21 August 2020
Everyday

2 years of The Artful Everyday

I think everything in life is art. what you do. how you dress. the way you love someone, and how you talk. your smile and your personality. what you believe in, and all your dreams. the way you drink your tea. how you decorate your home. or party. your grocery list. the food you make. how your writing looks. and the way you feel. life is art. -helena bonham carter

Life lately has been crazy with my brother’s wedding, the two year giveaway on Instagram I did with my friend Taylor from BRUSHSTROKZ, and my first trip away since New Year’s. All to say I’m happy to be back with a blog post this week, and as I settle into my routine again I can’t wait to share more posts. It gets hard in times of transition or such big life events as a family wedding, so thank you for your patience!

I didn’t get a chance yet to put into words what the past two years of The Artful Everyday has meant to me. Though I posted on Instagram to mark the occasion, I wanted to write more on how grateful I am for this blog, everyone who reads and follows me, and the opportunities I have enjoyed since starting really over two and a half years ago. The idea to create a blog actually began my sophomore year of college, in 2015. I started one with an embarrassing name that I’m not going to mention here, and posted periodically there. I had hoped to document my time studying abroad in Florence in 2017 on the blog, but as I’ve learned twice now, sometimes the best posts happen after the fact when I have time to reflect. 

Going into my senior year of college, I knew I wanted to commit to a blog with a new name and do it right this time. I began all of the prep and behind the scenes work that goes into creating a blog in January of 2018. By that summer, as a fresh college graduate, I officially launched The Artful Everyday with an intimate party of friends, my first post featuring beautiful Verona, a place that was easy to fall for and easy to write about. 

My reasoning behind starting the blog was simple. I wanted to share with the world all of the beautiful cities I had discovered abroad, especially after friends were asking me for recommendations and travel advice. Selfishly I was getting annoyed sharing the same information over and over again, and wanted a place I could just direct people to for all the details they desired. I had studied Interior Design in college, so I also wanted to share design advice, especially easy and affordable ways to decorate first apartments. 

Beyond all of that, I am someone who is constantly learning about life (aren’t we all?) and I found that writing my experience and sharing it was therapeutic and could help other people going through the same things I’m going through. Whether it’s returning from being abroad and having an identity crisis, or living through a global pandemic, my Everyday Discoveries tab is full of my personal thoughts and vulnerabilities that I hope allow people to connect and feel less alone in this world. (It just might be my favorite tab.)

The blog has definitely grown and shifted with me. One series I have held onto since the beginning was the Amateur Expat. My first posts on my previous blog were all about discoveries I made overseas. Arriving in Florence was like entering a whole new world, and my first observations of European life are some of my favorite to look back on. I knew that I wanted to move abroad again, so I kept this series around knowing that I would have more to write about in the future (thank you, Rome). Once again I’m back stateside, but that column isn’t going anywhere as it represents the future I hope to have and the highlights of living abroad for me. 

Since the pandemic started, my focus has been less on travel (it just didn’t feel right), and more on everyday life. I always knew that my blog would not just be travel content, which is part of the reason I chose a name that encompasses how I live, no matter where I am in the world. I’m not going to lie, the past six months have been really hard without travel, with borders closed, but through it all the blog and the creativity I associate with it has been a light for me. I hope by offering advice on how to live intentionally everyday, more people can live the life they want, a life they love and consider beautiful.  

I’m very grateful for the opportunities the blog has allowed me, like being a Fat Tire Tours ambassador and writing guest blog posts for Traverse Journeys and Rome Abroad. Aside from that, I think my favorite part about creating this community is connecting with like-minded people all over the world. I cherish the conversations that happen when followers message me, and we share our love of Italy or other interests while sometimes being thousands of kilometers away. My Instagram even got me recognized (for the first time ever) in Sant’Eustachio il Caffè, a famous bar in Rome, and I made a friend out of it. I cherish these connections and the people who share their stories with me so much!

I have to also thank my friends who helped me get to this point. The ones who believe in me, who listened to me list off name ideas for weeks straight and provided valuable input, who read and comment on my blog, who tell me how much they love my writing or how much a certain post related to them. You are why I keep pouring my soul into this, and I hope that over time I can touch more people like you. It’s been an interesting two years, full of some of the best times and worst times, and I’m happy to have my friends and my blog with me through it all. So thank you from my heart, grazie dal mio cuore!

I am going to continue making every day artful, by living intentionally and finding beauty in the ordinary. I hope you’ll join me…

Everyday
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