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I've been thinking long and hard on how I want to write this post.  I'm back from another Alt Summit in frozen Salt Lake City. For those of you who don't write a blog, this is a conference like no other, designed specifically for creative/craft bloggers like myself. Topics range from "The Business Of Blogging", "Personal Branding", "Pinterest Strategies", and "Growing Your Community", and keynote speakers included Mr.Pinterest himself, Ben Silbermann. Last year I threw caution to the wind and I bought a ticket. I only knew one attendee, and I had no idea what it would be like other than that the dress code would be strictly awesome and I needed to have knock out business cards.  While I was there I spent a lot of time assessing how I fit into the big picture, feeling a little afraid that I would never really stand out, worrying a little that I might be medicore at the thing that I think I do best.  Have you ever felt like that before? I can have a lot of self-doubt. Those inspirational typography posters that say things like:

Art print by Whitney Bengal

...these are meant for me. I try to live with blinders on so that I don't get caught up in what everyone else is working on. When I lose focus, I inevitably start to question my own work. This brings me to the point of this post (finally). When I walked into the opening keynote speech at Alt Summit I was once again all alone, worrying a little about the things that do not matter like my outfit, and then there was Garance Dore, the charming and totally prolific French illustrator and blogger sitting at a lectern wearing all black.  She said a couple of things that completely changed the way I approached the rest of my time at Alt, and got me thinking about why I am blogging in the first place. Here it is (I paraphrase):

• I write about what I am interested in. If I lose some people along the way, that's okay, there will be new people, and they are there because they are interested in what I have to say.
• When I write, I write to a singular person.  This person is my "best friend". She is smarter than me, and she loves me for who I am. She completely supports me, but she will tell me when she disagrees with me. I write UP not down to her. 
• In french, "Niche" means "dog house".  I don't want to live in a dog house. 

I was so liberated (and uplifted) by what she said. In that moment, I took her approach to blogging and applied it to my time at Alt. I decided right then and there that my time would be best spent not worrying about what everyone else was doing, or wearing, or who they were. I would just plop myself down next to sweet looking strangers at lunch or in seminars and make friends. I ditched my elevator speech. I really talked to people, and I met some folks that I KNOW I will collaborate with; talented, interesting women whom I would never have really known that about had I not given the conversation time and attention. Most of the time, when I gave out my card, it was because I wanted to keep the conversation going! I decided against approaching any ill-fitting brands just because they were there, and I didn't stand in line for too long after a panel to meet the queens of blogging. I got something so very different out of Alt this time. 

Because of my collaboration with Blurb, I was lucky enough to have a little corner of a party dedicated to my blog, and all sorts of people came over to talk to me. We talked about making books, their work, my work, and life outside of blogging. I met artists, architects, interior designers, foodies... my people. I got something so much more out of it this time, and it wasn't because of any panel discussion or singular piece of advice(except for Garance). I left feeling confident that great things are on my horizon, and that the measure of success is very different to different people, and that for me, making and writing is what I am good at and trying to be like anyone else, or selling myself short is the thief of my success.

A Little Something

I will be headed on the first plane out of Oakland tomorrow morning to join in on the festivities at Alt Summit in Salt Lake City.  This will be my second time at the conference, and I get to go with Blurb, so I'm feeling pretty calm considering I don't know anyone really all that well.  I found the right dress to wear to the "Green" party, I've got my outfits packed, my seminars picked out (this will be the year of video!) and I finally seem to have kicked my wicked stomach bug.  After I hit the publish button on my last post, I stood up, got super sick, and went to bed for 20 hours.  I didn't know if I'd be able to get this one last thing done, but sitting and painting is actually really relaxing. Along with my business cards, I will also be handing out these little painted birch magnets as little takeaway to remember my blog by. I wanted to do something that would relate to my new book, which features projects that re-imagine simple materials into something useful and pretty.  To make your own follow the tutorial below. See you at Alt?  Come say hi! My name is Heather, and  I look like the silly girl up top without the paper crown and glasses.  
 

Painted Birch Magnets

Materials: Pre-cut birch pieces (Michaels, size Medium), 1/2" round magnets, acrylic paint, gold leaf paint, fine tip paint brushes, hot glue.

Step 1. Remove rough outer peel of of bark.  Clean 'em up. 

Step 2: carefully apply paint to the more attractive side of a birch piece. Start by making a ring around the outside, then filling in.

Step 3: After they have dried completely you can apply the magnet to the center of the back side, using a dollop of hot glue, pressing firmly for 10 seconds. 

Alt Bound

So I've been sitting on something kind of big for a few weeks...  Blurb is taking me to Alt Summit as their brand ambassador! I had originally decided to sit the conference out, I couldn't get my hands on a ticket, and when more became available the expense and time away seemed overwhelming, so I didn't pull the trigger. Around the time that I was working with Blurb on my video interview and the cook book author's food fair, I made it be known that I wanted to collaborate with them in some way for the conference. As a veteran attendee and a featured Blurb author, I thought I might have something unique to offer. Alt is all about honing your skills as a blogger and learning how to work with brands, and since I'd connected with Blurb last year we've really clicked. They took me up on it, and now I am also happy to announce that I just finished up my second book, in time for the conference at the end of the month where I'll be their featured author during their brand sponsored mini-party.  In this new book I showcase the work I've done over the last year or so using ordinary materials, re-imagined into something more permanent and beautiful.  It's called "Making A Modern Homestead".  Here's a sneak peek. 

The January Home

It's January. I know this because the frozen air and my somber post- holiday mood is leaving me with the overwhelming desire to strip my house naked like a tree without leaves.  I love empty space.  I love simple, natural elements. I love air plants, and succulents, and leafy stems, and barnacle covered stones. I made a winter terrarium with them this week. I rinsed the barnacles with cold water and shook the moisture off, then put them on a wooden cheese pedestal with air plants- the moisture from the rocks keeps them hydrated- and covered them with a glass dome.  The air plants look like sea plants to me, and the whole thing looks decayed, and frozen.

January is also the time of year when I tend to contemplate what comes next for me...I'm wrapping up my design stint with Anthropologie this week, getting ready for my trip to frozen Salt Lake City for Alt Summit at the end of the month, and my interior design courses resume next week. I'm not sure if I'll pick up a new internship, and what that might mean for Poppy Haus. I did take a little time away from blogging during December to sit with it and relax with my family. I do know this, I'm excited to have some more freedom to make and share, and I'm ready to get back to it with more regularity and a renewed feeling of creativity. xo, Heather
  

  

How I'm Slowly Growing My Blog

My strategy: Create and share unique, original content.

A little over two years ago I kind of stumbled.  I found myself living my days at home, with my very young children, and I began to feel the walls closing in on me. I couldn't really contribute much of my time to anything but childcare and house maintenance, something that I did because I really wanted to be home with my boys, but not because I felt all that satisfied by it; I think it's okay to admit that. I started writing this blog during nap time. Originally called "Make-Do", it was my creative outlet. I snapped warm, fuzzy pictures with Hipstamatic and wrote about my life, using projects and recipes as the take-away. It gave me something more to focus on, and a few of my friends read it, so I felt like I was connecting with the outside world a little more. I didn't have a plan for where it would go, because I didn't need one.

For Dani, My first post

Things changed about 6 months in when I decided to blog more often, with more focus, re-branding to Poppy Haus. I scaled back on some of my family content, and concentrated on what seemed to be really working for me- designing projects and cooking. I had found a way to take the monotony out of my day by turning it on it's head, filling my life with creative work and self-imposed deadlines. I now had projects building up around me. In March of 2011 I submitted one of these projects, my paper lanterns, to Design*Sponge, and they ran them.  That's when people other than my good friends started to see my work, and when my readership started to grow from a handful to maybe a bucketful. I began to to dream about running a blog with a real following, and I thought about how I might do it for profit. Over the next year I watched my readership ebb and flow. I increased my social media efforts, I tried to pay more attention to how I wrote things so that people could find my work on search engines, and I worked harder to create content that was both original and consistent, presented in a more concise and thoughtful way with stronger photography. It's this last bit that I think has benefited me the most. 

 The net of exposure from just a handful of my posts drives my traffic.

At the end of the day I am doing this, because I really like to work on creative projects. I create original content, and that's what works best for me. I think that original content is something that I have uniquely constructed, photographed, and written about.  If I am the first person to do what I've done in the way I've done it, all the better. This is what matters most to me, and it's why I keep this blog. I gave myself permission to be small, to enjoy my time, and I've grown as a blogger both in numbers of readers and with quality of content, because of it.  While Poppy Haus is still on the smaller side, I think it's a better blog that it used to be, maybe better than a some of the more well-read blogs in my genre, and it's growing in a way that makes me proud. Because there are so many smaller bloggers out there who do the kind of thing that I do, and a few of them read this blog, I thought I'd share some of what has had the most positive effect on my readership and exposure in the last year.

1. Attending Alt Summit

Me and Becky, braving a photo-op at the Method Party

Alt Summit 2013 was an eye opener for me.  I met so many people who do what I do, which is crazy, because it often seems like I am all alone in this strange world.  Alt is a conference for bloggers who are inspired by the Emily Henderson's of the world, and are looking to find opportunities to work with a very specific type of brand (Serena and Lily, Land of Nod, Minted, Method The Honest Company, Blurb). I made a few good friends at Alt, and we have become cheerleaders for each other's work. I also learned that I really can't do it all when it comes to blogging, and that's okay, I just need to do a few things well.  It was at a seminar at Alt that I developed my schedule, which has proved to be very good at keeping me on task while adding consistency to the blog.

2. Adding Video Content

I'd been flirting with the idea of adding video posts to Poppy Haus for a while before I finally sat down and learned how to use iMovie and made my first video post about our family pizza night.  I got such a positive response from readers that I have gone on to make a few more, including this one about how to make those paper lanterns (viewed over 3000 times).

3. Pinterest

Pinterest drives a lot of my traffic. I pin a picture from every post I do, and I've built up a modest but growing following, which has brought more traffic my way because of re-pins and direct pins from my blog by people with a larger following.  Occasionally pins from my blog go a little viral, as in the case of the macro bowl post. I also see better traffic from Pinterest because of this next thing... 

4. Craftgawker

I credit my friend Tiffanie Turner from Corner Blog for telling me about Craftgawker.  I submit my projects 3-4 times per month and doing so not only reaches individuals specifically looking for my type of work, but catches the attention of editors of larger blogs who link back to my work in round-ups. Pins of my work have also increased because of Craftgawker.  The net exposure of just a handful of my posts keeps traffic coming in.

5. Joining a social media network

I joined the Clever Girls Collective earlier this year. From here I can apply for paid opportunities to participate in brand campaigns.  I like this system, because I can really pick and choose what seems right for my blog. Participation in a campaign requires me to write a post, and engage on Twitter and Instagram, interacting with my followers, participating bloggers, and the client. So far I've done a campaign for Wyndham about my family vacation, and for Ford which took me on a little road trip to review their new compact Hybrid. I space this type of thing out, and try to keep the content relevant to my audience (people like me).     

6. Building relationships with brands I admire.

This is what has me most excited.  I've had the opportunity to participate in projects with a few brands that I really like this year. They found me, because they saw my work and liked what I was doing. I'm most excited about working with Blurb.  I made a Blurb book of my blog last year before Alt and as it turns out, Blurb really, really liked it.  They use it as a marketing piece at blogging conferences, and they featured me and my book at their recent food fair in San Francisco, which included filming an interview and food segment with me at my house to market the event- so crazy. I had so much fun working with them and I'll share more about that experience this week. 

So there you have it.  I'm probably not doing about a million things that I "should be" doing to grow the blog, but I feel pretty good about the way things are headed, with better content, and more focus than I started with. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions- and I promise I will never write anything this long ever again!

xo,
Heather

Finger Food

Last week I got an email from Blurb, the amazing site where you can make your own photo-books in order to self-publish a coffee table book, make a portfolio, or just create an amazing photo-driven gift... Last year I used Blurb to make a book about my blog to take with me to Altitude Design Summit so that I could share a beautiful hard copy of my blog with my DIY colleagues and introduce my work to the media and brands that were there to meet bloggers.  I was new at the whole selling myself thing (I'm still pretty reluctant) so having the book as a tool to share my blog made things a lot easier for me, and as it turns out, made me memorable to some brands, including Blurb.  Oh, here's the book link in case you are curious. A while back, shortly after ALT, Blurb asked me if they could use my book as a marketing piece for their brand, because they really liked what I made, and I of course said yes. So I was pretty excited when they contacted me again, this time because they have decided to throw a party to showcase some of their favorite food books, and they want me to cook for some folks, and maybe even shoot a little video. Yes, I'm pretty excited.  I had to pick something from the book, which only has a small food section, and because it makes a great finger food, and it's pretty fun to look at I chose the sushi hand-balls AKA temarazushi from this post.  I'm working on making them a little more visually interesting for the table so it's what's for dinner around here right now.  Here' a freshened up tutorial.  Bay Area readers(Corner Blog), let me know if you might want to come to the party. I can invite a few folks. It's on October 14th from 6-9pm in San Francisco.  

You will need: short grain white rice, seasoned rice vinegar, nori(seaweed), a hole punch (that looks funny), some scissors, plastic wrap and whatever ingredients you choose to add. I use mango, avocado, and smoked salmon on mine, because they work as lunch food for my kids, but you can use raw sushi-grade fish or cooked shellfish to make it more traditional.

Prepare rice.  The ratio is 1 cup rice to 1 1/2 cups water.  For best sticky rice, you want to rinse the rice ahead of cooking.  To do this just measure into a colander and run under room temperature water for a minute.  Put rice into a large pot with water, bring to a boil, cover and reduce to low heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  It should be puffy. Transfer rice to a bowl and drizzle with vinegar (about 1/8 cup). Cover with a cotton towel and allow to cool.  When it is room temperature, form into golf-ball sized portions, using water on your fingertips to prevent sticking. 

Here's where you get crafty.  I use a 1.5" circle punch and a single hole punch to cut my nori, but you can simply use scissors and cut the nori into 1-2" squares and make your own design. Get a bunch prepped, then it's time to assemble.

I used the top of the milk container to cut slices of mango, and used random cuts of avocado and thin slices of salmon, about 1.5" in length/diameter and draped them over the top of the rice ball, placing a nori piece on top, the I covered them in a 8" cut of plastic wrap and pressed it over the top, twisting at the back to form the ball tightly and incorporate the ingredients. In the original tutorial I dipped the nori in water before this step, but I don't think it's necessary.

And that's it, once they look smooth under the plastic wrap, pull them out and put them on a platter.  It's really pretty easy.

The Paper Lantern

I leave for vacation today, and will return to the blog in Mid-July.  I thought I'd leave you with a new video post, this time a project. My paper lanterns have been featured on Design Sponge, in magazines and at Alt Design Summit, but believe it or not, I've never done a tutorial here on Poppy Haus! When I started showing my projects, I didn't know that I needed to include tutorials. So, I made a short video to show you how I make a basic lantern. You can use any size white paper lantern, any size cupcake liner. If you want, you can layer the larger papers with a striped mini-liners to add dimension, or try using french pastry papers.  Just watch and learn!



Special thanks go to my camera dude Pete Maloney and my friend Zach for lending me his beautiful music. www.roguewavemusic.com

The Great Salt Lake

I'm back from frozen Salt Lake City where I had a real eye-opening experience at Altitude Design Summit. It was inspiring, anxiety-producing, and so very well executed. I have NO idea how the organizers were able to produce such a niche-specific blogging conference. I never wanted for anything the entire time I was there. I walked amongst pretty girls with top-knot buns and heavy rimmed glasses, blow outs and booties, in rooms with chandeliers the size of Volkswagen Bugs. I returned home with a suitcase full of business cards, some packed in confetti-filled glassine envelopes, and an Etsy Treasury of swag. This is not a dig, I'm telling you, it was a sight to be seen and experienced, and I am grateful. There were a few straight shooting presenters that have given me a lot to work with, and I met some incredibly genuine people.

I am a blogger with a modest, but loyal following. What you learn at Alt is that the social media component to blogging is complicated, and absolutely essential. Like any other industry, blogging is both collaborative, and competitive. There is an etiquette. I have the tendency to hide behind the pictures and the posts otherwise known as content, because I just love to make things and share them, but at the same time I want what most of them want, a career. There were some well-established bloggers and personalities at Alt, and I sometimes felt like the new girl at school trying to fit in. I am quite certain I was not alone in that. I know it will take me weeks to decompress, and to put into action all of the relevant information that I scribbled in my pretty notebook.  It will take me even longer to figure out what it all means to me. Thankfully I have my sweet little distractions back at home, and a few new friendships to cultivate, and a renewed sense that not all that glitters is gold. 

Will I return to Alt? I'm not sure. Probably. I can tell you this, if you are an aspiring blogger or trying to get to the next level, Alt is where it's at.

Pretty Woman

In two days a board a plane to Salt Lake City for Altitude Design Summit.  The hardest part about this whole experience for me so far has been figuring out what to wear. I will spend 4 days soaking up as much information as I can, making as many connections as I can, and I will do it wearing as much sparkle and sass as I can. 

In my everyday life I go to great pains to get up every morning, make breakfast, then more breakfast for my kids, pack lunches, put tiny socks on wiggling feet, brow beat teeth brushing, dose out vitamins, and referee squabbling. I tend to forget to eat during the feeding frenzy, but I manage to down 1.5 cups of coffee to sustain the pace. During this routine, I usually take about 15 minutes to rinse off, brush my teeth, put on some tinted moisturizer and blush (to look alive), and throw on some skinny jeans, topsiders, and a top, any top, my coat will cover it. My unbrushed hair is usually pulled into a bun/ponytail. Motherhood is super glamorous! Fortunately there's no time to look in a mirror.

So starting Wednesday, even my travel clothes will be well thought out.  I have a fancy golden pouch for the hundreds of business cards I will exchange.  I'm packing my new red dress for the Clue-themed party, and I'll be bringing along my Blurb book that features a collection of my blog posts from the past year. I mailed off my customized paper lanterns to Bing for their #bingittolife party. I'm so thrilled that my work was selected! Can you tell I'm excited?  I'm excited.

Pinned Together

Fall leaf project from Apartment Therapy Family

I'm happy to announce that I've been doing some pinning for Altitude Design Summit's Pinterest page.  Check out all of my favorite crafting for kids projects here.  If you are a blogger you must check out Alt.  They offer online classes on Alt Summit Channel specific to creative/lifestyle bloggers. I've taken a few and they've been tremendously helpful for me, so I'm excited to be contributing to their brand in some small way. This January, I'll be attending their wildly popular design summit in Salt Lake City. It sounds chilly and very exciting...