Seven Years | Outfit

Today is my 7-year blog anniversary! When I started this blog, I had no idea what it would turn into. I was 20, we had just moved to a new state, and I was looking for some sort of outlet to record my thoughts and all of the weird things I liked. (Hello, icanhazcheezburger — does anyone still read that site? It has gone downhill, sadly.) I was only a baby in terms of what I liked about fashion; I only started dressing up more to go out because people didn’t know me and I felt a bit freer in terms of style. My first fashion post that is still up (because some of them got lost, and my heart is so sad about that!) is so, so different from who I am today!

But, I did post all of my outfits on Chictopia back then, so I do have the very first outfit I ever recorded somewhere. It’s so interesting to me to look back through my outfits; I can see the struggle of wanting a vintage look, but having no idea how to get there. Today, I feel pretty confident about what I’ve achieved with my look, so I thought it might be fun to recreate the second outfit I ever posted because I still have this dress and it’s timeless!

Since I started this blog, so many things have happened!

I wrote novels and gained a pretty big following on Fiction Press. I met the love of my life, and married him exactly one year after we met. I had Asa, and then 19 months later Evie followed. I met three bloggers: Marlen, Hilary, and SaraLily. I started a collective blog with some amazing blogger friends (and I hope to meet them all!) I dyed my hair blonde, and orange-red, and brighter red, and now bright pink.

I quit my job to become a full-time housewife and mother, which was one of the most relieving and greatest decisions I ever made. I opened an Etsy shop to sell vintage, started up a little side-photography business with my husband, and am now in the works to open a second Etsy shop for handmade vintage-inspired nerdy-and-novelty-fabric circle skirts.

I have learned how to dress my body through pregnancy, weight loss, and weight gain, and I’ve become comfortable with my body wherever it is in its numbers on the scale.

This blog has grown from barely 200 hits a month to over 25k, and somewhere around 2,000 subscribers altogether. And that might not seem like a ton to some, or it might seem like a lot to others. But to me, what’s more important is that I’ve made so many friends. Some of them just via the internet, some in real life. I’ve been inspired by so many women, discovered so many great blogs, and realized that blogging about style is more than just showing off the clothes on your body; it’s a collection of crazy smart, beautiful, funny, wonderful women who share their lives and their loves through pictures… and a few words.

I am so excited to blog more, and to meet more people, and to be inspired by all of you. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next seven years (and I hope I’m still blogging that far in the future)!

All items thrifted

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a part of what has grown and shaped me as a person. Seriously. Without this blog I would still be insecurely stuck in baggy jeans and tee shirts that I hated, because I would never have discovered the gorgeous world of real-life fashion through blogs. I probably wouldn’t be a photographer, I wouldn’t have an Etsy shop, I wouldn’t be wearing vintage, and never in a million years would I have thought it would actually look good to dye my hair fuchsia.

You guys have been the best – seriously the best – circle of friends I’ve had over the years. And, truly, I love you all!