Have I Mentioned My Amazing Sister Lately....

This is a recent article by the Halifax Chronicle Herald about my beautiful, talented sister!  Her new magazine Flea Market Style has finally hit the newstands!  I encourage you to buy it and support this magazine as it is, as far as I know, the first magazine to truly feature and value bloggers who share their decorating talent which would have otherwise gone unnoticed!  Thanks to the wisdom of Mathew Mead the main creator!  Enjoy!!!!

New Glasgow blogger lands in New York decorating magazine
Flea Market Style lists MacDonald as Editor at Large
By MONICA GRAHAM
Sun. Feb 21 - 4:52 AM

Linda MacDonald, a former nurse, caught the eye of home designer Matthew Mead when some American publications ran a story on a playhouse she had decorated for her daughter.

Flea Market Style is published by Harris Publications Inc. in New York.

Linda MacDonald’s career as a writer sounds like one of those Hollywood success stories in which a future star is discovered while sorting socks at the automatic laundry.

In MacDonald’s case, American home designer Matthew Mead discovered the New Glasgow woman while she shared her homegrown decorating tips with her sister through an online diary or blog.

"It was just her reading it as far as I knew," MacDonald said.

But one thing led to another until this month when the mother of three school-aged children and former nurse opened the premier issue of Flea Market Style to see her byline on five articles and herself listed as the magazine’s editor-at-large.

MacDonald profiled five decor bloggers for the magazine that was launched by Mead and co-editor Ki Nassauer, and published by Harris Publications Inc. in New York. There’s an article about MacDonald herself, a feature she wrote about a home tour and another feature about an antique shop in Great Village. The fifth article focuses on her daughter’s playhouse, decorated by MacDonald.

The playhouse was what first attracted Mead’s attention, after prominent American newspapers, magazines and home decorating websites featured her blog post about it.

Mead contacted MacDonald and arranged for a photo shoot last summer that coincided with a visit to Great Village. The meeting soon grew into a larger role for MacDonald, as she began blogging about the behind-the-scenes creation of the magazine.

The co-editors recognized that she had a good way of connecting with potential readers through her blog, and saw that the future of publishing relies on reaching out to the online community, MacDonald said.

But she didn’t start out to be a writer. She fell into decorating because it turned out that she was good at it. She and her husband bought and resold homes, which moved quickly after MacDonald redecorated them.

After a real estate agent suggested she go into business staging homes so they would sell faster, MacDonald took a brief course, but she is otherwise self-taught.

She found there was little demand for staging in the New Glasgow area, so she branched into decorating. The work allowed her to meet other people interested in restyling their homes on realistic budgets, and to be at home with her young children.

At her sister’s suggestion, she started the blog (http://restyledhome.blogspot.com) to share her love of what she calls "modern vintage" decorating style. When people other than her sister told her they followed it she put a counter on the site.

Then she watched as the number of visitors increased to 1,000 a month, leading to her gig with Flea Market Style. Readership increased to 1,000 hits a day as visitors began following her posts about the behind-the-scenes creation of the magazine.

"It’s a really innovative way to gain support for the magazine," she said.

MacDonald is uncertain if more issues of Flea Market Style will be produced, or if it will be a single-issue magazine, but Mead has already asked her to contribute to a Christmas design issue.

She tries to promote the inclusion of Canadian designers and attractions, because so many Canadians read U.S. publications, she said.

She’s grateful for the encouragement from the online decorating community.

"If you felt no one was reading, there wouldn’t be much inspiration to write," MacDonald said.

And she’s still amazed that the blog started as a small experiment and grew into something that she loves to do, and earns her an income as well.

"It blends decorating and writing, and it’s more fun than just choosing paint colours," she said. "I’m actually really enjoying writing, as much or more as decorating."

Monica Graham is a freelance writer living in rural Pictou County.
( mgraham@herald.ca)