Blogging Series! How and When I Started My Blog

Today I am starting a new series all about blogging. These posts will be everything about my blog and blogging in general from how I started, what I love and hate about blogging, tips for starting your blog, etc. If you have specific questions be sure to leave them in the comments! To kick off this series I thought I would share how, when, and why I started my blog! And details in between. Soo here we go!

In 2010 I was in cosmetology school in Utah. I heard about a service trip to Fiji and instantly knew I wanted to go. I was extremely frugal in high school and had saved up quite a bit doing lifeguarding and swim lessons. I used it for college expenses but still had some left and decided to use it on this trip. I took a break from school, got my passport, and booked my plane tickets. I am not good at staying in touch so I knew the only way I could share photos with each family member and friend would be if I shared them on a blog. My very first blog post was, here, counting down the days til I was going to Fiji.

When I got back I kept blogging here and there. Mostly thoughts and photos I found inspirational (this was before pinterest! So think of my blog at this time as my pinterest board & journal). I always loved taking photos, documenting, and writing in a journal so blogging was really fun for me. Slowly I started blogging more and more – mostly just photos from my point and shoot camera. I would post photos just as I do now… whatever I did that week. By now more people were reading my blog — just through word of mouth. I am not sure word of mouth was even a good thing since a lot of people were making fun of my blog ha! Either way I was getting more page views and really loved to get comments from people. Girls started asking what I was wearing and how I did my hair. So I started linking to what I wore in that post and occasionally did a hair tutorial to show people how I styled my hair. These tutorials I just filmed on my laptop in my poorly lit apartment room (hi, literally ZERO natural light when I filmed these lol! I had a blanket over the window. Why? I do not remember). Example, here.

I one day decided I wanted better photos and asked my dad if I could borrow his digital camera. He let me bring it up to college with me. I would get dressed, drive somewhere totally random (anywhere that no one would be! The top of a parking garage in Provo was a regular spot for me ha). I put my camera on top of my car and did self timer.

Eventually I got sick of running into frame – realizing I actually wasn't in frame – repeat. So I asked my sister to take my photos for me and I would pay her in the form of a McDonalds drive through after. Oh and I always used coupons. And I am pretty sure we ONLY ordered off the dollar menu haha 🙂 Here and here are some shoots I did with her in 2011. And occasionally I would find a photographer to take them like in this shoot here.

I have always loved styling hair but because of hair school I became even more interested in it. My first week in hair school.. they have you divided up into groups depending on when you started. I was in the most recent group.. which in every other girl's mind meant you were the silly freshman and they were the cool senior. (it felt like high school). They had all of the groups together in one room for a hair styling competition. They chose me as the first place winner and the older girls weren't too happy about it 😉 It made me want to win again and I got super into using my hair extensions to do really big and dramatic braids. I would do some really cool styles at home and would take selfies of these and share them on my blog. They were poor quality and had way too many filters but around this same time pinterest came around. Braids were getting really popular and some of my photos ended up getting shared a lot and I started growing.

After hair school I went back to school in Utah for a couple semesters. All of this was before blogging was big (or selfies for that matter and I posted a lot of hair selfies!) so I did get made fun of a lot. Not only by people in my college town but by best friends, cousins, etc. I kept going – not because I had any intentions of making money (because I had zero idea I would ever make money blogging) but because I enjoyed it.

When I started dating David he was really supportive of my blog from day one. A lot of his friends poked fun at it (all have apologized!) but I remember feeling so silly because of course I want my boyfriend's friends to like me! He would always roll his eyes at comments and say, "who needs them, your blog is amazing – keep doing you."

When we got married he started taking photos for me and I started posting more frequently. He started shadowing photographers and learning more about photography (mostly just by experience and playing around with settings). If you go through archives you can see our blog get better and better with photography as he learned more and more! Really proud of how far he has come 🙂

The blog since then has just slowly grown on its own and changes as our life changes! I have always wanted it to be a reflection of my actual life and sound as if I was actually talking to you guys and telling you what's up in our lives.

Thanks to all who have supported and cheered me on through the years. I feel so lucky to have such supportive readers. You guys always put a smile on my face! Thank you thank you.

What else do you guys want to know about blogging?!?!?

Source: Blogging Series! How and When I Started My Blog