Six years

I started this blog when I was 19.

I was home from uni for Christmas, and after months of reading fashion blogs, and then finding out someone I knew had a fashion blog, I decided to bite the bullet.
I remember my first outfit photos like it was yesterday.

There was snow on the ground and I put together a mismatch of what seemed like every print I owed and ran around the garden asking my Dad to take pictures of me.
And this was what I thought blogging was. Mixing prints and snow and photos where I ran around pretended I was a 5 foot 4 model.

I remember how disappointed I was with the resulting photos. I didn't look effortless. I didn't look cool. But reading that blog post back now I was so optimistic. I was determined to give this blogging thing a go.

When I wrote my first-ever post, on the 22nd of December 2009, I wonder if I knew what I'd be getting myself in to. I wonder if I knew the skills I would learn in photography, coding, social media, PR and Photoshop. I wonder if I knew that my blogging skills would help me to get every job I've had since university. I wonder if I knew I'd still be doing this six years later (I'm tempted to say yes because I am the most committed person in the world when I want to be, but six years? I'm not sure).

This blog has been with me for almost a quarter of my life. I've taken photos in the freezing cold Minnesota snow, with hands red and raw from the cold. I've blogged in the scorching heat of the New Jersey sunshine. I've blogged in my little side alley at uni in Birmingham where I made friends with builders who were curious about what this strange girl was doing in her high heels and tripod.

I've blogged in the little flat I share in Manchester with my boyfriend.

I've blogged through homesickness and breakups and car crashes and losing my grandparents. I've blogged from signing up for my first race to my first, and then second, half marathons. I've blogged relationships from start to end. I've blogged my first date with Phil to a year together to moving in together to two years. 

In six years I've blogged everything. I have my entire life here on this pages.

A lot of things have changed since 2009. For one, I'm not blonde any more. My style has definitely changed. And I've changed. From teenager student to a woman with a career and a boyfriend and a flat. And this blog has changed too. Now it's less about my outfits and more about my life and running and podcasts and cooking and well, a bit of everything really.

I'm so proud of this blog. These days it seems like everyone has a blog and sure, I don't update it quite as much as I used to and maybe I don't spend as much time on it, and sure, some days it is a chore rather than a joy to write an update. But I know that I was there back in 2009 when there weren't that many blogs around. I was there when blogging was new and exciting and when bloggers weren't just doing it for free clothes or for money. I was there when outfits were creative, not comped. I was there in the golden era of blogging.

And I don't know where this blog will take me next. As I've grown up the time I've had to dedicate to it has decreased but I can't imagine not having this blog in my life, whether it's updated one a week or once a month. I love having my pictures and memories here for the duration, especially from when I was living abroad. I've loved having the confidence to diversify this year with posts on more than just what I'm wearing. I'm excited to bring more of that in 2016.

So here's to six years. Six wonderful years of this blog. And here's to you. Whether you've been reading this blog for 6 weeks or 6 years. Thank you to everyone who has read my self-absorbed rubbish over the last few years.

All my love,

Charlotte x