Today we bring you a Q&A with Nichole Robertson of the blog Little Brown Pen. Nichole photographs all things Paris and shares her snapshots with the followers of her blog. She also started a multi-disciplinary creative studio with her husband Evan. Their shop contains their favorite photographs from the Paris, themed by color. Read on for our interview...

Tell us about your daily bookmark routine.

I always check the news first, and follow that up with some favorite bloggers who write about the markets and economy. I've learned so much from them about topics I once knew very little about. After that, I hit up some geeky weather boards. I'm an armchair meteorologist, and have been tracking hurricanes and winter storms since 4th grade. SInce hurricane season is ending, I'll be moving on to snow. When there's an impending storm, I can spend the better part of a day obsessing about the track and precipitation potential. I'm relentlessly teased about it, of course.

Next, I visit my favorite food blogs–Smitten Kitchen, Cannelle et Vanille, the Pioneer Woman, the Homesick Texan, and many more–to get my food fix. I love to cook, and look forward to planning meals.

The rest of the day is part client work, part blogging and part killing time on Twitter and Pinterest.

What drew you to blogging?

I’m a freelance writer and I initially started blogging for Bravo TV–I wrote their beauty and fashion blog from 2006-2008. After a brief hiatus, I started my own blog on a whim one night to take a much-needed break from a tough writing assignment.

I chose the name Little Brown Pen in about ten seconds based on my unyielding devotion to fine point brown Sharpies. The cavalier manner in which I chose the name was liberating after laboring over eye shadow names all night long. I didn’t overthink it. It was simply intended to be a space to keep track of inspirational and happy things.

The blog didn’t come into strong focus until we moved to Paris in January 2009. Despite the gray, cold weather, I loved walking around Paris, and Little Brown Pen became a place for me to share my experiences as I discovered the city.

What designer, artisan, or product are you currently obsessed with?

I’m obsessed with wrap bracelets and boots. I don't like to shop, but I make an exception for boots and bracelets. I'm about to purchase these and these. I always splurge on boots, and I was happy to add Frye Lace-up boots and Via Spiga black zip up boots to my wardrobe this fall.

And it would be wrong to omit my biggest obsession: French butter. I eat as much of it as I can every time we're in Paris, and save room in my suitcase for at least 15 packages to bring home. I share some with friends and family, but try to keep enough to last me until our next trip. The photo above is not a grocery store, sadly. It is my very own freshly-stocked butter shelf.

What posts have received the best reaction from readers?

Definitely the Paris Color Project posts. Those began shortly after we arrived in January of 2009. I think red was the first color. I was walking near our apartment on Rue St. Paul and saw a few things in a row that were a similar shade of red. I shot those and walked around the Marais looking for the same color. I soon realized that singling out one color was a wonderful way to see the world differently and to notice things I may otherwise have overlooked. By zeroing in one color, I saw a lot more.

When I began, I had no idea what, if anything, it would become. It simply documented my process of discovering the city, and it happened in real time on the blog. I believe that’s why people responded to the project so strongly and why it captured my imagination for so long.

How hard is it to separate your real life from your blog?

Not at all. I’ve kept my blog focused on my photos of Paris, so it’s been easy for me. It’s not a typical life stream-style blog, which confuses some people who think we still live there. We travel back and forth every 8-10 weeks for work (and butter!). Paris is a second home now. Once in a while I post a recipe or two, or talk about something unrelated like Pennsylvania (I grew up there), but really it’s my outlet for the things that inspire me in my favorite city.

How did you get involved in photography?

I don’t consider myself a photographer with a capital “P.” The only formal training in photography I have is a few classes in high school and college. I simply photograph what I love or what catches my attention. Sometimes that’s an atypically ornate heating vent on the side of a building in the Marais, a two hundred year-old door knob or light on a building. My photos are no more than a record of what catches my eye. I don’t censor things or plan perfect shots, assess whether something is interesting, or worry about whether the subject is cool or a cliché. I’m sure outsiders view them differently, but to me, the photos are a record of what makes me happy in Paris.

What are some of your greatest sources of inspiration?

My Norton Anthologies of English Literature. Whenever I’m feeling burnt out from writing or disconnected in any way, I pull my favorite heavy anthologies off the shelf and start reading. All it takes is a few well-written sentences to feel re-energized and inspired.

Paris in the early morning. There’s something about the city waking up, the clang of the coffee cups, the scent of fresh-baked bread, the warm light hitting the buildings. There’s a slower, more human quality to it that’s very different than rush hour in New York.

My grandmother’s pie dishes. My grandmother was an excellent baker, and her large family rallied around her pies every Sunday. Her food brought people together, and she's responsible for my own love of baking and entertaining.

My husband. He's funny, smart, supportive, irreverent, spontaneous, and all the things an excellent father should be.

My children. Their unaffected curiosity is inspiring and refreshing.

Tell us about your workspace.

I co-run a small, multi-disciplinary creative studio with my husband, and our office functions as a space to write (we're both writers) and to print and ship Little Brown Pen photographs. After a day of printing, packing and shipping, the office is a mess, but I always re-organize everything because I'm a neat freak. We get lots of natural light, and thanks to Ikea, everything has a place. I'm obviously a big fan of the Expedit line! I've worked from my home since 2003 and we've only had a proper office for about a year. Prior to that, I worked on my couch, so this is a big step up.

What’s your most treasured possession?

It’s a funny question, because I’ve sold off, thrown away or donated almost everything I owned at some point. I frequently pare down and can't stand clutter. So my most treasured possession would have more to do with travel, memories and the freedom and resources that make those possible. So maybe my passport!

If you weren’t taking pictures and blogging, what would you like to be doing?

When I’m not itching to get on a plane, I am longing for the opposite–to stay home, cook, make fires and spend time with my family and friends. Being domestic, and striving to make my home comfortable and inviting is a pleasure.

Any future plans you can tell us about­?

Chronicle Books is publishing a collection of photos from the Paris Color Project in the spring, so I'm pretty excited about that. Honestly, I was surprised (and flattered!) when they reached out, and it took me a while to get used to the idea of publishing a book of photographs. I've seen a few sample pages and I'm thrilled with how it's coming along.

I've also been working on a few projects that require me to put down the camera and pick up my little brown pen.