Every year when our blogiversary comes around, we like to pause and set clear goals for the next 12 months. So here are three things we’re committing to work hard on over the coming year. A public pledge always helps keep us accountable, so without further ado, here are the top three priorities on our list (and yes, check out my absurdly large calves).
Goal Numero Uno: Move On — As we recently shared, we’re preparing to say farewell to our current home. It’s bittersweet, but we’re excited to find a new place to make our own and to transform it into something special for our family. This goal is about taking on more projects and sharing them with readers—from small, budget-friendly makeovers to larger renovations. We plan to document everything in real time: the befores, the durings, the pitfalls and the do-overs. Many readers have told us they want to see the process—the how and the why—not just the polished final reveal. So expect posts about choosing whole-house paint palettes, organizing pantries (if we’re lucky enough to have one), and all the little decisions that come with a new house. Dated wallpaper and wood paneling, you’ve been warned.
Goal Numero Dos: Loosen Up — Lately we’ve gotten a bit mechanical with our posting schedule. We want to return to the days when we could write something and share it the next day instead of slotting it weeks in advance. That may mean we won’t always publish twice a day or stick to a predictable reveal schedule, since some projects genuinely take longer than expected. But it also means more spontaneity: posts might appear on weekends, or you might see an early-morning update about a late-night feeding. We might even share a big reveal on a Friday instead of a Tuesday. Wild, we know.
We also miss the simple, shorter posts that used to appear more often. Sometimes short and sweet beats long and detailed, so we want a healthy balance of both. Real-time blogging feels more natural and fun—the way this blog began—and it lets you follow along with our life in a truer way. As we prepare to sell our house and move, there will be plenty of small updates about showings, touring homes, packing, and the everyday chaos of moving. Some weeks will be packed, others calmer, but our aim is to show our real life, with honest, in-the-moment updates alongside bigger project posts.
Goal Numero Tres: Get Real — We love the instant gratification of those 30-minute TV makeovers, but one of the best things about blogging is showing the messy, in-between moments. In our first year we posted about the small, everyday events as they happened: one day our cabinets arrived and we shared it, another day a store mix-up happened and we wrote about it. Those incremental updates, the little wins and failures, are exactly why readers feel connected to projects. Lately we’ve fallen into the habit of waiting until projects are neatly finished before posting, and it’s started to feel less authentic.
So we want to bring back the home makeover diary. If something goes wrong, we’ll admit it and laugh about it. If we find ourselves at the hardware store at dawn in search of baseboard, you’ll hear about it. If a purchase excites us, we’ll gush. If something looks worse before it gets better, we’ll show that too. These seemingly small updates—debates over paint, a faucet found on eBay, the everyday frustrations—are part of the journey and part of what we’ve always shared. We’re eager to return to that candid, in-progress approach.
We realize these more spontaneous, off-the-cuff changes may not please everyone, and that’s okay. After three years of blogging we know you can’t please all readers all the time. This site has always followed our instincts: doing what we love and sharing our lives with anyone who wants to follow along. We’ll keep bringing a healthy dose of real-life, paintbrush-and-hammer stories to the blog—open to anyone who wants to drop by. Our virtual door is always open.
Psst — first image credit noted in the original source, and the second image was also sourced externally (we added our own heads to those original images).