Editor’s Note: Kelli Trontel and Vanessa Warren are wives, moms, entrepreneurs and friends who have been collaborating together since 2005. They are the founders of “My Everyday,” a photo blog series at www.kelliandvanessa.com that is centered around everyday moms, who live out a life full of intention, creativity and passion. Here they share how their idea became reality.
We are women living that day-to-day, sometimes non-glamorous life of motherhood and trying to tackle our businesses at the same time. Not an easy task. It’s hard, it’s beautiful, it’s trying, it’s a privilege … but overall we are living our dream.
Photography is a passion for the both of us. We value the art and importance of moms getting in photos with their kids! We usually find moms behind the camera, while looking at a shortage of images with them in the actual photos with their children. Many of us moms look at ourselves with a critical lens – we don’t like our bodies, we aren’t happy with our weight after having children, we compare ourselves to others etc. We do this while holding the sweetest treasures we could ever receive in this lifetime. Life is short and this season of motherhood quickly moves from one season into the other. Our passion is to document it: the Tuesday morning tea parties, snuggles in bed and homeschool sessions! This is life!
Our inspiration behind this project is finding the beautiful mess among the styled perfection, which seems to surround us everywhere we look these days. Life has begun to look all too perfect, which can make us feel inadequate at times. Can we get an AMEN?!? The vision is to be REAL, RAW and AUTHENTIC; to document our real life – just the way it is – and not how we think others want to see it; showing photos that display the love we have for our children and our passion for being great moms.
We want this series to be a hub for women to find encouragement and inspiration from everyday moms who do what we do and exude creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. We have found some pretty inspiring moms who do their job so well. Some are well known and many are under the radar, but equally inspiring and deserving of a little spotlight.
How an Idea Became Reality
First of all…we had to DO IT… and not just talk about it.
We both completed our own interview – everything we were going to ask other moms to do. This was an important step as we know moms are busy and we needed to walk out the process first to see if it was doable. We also needed to release our own Q&As to see what the response was like – to see if there was interest. We knew there would be, especially on Instagram. Instagram really does a great job at giving people a glimpse into peoples lives. We love the way that many people have chosen to use it. It really breaks down walls of “fans” and embraces community and friendships.
Because of our own love for Instagram, we knew we wanted to utilize that platform, but also drive traffic back to our blog. As with any social media platform, things can change and we didn’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket. If Instagram were to change their policy in a way that every mom would jump ship, we knew it would be important to have a home base that we could control (our own blog). So, we feature 1-2 questions on Instagram and the rest of the interview on our blog. (We also do this to cut down all the text on Instagram. We know that people don’t want to read a super wordy caption under a photo, so two Q&As works great for us!)
Instagram is proof that we desire community and are interested in the details of peoples lives. So, our questions are focused on the little details: our backstory, favorite times of day with our kids, our go-to outfit choices etc. We wanted to keep the questions simple for moms because we’re all busy. Moms are able to answer questions and send IG photos all from their phones. We don’t know one mom who is sitting on their computer all day long, so we knew utilizing the mobile device was key.
As mothers it is inspiring to know that we are not alone on this journey. We are thankful for the community of women found on Instagram and excited that our blog can be a source of encouragement to so many, whether you’re a mom or dream of being one someday.
Our goal with the My Everyday series is to highlight inspiring moms who do their job well. Some may not be as well known as others, so we’d love to highlight someone you feel deserves a little spotlight. Nominate a mom that inspires you! Post your nomination on instagram.com/kelliandvanessa by leaving a comment with the mom’s IG name OR by leaving a comment on the Kelli + Vanessa blog with a link to the mom you’re nominating. All nominations should be submitted by Friday, February 1st & we will select three moms to feature on the My Everyday series in the month of February.
