I’m not entirely sure how this happened (and snuck up on me), but today’s my 1000th blog post – after almost 8 years of blogging. Part of me thinks that’s crazy, but the other part of me is surprised it took me so long. I’ll chock it up to many consistent months, filled with many hiatuses in between.

Charmingly Styled was born from wanting a creative outset where I could practice some of the skills I wanted to learn – from photography to graphic design, to copywriting, to everything in between. The name of my blog came from my grandmother Jessie, who had passed away a few years before I started my blog. She called things “charming” when something delighted her, and her voice saying “charming” all the time was the most charming thing to me. We were really close, and it was a nice little homage to have a space that reminded me of her. Many of her fashion relics over the years have made an appearance on the blog too!

I never thought that anyone was actually going to read my blog posts (besides my mom, #1 fan!), and I still have to pinch myself when people reach out with questions, kind comments, or just follow along to see what I’m up to these days. I learned how to use Photoshop by making graphics for my blog (you can still go into the archives and find some real doozies if you’re looking for a good laugh), honed my photography skills with many different cameras over the years, got my first paycheck and was SHOOK that someone wanted to pay me to blog (what?!), and made some amazing blogger and reader friends along the way. 1000 posts later, and some things are still the same (i.e. amazement that people still read this little site!) and other things are totally different – like my photoshop skills 😉   My blog has changed so much over the past few years, mirroring how much I’ve changed too. It started as a hobby where I could practice content creation without anyone really noticing, and then became more of my focus (when I also started Midwest Bloggers back in the day to bring bloggers in the Midwest together). After a few years, it became a part time job, and I often toyed with the idea of turning it into a full time thing. I felt a lot of pressure (mostly from myself) after many of my friends made the switch to quitting their jobs and going full time – but I couldn’t ever quite justify making the leap – especially with my job being so rewarding (albeit exhausting) most of the time.

And now this blog is a little bit of everything – except when I’m taking hiatuses (usually unexpected) like I did this summer. Between work and travel – sometimes the blog has to take the back-burner – but it’s nice to always have a little corner of the internet to come back to when I’m feeling inspired. Here’s to hoping that inspiration hits a little more often than it has been recently 😉   For some reason, I’m not usually the type of person who celebrates little victories – but to me, 1000 blog posts feels like a big feat. There were times where I wanted to give up (more than the times I thought I was killing it), so 1000 posts feels like a pretty exciting victory to me!

Now it’s time to crack open a bottle of champagne and drink it (even if it’s by myself!) because some things are wroth celebrating! I don’t know where Charmingly Styled is going to be in a year…or (hopefully) another 8 – but I’m excited for what the future holds. And maybe even more so, I’m really proud that I’ve made it to this milestone. Despite self-doubt, feeling like I could usually do better, not feeling “blogger” enough, or putting in late nights to balance a blog and a crazy work life – I’ve made it 1000 posts, and that’s reason enough to do a happy dance around my condo. Granted, my happy dance isn’t that good – but it still counts anyways 😉 Thanks to everyone who’s followed me along this journey, offered words of encouragement, or given me helpful feedback and advice along the way. Here’s to making this blog evolve as I am, and hopefully offer a little charm along the way. <3