This blog was my greatest source of comfort for two years. I started this beloved blog in 2011 when I first moved to NYC with my husband (and my two perfect dogs). I’d never done anything like it before — I’d certainly written plenty — but never endeavored to put my thoughts out there in a consistent, public format like I did here. On the other hand, I’d always been thrifty, crafty, and home design-y. The biggest difference with moving to NYC was that saving money and living on the cheap was not born out of novelty or fun, but absolute necessity.
Then I took two years off. Not like “I hate you blog and nice, supportive readers, I’m never coming back,” but rather, life… and all of its happenings — they pulled me away. (In the process, I started three businesses, moved across the country, and oh so much more… but that’s for the next blog.)
Before I neglected the blog — when it was in its heyday — I had thousands of readers and subscribers who checked this thing out everyday. (That was… unexpected to say the least.) In a tumultuous time in my life (another blog post, another day), this blog provided me equal parts distraction and focus. (I know that distracting focus is an oxymoron, but just go with it, y’all).
It also gave me the encouragement that I desperately needed. I know I’ve vague-blogged about it before, but when you sell most of your possessions and move away from your family to a new, strange city to take your acting career to the next level, then injure yourself, rendering you incapable of auditioning (or even moving) for many, many months… well, yeah. That can kind of knock the wind out of your sails.
So the blog went from the thing I wanted to do from time to time… to the thing I needed to do… just to get out of bed in the morning. Gah, I know that sounds dark! It was often the reality. (Funny, because this blog was almost always a sunny, happy, goofy, and occasionally snarky place. I guess I was overcompensating.)
All of that to say, I’m moving on. The last two years — since I last posted here — have been complicated and crazy, for sure. More than that, they have been wonderful. WONDERFUL. Easily the best 2 years of my life. With all of the wonderful-ness, I desperately wanted to share on the blog. But every time I opened the WordPress dashboard, I became overwhelmed with such an intense desire to stay the hell away from here. I know it looked like a blog about home design and thrifting to you, I get that. Mostly, all I see now when I look back at these posts is a confused 20-something who had no control over anything other than the words that got published on these posts. That’s a bittersweet sentiment to say the least.
(Even re-reading the most recent post before this, all about saving a piece of furniture from the curb… I mostly just remember that that particular week was one where we absolutely no money for groceries, among other day-to-day no-fun stuff.)
The self-preserving side of me wants to shut this down all together and delete it.
The history-preserving side of me says to hold on to it.
(Spoiler alert: history wins this time.)
So while I may come back here time to time and cringe while re-reading a post, I’m going to go ahead and leave it here as long as the Internet and WordPress allow it. While this time in my life was difficult, I wouldn’t be where I am today without having gone through that. Rather than hide it, I want to honor it. It’s an archive of DIY ideas and home design to you, but to me it’s a time capsule of struggles. (I sure know how to romanticize something , right?) :-)
But here’s the good news! I am not done blogging. Not even close. Quite the contrary, I have some truly exciting stuff up my sleeves, and I literally cannot wait to share it all.
The new blog is The Art of Grit + Grace. The name is certainly a nod to the past not-so-good stuff, but the main idea will be about my quest for balance balance — a quest in which I feel I’m finally gaining traction.
So it will still be about DIY, home design, crafty goodness, general adventuring, even a little entrepreneurship thrown in there, but it will be so much more. It’s still a work in progress (gotta make it PRETTY!), but I went ahead and shared the link of its future home anyway. I hope you check it out (later-ish) and enjoy. I think it’ll knock your socks off once it gets going. :-)
#socksoff #forserious #ihaveHUGEplans
For all my GPP readers out there, whether you drifted here occasionally or accidentally, or whether you read it every day, thank you. You’ll never understand what you all meant to me. Without your support (and my family’s — duh, they were readers as well), I wouldn’t have gotten through that time or felt gently pushed into the next (far better) season of my life. I feel your support is directly related to a lot of my success and joy now (really! how bout that?), though that may seem a bit unbelievable. But it’s true, so believe it. :-)
Thank you, thank you, thank you. See you over on The Art of Grit + Grace. :-)
Love,
Courtney
The (former and always) Ginger Penny Pincher