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When did you start this site?
Heather started writing the original site in 2000. Back then it was through Yahoo Groups and everyone would respond to her stories via email in a chain. This was good and bad depending on how much you enjoyed getting hundreds of emails a day. The day we moved over to an actual website in 2002 was a day we will never forget. It felt like life changed overnight in a really big and awesome way!
Do you really travel over 150 days a year?
We sure do! Sometimes we are gone for months at a time and sometimes we are away for a week or two at a time. No two months or years are alike!
How do you afford to travel?
This is the question we are asked the most and we love sharing about it. We have multiple streams of income, but all of them are built around online (digital) businesses. We also are heavily involved with Blogger education with our Start a Blogging Business Facebook Group and Blogging Blastoff Course. We also have the majority of our travel paid by sponsors and we earn enough income to afford to pay for the rest from blogging. Since this site supports our whole family we don’t have traditional jobs that keep us in one place and this allows us to work wherever our travels take us. After blogging for all these years we have also built up a wonderful following of readers and developed relationships within the travel industry. These relationships have made us the go-to family for those looking for inspiration on where to vacation and also for brands wanting to share their family-friendly travel locations and resorts.
How do you make money?
We write full time here on this site and on our social media channels, and we are hired by brands to promote their services, products, and family-friendly travel locations. We are paid for our promotional services. However, we only share what we truly love and what our readers would enjoy learning about. In the past, we have also hosted Twitter parties and Heather has written for brand websites and has acted in an ambassador position for multiple clients.
How much money do you make?
We have worked hard to build up our income to provide for five people in our expensive Southern California area. Our income is well into the six figures. You can see more about our income in our income reports.
Who writes on this site?
Heather is the primary writer here on, It’s a Lovely Life! But the blog itself is a family business with everyone contributing. Although Heather writes the majority of the articles that are photo-heavy, Pete primarily produces the vast majority of our video content.
Can I write a story for your site?
We love that you love our site enough to want to write a story of your own here, but we do not offer guest posting opportunities at this point.
How did you start blogging?
Heather started sharing with Yahoo Groups back in 2000. It quickly evolved and in 2002 we moved it to our own website. Back then we wrote about parenting and saving money and as the economy has changed over the years, so has our name. From No Excuse Budget to Full Price? Never and then to It’s a Lovely Life! As our readers have transitioned from starter jobs to careers with more expendable income, our site has evolved right along with them.
How can we work with you?
Thanks for asking! You can find more information about working together here.
It looks like you guys are headed to our area soon. Can we meet you?
How nice of you to ask! We love meeting new friends on our travels and we are going to try to do some meet-ups this coming year. Please send us an email so we can see if we can say hello in person!
Are you world schooling your kids? Where do they go to school?
Yes and no. We certainly value the education that our children are getting from our travels and we can’t think of a better way for them to learn about people and places that are outside our home area, but we also value a traditional education. Thankfully our girls have the best of both worlds. Maddie graduated from high school early and continues to attend a local college where she has been taking classes online during high school. Ashley goes to an online high school and Emmy also takes classes online at this time. For privacy reasons we are unable to share what schools they attend. Thank you for understanding our need to keep this information private.
Where do you live?
We split our time between Southern California and other wonderful places around the world as we travel.
Will you share about my Go Fund Me/Fundraiser/Book/Small Business? Can I get a shout out?
I wish we had time to accommodate all of the requests that we get but there just isn’t enough time in the day. If you are a business interested in advertising please visit our work with us page. We love giving back so each year we chose a charity to support. This is done on a personal level and email requests are not submitted for consideration.
How did you and Pete meet?
We met at a restaurant shortly after St. Patrick’s Day in 1999. We were engaged on July 1st of that year and married in October. Less than three years later our family of 2 had grown to a family of 4! Emmy joined us when the big girls were 8 and 10!
Can we send you something?
You are so sweet to think of us! At this time we are not accepting any mail, although you are always welcome to email us!
What camera gear and lenses do you use?
Pete wrote a post about adding videos to blogs. We share a lot of what we use thin that post. Hope this helps!