Adopt-a-Blogger Interview Part Two: Marilla's Blog

I told you before that I've been adopted by Marilla of Cupcake Rehab through Dine & Dish's Third Adopt-a-Blogger Event. Today I'm giving you Part Two of my interview with Marilla. The following questions focus on Marilla's blogging. If you missed Part One, you can find it here.

Amanda: What is your blog process like? Do you blog a recipe as soon as you make it, or do you have a backlog of recipes that you pull from? How do you go about blogging?

Marilla: I usually blog it pretty much right away. I'm impatient by nature and like to do things immediately. I do have a book which I call my "bible" and its a chartreuse canvas-bound sketchbook I bought for an art class and never used, so I started cutting out recipes and craft ideas and stuff and taping them in it. Its pretty much filled now, and when I buy the next one I'm going to use it for only recipes this time because the craft stuff throws me off when I'm looking for something. Anyway this book is FULL of recipes I still have never made, both dessert recipes & savory recipes. So I guess I sort of have a backlog as well. I start a blog while whatever it is I'm making is cooking/baking. Then I stop to either serve it/eat it or take it out of the oven, and then continue blogging. Like I said, I'm impatient and its good for me to have something else to do otherwise I'd take it out too soon or frost the cakes too soon and end up with a mess. Then I take the pictures either during or after this process, resize them in Photoshop (and adjust color if I have to) and post it. Ta-da!


(Marilla's Banana Bread)

Amanda: I know this isn’t going to happen anytime soon, but I like to think about this question myself. So I’ll ask you too. If no one read your blog, would you keep posting? Why or why not?

Marilla: Oh definitely! Because I enjoy it. When I first started I had two readers: my friend Yoyo and my boyfriend Jay. Thats all. And I still posted everything and told my stupid little anecdotes and pictures. I didn't have any idea that I'd get any more people reading it, honestly. When I started getting more readers and visitors I was really surprised. Then these emails started pouring in, asking me questions and telling me how much people enjoy reading my blog, and telling me they loved the name of it and why haven't I made shirts. Thats when I decided to make those shirts or something...


(Seasonally inappropriate, yes, but I love the staging of Marilla's red velvets.)

Amanda: How often do you change your blog layout?

Marilla: Well when I first got the domain up and running I had about four in the span of a week, because I was still learning the Wordpress thing and figuring out how to tweak it the way I wanted. I'd never used it before other than on wordpress.com, I used to use Moveable Type and years before that I used Greymatter (I'm really dating myself there, good thing nobody really knows what that is anymore haha) when I had previous blogs, so it was a process. But then I had one layout for about 6 months or so, until Wordpress somehow got messed up and wasn't loading properly, so I had to reinstall it and start from scratch (thankfully I was able to export and then import all my entries/comments so they were saved). Since then I've had two more counting the one I have now. I pretty much only change it when I create a new "logo" that I really love, and when I have the patience to sit and change my color scheme, etc.


(One of the shirts available in Marilla's store.)

Amanda: When did you decide to add a shop to your blog? What was the first item you made available in the store? What was the first item sold?

Marilla: Jay told me all along to do it. Mainly because my blog name is so catchy and funny. But I was like, "Dude, nobody is going to buy them!" So just to test it out, and since people were asking me about it in emails, I opened up a Cafepress store. I've sold more stuff than I expected to for sure. The first item I made available was the pink ringer tee- thats still one of my favorites too. The first item that was sold was that very shirt... and I'd love for the girl who bought it to send me a picture! But its been over a year so I doubt she will, haha.