one year of blogging!

woo! happy memorial day, guys. today marks my one *official* year of blogging. it’s worth noting that it took months to get everything ready to go live, but i shared with the world what i was doing one year ago. first and foremost, thanks for hanging with me through this journey! i still love blogging as much as i did a year ago, and am so happy that i took this leap after YEARS of thinking about it. [if you’re on the fence about starting something, consider this your sign]

since blogging has made my life better and allowed me to open up areas of my mind [and life!] that i had never thought possible, i wanted to share a few of those things today.

1. i’m not afraid to say yes. there are so many things that i said ‘yes’ to that led me to getting closer to really cool, wonderful people [what’s up, maria!], learning new things, and branching out. i’ve been practicing just leaning into the unknown and seeing what comes of it. so far it’s worked out great!
2. i’m clearer on my priorities, and i sometimes [often times!] say no. seems counter-intuitive to the first point, right? but since i work a full time job, now have TWO kids, and a family/household to co-run, i need to prioritize my time and blogging has taught me how to do that. free products are typically not worth the time it takes away from other areas of my life, so you won’t see me do a ton of collaborations for that reason [only with companies i REALLY believe in/love to work with]. my family comes first, and my corporate career is extremely important to me. this blog is very important as well, but the important thing is that it feeds my creative side and not someone else’s priorities.
3. people are generally really, really nice and super supportive. i was terrified to put this out there for fear of what people would think, but i cannot tell you how amazing it was to receive the number of supportive responses from ALL areas of my life. it has truly made me appreciate all the people i am lucky enough to know even more than i had before. seriously, i can’t tell you how much it makes my day to have someone reference something i wrote on the blog. i am deeply honored anyone takes the time out of their day to read.
4. i want to add value, but on my own terms. i love reading other people’s blogs and came to realize that the ones i was gravitating towards added value into my life — a tip, trick, hack, sale, trend, recipe, etc. and that’s what i want to provide any reader that may come to my site.
5. i’m not for everyone, and that’s ok. this has been a lesson i’ve carried through to the rest of my life. i have always struggled with being a people-pleaser and would stress if people didn’t like me. i realize that my blog, what i talk about, and my personality are not for everyone, and that has helped me be more confident in who i am in general.

thanks for being here and hanging out on my corner of the internet. i thoroughly appreciate the new friendships i’ve made, old friendships i’ve deepened, and connections i’ve made. here’s to another great year!