreds of acres to roam and explore. I would hate to only have a few feet separating my house from the next one.
• The family. This is a huge blessing: our farm is family owned and operated, so I can run up the hill to my grandparents’ house or walk down the lane to my cousins’. We can always count on our family to back us up and do the farm chores if we’re not there, and they can count on us.
• Watching the progress of the crops, hoping and praying together for rain in a dry spell or good weather for harvest. I think farming really makes you dependent on God because the weather is one thing humans simply can’t control, and it’s a huge part of farming – it can (and does) make or break a crop. It’s exhilarating, but humbling to know that you can only do so much.

R: Any favorite/special moments from life on the farm?

A: Ahh, this is hard! I like it when we go on family walks around the farm – once we tried to walk around the border of our whole farm, but we didn’t quite make it. XD I also like playing around in the grain bins with my siblings. After Dad combines (harvests corn), he stores some of it in big grain bins, which are kind of similar to silos, but shorter. It’s great fun to climb the ladder inside and jump down into the corn kernels.  I also love driving up the hill behind our house to see the sunset over the mountains. It’s beautiful.

R: What is your favorite season, and why?

A: Mmm, I think spring. I love the exhilaration of new life and warmth after the coldness and deadness of winter; I love seeing the new crops come up and new leaves come out (and the flowering trees before that!); and it doesn’t hurt that my birthday is in spring too.

R: Let’s talk about The Color Box Studio, your Etsy store you recently introduced. When did you come up with the idea of having an online store?

A: I don’t know when, exactly, but I heard about Etsy several years ago and thought, “yes, that would be perfect for me!”

R: What prompted you to share your art with the online world?

A: I’ve dreamed of selling my creations for pretty much forever, and although I enjoy various types of arts and crafts, art itself is probably my favorite of all of them. It’s so versatile and just incredibly fun to make! I also think that God has given me a gift, and I want to use it to bring him glory and other people happiness.

R: Is there any particular reason you decided on art, and will you expand your horizons to selling more than just art?

A: As I said, art is probably my favorite out of all the different arts/crafts I do. Whereas I have discovered some things (like polymer clay) only a few years ago, I have loved art my entire life, and so have had my entire life to practice! I chose art because I love to make it, and people seem to like seeing my art as well. I may eventually expand to different products with my art, such as mugs or t-shirts, and I’d also love to have a sort of all-in-one shop (maybe even a real craft shop!) to sell not just art, but various other things I make.

R: Let’s talk about writing. Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year (or did you do it)? If so, what is your Novel about? If not, are there any other projects you’re working on or any contests/challenges you’re participating in?

A: I’m not doing NaNo this year, but I just finished participating in Carol’s wonderful Cameras and Pens writing contest. One of the stories I wrote for it gave me an idea for an entire series, so maybe (hopefully) I’ll get to write that one day.

R: What camera do you use?

A: A Nikon d3400. My favorite lens is my 50mm lens, but I also use the kit lens sometimes. I’m having fun learning how to use a DSLR, and I would recommend this one! Before this I used a Nikon L830, which wasn’t a DSLR but was also a stupendous camera. I’d also recommend that if you’re looking for a good, affordable, non-DSLR camera.

R: What is your favorite part about photography, and what type do you like best (portrait, landscape, etc.)?

A: I love capturing small, beautiful things you might otherwise forget pass by unnoticed. A bedewed spiderweb, the way the light looked on the mountains, the smile on someone’s face… I think that a camera can make anything beautiful, and I love capturing the beauty around me to brighten other people’s days as well as my own. As for my favorite type, my first pick is nature or close-up photography, but I also like shooting portraits and a bunch of other different things – anything, really!

R: It’s a cold, rainy, November morning. What would you find yourself doing on a day like this?

Doing school, blogging or some other computer thing, drawing, writing letters or emails, or reading.

R: Thank you for answering all my questions, and again, congrats!

A: You are most welcome, Rebecca. I really enjoyed answering them – you chose some great questions!  And thank you!

That’s a wrap! Thank you so much for reading this Q&A. If you want to see more posts like this, drop a comment down below. I love hearing from my readers!

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You can congratulate Allison on her blog by clicking here.

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake. Psalm 79:7