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This past weekend I celebrated my 8th blogging anniversary!! Who would have thought that I would have kept it up for 8 years?! Not me! HA! To celebrate my blog anniversary I thought I would tell you all about how I started my blog and why I continue to do it…plus there’s a super fun giveaway at the end!
Why did I start blogging??
I started blogging a few days before I had my first “major” surgery. I knew I was going to be off work for a while and I needed a way to fill the time. I had been reading blogs for a while and I even knew a few people who wrote them and I had been looking for a creative outlet so I though why not? I started writing one night and never looked back.
Over the years this blog has been through a lot of changes…name changes, URL changes, platform changes, theme changes, etc. But the one thing that never changed was the voice behind the blog, me!
polka dot sweater | faux leather leggings | necklace | leopard shoes (sold out but here is a similar pair)
I started this blog when I was 27 years old. I was single, had been out of school and working full-time for two years and was kind of “stuck”. All of my college friends were getting married and having babies and I was recovering from a nasty heartbreak. It was the first time I was really by myself. I was in a city that was hours away from my family, my friends were moving on with their lives and I started a blog.
Over the years this blog has been my baby. I started it more as a journal…first to document my breast reduction surgery and day to day life and now I use it as a place to share all of the things I love! I make a little money from it now but most of all I have made friends and built some amazing relationships just by writing and sharing!
Why do I continue to blog??
Over the years I have worked with some amazing companies and been given opportunities I would have never had otherwise and I am so so so grateful for that.
In my eight years of blogging I have purchased my first home, adopted my Sophie puppy, gone back to school and gotten my second Bachelor’s Degree (B.S. in E-Commerce!), sold my first home and traveled all over the United States. I have loved sharing my life with you and I hope you have enjoyed reading! I have had a lot of fun and I plan on doing this for as long as I can.
GIVEAWAY!!
To celebrate my 8th Blogging Anniversary I am giving away a few of my favorite beauty products! I purchased these products on my own, this is not sponsored in any way and there are several more items that aren’t in the photo below.
There are a few rules…
- This contest is open to USA residents only (SORRY).
- None of the entries below are mandatory, just do what you want!
- The giveaway will run from 11/15/2018 – 11/23/2018
- Good luck!
I’m not sure if this is technically a beauty product, but I recently switched hair products. I am now using Monat products & I am LOVING it!!!! My hair has never looked better or healthier!!!! Thank you so much for a giveaway!!!!!
I count hair products as beauty products so this totally counts! LOL!
Happy Anniversary. Wonderful to look back and share how you started blogging and all the wonderful things that have happened in the last eight years. Wishing you many more to come.
Thank you!!
Happy Anniversary to you! Here’s to many more. This is such a great giveaway. I’ll have to enter. These look like great products to try.
Happy Anniversary! I love L’ORÉAL Voluminous Lash Paradise Mascara!
Oh girl, I LOVE that mascara!!
Happy blogging anniversary to you! I got so many opportunities as a blogger that I would have never been able to do before I was a blogger! It’s funny how people start blogging. For me it was just so that my parents could keep up with my kiddos since they live so far away.
Happy Blogiversary! My favorite beauty product is the facial wash by Soap & Glory! Pregnancy brain prevents me from remembering what the heck the name is (I’m at work, bottle is at home), it’s greenish and has little scrubby beads in it.
I just recently started using some Soap and Glory products and I love them! I love the ingredients and teh fact that they actually work!!
Happy Blogiversary! My favorite beauty product is the facial wash by Soap & Glory! Pregnancy brain prevents me from remembering what the heck the name is (I’m at work, bottle is at home), it’s greenish and has little scrubby beads in it.
I don’t think that I really have a favorite beauty product. I have a new facial cleanser that I like, but I can’t remember the name of it.
Congratulations on 8 years Ricci. Just noticed we’re both in Central AR. As a fellow Central AR blogger, I know you probably get a lot of questions when you say you’re a blogger and then when folks hear that you’ve been blogging for such a long time.
Oh fave beauty product, right now it’s CoverGirl Clump Crusher Extensions Mascara. OMG, LUV LUV LUV this mascara and it’s so inexpensive but hands down it stacks up against some of the pricier brands. Have you tried it yet?
I need to try that mascara! I love a good drugstore mascara that does an amazing job!! And hey there fellow Arkansan!! I do get a lot of questions about blogging and what all that entails, especially on the local level! LOL!
My favorite beauty product is my foundation by Tarte
Which Tarte foundation do you use? I just started using their Shape Tape concealer!
Congratulations on your eigth, I just celebrated my 7th and it seems like yesterday I started. Anyone would love to win those products they seem so perfect.
Happy anniversary. My favorite beauty product is my cover up. I don’t wear a lot of make up unless I am going out somewhere special but I relay on covering my uneven skin and I love that it gives my skin moisture.
Congrats on your 8 year mark! Love that sweater on you, so pretty!
Thank you so much!
Oh my goodness congratulations on 8 years! That is an amazing achievement to have made. I loved reading about why you started as well. It is interesting how our blogs grow with us.
Thanks girl!
I love that polka dot sweater. That is so cute and would go with so many things!
Yes girl, it’s my new fave thing to wear!! I love all things polka dot!!
I love my Anastasia highlighter!
I love Anastasia products!!
Congrats on your blogging accomplishments! That is a long time and you have done a lot of things during that time. And I love your giveaway!
Thank you!
Happy blogaversary!! Eight years is a great amount of time for such a new medium. I have loved coming here and learning new blogging tricks and about some great beauty products!
Congrats on your blogging anniversary–so exciting!! I am about a year behind you. :) Amazing how fast the time goes, right?!?
It goes so fast!!
I love Nars Blush in Orgasm. I use it year round!
That’s one of my favorite blushes too!
Happy Anniversary! My favorite product is the Mabeline Age Rewind Eraser Concealer. It’s the best product I’ve found for covering up dark circles under my eyes.
I need to check this out…my dark under eye circles are out of control!
Eight years is a lot of time for a blog! And only the best bloggers arrive to celebrate it! You did an Amazing job here! Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary!! There aren’t many of us that have stayed around this long! Love your blog and I read every time there is a new post!!
Congratulations and Happy Anniversary! It is so exciting to keep a blog going that long! We are heading in to our 10th year and it feel great! Love giveaways!
This is an awesome giveaway, congrats on your 8 years blogging! It is so awesome to be able to look back and see how much you have accomplished.
The prizes for the giveaway are amazing. Congrats on your eight blogging years!
i am sort of a ‘newbie’ to your blog, but I love what I’ve read/seen so far. isn’t it strange how time really does fly? I mean, 8 years ago, I was 24! and now you’re in your mid 30’s! and I love that you started because of your surgery!
happy blog (anniversary) !!! and I hope you continue to grow and work with more amazing bands and be able to celebrate another 8 years!
my favorite beauty product has to be lip scrub! I was totally in love with my Clinique lip scrub/gloss duo in the orange flavor. it lasted me so long. hmm, now that I think about it.. I wonder if they still carry it!
Congrats on eight years of blogging, wishing you can continue many more blogging years. Love those beauty products. Awesome giveway.
Thank you!
Congrats on eight years!! That’s awesome… and such a perfect space to grow right along with you and your changes.
One of my favorite beauty products is Kari Gran Lip Whip.
I have heard really good things about that lip balm! I need to try it for myself! The colors are gorgeous!!
Happy anniversary friend!!!!!!! Thanks for being awesome and for showing me some great products!
I absolutely love Bare Minerals loose foundation.
That used to be my go-to! I may need to try it again…
I love the Maybelline Fit Me Foundation
I love my Bare Minerals. Especially the foundation.. but it’s all good. Works well with my skin tone
Congrats on 8yrs I love colourpop eye palettes and love all these products