Can you share some tips for taking your Instagram photos? 

Sure! While I'm always trying to improve my Instagram game, I think I've learned a thing or two over the years:

1. Wipe off your phone's camera before you take any pictures. Sometimes my shots end up super blurry and I can't figure it out, and then I wipe off the back of my phone and suddenly everything is clear again. Rocket science, people.
2. Lighting is key. Make sure you aren't trying to shoot a photo into the light, or it's going to end up really dark.
3. I use VSCO Cam to edit my photos--and I like to stick to the same three or four filters so my Instagram feed looks consistent as a whole.
4. Sometimes I'll take a picture that I really want to share, but it isn't "good enough," i.e. it's too dark, too grainy, kind of blurry, etc. Over the last year I've decided to mostly not share those photos, but that's up to you. Sometimes you sacrifice likes or lose followers for posting photos that aren't perfect. Sometimes that's worth it. Depending on what you use the platform for, sometimes it's not. Instagram is weird. But it should be fun, so remember that.

When exploring a new city, what are three places you always check out (i.e. parks, the local diner, historical landmarks/monuments, etc.)? How do you find them?

As many of you guys have noticed, my favorite way to explore a new city is by walking around a lot and eating all day long. I'll ask for recommendations from people who live in the area, but in general I always want to find a great local coffee shop, a cool place for brunch, and a restaurant that serves amazing dinner. Rob is really good at finding cool places, happy hours, etc; so that makes exploring a lot easier.

When we were in San Francisco last month, we looked up a few places, but found the majority of the things we did by simply strolling by. It helps to have friends in the area, though!

What are your biggest fears/anxieties and how do you cope with them? 

Oh, you mean other than everything? I've been a pretty anxious person for most of my life, so chances are I've managed to be afraid of almost everything: death, illness, the ocean, outer space, going to the dentist.

I've gotten much less irrational over the last year, which I'm proud of, but I guess I would have to say that my biggest daily fear or anxiety is that I'm not doing enough with my life; and that can regularly manifest itself in weird and different ways. Coping with it is often easier said than done--I just do my best and try to remember to give myself a break when I fail (which happens a lot).

Did getting married change your life a lot? Does it feel different than dating did?

While planning our wedding, there were multiple times when all the little details seemed kind of stupid--we had been together for almost five years and I kind of already felt married. Even after our wedding ceremony, I didn't feel some magical transformation or anything, I just felt happy to have vowed to love Rob forever and that all of our friends and family were there.

It really wasn't until our honeymoon and after that I realized something had changed--and now, over a year later, I'm slowly starting to realize that "feeling married" is something that will grow with us every day. It's the commitment and the work that goes beyond the flowers and the dress and the champagne toasts. And yeah, it feels different. But better.

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Now it's your turn! I want to hear your answers. And as always, if you have a question you'd like me to include next time, let me know!

Photo: V.A. Photography Workshop by V.A. Photography.

What's the most interesting thing you've ever done? 

I must not be a very exciting person, because this one took a lot of thinking. When I was in high school, I took an awesome trip to England, France, and Italy, and my favorite part was the day or two we spent on the island of Capri. My friends and I wandered off to the beach and ended up jumping off some rocks into the sea, which at the time seemed incredibly exotic, sexy, dangerous, and excting. (I still kind of think it was.)

I actually wrote about it once in college:

“We stopped to have lunch and I felt like I was in heaven, looking down at the rocky beaches and bright turquoise water from narrow streets that wound through the town high above the sea. Sunlight spilled onto the beaches and streets in luscious rays. I ate the biggest peach I’ve ever seen in my life.

We walked past the shore and followed a trail of rocks that grew larger and larger and more and more into the ocean until we were basically standing on a miniature island made of warm gray rock, surrounded by nothing but deep, deep water and you could see all the way to the bottom. Everyoneee started jumping in. It was the most inviting display I’ve ever witnessed.

I’ve always been afraid of open water, but this seemed too good of an experience to pass up. Swimming in the dazzling, exotic waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea? People don’t get a chance to do that very often.

I stood with my arms crossed at the edge of the rock and made excuses. “I don’t have a change of clothes,” and “yeah, but what the hell is that thing?” Enormous dark boulders situated at the bottom of the sea turned into sharks and sea monsters that couldn’t wait to pull me under and never let me go...

My knees bent without permission from my brain as I thought about the leap. A wave of dread whipped through my body. The way the sunlight shone through the clear water made it look like thousands of diamonds were twirling to the bottom.

I took a deep breath and jumped.”

As a full-time blogger who works at home, what is your time management like?

What a question! Like everyone else, I want to be as productive and time-efficient as possible, but a lot of days I struggle to actually make it happen. Ironically, adding a few extra things to my life (Ender and a daily barre practice) has made me into a much better user of time.

I've always been a morning person but I used to have much more of a slow start to my day. Now I write a to-do list every night for the next day, and as soon as I wake up and take the dog out, I sit down at my computer and try to check off as many little things as possible. My day always looks a little different, but generally I'm up at 7, working by 8, heading to barre at 9:30, then back home to work from 11-5ish, with some breaks in between for walking or playing with Ender.

I think working from home (and for yourself) is a lot more effective when you try to keep normal business hours, but it's easy to get caught up in the flexibility of all of it, and there are definitely a few days a week where I don't get much done in the afternoon and find myself at the computer well after 11PM.

Have you ever had surgery or broken a bone? 

Other than my wisdome teeth, no--I've been really lucky and haven't had any surgeries. I broke my right leg when I was in fourth grade, and ended up with a stress fracture in the same spot eight years later (I don't think they were related, just a strange coincidence).

What's something most people don't know about you?

How about three? I totally believe in mediums, I don't know how to use a camera unless it's in automatic, and although space exploration fascinates me, it is among my greatest fears.

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Your turn! I want to know your answers, too. If you want to play along, leave a comment; and if you have a question you'd like me to include next time, let me know!

Other than food, what's your favorite thing to spend money on?

I think the answer to this one is coffee, or at least it was before I started going to barre. I rarely shop for clothes and when I do, I usually only buy one or two things. Coffee is the one thing I just love going out for. My favorite place in Charlotte is called Not Just Coffee and since discovering their dog-friendly location in our neighborhood (the main one is a couple miles away in Uptown), I've been going at least once a week with Ender. Sometimes Rob and I get up early and the three of us go there together before work. Those are always my favorite days.

What's your go-to dinner at home right now?

Because it's been so nice out (and because I hate doing dishes), we've been grilling pretty regularly these days. Chicken, steaks, burgers, or fish are our standard choices of protein, and then I like to do a vegetable that holds up well on the grill, like zucchini or sweet potatoes. I just slice them up, coat them in olive oil, and put them on a grill sheet while the meat is cooking. Delicious and so easy!

What's your favorite thing about where you live?

This one is from a previous post when we still lived in Minneapolis, but I thought I'd include it again since I have a new answer now. My favorite thing about Charlotte is that it's a large city with a small-town feel. Also we live really close to everything so we can take the train or walk almost everywhere. I run into people I know all the time now, and there's a lot of really fun, creative stuff happening all over.

I used to not like Charlotte because it's really new and often times it feels as though it lacks personality, but now I like it because of that--I feel like I get to play a part in helping it become whatever it's going to be.

Who's your favorite character on Game of Thrones?

Tyrion Lannister. I mean, come on.

Photo by V.A. Photoraphy.