It’s SWEET to be One
One word comes to mind as I celebrate Practically Homemade’s 1st Birthday today and that is THANKFUL. Words can’t begin to describe the past year. To say this blog is my baby would be an understatement. I feel like I have birthed it, nourished it, watched it grow and now I am working hard with hopeful expectations of wonderful things in the future.
I set some pretty “far out” goals for myself when I started last November. I am more of a shoot for the moon and see where it takes you kind of girl. My heart told me that this what I am supposed to be doing, so I went for it. It is kind of like the Field of Dreams, when Kevin Costner’s character keeps hearing, “if you build it they will come.” I kept putting one foot {or recipe} in front of the other because something told me I needed to.
In May I was slapped with a HUGE wake up call…in the form of a blogger conference. What I had hoped would be a source of mega inspiration actually ended up being so overwhelming that I came home and didn’t touch my camera or computer for almost a month. I found myself questioning every decision I had ever made up until that point. Then one day I decided to take some of my own advice…just be yourself!
Comparing my 5 month old blog to large scale blogs that have huge sites, with assistants who help with from everything from content to social media just wasn’t getting me anywhere. I needed to be me and own every single bit of it! As I went into summer I was able to devote more time and energy to Practically Homemade. I hoped to see the fruits of my labor and I did…on my first day back to school in August. Texas Sheet Cake Cookies started going viral and it was sending a ton of traffic to my site.
It was awesome and overwhelming at the same time. I had waited all summer for this moment and it happened the week I went back to work?!? With all of the traffic came things like my site crashing, negative comments and an abundance of back end work that I had never really thought about. Completely worth it…but I learned quickly that every success is met with it’s own set of challenges.
A few months later, here I am. Still seeing great page views from that faithful Texas Sheet Cake Recipe. I have also grown my blog subscribers and social media following in the process. What a crazy, stressful, fun, hard, time consuming, fulfilling and happy time this past year has been for me. As I publish my 109th post in the last 365 days, I am in awe and so darn excited to see where this whole thing is headed. I thank each and every one of you for spending your valuable time with me because I know you are busy.
I hope the recipes that I publish here are filling you up and making your life a bit easier. I love all of your comments, am always looking for recipe suggestions and am planning some fun things for the new year. Be looking in your inbox for a new monthly newsletter that has exclusive recipes, as well as ideas for your home and holidays. At the beginning of the year I will be relaunching Practically Homemade with a new logo, giveaways and a PARTY! I can’t wait! Here is to another SWEET year!
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