My name is Amanda Formaro, owner and founder of Amanda’s Cookin’, Crafts by Amanda and Fun Family Crafts. I’m the proud mother of four wonderful (grown) children and live in the midwest state of Wisconsin. I love to cook, bake and make crafts. I worked full time in finance until my third child was three months old. At that time I quit to stay home and raise my kids. As much as I loved being a mom, graham crackers and diapers just weren’t enough and my creative mind was going stir crazy.
Back in 1997, I bought a computer and logged onto the internet (dial-up and all!). A month later I created a website called FamilyCorner.com. I developed it over the years, teaching myself HTML, networking with other webmasters, and growing it into a profitable business. I sold that site in November of 2007, and worked as their Chief Editor for a couple years.
I worked as the craft expert for Disney’s Kaboose.com (later known as Spoonful), and created over 500 fun kid’s crafts for them over a five year time span. I have been published by many online magazines, including SheKnows.com and Family.com and have also written for Parents Magazine, Redbook, Mixing Bowl magazine, Woman’s World and several others. I was also a Chicago Tribune craft columnist for 18 months, have written 5 craft books and developed three different craft kits for kids.
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The Creative Team
When I started this food blog in mid September of 2008, I had no idea what it would grow into. For a long time it was just me, but in recent years it’s become a family affair with my daughter, daughter-in-law, and son’s girlfriend joining The Creative Team.
Kristen Rittmer, Editorial Manager
Kristen is my 26-year old daughter and the Editorial Manager for Amanda’s Cookin’ and Crafts by Amanda. She handles all content for both websites, including the planning and developing for new content on both. She loves to create fun, cute food like her Unicorn Freakshakes and her Cookie Monster and Elmo Cookies.
After several conversations with her about her old job, I knew she HAD to come work with me. She joined the team in January of 2017 and hasn’t looked back!
Kristen originally joined the team on a part-time basis in 2014 when she worked as a Virtual Assistant, handling the social media accounts and aiding in the development of weekly newsletters. We are enjoying this journey together and I’m excited for what the future holds.
Taylor Strickland, Social Media Strategist
In 2018 my son’s long time girlfriend, Taylor joined the team as a part time employee. As a college student she had a double major (crazy smart girl!) and one of those was social media.
In 2019 she joined the team full time and is an integral part of the marketing efforts of this business. She handles all of our Pinterest and Facebook strategies as well as keeping up on the latest trends on Instagram.
I couldn’t be happier to have her on the team!
Lindsay Opas, Virtual Assistant
There are a lot of behind the scenes things that go into a successful blog. Making sure we are tracking popular posts, getting them back into the social media stream, keeping up with our community, and so much more.
While Lindsay has a thriving full time career, she is able to work from home as a part-time member of the team in the evenings and on weekends. This is something we truly love about the blogging world, the freedom that it affords us!
I love having all three of these amazing women on my team!
My hope is that I am successful in sharing my love for food and its preparation through this blog. I will continue to strive for better photographs so that you, the reader, will want to make the meals and desserts I blog about. I do test every recipe that is posted here, so if you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. I hope you will continue to comment on my posts and share your thoughts!
How to Contact Us
If you have questions, feedback, or need help with anything please email us at [email protected]
I hope you enjoy Amanda’s Cookin’ and will either follow the blog, or subscribe by email or in a reader. I would love to share with you what’s cookin’ at my house!
