A Momentous Day: 1,000 Blog Posts

Today’s post marks a huge milestone for me, as the title suggests this is my 1,000th blog post.  One thousand, that number just feels big.  1,000 times I have hit published or scheduled something to post on Sparkles and Shoes since I started this blog in August 2012. Holy crap! Over the last 1,273 days, 181 weeks, or 3 years and 6 months I have shared my ups, my downs, my thoughts, my ramblings, and my secrets.   With the whole Internet.  And whichever way you want to look at it this has been one of the longest commitments I have ever made.  

As the months turned to years one of the most common questions I get is, “are you still doing that blog thing?”  The answer is a resounding yes and there are no signs of slowing down. So why do I keep doing this? It is fun. Sure, it is a lot of work, more than most people realize, but nothing really worth doing comes easy. I love what I do here – I love sharing with you. 

My First Outfit Post

I saw a tweet over the weekend asking what happened to diaries – we used to write things down and get mad if people read them, now we write everything down online and get mad if people don’t read it, and there is some truth to that. Would I still be blogging if nobody read Sparkles and Shoes? Probably not. It is fun watching the Google Analytics numbers of unique visitors and page views trend up month over month. I even have WordPress alerts on my phone and I get excited every time I see a new comment on one of my posts. And taking it one step further, would I blog if it did not make any money? That is getting a bit personal – but isn’t that what this is about? The answer is probably no. I am working on my 2015 taxes and it was a pretty great year for S&S, writing about what I love and collaborating 16 times with amazing brands. 

I have loved having this blog as an outlet to share things I am passionate about in every area of my life. I have published over 200 posts on fashion, 83 about food, 61 about New York City, 17 about Georgetown, and six about swimming. I have come a long way from my very first post with the Sound of Music lyrics and a branded self portrait. 

One of my favorite things about Sparkles and Shoes, it serves as a very thorough online diary of many of my favorite moments – everything from friend’s and family’s weddings (here, here,  here, and here) to my huge Eurotrip last fall covering my trip to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague.  Most recently it has been a great place to stay accountable for my fitness journey. Writing it down and telling the whole world about my goals has really helped keep me accountable. There will be a great post next week about my experience with dry January and my participation in my two latest Dietbet competitions.

At the Opera in Vienna

Before I end this post there is one thing I do want to get out there.  For all of the time and effort I put into this blog I know it is not as good as it could be.  As a extremely competitive, Type-A person this is difficult to admit but I have to balance my priorities. I have a full time job that extends outside of the normal 9-to-5 and that is my first priority not only because it is my primary source of income, but also because I enjoy it and it is my long term career plan.

I also schedule out time to spend with friends, workout, and unwind.  The time that is left, those few hours are spent on blogging.  If I reshuffled many of these priorities Sparkles and Shoes could likely go to the next level but for now, I am happy. So happy in fact I have a little something for one of you as a thank you – a bottle of Dior’s Miss Dior Eau de Toilette! The giveaway is international and will be open for a week! 

And now on to the next 1,000 posts!