It’s Shop For Days/ishopfordays.com ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Holy crap!

One year ago today I created this blog and posted my first post (the post wasn’t live until 2/9/2015 but I did post it on the 8th) and I’m really, really proud of myself for what I’ve done here. From like March-November 2015 I didn’t really post much at all, but when I actually started posting I was able to start doing everything I dreamed I would do on this blog. I even got my own domain a couple months ago so it’s truly been an investment of time and passion and it’s like a dream come true. I honestly still don’t have many views or likes etc, but that’s not important. It is so hard for me to even get out of bed some days, but in the past few months I’ve posted diligently in spite of that, and looking back through all these posts and seeing myself grow as a blogger and heal as a person is honestly priceless. This is like a journal to me. I need a creative outlet (everybody does!) so this became mine; my absolute love and drive for shopping actually sprouted into a representation of my enthusism and I’m always proud to say I have my words and my passion and my shopping life documented in a scrapbook-esque way. It’s like my baby book, I finally created this blog after wanting to for months in February 2015, and by the winter time I really made it mine. I made it something that mattered to me. I feel loaded with happiness when I take what I do everyday (shopping/creating outfits/writing) and seriously create something that is so…me. Something very Abby-esque. Something I’m proud of, even if nobody sees it.

So on this day, I look back through all my photoshoots. The bad ones, the horrible lighting, the ones I take a lot of pride in, how my makeup was bad sometimes, how I actually created an outfit I was impressed with… I’ve grown. Honestly, people can make fun of me all they want for blogging about shopping, but I think I have more passion in my pinky than they would have even if they cloned themselves 46 times and added up the passion altogether. And if they are passionate, how do they not understand? It doesn’t matter either way, it just makes me feel bad for them. Maybe they think I’m an oddball or “conceited” but that’s okay. Because when I look in the mirror I see sparks in my eyes and I see potential. I see things that keep me going each and every day. I see a reason to not only live or move but to thrive and prosper. I find so much joy in this and I’ve found out so much about myself and so many things just by being here and creating my story. It’s only the story of part of my life, yet it’s already gained so much momentum and I know it’ll take me far. Even if it just takes me to a dead end where I can sit on the floor with my laptop and be allowed to pour my heart out, that’s enough to keep me content for ions.

Sorry this was so long, but I’m proud and happy. Now, who wants to see the original post? It’s appropriately called Original Gangstress, hahaha. Maybe it’s silly or just flat out bad or juvinile or whatever, but this is the post that started it all and I’m not going to alter it’s history by rewording it or anything.

Here’s a selfie I took right before I walked outside to do that photoshoot. I can’t believe this was a year ago. But there I was, creating my first post. Creating history out of raw passion. Thank you to everyone who has read/been reading my blog at any point of the last year. My words will always be flowing somewhere in this world. Let’s just hope they continue to end up here for a little longer. 🙂

February 8th, 2015