I used to have a lifestyle blog.
It was 2014 I was newly married, living in a new city and craving a creative outlet for myself.
Ironically I was already a “creative” - I'm a photographer! But at that time I was mostly photographing big events and conferences. Corporate dudes in suits in big office towers and assisting other photographers on their jobs.
I loved it, but I wasn’t doing a lot on my own yet. When people asked me what I wanted to take pictures of I’d say some version of “people with businesses doing what they love” and “pretty things”. I desperately wanted to find people who loved what they did and help them share that with the world through photos. I wanted to create pictures that were inspiring and encouraging to not only the person in the photos, but to everyone that would see them too.Yes, nowadays this sounds a lot like branding photography.
But back then that term didn’t exist yet.
I emailed so.many.businesses and tried to explain to them how this kind of photography could help them and what it would do for their businesses. No one got it.
So I decided to do it to myself. I started a blog called, The Lovely Things, where I would share the lovely things in my life. Things I loved, things I made, things I did. I would write about it all, but I would also take photos for every post. And these photos? They were what lit me up.
Slowly, unintentionally, the blog grew. I did some sponsored posts, had products sent to me and was given some fun opportunities (I did love this part!), but at the core I was doing it for the love of it. For creating. For discovering things that I enjoyed making, eating, doing. Looking at common places as adventures and documenting them along the way.
Doing all this at a slower pace that wasn’t about instant posts and realtime social media was also a big part of it. Yes, I did use Instagram for it too eventually but at the beginning it was a thrill to do the thing, make the post, and publish the post. No ‘likes’ or comments. Just me sharing what I wanted for anyone who wanted to follow along.
I did this for a while and then near the end of 2016 I had my first baby. I tried to keep up with the blog, the baby and the business, but quickly realized that I couldn’t do it all so I hit pause on the blog.
A year or so later I made the decision to let go of the domain name (I felt guilty paying for something I didn’t use anymore) and just like in one of those time travel movies where someone accidentally does something that changes the future I felt like I could see it fade away into nonexistence. Like it had never been there at all. *sigh *
Anyway, dramatic moments aside I’ve let it lie for the past 9 years. But then:
I felt a pull.
Quietly at first.
“Remember when I had that blog. That was so fun”
What do I want now. What does the me today need?
“To create pretty things just for the sake of it. No pressure.”
Little moments of this had been sprinkling through my thoughts.
“Why are you waiting?”
I should be spending my time on more important things. Business things. Real life things.
And then one August day when the wild heat had finally broken, the kids were watching tv inside, I crept out to our patio. Armed with a stack of notebooks, my favorite pens, a glass of something sparkling and Folklore playing out of my back pocket… I started to journal.
It didn’t take long. I once again felt the pull, but this time I didn’t push it away. I didn’t stack all the reasons of “shouldn’t” on top of it. I let the idea flow… and decided it was time to start again.
Without pressure.
With discovery.
Unhurried.
Joyful.
Welcome to the Unhurried Joy
x Amy