This Bloggity Blog…doing the best we can.

I’ve reflected a lot lately about All Things Thrifty and I cannot believe it’s been nearly 7 years since I started blogging in 2009 {cough cough, I’m not getting old, cough cough}.

A few days ago, a magazine asked to feature an old project of mine about repurposing chairs into picture frames. So I was combing through my old pictures to find the high-res photos. Boy was THAT an adventure. I’m shocked that I found the original chair/frame photos to be completely honest. I am NOT the best at digital organization. During the process, I came across this picture of my living room from 2010.

Friends, that there picture is THE definition of a blast from the past. {Read that sentence again in your  Cousin Eddie voice from Christmas vacation}. Hopefully that will put a smile on your face.

Look at the fluffy beige carpet, the exceptional white balance of the photo, the back of the couch…everything had me at hello. Truth is, I was thrilled with this version of my living room. I loved it. It made me happy, and I loved how comfortable it was for our family back then. We had just bought our first home, and I had decorated it. It didn’t cost me a million dollars to decorate either. #proud

Isn’t it funny how our tastes change over time? There is no shame in my voice here. I am not ashamed of my past taste. I am proud of it; why not be!?! I felt bold for daring to stencil my wall orange!  That orange stencil wall was my most popular post on All Things Thrifty for a long time.

We bought the dark brown leather sectional at a yard sale, because we couldn’t afford to buy it new. I even posted about it I was so stoked. It was in great shape, and after we sold our current couches, we only paid $200 out of pocket for that bad boy. I was so excited to be able to wipe off our next baby’s spit up that I was elated {as opposed to it sinking into the fabric on our old couch}. We constructed the window valance ourselves, and stenciled that wall before wall stencils were even popular to buy. In fact, I made that darn stencil out of plastic folders. 

We drove to Las Vegas to a terrible part of town to buy the dresser and hutch that we turned into our TV stand. It was $35.00, and I’m pretty sure it had hantavirus. {It smelled really bad like mice droppings, but that was besides the point.} Again, I was thrilled. IT WAS ONLY $35!! I planned on disinfecting it with all the things when I got home anyway. 

I’m sharing links to these old posts because guys, TIME FLIES!  I started the blog without a care in the world. We didn’t have a nice camera. We didn’t have the money to buy one.We were just living life and sharing it with our friends and family online and doing the best we could. 

That’s why I’m happy when I look back at old pictures, and guess what, that same reason is why new pictures make me smile too!

Fast forward a few years. We are doing the best we can with what we have now too! Isn’t that what life is about? We have a newer/nicer camera that takes better pictures {that I bought from a friend btw}. We have a different couch, and we’ve painted a few walls. We moved the other couch upstairs to the playroom. Our home {specifically the living room} may look different now with our wood floors and molding boxes.

My taste and style is a bit updated, but I’m still the exact same girl that stenciled that orange wall in 2010.

We are still just a family sharing our projects with our friends and family online and doing the best we can.  Our posting schedule is a bit out of whack lately, and you may have noticed. 

I am very sorry about that!

Life was nuts back then, and life is nuts now. Our kids are growing up! Instead of wiping up spit up, I’m cleaning up throw up which is much grosser. 

I am doing the best I can and I’ve given myself the permission to make that ok. The “best I can” will always be ambiguous around here, posts will ebb and flow, and I hope you are all ok with it because I am. It makes me happy. I love sharing when it feels authentic and natural. I hope you know that you won’t find forced posts from me. I’d rather not post than fake it. We have some great content coming up. Pinky promise. 

I hope you aren’t ashamed if you are doing the best you can. Give yourself a break. You deserve it. 

xoxo,

Brooke