Lindsay's Sweet World is Two!

Today is my two year blogiversary and now that I’m 448 posts deep, I can honestly say that I love blogging even more two years later than I did when I first started. Again, this last year I have learned so many new things, met so many new people, and I am thoroughly enjoying every second of the journey.

There are days when it’s extremely stressful trying to balance it all.  First and foremost I am a wife and mother, but then I also work a full-time corporate job.  Throwing blogging into that already busy mix adds a whole other aspect of crazy, but it’s a craziness that I adore, and therefore, I continue to make the decision every day to make time for it. 

It’s something that I love, and as someone who spends most of her time taking care of other people, it’s nice to have an outlet for myself.  Something that drives me, something that inspires me, and something that allows me to express myself in a way that nothing else can.

A few things I’ve learned this year…

There are a zillion bloggers in the world and trying to stand out can be really hard.

That you can have real, wonderful relationships with people whom you’ve never actually met in person.

That not everyone is going to adore you and that’s OK. 

That it is very important to be cautious and protect your content because creepers do exist.  (Fortunately, I didn’t learn this firsthand.)

That technology can be the biggest pain in the butt but it can also be the biggest blessing.

That HTML can be terrifying.

That Instagram is a tricky business.

That Twitter sucks.  But I guess I actually already knew that.

That Google is still and will always be my best friend.

And a few accomplishments this year…

I finally bought my own domain!  Woo hoo!

I doubled my monthly page views.  (See below for details.)

I had my first post hit 100,000 views.  (Also see below.)

I co-hosted my first giveaway.

I published my first sponsored post.

I was invited to join my first weekly link-up.

I helped start a new monthly link-up.

Stats

In last year's blogiversary post I put up all of my stats.  For some reason this makes me feel really weird this year (I have no idea why), but since I’m an extremely OCD person, my Type A personality is making me do it once again this year for comparison sake. 

Monthly Pageviews: 11,134 24,715 (Jan 2017 stats)

Subscribers: 18 50

Google Friend Connect Followers: 28 42

Bloglovin’ Followers: 34 218

Google+ Followers: 11 41

Instagram Followers: 1,005 4,055

Facebook Followers: 12 138

Pinterest Followers: 351 1,248

Twitter Followers: 553 705

Most popular post: Olivia Cate's Pink & Gold First Birthday with 22,984 111,748 views

Well, I guess we can all see which social media channels I worked on this year and which ones I completely neglected.  Haha.

And since my face is rarely in pictures on my blog, here’s a fun little photo shoot that I did the other day.  A special thanks to my Instagram/Blogger husband who took all of the pictures.  Thank you for not making me feel like a complete idiot as I posed for these photos since I already felt like a complete idiot as I posed for these photos.  Seriously, how do models do it?!  And also, I need to find a new pose.  ;o)

In closing, I wanted to reiterate some of my own words from last year’s blogiversary post:

The sole purpose for starting this baby of mine was to start keeping a journal again – to have a place where I could jot down my feelings and document the fleeting moments of motherhood.  A place to discuss my fears and my insecurities.  A place to discuss my shortcomings and a place to celebrate my accomplishments.  A place to share the things that I love.  I kept a journal from the ages of 6 to 21 – that’s almost half of my life in old diaries, notebooks, and binders all carefully lining the bookshelves in my office – and I thought that it was high time to come back to what I love after a decade-long hiatus.  I feel like I have found my passion and I feel like I am home.  I feel like I was meant to be a blogger.  My only regret is not starting sooner.

So for those of you who continue to read along every day, thank you.  Thank you for your time, for your comments, for your emails, for your follows, for your clicks, for your support.  It really means the world (and still baffles me) that you take time out of your day just to read about mine.  XO

And for those of you who want to know the real me, here's an outtake from my photo shoot.  This is probably what my face looks like 50% of the time... or as B called it, "classic Lindsay face." 

And now it's time for the Tuesday Talk Link Up!

Hosted by:

Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Crystal at Hall Around Texas | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Jessica at Sweet Little Ones | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Stefanie at Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam, & Dylan Too | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Becky at BYBMG | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Lindsay at Lindsay's Sweet World | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Sarah at Sarah E. Frazer | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Justine at Full Hands, Full Heart
Christina at Waltzing In Beauty | Pinterest | Instagram
Meghan at The Adventure Starts Here | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Tina at Go Big or Go Home | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Whitney at Polka-Dotty Place | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

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