here's the deal. every day i get closer to having this little gal the more i lose motivation to write. 

is it just me or is being pregnant mind-numbbingly all-consuming? as in...i think about it pretty much every minute of the day. 

it can be totally exhausting. i'm ready to be done thinking about being pregnant. 

(cue the complaining...which is exactly what my farmer has been dreading for the past eight months.)

however...then there are bright and shining moments when i get to introduce you to a gal like amanda from small home big start. 

there are loads of blogs out there. some are special. some are not. some are something else. 

amanda? she is special has a little something for us all, which is exactly why i'm jazzed to share our little q + a sesh.
KARLI | so...because i've blog stalked you and your about page i know kind of how your blog got it's name, but is there more to the story?

AMANDA | way back in 2009, i started small home big start because i was living in my first solo apartment (a tiny tiny space in little italy, toronto) and even though it was small, it was the start of great things to come. then i met an amazing guy, moved with him to a small town and got married this may. we're still in a small home but it still feels like a pretty great start for our lives together. 
KARLI | i love it. i have a special place in my heart for people who start in small homes...seeing as how i started my love story in a single-wide trailer for the first two years of our marriage. single-wide. tiny. those were the days. 

i love that you do wedding wednesdays. do you have a favorite DIY or two or three to share?

AMANDA | i had so much fun making the projects for our wedding this spring, but if i had to narrow it down to some of my favorites, they'd be the honey jar wedding favors and making my veil. they were both projects that people thought i was crazy to do, which meant it was even more of a challenge. the guy we bought the honey from thought we were nuts to do it ourselves and i had nightmares of honey flowing through the kitchen but we pulled it all together with minimal spills!
amanda's DIY wedding honey
karli's DIY wedding honey

KARLI | yay! i did my own honey jar favors too! we had little tags that said, love is sweet...great minds, friend. great minds. (ps. your jars were FAR cuter with the custom label. love that.)

what about DIY's that don't have to do with your wedding?

AMANDA | this summer i painted the old wooden pool deck at my parents' place and gave the whole pool a little makeover. not only does the deck look amazing, but now we want to spend more time out there enjoying the water and the gardens. 
KARLI | you can count me in for a pool party. just let me know where to book my flight. 

your photography is pretty stellar and lovely and i'm jealous. do you think your good eye comes from being a film producer or is photography something you've had to work at? any tips?

AMANDA | thanks! photography is definitely something that i've had to work at. my love of photography actually came about when i started up small home big start. i've never taken any classes but i've found that the best way to learn is just by taking LOTS of photos. for a regular recipe blog post, i might take 10 - 15 pictures of the same shot, moving objects around or changing positions, but eventually i'll get the one that i love. 
when we got back from our honeymoon road trip, i had 3500+ photos that i had to pare down into 10 posts. i'm making a photo book right now with some of our favorites so that we have a hard copy to look at too. 

KARLI | 3500+??! i get overwhelmed with anything over 30...well played. 

so, now that you've nabbed that fine fine man of yours, what's next? where do you see yourself in five years?

AMANDA | our big thing now is getting a house! we've been waiting for a few years now while all the dust settles with careers and such, but now i'm itching for a place to truly call our own. i feel like i'm always on pinterest looking for ideas! for now we're happy to share it with our two rescue dogs, whiskey and cola, but down the line we'd love to fill it up with a family. 

KARLI | we did it slightly backwards...first the kids and now we're thinking we might need a dog or two. but for some reason...farmer and i are more nervous to get dogs than we were to have kids. go figure. 

speaking of big changes, any shocks about being married? do you drive each other crazy like i drive my farmer crazy?

AMANDA | we live in a small apartment that is barely 450 square feet, so we've learned to get along and patch things up quickly because you can't really get away, ha!

KARLI | that sounds far too mature. when i first got married i was big on passive-aggressive. also known as a one-way ticket to unhappiness. i've since learned my lesson. it's so much easier to just forgive and move on...or ask for forgiveness and move on. happy is easy. anger is hard. these are truths. 

did you honeymoon? any future travel plans?

AMANDA | as mentioned before, for our honeymoon we went on an epic road trip through the southern US in may - sixteen states in sixteen days!
we hit up nashville, new orleans, st. augustine, savannah, and charleston - but our favorite stop was to a great place called laurel, mississippi. we just fell in love with the people, the town, and the history. 

KARLI | awww...that sounds like memory-making at it's finest! farmer and didn't do an actual honeymoon...until we had a three-month old and took her to hawaii. i wouldn't say it's the very best way to honeymoon...but in the same breath...it was hawaii, so there's that. last question...i swear...

i've seen some seriously deliciousness going on over on your blog. what are your favorite documented recipes?

AMANDA | i work a full time job, a part time job and run the blog, so the recipes i share are usually things that i can make easily, or make lots for leftovers. the big favorites in our house right now are cranberry apple cinnamon baked oatmeal as a make ahead weekday breakfast and a loaded potato + buffalo chicken casserole that is guaranteed to turn even the worst day into a good one. 
KARLI | those both look and sound extremely pin-worthy. count me in. 

(hear that everyone? pin these recipes.)

well, as stated, that was our very last Q for miss amanda, my neighbor to the north (east). (did you guys know idaho borders canada? it does.)

but before amanda peaces out of here she wanted to throw in one last treat!

she's offering 50% off her ad spaces using the code SEPTEMBERFARM. go check out your ad-space options!

you can also check her out here - 
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