Kelli and Kristi from Lolly Jane Blog share their blogging tips and secrets with me (and you!)
I’m not one to freak out over lots of things, but getting to be in cahoots with some of the best in this biz is something I geek out about.
I love blogging, I really do. I feel super fulfilled in it and I even feel fulfilled getting to help others run their own blogs which is why I launched my own VA business at the beginning of this year!
The easiest way to learn a new skill or hone the ones you already have is to watch and learn from those bigger than you. Some of these girls I’ve been watching from afar for years and today I’m getting to be up close and personal with them.
Kelli & Kristi from Lolly Jane
I finally got to meet these 2 firecrackers back in July when we attended the Haven bloggers conference. They were SO sweet and SO. MUCH. FUN. Without baring my soul about them any further, let’s get in to our interview with Kelli and Kristi from Lolly Jane!
Give me the elevator pitch to your blog!
We are home decor bloggers who love creating, color and decor and believe everyone should love their home! We help people create beautiful spaces for themselves on any budget. Our goal is to empower women to love the house they’re in and give them the confidence to do it themselves. We feel so grateful to do what we love!
When did you start your blog and, more importantly, why?
Lolly Jane started in desperation in 2007 when Kelli’s husband took a $60k pay cut from a loan officer to a police officer. With 3 kids ages 4 to newborn, she enlisted Kristi’s help to host craft nights on her husband’s day off and started the blog to document their products during nap time. Around 2010, home decor blogs were starting to pop up so we switched gears to sharing how we decorated on a small budget, learning how to use power tools without the help of our busy husbands. We started working with brands to showcase their products by 2012 and were full time bloggers (with part time hours) by 2014. Although we’re no longer dependent on our blog income since our husband’s jobs are our families’ main sources of income, we still have a desire to share how to love the surroundings you’re in. We understand multiple walks of life and love to be able to work with anyone’s budget to create a home you love.
What’s your favorite project/recipe/makeover to date you have done?
Kelli’s house projects always make us smile but her craft room was our favorite! We ripped out the stained carpet then painted the concrete. Yep! PAINT! It was so cute with yellow and white stripes. We also hung floral curtains with lace ruffles, stenciled the back of a built-in bookcase, created rainbow shelves with vintage soda crates and our grandma’s old suitcases. It was featured in multiple magazines and one of them even sent out a professional photographer to shoot the room. We were over the moon!
Share one project you were excited about but it turned out to be a disaster.
Ha! One of our first sponsored posts was Gorilla Glue. We created a Halloween wreath by gluing painted mason jar lids together. Because it was painted, it didn’t adhere and as soon as we were done shooting, the whole thing toppled over. We still laugh about that fail!
What’s the best advice you’ve been given about blogging that’s changed the game for you?
Around 2014, we were debating about quitting blogging. It started to become saturated, social media helped our blog but also hurt it at the same time. People were using our ideas without credit, saying “Pinterest inspired” instead of sourcing the creator. It was a lot of work with little pay and started to become cutthroat. One of our blog friends asked, “What would you do if you quit blogging?” I realized we’d be creating anyway. Our mom would sit us at the counter as toddlers and we’d color and paint for hours. Our friend was right, we’d be doing what we do anyway so we may as well document it.
Tell me one thing not a lot of people may know about you and/or your blog.
We used to be foodie bloggers under the umbrella of a “lifestyle blog”. We still have the recipes on our site although we’ve moved into being decorators more than anything. Most of the recipes are from our aunt and grandmother. Yum!
Finally, if the internet went away tomorrow and you were forced into another career, what would it be?
We’d open our own soda shop and leave a retail space for craft nights–go back to our blogging roots!
And an interview isn’t complete without a super fun lightning round. Let’s go!
- Coffee or tea? Neither…Diet Coke 😀
- Coke or Pepsi? Diet Coke for life 😉
- Friends or Seinfield? Friends for Kelli, Seinfeld for Kristi
- SUV or minivan? SUV for Kelli, minivan for Kristi
- Early bird or night owl? Night owls since our days in the womb, much to our mom’s demise!!
- Indoors or outdoors? Indoors
- Paper planner or digital? People use planners? Does Google Calendars count? HA!
Kelli and Kristi are just straight up doll babies, y’all. The words I think about when I think about them are colorful, Diet Coke, and wreaths! These girls are NAILING the wreath game. They also have an Etsy shop where they sell all kinds of amazing round wooden signs.
We will be moving Josiah in with Charlotte when he gets to a big boy bed and I’m hoping to get 2 to go over each of their beds!
While it’s dang near impossible to narrow down, I wanted to share some of my favorite posts they’ve done:
Wreaths. See? Just like this one they did recently. SO GORGEOUS. And what I love about their work (and all the bloggers I interviewed, really) is that they show you how to do all of this for next to nothing!
Y’all know we (apparently) have a thing for bathrooms around here. 2 out of the 3 of the bathrooms we have in our house are done! We did a full gut job as OUR FIRST BIG DIY PROJECT EVER (who does that?!) and just a simple master bathroom refresh that was way less money, way less stress and way more fun because me and J wanted to kill each other way less.
But this sweet little farmhouse bathroom lives in Lolly Land and it’s gorgeous! You need to see the full reveal post because the details are what make this space.
Shocker. Another one of their bathroom reveals I fell in love with. Also, TILE TWINS!! Which, I guess since they’re already twins that makes us triplets?? I’m not even sure, but those tiles are in our laundry room so I have a special place for them in my heart.
I hope you enjoyed learning more about blogging and what it’s really like behind the scenes from Kelli and Kristi because I sure did! Stay tuned to next Friday where I’ll be interviewing another blogger for more blogging secrets revealed.
I would love to know in the comments – What was your biggest takeaway from the interview with Kelli and Kristi?
