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ganni top

 lace top // black jeans // knee high boots // shoulder bag

Yesterday marked my 4 year blog anniversary! It still feels like yesterday I was immersing myself into creating my website. When I started it was all that I could think about. I read every book, every website/blog, took online courses, went to conferences just to learn more about blogging. I was so passionate and driven to do this. It was a dream of mine for many, many years. Even though I am 4 years in, I know there is so much growth for me in this career. Starting my blog was the best decision I have ever made; one I am grateful for and proud of myself for doing. I truly can’t put into words how much I love this line of work, how it satisfies me in every way. I started blogging so I had a space to create, write, connect with people through fashion and other interests. A place I can truly be myself.

 I have mentioned this before on here, but this is actually my 3rd blog. I started around 2008 with my first. It was not really fashion based or had any niche really, it was just me writing and posting pictures that inspired me. My second one was fashion based and one that I wanted to grow. I ended because of the job that I had at the time. It was a blessing in disguise. It showed me that I truly wanted this, so by the time I started creating this blog you are reading now I was 110% in.

Since we are in celebration mode and many of you may be new to my blog while some of you may have been here since day one (hi mom!), I thought a little get to know me post was appropriate for such an occasion. I have written a get to know me post before (found here) where I revealed that ostriches scare the living daylights out of me— well they still do. Today we are going to discover more random things about me. Enjoy!

1. I have built 3 houses. During college for 2 of my spring breaks I went to Mexico with my church to build homes. Then right after college I went with a small group from my church to the Dominican Republic to build a house for a family in need. All three experiences were amazing and I still am proud of myself for doing it. The work was hard but also very rewarding. In Mexico the hours were long, you slept in tents all week and weren’t able to take a shower. The DR was a completely different experience. We slept in hammocks for the week but also got to take showers. We were more engrossed in the town we were in than in Mexico. The DR was (and still is) one of the best experiences of my life. Besides building a home we cliff dived off of a water fall, it was the first time I was on a motor cycle, we went to the beach, ate dinner on a yacht, saw where Christopher Columbus home was, and so much more.

2. I wanted to be a comedian. While all of my friends were pretending to be teachers, I was dreaming of being on Broadway. I loved to sing, dance, and put on performances for my parents. While being on Broadway my side gig was going to be stand up comedy and magic— basically I wanted to be David Copperfield. I would put on a comedy show for my family once a week followed by a magic show and a Broadway routine. Obviously I am a triple threat. Anyway, my jokes were horrible…. knock knock.. who’s there?.. zebra… zebra who?… haha you can’t read. Not funny and it does not make sense at all. That was also my best joke. Still I loved making people laugh, I still do to this day. I get a high off of making people throw their heads back and laugh. Although none of my dreams came true, Broadway star and David Copperfield 2.0, I still embody the joy and love they both gave me as a child.

3. I used to play with mannequins. Have you ever seen the Kim Cattrall movie Mannequin? Well I did and it fully made me believe Mannequins came to life at night. So while my mom was shopping I would restyle their outfits– now being in fashion I can only imagine I was a living nightmare for visual merchants (sorry to all of my VM friends!). I guess you can say this jumpstarted my fashion career. If I didn’t like the purse they were holding or thought the shirt should be tucked in, I would change it. Once I asked my mom for her hairbrush because I thought the wig on the mannequin looked messy, so I brushed her hair and got the hairbrush stuck. I don’t know if my mom was amused or embarrassed– probably both.

4. I am a certified health coach. Back in 2014 I was having some health issues, so the beginning of 2015 I decided to enroll in the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I wanted to learn as much as I could about nutrition and my body, and throughly enjoyed doing so. At the time I thought I wanted to be a health coach but during the program (which is only a year long) I decided it was not the right path for me. I am grateful I did it and still have a deep interest in health.

5. I had a speech impediment when I was little. Until about 1st grade I could not say my r’s correctly. I guess I was never meant to be a pirate (sigh). I would replace my r’s with w’s so rainbow became wainbow. Remember: wemember. I went to speech therapy to correct it. My mom even created a song to help me– which it did! I was never embarrassed by it, in fact I enjoyed going to speech therapy because that is where I met one of my best friends (who couldn’t say her s’s right) and we are still friends today– with a much more articulate speech.