What A Difference A Year Makes

The birthday celebration continues! If you’re just joining the festivities, you can check out Becca’s favorite outfits from the past year here and stay tuned to see Ashley’s favorite outfits next week. And be sure to enter our birthday giveaway for a chance to win a beautiful summer scarf. Today, we want to take some time to talk about the accomplishments, changes, and highlights of the past year. It’s been a big year!

We decided to start a blog one random Thursday morning while talking on Gchat. We started without a clear concept or any idea what we were doing. We had no clue how much work we were taking on, and we weren’t sure people would read anything we wrote. For a while, our only fan was Ashley’s dad. Actually, he’s probably still our biggest fan! Slowly but surely we grew, and we figured out this whole blogging thing. And lo and behold, people read our blog! In fact, we had over 31,000 visitors this past year, and we couldn’t be more proud!

A note from Becca

It’s pleasantly overwhelming to look back through our blog over the past year and reminisce about everything that’s happened! I (reluctantly) took my first outfit photos. I’ll admit that Ashley had to bribe me into it with iced coffee. I liked it so much that I eventually bought a tripod and upgraded my camera to a DSLR. I sewed my first piece of wearable clothing. I visited Ashley in New York (that actually happened a few time). I went to visit our friend Ali in San Diego and took a road trip to Vegas. I tried to get out of the city as much as possible over the summer and spent a few weekends in Cape Cod and made my first trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

I attended the IFB conference and met lots of amazing bloggers. I checked out Boston Fashion Week and saw my first runway show. I got involved in Boston’s amazing community of fashion and style bloggers. I got on board with swapping. Blogging allowed me to meet so many wonderful friends when I was living in Boston!

Then, in November I made a huge decision! I decided to leave Boston and move to San Francisco. I had never visited San Francisco, but something was pulling me here – so I went. I tied up my loose ends, went home for the holidays, and then in January I embarked on a 2 and a half week road trip to the west coast with my friend Nick. It was amazing! We saw Nashville, New Orleans, Sedona, The Grand Canyon, Vegas, and then took a drive up the California coast! Since then, I’ve settled into the city nicely. I’ve started to meet bloggers and find my way around all of the city’s varied neighborhoods.

Phew, when I have to write it all out it’s been quite a year! Without blogging, I never would have known how much I liked photography. Now, I’m taking a photography course and trying to get in some practice outside the blog. I probably also wouldn’t have started doing some freelance writing. Nor would I have gotten to know so many amazing ladies both on the internet and in real life! So thank you!

A note from Ashley

In the early days, I relied on my trusty co-worker to take my outfit photos during lunchtime walks, but when I got a new job I had to go out and buy myself a tripod. The transition to tripod wasn’t the easiest for me, but luckily my mom was nice enough to lend me her DSLR camera which when paired with a remote, made solo outfit photo-taking a lot easier!

In May, I took my first ever trip to Europe! I went to Spain to visit my friend Ali in Barcelona (and ended up doing a lot of shopping…oops). I kicked off summer with some of my favorite girls, I went home a few times over the summer, did some jewelry making with my mom, and spent the 4th with Becca.  After a summer of apartment hunting, I moved to a new apartment where I now live with one of my good friends. Then I hit a milestone birthday when I turned 25 and went home for Thanksgiving. I spent a quiet Christmas in the city with my mom, pretended I was a California girl during multiple trips to San Diego, had a blast in Vegas, and took a walk in the park or two.

Along the way, I’ve tried out a few trends I swore I wouldn’t: like boyfriend jeans (seen here, here, and here), clogs (seen here) and socks with sandals (as seen here, here and here). I also found that I spent a fair amount of time this past year attempting to decide what color my hair was…and then threw caution to the wind and got feather extensions put in!

As I look back on this year, I realized how excited I am for the next year to come! I really didn’t know how this whole “blogging thing” would grow and evolve (and I still don’t!) but I do love this blog that we’ve built together and I can’t wait to see where the second year of Free Honey takes us. A big thanks to my partner in crime, Becca who challenges and pushes me to be a better blogger, to the bloggers who have been welcomed us to this crazy, online world, and to my IRL family and friends who are not only readers and commenters, but have also graciously served as my photographers, my photography subjects, my support system and my sounding boards. Love you all longtime!

In sum

Thank you! Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. This blog wouldn’t work without the the amazing community of bloggers that we are part of. We can’t wait to see what the next year will bring and how our lives and the blog will change. Here’s to the second year of Free Honey!

Tagged as: ashley, Becca, blog birthday