About Kiersten & Oh My Veggies
Why hello! Thanks for stopping by my blog and clicking over to learn more about me. I started blogging as The Type A Housewife back in 2011. The name was tongue-in-cheek, but sarcasm goes over like a lead balloon on the internet, so in April 2012, I changed the name of this blog to Oh My Veggies. When I began blogging, I had no idea what I wanted to write about–I didn’t settle on being a food blog until after I had been blogging for several months. But now that I’ve settled on a niche, Oh My Veggies is a much better fit for my blog.
As you can see, Oh My Veggies is a vegetarian food blog. I try to publish two recipes a week and on Fridays, I publish a post with photos of some of the meals I ate over the past week (which gives me a chance to highlight some of my favorite recipes from other bloggers and websites!). On Tuesdays, I alternate between updates on my gardening efforts and tutorial/step-by-step recipe posts.
I have a master’s degree in Library & Information Science, which isn’t exactly the most lucrative field to be in. (My BA is in history and African Studies–boy, do I know how to pick useful majors!) I worked as a periodicals librarian for a few years and then decided library work just wasn’t for me; I began doing freelance taxonomy work (which is the fancy way of saying that I organize websites) and contract work for a search engine. Freelance work tends to be pretty feast or famine, so during one of those famine times, I picked up blogging. I never set out to make an income from blogging and I never really believed anyone would be interested in what I had to say. I feel giddy anytime someone tells me they made one of my recipes or that they enjoy my writing or photography. Sometimes I still turn to my husband and say, “Holy crap! People read my blog!”
I live just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina with my husband and our four cats. Although blogging has become a part-time job for me, I still do freelance taxonomy work (yes, you can hire me to organize your blog!). Working from home has completely spoiled me, especially as a food blogger–I can take a break in the middle of the day, take some photos while the light is good, and then go back to work again. I love organic gardening, traveling, and I collect Sanrio and San-X. (Yes, really. Yes, I’m in my 30s. Hush!)
Contact Kiersten
You can email me at kiersten [at] ohmyveggies [dot] com or fill out this contact form. Whether it’s a comment, an email, or on Twitter, I love hearing from my readers and I promise I will get back to you as soon as I can!
My Food Philosophy
I’m a firm believer in the 90/10 rule–I eat healthy 90 percent of the time so I can indulge in not so healthy foods 10 percent of the time. This is why you’ll find a wide range of recipes on Oh My Veggies. Yes, most of them are on the healthier side, but it wouldn’t be a reflection of what I eat if I didn’t include those ice cream and cupcake recipes once in a while. I use organic ingredients most of the time, local when possible. I avoid preservatives, food colors, artificial flavors, and things like that–basically, I do my best to stay away from highly processed foods.
When I first started transitioning this blog to being about food, I was hesitant to label myself as a vegetarian blogger. I don’t want to have a blog for vegetarians; I want to have a blog for vegetarian recipes. There’s a difference! Most of my readers aren’t vegetarians–instead, they’re simply looking to limit the amount of meat they eat. I hope to give them ideas beyond the standard faux meat options that many people default to when eating meatless.
As for me, well, I haven’t eaten meat since I was 12. Upon hearing that, people usually ask me if I miss it or if I ever have a desire to start eating it again and the answer to both of those questions is no. Although I have a vegetarian food blog, prior to this, being vegetarian wasn’t a huge part of my life–it was second-nature to me, having not eaten meat for so long. I’m not preachy or pushy or any of those other stereotypes people have about vegetarians, so I really hate it when people get preachy or pushy with me about why I should be eating meat. Please don’t do that!
My Photography
I’ve noticed people have been searching my blog to find out what kind of camera I use, so I figured it was time to put together a little photography section. (And yes, these are all affiliate links.) I have no formal training in photography. Everything I know is from Helene Dujardin’s wonderful book, Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling
I use a Canon EOS Rebel T2i
Natural light is everyone’s favorite light, but sometimes in the winter, it’s hard to have dinner done when the sun’s still out, so I use my contiunous lighting umbrella kit
I am a big believer in post-processing, although I still have a lot to learn. I shoot all of my photos in RAW so I can edit them once they’re on my computer. I use Adobe Photoshop CS5
PR and Advertising
If you have a product that would be a good fit for my blog, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at kiersten [at] ohmyveggies [dot] com or fill out my contact form. I am willing to do reviews, giveaways, and recipe development, but please note that I am selective about the brands that I work with, so I cannot accept all offers.
I have a limited amount of space for advertising in my sidebar. If you’re interested in purchasing some space, email me for my ad rates.
I own my content!
Do not take my photographs and recipes and try to pass them off as your own and do not use my content in a way that diverts traffic from my blog. You cannot republish any of my recipes and photos together, although you are welcome to take a single photo from any post and publish it in conjunction with a link to my blog. If you want to publish one of my recipes, either make changes to it first or ask me permission to publish it–do not republish my recipes without asking or without linking to me! Yes, this includes copying and pasting recipes into Pinterest and Tumblr. If I find my content on your website, blog, or Tumblr account, I will send a DMCA request to get it taken down. For my full policy on using content from Oh My Veggies, please see How to Use Content from a Food Blogger.
Affiliate Link Disclosure
I occasionally use affiliate links in my posts–most of the time, I’m linking to products that I use in my own kitchen or garden. If you were to click on one of these links and make a purchase, I would get a small percentage of the sale.
