Q&A with Tay

“What are your hair color details?” It can look different on different ha colors, but Dani usually uses Keune color. The base is A 5.11 and 4.0 equal parts. Balayage using Schwarzkopf Blonde Me, and toned the blondes with equal parts 7.12 .8.0.9.1 (those color tones depend on the tones in my hair at the time). Showing your hair artist pics of what you want *and* what you don’t want is helpful! What I have is essentially a subtle beige balayage with money pieces in the front. A dark root, and a blunt cut with some textured layers.

“How long have you had Bruce? Did you get him as a puppy?” Yes, we did! He just turned 4.

“What car do you have now?” We have my new Kia Telluride and Tom has a Jeep Grand Cherokee!

“Have you gotten laser hair removal?” I have at Pure Lux Med Spa and I love it – I need to finish my sessions once I’m not pregnant and it’s not summer (you have to stay out of the sun for like 2-4 weeks for the safest results and can’t wear self-tanner in that time either). It takes 6-9 sessions for near-permanent hair removal, but during that time you’ll have less and less hair. It really works!

“Where do you typically shop for maternity clothes?” I don’t outside of maternity tanks from Target and a few pairs of jeans and Zella maternity leggings. With tanks, I will wear cardigans/jackets and I size up in everything else. I’m sure I’ll be wearing a lot of bump-friendly dresses early this summer! I just don’t find maternity tops very cute, at least the ones that I have found. I bought my maternity jeans from Old Navy and Poshmark (AG brand, Good American) when pregnant with Keldon!

“With either baby, did you ever feel anxiety about the change? You and Tom, life, etc.?” I did with Keldon! I’m much less anxious this time around now that I have been through it and have a sense of what to expect. It took me 3 years to be ready to try after marriage. It’s a big life change and you give up a lot, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Tom was ready as soon as we got married haha!

“Any advice for a girl in her early 20’s – career, relationships, life, etc.?”
1. Prioritize yourself
2. Don’t settle when you aren’t ready or sure it’s for you
3. Travel
4. Self-care
5. Take it easy
6. Get in touch with Him
7. Live it up with your girlfriends
8. Learn to love yourself
9. When opportunity knocks, answer the door
10. Pursue your passions

“What made you pick the name Keldon and how did you first hear it?” It’s a mix between Tom’s dad and my dad’s name! Kelvin and Don = Keldon <3 we made it up! But, I’ve talked to one other follower with a son name Keldon, and there is a college basketball player with the same name – we found out right before he was born haha! I love unique names 🙂

“What prenatal vitamins do you take?” Ritual, and I have been happy with them. No upset stomach and they have DHA. I have never worked with them, so I don’t have a code – sorry! I know many other influencers have codes though.

“Crib, bassinet, or both?” Both! We co-slept with Keldon in a dock-a-tot (not the safest option, but just sharing what we did). We splurged on a Snoo for this baby. I’ve heard great things and will share my review if I feel it’s worth the $ down the road. Sleep is everything so if it means I get more sleep with it, it was worth it to me! Regardless, we would’ve chosen a bassinet to have in our room during the first 4 months for this baby. We transitioned Keldon to his crib and sleep trained at 4 months and will do the same this time. Our lives changed after that (we were able to sleep again and we were all happier people)!

“What is your go-to coffee drink being pregnant?” Starbucks iced 1/2 caff americano with one pump of cinnamon dolce and sweet cream! If I go to Caribou it’s the Crafted Press – both iced and hot. I like them plain or if I want it sweeter I will add a pump of flavor – marshmallow (any time of the year), pumpkin (fall), mint (winter). This is Tom’s favorite too, but he always adds vanilla.

“What is your favorite ice cream flavor?” This is tough! Vanilla over chocolate any day – I like Reese’s/peanut butter toppings. But I also love cake batter flavored ice cream and pistachio from Cold Stone. Fun fact, my first job was working at Cold Stone. I literally gained like 10 pounds – lol free ice cream and toppings every day. Can you blame me?

“Names for baby #2?” We won’t be sharing until he is born, but other boy names I love are: Archie, Brooks, Hayes, Grey, Rory. If we were having a girl some names would be: Arely, Haisley, Hensley, Saige, and Stevie 🙂

“How old are you? You look so young!” Best compliment ever! Lol, thank you! I will be 31 on February 10th.

“How long did your morning sickness and low energy last during early pregnancy?” Until like 12 weeks! It sucked.. 🙁

“What do you like most about the midwest?”
1. Lake life
2. Family and friends
3. Minnesota nice
4. All 4 seasons
5. Not too busy or boujee

“Would you get veneers?” My teeth are one of my biggest insecurities! I have small teeth and a lot of gums lol and I have a small gap on the right side that drives me crazy (should’ve kept wearing my retainer)! Considering seeing a periodontist post-pregnancy to see if they can push up my gums to show more of my teeth to solve both of those things.

“Is Keldon talking a lot?” No he’s not! He comprehends everything and know he’s smart and we aren’t super concerned, but at his 2 year well check we will ask if we should consider doing speech therapy for him. He says a lot of basics (mama, dada, ball, Bru for Bruce, yeah, nana, teeth, bath) but says “uh” for a lot of things besides words that start with a B, but will just say the first syllable. We work so hard at it! But he gets really bashful and gets a little frustrated when we ask him to try to say things.

“Did you ever feel ‘teacher guilt’ when you left the profession? Current struggle, suggestions?” A little, especially since I worked with kids for so long. But there are so many awesome teachers out there! And it felt very freeing and right – I knew it was time for me to move onto the next chapter and do something else with my career long term. A scary jump, but now here I am with my dream job and doing what I love to do – day after day. When one door closes, another opens!

“Do you have a team helping run your blogging/IG business?” Tom! And my gf Britt comes over every Friday morning to help me do my newsletter, Poshmark, and put together some blog posts. I don’t have a management team, we do it on our own, but I may look into it in the future since it would free up a lot of time (I easily work 60 hour weeks).

“Work 60 hrs/week? I don’t think followers would ever imagine that. What’s a typical day like?” That’s because you usually only see the finished product and highlights from IG bloggers/influencers. It looks easy on the outside! Every day is different but I juggle the following tasks (I’m sure I’m forgetting some things)
– Answering emails, mainly brand communication
– Reviewing contracts
– Content planning and content calendar management
– Capturing content (recording stories, taking photos/videos for posts)
– Editing content (captions, branding, video editing)
– Sending posts/stories to the brand for approval if it’s for a campaign
– Submitting insights/post performance for social media posts done fora. campaign
– Posting to Instagram (stories, photo posts, IGTV, or Reels)
– Putting together personal giveaways
– Link pulling for followers and creating LikeToKnow.It posts that are easy to shop
– Product collages
– Reviewing analytics on all social platforms and blog
– Shopping for campaigns or shopping for clothes/beauty/home/etc that I plan to share on IG
– Content creating including try-ons and those take a year lol, especially when posted to LTK
– Answering DMs and emails from followers
– Writing blog posts
– Linking new items purchased in my LTK folders that I plan to share
– Checking if things are in stock and scoping out sales like my deals of the day
– Closet clean outs (I try to stay on top of this by parting with an old piece when I add in a new piece)
– Package opening/ recycling of packaging – Tom does this 🙂
– Tracking finances, budgeting, and paying quarterly taxes (Tom does these, besides tax returns, we hire da tax guy to help)
– Creating and sending invoices
– Creative brainstorming and finding inspiration for new content