Happy New Year! I’m really excited to make this my first blog post of 2018. I can’t believe that I started my little blog a whole year ago this month. Actually, I had really “made” two blogs my senior year of high school but never posted on them. I made one on blogger and one on wordpress, just to make sure I could keep my domain name with whichever one I chose. And today, I have a completely different blog name, blog niche, and blog platform than what I started with! If you’ve followed me from the beginning of my blogging journey, then you will know that I was originally the writer and creator of A Fashion Statement Blog, which was strictly a style blog where I would share my personal style. Fast forward a whole year, and here I am, writing a style, lifestyle, and home decor blog where I share the things that I am so passionate about. My new name is much less specific, so I can write about a broad topic of things I love. I just recently got into interior design, and I wanted my blog to show that as well, so I love that I can write about whatever I choose. My blog now, Pretty in Plaids, pretty accurately describes me. I love plaid, and not only do I like to wear it, but I also like to decorate with it, so I thought it was the perfect choice for me.
When I first started my blog, I’m not gonna lie, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I just kinda jumped right in. I made a lot of blogging friends through Instagram and was able to learn a lot from them, so I’m really thankful for that. A lot of the girls that started their blogs around the same time that I did had done so much research, so I kind of felt bad because I literally did nothing to prepare, I just kind of made the blog and tried the hardest I could to write good posts. I definitely know more now, and I love blogging so much. This blog has given me an opportunity to show my passions in ways that I never knew I could. There was no “fashion class” at school, so I finally feel like I have my platform where I can really show what I am able to do. I followed big blogs for a while before I started my own, and I honestly never knew that I would love it this much.
Just for fun, I wanted to share some of my first photos that I took for my blog, as well as my first blog post. I have definitely stepped up my photography game since then, and it makes me laugh to go back and look at the shots that I thought were actually good! 😂 Promise not to laugh at me? I was just starting out…no judgment, please?! 😂
This was before I figured out the wonderful benefits of natural lighting. Goodness, I can’t even believe that I took these and thought they were good. 🙈 I NEVER use flash on my photos now, natural light and brightening apps are my best friend.
Wow…I’m definitely glad that I learned a few things about photography since then. I know these pictures are awful, but I’ll show you how much my photography has improved, at least in my opinion, below!
Do you see the lighting differences? Lighting makes or breaks a photo, even when you have good editing apps! Good lighting is the base of a photo.
I am especially proud of this photo! Magnolia Market reposted this photo from me and it totally made me fan girl even more than I already do about Magnolia. My blog got a ton of new followers just from this, and my work was being “noticed” a little bit more, and I was ecstatic. I had been working and working, trying to get them to notice my photos, and they finally did! Anything can happen if you work hard enough!
Lastly, I wanted to share my first blog post with you. This will still be one of my favorites because it was my first one, and because it is about a place that is so special to me, Disney! You can see my first ever blog post here. It’s called The Happiest Place on Earth.
I hope you enjoyed this post, I had a lot of fun going back and seeing my first photos from when I first started the blog! Happy New Year! I hope you are able to start something new in 2018! Again, thank you all so much for your support, it truly means the world to me.
Emily
