Hello Steemit! I'm Amelia, it's nice to meet you.

I'm a working writer in East Tennessee, USA. I stumbled into Steemit headfirst in my quest to learn about blockchain and its seemingly infinite applications. As a blogger and micro-influencer on Instagram, I was fed up with my only income options being putting ads on my blog, taking products to review for pay, or in some way promoting someone or something else. My hopes for a community where content creators are valued and cooperative have been answered!

A few fun facts about my daily life

I am converting a school bus into a tiny home with my love, Alhen. In June 2017, we purchased a 1989 Blue Bird school bus and have been converting it since. I'll be posting our progress here on Steemit, so you can follow along, learn from our mistakes, and possibly dream for your own tiny home adventure. You can read the first progress post here!

that's Alhen with our slow rolling home

My pets are my family

I have three pets, and one step-dog:
Gallow, a retired racing greyhound from St Petersburg, FL (where I am also from). He's a 45 mph couch potato and loves to give hugs. His favorite dogs are fluffy small ones and I believe he dreams of having a gaggle of them following him around, sniffing his butt, at all times. 😂
Princess Tiger Lily, my first pet and my adventure cat. She loves to take long walks in the woods, sleep in everyone's beds but her own, and play with Alhen's dreadlocks.
Mini Cooper, a polydactyl Norwegian (weegie) Forest Cat from a trailer park in Florida who loves to sing, even though she's downright awful. She also enjoys trolling all of the other pets, getting them into trouble for her misdoings, scratching furniture, and leaving her food out all day to spoil. She's also the squishiest, snuggliest plush toy you could ever love.
Hobo, Alhen's rescue pup and the sanest of them all. He's always down to snuggle, often grumbles when given commands, and almost always comes when he's called. His favorite place to be: underfoot in the kitchen, praying for scraps or a pat on the head.

For a while, photography was my profession. Now, it is my hobby.

I enjoy taking photos of my city, my life, and my favorite things. I picked up a camera when I was 12 to take my first-ever MySpace profile picture (a self-timed full-body portrait) and have been hooked since. I worked with yogis, couples, and small maker businesses primarily, which sparked my love of product styling.

Later, working in marketing and social media taught me to value honest user experience and the testimonials of experts in their field. This is why I started photographing and styling products + ethically made clothing. I believe that as consumers and creatives, we can share what we find to be ethical, valuable, and sustainable with our community - no matter how small or vast - and impact our global production practices. My hope is to inspire those around me to think about how they're spending their time, money, and upvotes!

If you choose to follow me, I will be sharing a lot of my photography, typically in groups or as blog posts. So, I will not overcrowd this post with more photos!

Journaling + planning are two of my favorite activities​

I wrote my intro image lettering in my bullet journal which is the primary place where I organize my brain. My 2018 project is to become a diarist and write about the key elements of each day. This is in addition to my project planning, workshop and blog post development, personal and fictional writing, and reflection on major topics. Lately, I find myself reflecting on feminism vs/supporting femininity | ethical consumption + secondhand/upcycling | how to communicate with intimacy and authenticity.

In case you can't quite read all of my intro spread, here is a closer photo.

There is so much more to me but I hope you will stick around and connect through my blog. I am an avid writer so you can expect posts daily, often more than once as I am bringing my favorite blog posts from my personal website here. I don't think I will link to my website much because I'd rather keep the community growth here on Steemit.

I look forward to connecting with new Steemians from across the globe and hopefully contributing valuable and impactful work to this platform. Please leave a note saying hello so I can come visit your profile as well! And, here is an outtake photo from this self-timer mini-shoot I did to make sure I had a proper introduction photo. 🤓

“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.”

— ELIZABETH GILBERT