a goodbye

Over the last year my posts on Grace's Birdcage have become few and far between. In June I accidentally (or was it?) let my domain expire. Instead of renewing it, I decided it was time to end this chapter (what I didn't realize was that the domain host would immediately sell the domain as an advertisement for special men's medication.... my apologies if you happened upon it).



End this chapter. Tonight I had a great happy hour with Tobe and realized it felt good to verbalize why it's the end and that it's time to say goodbye. Which is dramatic. It's a silly blog in a world of 3459080987634 websites in a very clustered, chaotic world with infinitely more important things going on and who really cares. Honestly.
But I started this blog five years ago and it has been so many things to me. So it is dramatic. But it feels good.


Blogs are a funny thing. My favorite are the most personal, where someone is really telling their own story and it's content is unique in a sea of samesies. The struggle I have is that to share something personal means putting it out there. For everyone. And sometimes that weirds me out, especially with people I know 'in real life' (if that makes sense). When people read this content you provide, day after day, they think they know you. They know what you've allowed them to see, which in all reality is a very, very narrow window in. At some point you begin to write content with those people in mind, editing and adding for someone else. The balance between a site of pretty pictures that looks like every other site of pretty pictures and my own authentic story is hard to find.


I look back on the ridiculous amount of time I spent here. It's easy to get lost. To post about projects - and never do them. Post about recipes - and never make them. Post about friends - and sit on the internet instead of picking up the phone to call them. That's not to say I regret the time I got lost. The blogging community let me discover an indescribable amount. Fashion became accessible, understandable through What I Wore and Kendi Everyday. I watched the hilarious experience of becoming a mother at MODG. I was (and am) completely inspired by Myra at Twigs & Honey and can still be cheered by cat photos at Kitty Stampede. I was consistently, happily overwhelmed by the spaces on Desire to Inspire and the projects of Young House Love. Don't get me wrong - I still check in with all of these and they are some of my favorite corners of the internet. I just keep it in check.

I named this blog after my oh-so-chubby and sweet cat, Grace. It has been an empty book to fill with inspiration images (quickly replaced by pinterest). It was a creative outlet during a time in my life that I really needed it. It was a bridge to meet people that I otherwise never would have - Jessie, Emily, Meghan among so many others. More than anything it has been a daily journal, something I'm grateful that I'll have to look back on. Like this and this, this and this and this and basically everything here. I dont' remember writing most of these but I am immediately transported back to those moments.

There is a lot I have missed about blogging in the last year, the daily journal more than anything. Which is why I don't think I'm done. I just think this is done. I need to find that balance, determine what I want the next chapter to be, and then start. When (and if) I do, I'll let you know.
Maybe.

Thanks for humoring my rambling goodbye and for reading over the last five years.
I'm grateful for every day.