five years

Five years ago today, July 19th, 2008, I said to myself, "hey, starting a blog sounds cool!" And so I did. And apparently I never looked back because here we are, five years later.  It's weird to think that it's been half a decade of sitting behind this computer screen, blabbing on about various life happenings and sharing pictures of outfits, life and more.  Five years of my life, documented here on the interwebs.  So bizarre.  And so cool.  It's fun to think back to five years ago when I sat with my laptop and decided to start delightfully-tacky.blogspot.com.  To who I was and where I was in life.  I was just a college student who was inspired by the creative community and thought, "what the heck!" Five years later I've met hundreds of new people, gone to NYFW twice, been to tons of blogger meet ups and conferences, spoken at conferences, traveled in a Winnebago from Alaska to Florida and back to Washington, lived in Anchorage, Spokane, and Tacoma, got married, bought a house, fallen in love with photography, got to create blog designs for amazing bloggers, and been inspired by thousands of beautiful images and people around the world through the internet.  It's mind boggling, really.  It's mind boggling that, over the years, tens of thousands of people have stumbled across this little corner of the internet that I've carved out.

I'm still learning new things every day.  Every day is an opportunity for growth.  One thing I love (well, and hate) about blogging is that it's never done.  You've never finished.  You never get to sit back and stop moving forward.  This means that you're always growing and pushing yourself to get better.  Whether that means honing your writing, coming up with new and better features and content, learning new things about photography (I'm watching a food photography class on CreativeLIVE as I'm writing this!), branching out to write a book or e-course, partnering with brands and other creative people, collaborating with other bloggers on fun projects... there's always a way to grow and learn more.


One thing I never expected when I started blogging, was the connections with other people that I would make.  The first post I ever wrote here on Delightfully Tacky was titled, "In which I commence a monologue."  But blogging has been so much more than a monologue.  So much more.  Sharing pieces of my life here, struggles I've been through, joys I've experienced has created connections with people that I never expected.  It hasn't been a monologue.  Far from it.  The emails and comments from people sharing their hearts with me have been so special and precious to me.  It's such a privilege to hear the life stories, heartaches, and redemption that some of you have shared with me.  Seriously.  The vulnerability in some of the comments and emails I've received from you guys have been such a precious thing that I can never take for granted.  So thank you for allowing me into your lives in that way.  
I don't know where the next five years will find me or this blog.  Undoubtedly there will be lots of changes in my life.  I suspect by the time five years have passed we may not live in Tacoma anymore, we may have created another human, we may have experienced loss in one or more forms, who knows.  This blog will morph and change through my life, as it always have.  I'm excited to see where life goes, and how the blog goes along with it.  I hope to find amazing readers wherever my life and blog content end up, because so far that has been the most amazing thing about this journey.  You guys.

dress/courtesy of ruche