Announcements! Finally Revealing What I've Been Secretly Up to All Year!

Hi Everyone! I am FINALLY writing to announce what the heck I’ve been secretly up to this year and also sharing with you what that means as far as what my subscribers can expect now from this blog. I have so many hopes, dreams, passions, interests, and We Live Inspired has been an inspiring playground for me (and hopefully for those along on this ride with me) since I started it on a whim a few years ago. The very first blog posts here were about animals, my documentations of the feral cat colony that appeared off our backyard, and our efforts to share their stories as I worked to help the situation. I also blogged a lot of inspirational articles on ways I live inspired no matter what life throws my way ( I still write those), recipes, home decor, money saving tips, The poem of the week ,etc. etc.

Wow! What a menagerie huh? I have so much random knowledge in me and so many things I wanted to share with the world. I think that can be a little confusing to new subscribers as to what kind of content they can find here. For those of you who have hung in with me since the beginning, I thank you so much <3 . For those of you who are newer, welcome! I am glad you are here! After gaining a little more experience in writing over the years and “finding” myself, or rather “creating” myself along the way, I have some more clear goals in mind now. Which leads me to my announcements….

I’ve hinted at things in past posts here as I talked about my background as an artist and writer. I’ve talked about my dreams of publishing poetry books (that’s on the agenda for 2017 now instead). What I don’t think I have told you all yet are the two biggest projects I have been working on this year- My own store on ETSY where people can actually buy art I make, and a NEW sister blog to We Live Inspired that goes with the store!

I personally start my new year on my birthday each year (February 27), and that is the day I began the graphic design and branding for my store and sister blog. Since Leap Day was this year, and I think it must be a magical lucky day, I reserved my store name on that day. I have had a store up since April, but it only had 4 items in it then, just to reserve the name so no one else took it. It was FAR from done and I was not ready to share it with the world. Ironically with in a couple days of putting a few little items in , we had our first sale from a customer in Naples Florida. (Which just goes to show my other fellow procrastinating perfectionists that you just have to DO it and stuff can happen. No need to worry about everything being perfect).

I have wanted to have my own store since I was little really. I used to play “store” a lot, only I guess I pictured having a brick and mortar store, instead of a virtual one. Having an online store is much simpler though, and so I am very excited to be making another dream come true!! I can’t wait to share it with you all! I have worked very hard on the design and products (and am still adding to the product line presently) and it is so me and it just gets me so happy/excited talking about it.

I meant to launch the store Nov. 1st, but something very tragic and traumatic happened on November first that temporarily got in my way. I needed a couple weeks to get my mojo back, and it is and I have launched my store right before Thanksgiving weekend, in time for Christmas shopping. The tragic thing will be a topic for a different day, but I wanted to mention it as a point of encouragement to others out there who have dreams and goals and keep having life stuff get in the way. When doesn’t life get in the way, you know? It is still important to not lose sight of our dreams in the process.

Coming back to the sister blog that goes with the store:

Why the heck am I doing TWO blogs anyway??!!

I must be crazy , right? After writing my menagerie of stuff here , it became clear to me that I wanted to better organize the content that I write. We Live Inspired is a really broad idea, because you can literally find inspiration in EVERYTHING if you look for it. And I do. But I want to make it simpler for you guys (and any future new friends reading this blog). While I was working all of this out in my brain, you may have noticed that I stopped writing recipes, crafts, home decor ideas, and things of that nature. That is because I am moving this kind of stuff to the sister blog I have been working on as a companion to We Live Inspired. (The good news is you will NOT need to subscribe to two blogs).

In a nutshell, We Live Inspired will remain the home for sharing everyday miracles, inspiring stories, life lessons, poetry, nature stuff, the cat/animal stories, and bringing more fun, wonder, joy, gratitude, etc. to everyday life no matter what your circumstances. Nothing is changing here in regards to that 🙂 .

Remember when for awhile there I was doing something called “Cozy Cottage Weekends” , where I started sharing home and garden stuff on the weekends only? That is where the sister blog comes in now. The sister blog is a website dedicated to Home and Garden (with a cottage lifestyle flavor) stuff only. The recipes, the gardening and flower talk, the home decorating and entertaining tips, cozy cottage things, etc. Because our surroundings and home life are an extension of inspired living if we want to create environments that makes us feel good and more inspired! 😀

For those of you who already follow this blog and receive my emails, nothing much will change for you, other than Cozy Cottage Weekends are coming back and any home and garden related things I have shared at the sister blog will be put in a weekend digest (only one email) so that you don’t have to subscribe to two blogs if you still want inspiration in the form of home life stuff. So that is the scoop, and if you have questions for me , please feel free to ask.