Q & A (continued)

Where are Ben's overalls from?
They were a gift from his Aunt Karina. She got them from Baby Gap.

What program do I use for creating cards?
I use the Adobe Creative Suite. I'm awesome with InDesign. I'm great with photoshop. I'm still a beginner with Illustrator. I spend so much time on these programs that they've started to feel like old friends. Just kidding. Kind of.

How did I get started in the stationery business?
There's a long version and a short version . . . the short version is that I had some training on these programs in college that I carried over and began using quite a bit in my real job. With lots of practice, I became pretty good on them. When my son was born, I designed his announcement. Then my niece's announcement. Then a save the date card. Then a few friends encouraged me to set up a shop and . . . voila! The rest is history.

The long version includes anecdotes about our first computer, a dot matrix printer and me using my dad's business copy machine to make duplicates of the "newsletters" that I wanted to send out to family members . . . but my mom never let me. No kidding . . . I used to look at my Highlights magazines and think about how I would have laid the page out differently. Maybe I'll dedicate a post to the long version at another time.

Do you have a photography business?
Well, yes and no. Technically, photography is listed as a part of my business on my incorporation papers. And people do contact me to book photo sessions. But I don't have a photography website, nor do I advertise. I might open a site in the future, but for now, I take all I can handle.

I'm my own worst critic when it comes to photography and right now, my insecurities in this area are too numerous to list.

So, maybe someday. We'll see.

What is your real job?
I work as a program director for a Christian camp. The camp is an RV campground, a retreat rental facility and an overnight youth camp. Kyle and I run the summer and winter youth camps and I also work with the marketing and keep up the web site.

I love my job. LOVE it. I've been working at the camp for almost 10 years (though I thought I'd only work there for one) and have been in my current position for 7 years.

Part of the reason I love my job so much is that I love small groups. That's a weird thing to love, right? In grad school, I took a course called "Small group processes" followed by "Small group curriculum" and I was so interested in how small groups and communities of small groups are transformational . . . or maybe I should say can be transformational. And while there are A LOT of different things that go into my job, the best part (for me) is that I get to train counselors to lead their small groups of kids during each week of the summer. Sometimes I wish I could be in a situation in which the groups were more long term and we could do more follow up, but I love what I get to be a part of at camp. I think I need to dedicate an entire post just to the benefits of sending your child to camp.

Thoughts on keeping a blog public v. private
It depends on your situation and your purpose. If your purpose is to just update family and friends or to only keep a record of your life, go private. No problem. If you would also like to use your blog to encourage and connect with others . . . public is the way to go. I would say a down side to making your blog private is that you can only invite a limited number of people to read it and if you have more readers than the limit, they're out of luck. But the down side to having it public is the obvious . . . everyone can have their nose in your business. Sorry that I'm no help there!