A Return to Love, and the Little Things

Three years ago, as you can see below, I wrote about how I was returning to blogging after a self-imposed hiatus (a/k/a I just stopped writing and posting).Woo hoo! Look at me!

So where have I been since then?

I wanted to become more professional, so I thought that meant I needed to (1) purchase a domain name, because a blog that included “.blogspot.com” in the title would never be taking seriously; (2) pay to have my domain and blog hosted by a cool company; and (3) spend money on a theme so that I could spend hours (months) trying to create my own website. Surely, all of that would lead to increased page views, followers, sponsored posts and companies giving me money to put their name on my blog. I’d be able to quit my job, soon my husband would too, I’d rack up the Instagram followers and I’d be “famous”!

So I did that. I purchased “WakeUpCreate”, paid Blue Host to host the site and spent some money to buy a cute little theme to make it look simple, yet appealing. Here’s the one thing I didn’t do though: Write. I think in the three years I had the site, I wrote about 6 “serious” blog posts or essays. I don’t know why I wasn’t more motivated, but something about it wasn’t right.

Long story short, I believe I was so into what I was hoping the end result would be – the sponsored posts, the huge page hits, the full-time career – that once I got the site up, the reality that it was going to be a lot of work hit, and I froze. I worried about what my “brand” was or what I was actually going to write about that people would find interesting. I'm not an expert on any one thing or really, anything at all, but I am curious about a whole lot of things. Beauty, food, health, sustainable living, vegetarian/veganism, minimalism, intention and flow, inspiring other people, etc… But really, who is going to come to me to read about whatever is in my head? That thinking had me frozen because I wanted to make a good impression.

The problem is I had forgotten why I started this little blog in the first place, which was really just to give a glimpse into my normal, everyday life. It’s not flashy. It’s not thrilling. I’m not a food blogger, I don’t DIY, and at 43 I’m still trying to figure out my style, both in fashion and home decor.  I also don’t have this crazy life with kids in all these activities, running here and there, doing this and that, and trying to juggle it all, which seems to be what makes a successful “mommy blog”. My life is “normal”, boring perhaps, and hardly worthy of Instagram stories.

But I suspect that’s the problem. I have such a skewed view (as I assume do so many of us) of what makes someone’s life “Instagram worthy” that I forget to just live mine and let people care or not care. So many times I think about posting on Instagram’s stories but I’m so worried that the people who see it are going to think it’s dumb and boring and that they will then think I’m dumb and boring, so most of the time I just don't. But whatever. No more. I'll post what I want, follow along if you’d like.

I guess the real point of this post is to announce that WakeUpCreate.com is no more. Instead, I'll be back here on Love and the Little Things, blogging for free about the little things that make up this normal little life of mine, including the random thoughts in my head or whatever I feel like at the time. Right now I’m just excited to stop focusing on those big goals of a professional blog and just enjoy my time getting back to writing about love and the little things that make up a life.

*A little side note: There were some blogs/essays that I wrote on “Wake Up. Create.” that I plan to repost here.