About ABM

Emma develops the majority of the recipes on ABM and she is a “mostly vegetarian.” She prefers a plant based diet for health as well as some moral considerations. But you’ll find an occasional meat or seafood dish from time to time if you’re paying attention. 🙂

Yes, welcome to our hometown! Here’s a list of a few places we love: To eat, we like Aviary Creperie, J.O.B., Gailey’s, Taylor’s Drive In and Casper’s. Our favorite coffee shops are The Coffee Ethic + Kingdom. Our favorite bars are Scotch & Soda and The Golden Girl Rum Club. If you have time to shop check out Staxx. Don’t forget to drop by Hurt’s for donuts!

You can email us at submit AT abeautifulmess DOT com. Please keep in mind that during times that we receive a higher volume of submission we are not always able to write back to everyone. BUT if we do want to feature your home you will hear from us, so there is no need to follow up. Thanks!

Most writers on ABM take their own photos in whole or in part. We also have a few awesome photographers we work with. We always credit the photographer at the bottom of each blog post. We started doing this a few years ago so our very old posts may be missing this info. But our aim is to update as we can. 🙂

We are bias, but we love A Color Story for filters and other adjustments. Our aim was to make that the very best photo editing app on the market. We also love A Design Kit (how could we not?) for creating backgrounds, adding text, stickers, and other design elements to photos.

We use A Color Story Desktop to edit all the photos you see on the blog. Looking for photography tips? Here are a few favorite past articles on this subject: Tips For Lifestyle Photography, Tips For Capturing Emotion In Photos, 5 Tips For Indoor Photos, 5 Tips for Outdoor Photos, 10 Things Not To Do, Tips For Pet Photography, Tips For Outfit Photos, Tips for Photographing Your Home + 5 Tips For Food Photography. You can see our full photography tips archive here.

Most handwriting you see on the blog (including the banner) is Elsie’s handwriting. She uses the Wacom Bamboo Tablet. You can read about it here.

We shared some tips here, co-wrote an article for new bloggers with a blogger we mentored here and shared perspectives on our young industry here. We also have an e-course FULL of personal stories and advice for any new blogger looking to grow.

The best piece of advice we can give to a young blogger is to write the blog you want to read. Being good at anything takes time, and blogging is no different. Keep going, be consistent, and make small goals for yourself.

Yes, but please follow these guidelines: You can post one photo of our finished project or recipe with a link to our original blog post. You also have our permission to pin our photos on Pinterest.

DO NOT post the entire content of any blog post, DIY step-by-step photos, or written instructions without written permission. A Beautiful Mess is protected by copyright laws.

If you are a print publication wanting to use a high res image or have any other questions about usage of a photo of ours, email support AT abeautifulmess DOT com. 

We built a readership over the course of many years. Some things that have worked for me are focusing on quality posts that take time to write and develop, being consistent (I’ve been posting almost every day for several years), and being myself. It’s a slow and steady process, not an overnight thing. We spend a lot of time planning and developing the ideas you see here on the blog. It’s the product of hard work, constant evaluation, and lots of love.

We have (and will continue) to share lots of blogging tips, which you can browse here. We also wrote an entire course on blogging, called Blog Life,  so if you are looking to become a blogger or grow your site you might check that out as well.