This post is a raw, honest reflection – a genuine outpouring of thoughts and feelings we’ve often kept private. After several attempts to craft something elaborate and formal, we realized what was truly needed was simplicity and transparency. We’ve stripped away the complexities to share what’s truly in our hearts, including admissions we’ve never voiced aloud, and perhaps, never fully acknowledged even to ourselves until now. It’s a vulnerable moment, but one we feel is absolutely necessary for our collective journey forward.
A Heartfelt Pause: Rediscovering Our Blogging Journey
For the past seven years, this blog has been more than just an online platform; it has been a vibrant, dynamic space where we’ve shared our passion projects, celebrated our triumphs, and navigated countless learning experiences alongside an incredibly supportive and engaged community. Throughout this remarkable journey, one truth has remained constant and paramount: our profound gratitude and deep affection for each and every one of you. Seriously, for real. Even when we’ve received tough love or constructive criticism, we’ve always understood that it stems from a place of genuine care (or at least, we hope it always has), and we want you to know that the feeling is absolutely mutual. We are deeply committed to delivering high-quality content, striving to do our best work with genuine joy and enthusiasm, and above all, to inspire you in your own creative endeavors. Our work here is a testament to the incredible way we’ve been able to build a life around this passion, and we are overflowing with gratitude for the opportunity to have shared seven years of our lives with you online.
The Unwavering Foundation: Our Cherished Community and Honest Feedback
It’s truly impossible to overstate just how much your presence, your comments, and your unwavering belief have meant to us. We would quite simply not be here, penning these words today, without your dedicated support. This profound understanding underpins everything we do, and not a single day passes without us acknowledging this fundamental truth. It’s precisely why, just last week, we reached out to actively solicit your invaluable feedback. We diligently read every single comment, immersing ourselves in the honesty, passion, and thoughtful insights you poured into your suggestions for making this blog truly exceptional. Your dedication to the topic of making this blog great deeply resonates with us, and we want to assure you that we agree with so much of what was shared. Your collective voice echoed sentiments we’ve privately harbored for some time.
To be completely candid, we’ve felt a growing disconnect, a sense of being “off,” for quite some time now. It’s as if we’ve inadvertently lost our rhythm, somehow missing the mark, not only for ourselves but also for you, our devoted readers. We, too, find ourselves reminiscing about the good old days when this entire venture was driven purely by love, brimming with spontaneous ideas, and an undeniable sense of joy. We remember vividly when this online space felt like a warm, inviting hangout spot for all of us – a genuine connection point. We acknowledge, with a heavy heart, that much of that cherished, authentic vibe has, regrettably, faded from our digital home.
Navigating the Evolution of a Passion Project: From Hobby to Brand
Over the years, our blogging journey has unfolded in ways we could scarcely have imagined when we first started. We were presented with an array of truly amazing opportunities – ventures we never dreamed we’d experience in a million years. From securing a book deal that allowed us to share our ideas in a new format, to curating exclusive paint collections with renowned brands like Benjamin Moore, developing a successful product line sold at Target, and even designing a showhouse – these experiences have been incredibly enriching. We remain profoundly grateful for each opportunity, recognizing them as milestones in our creative and professional lives.
The Lure of Opportunity and Its Unintended Consequences on Our Blog’s Identity
While these external projects were thrilling and offered invaluable learning experiences, they inadvertently altered the perception of our platform. In hindsight, for many of you, our valued readers, and indeed for us, these ventures began to make the blog feel less like a personal diary of our home projects and more like a full-fledged business, a brand. The lines between our personal narrative and our professional endeavors started to blur, leading to a significant shift in how the blog was viewed, both by our audience and ourselves. The intimate, personal connection began to give way to a more commercial facade, challenging the very essence of what we set out to create.
What many might not realize is that we’ve actually been working tirelessly behind the scenes to recalibrate and return to our foundational roots. This involved a conscious effort to scale back our involvement in external projects. For instance, we no longer maintain the Benjamin Moore color collection, the second book is largely complete, our products at Target have successfully run their course, and the showhouse project has been finalized. However, in our attempt to quietly pivot, we never made a grand announcement about these shifts, which we now understand was a significant oversight. It’s completely understandable, then, that some of you might have perceived us as having moved on to “greener pastures,” potentially leaving the core blog behind in the dust, so to speak. The reality, however, is quite the opposite. Our website serves as the vital engine propelling the success of any outside project, whether it’s a product line or a book. We could never, and would never, intentionally turn our backs on the blog and expect those external ventures to continue thriving without its foundational support. The blog remains our heart, our home base, and the true source of our inspiration and reach.
The Shifting Sands of the Blogosphere: Adapting to Change and Maintaining Trust
Beyond our personal journey, we’ve also witnessed a significant transformation across the entire blogosphere. What once began as a realm predominantly driven by personal expression, shared hobbies, and community building, has increasingly evolved into a more sponsored and corporate landscape. From the objective perspective of a reader, or even as fellow content creators observing the trend, it has become genuinely challenging to engage with a blog post without a lingering suspicion of an ulterior motive or a hidden money-making agenda. This broader shift in the digital content creation landscape has undoubtedly contributed to the atmosphere around our own content, making it harder for our authentic voice to shine through amidst a sea of commercial messages.
Transparency and Trust in a Commercialized World: Addressing Misconceptions
This dynamic was highlighted vividly just last week during your feedback, when some of you suggested that we might need to continue hosting giveaways because they reportedly pay us well. This feedback genuinely surprised us, as giveaways have always been a way for us to express our heartfelt gratitude to you, our loyal readers. They are a pure means of passing along free items as a sincere thank you for your readership and engagement, never something we accept payment for. This incident underscored the pervasive challenge of maintaining absolute transparency and rebuilding trust in an increasingly commercialized digital space, where monetization is often assumed even where it doesn’t exist. It served as a stark reminder of the importance of clear communication in navigating these evolving perceptions.
Reflecting on Our Journey: Lessons Learned and Areas for Growth
In addition to the overarching business-versus-brand dilemma and the side projects that, for some of you, regrettably muddied the waters of our authentic connection, there are undoubtedly other aspects of our journey we wish we had handled differently in hindsight. Our unwavering commitment to continuous growth and improvement means openly acknowledging these areas where we fell short.
Communication Challenges and Navigating Personal Boundaries in Public
Among these, we can identify a regrettable tendency towards being overly defensive in our responses, an inclination towards over-explaining situations to the point of diluting the message, and allowing external pressures or criticisms to deeply affect our inherently lighthearted and spontaneous approach. We’ve also grappled with a constant internal struggle between maintaining transparency and openness with our cherished community and, conversely, oversharing personal details that, upon sober reflection, might have been better kept private for various reasons. A prime example that comes to mind, and for which we still feel regret, is the announcement of our third house, particularly detailing a vacant property without an alarm system. Looking back, we sincerely wish we had approached that announcement with more discretion, foresight, and a greater consideration for privacy and safety.
We are acutely aware that many of you felt insulted or hurt by our perceived lack of openness regarding that house, and for that, we offer our sincerest and most profound apologies. Our intention was never to create distance, cause offense, or imply a lack of trust. However, navigating the complex and often murky waters of privacy versus public sharing in a rapidly evolving digital landscape proved immensely challenging for us at the time. We truly regret any negative feelings our approach may have inadvertently caused within our valued and trusted community. This experience taught us invaluable lessons about the delicate balance required in sharing our lives online.
The Weight of Expectation: When Passion Becomes a Burden and the Joy Fades
Anyway, back to that feeling of “we’re stumbling and you know it.” It is an endlessly frustrating, deeply disheartening, and profoundly humbling experience to perform poorly, or even just adequately, at a job you absolutely love with every fiber of your being. This feeling is magnified exponentially when that job is a “blog baby” – a creative endeavor you meticulously birthed yourself, nurtured lovingly, and dedicated seven years of your life to developing. It becomes even more poignant when it’s such an incredible, dream-like occupation – one that once filled us with so much inspiration, boundless energy, and sheer joy to wake up and engage with every single day. The dissonance between the dream and the reality of our recent feelings has been a heavy burden.
The Dream Job Dilemma: Reclaiming the “Publish” Joy
So, what exactly went wrong? We find ourselves asking this question constantly. We fully acknowledge, without reservation, that this is indeed a dream job, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that many aspire to. We know that most people who have successfully built something of this magnitude, fostering such a vibrant online community, would likely feel more inspired and energized than ever. It’s not that we’ve lost our gratitude; quite the opposite, our gratitude remains immense and steadfast. Rather, it’s a profound and persistent feeling of having fallen out of our natural groove, a pervasive sense that we are repeatedly letting you, our loyal readers and supporters, down. This pervasive feeling reached a critical point where, every single time we pressed “publish,” we found ourselves bracing for impact, anticipating criticism or disappointment rather than experiencing the celebration and joy that creative sharing should bring.
Embracing a Necessary Pause: Stepping Back to Move Forward with Purpose
In a determined and necessary effort to cease this draining cycle of stumbling around and the persistent feeling that we simply can’t regain our footing, we’ve made a significant, albeit difficult, decision: we are taking a break. The exact duration of our stepping away remains somewhat uncertain at this moment, but our best estimate would be at least a month. During this much-needed hiatus, we will be actively exploring other avenues and options for supporting our family, a consideration we first mentioned transparently back in April. We vividly recall the fiery blog-spark, the pure, unadulterated passion we felt for content creation when this was primarily a hobby, something we pursued with unadulterated enthusiasm while holding down day jobs. We genuinely believe that returning to a fresh perspective, perhaps even discovering a new rhythm, could be a profoundly positive and transformative change for us and for the future of this blog.
During this period, we will also be taking a break from our active presence on social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. This digital detox is essential for truly stepping back and gaining perspective. However, we want to reassure you emphatically that the blog itself will remain fully public and accessible. This means you’ll still be able to revisit and enjoy the vast archives of projects, tutorials, inspiration, and personal posts whenever you wish. Our comprehensive content library remains open for you to explore, serving as a testament to our journey so far and a source of continued inspiration for your own home projects.
Our Promise: A Path Towards Renewal and Authentic Connection
Let us be absolutely clear: the internal struggles we’ve faced and the current state of this blog are entirely of our own making. We take complete and unequivocal ownership of these challenges, accepting full responsibility for our journey and its current juncture. Please, therefore, do not direct any anger, blame, or accusations towards anyone who offered their honest and constructive feedback last week, or accuse them of somehow forcing this decision upon us. We have been wrestling with this pervasive “something is off” feeling for a considerable period, long before any recent comments. After far too much denial, countless internal “we’ll turn it around” pep talks, and trying to push through, we finally reached out and asked for your feedback because we genuinely yearned to hear your thoughts, your perspectives, and your invaluable insights. Your voices were not the cause, but the catalyst for action.
The Power of Honest Feedback and Rediscovering Our “Why” for a Brighter Future
That collective feedback proved to be both cathartic and immensely helpful for us. It allowed us to see with crystal clarity that if we hold any true respect for this blog, for the profound love we once had for it, and crucially, for you, our dedicated community, and what you genuinely wish to see from us, then a break is not just advisable—it is absolutely essential. This pause is our earnest hope, our only viable path to potentially regaining that fun, real, and spontaneous place this platform used to occupy. It’s about remembering why we started this, reconnecting with that initial spark when it was something we did purely for the love of it, rather than feeling like the high-stakes game of supporting a family through its demands. We deeply believe that this period of reflection and introspection will allow us to reconnect with that original spark, rekindle our passion, and pave the way for a more inspired, authentic, and joyful future for this blogging journey.
Thank You for Everything: We Hope You Understand Our Decision
In summary: our love for you, our readers and our community, is boundless and unwavering. Our gratitude for your consistent support, your incredible patience, and your invaluable honesty is immense and deeply appreciated. And as we step back for this vital period of reflection and renewal, we sincerely hope you understand our decision. We are immensely thankful for every single moment shared, every lesson learned, and every connection forged over these past seven years. We look forward to a future where we can return, refreshed and revitalized, to share our passion once more.
