LoveBrownSugar Celebrates 5 Years: Summer Hiatus

“You should start a blog.” I still remember hearing those words, crystal clear, from a coworker right after I graduated from college in 2009. LoveBrownSugar turned 5 years old in July.  In July of 2009 I wrote my very first post and started this blog in hopes of expressing myself, voicing my opinion and creating my own platform because no one would give me one. I created it at first for myself. It was like my personal fashion and beauty diary. I wrote about what I liked, what I thought was important and what I wanted to see.

Eventually as the blog grew though, you guys became my community. As my readers, you’ve weighed in on my opinions and made me see things in a different light. And the blog became more about “us” and not just me. You put in requests for different things like seeing my face on the blog more often. So I did. In April 2010, I posted my very first outfit posts:

Posted April 2010

In November 2010 I started to share my hair journey with you from doing the big chop and onward. Since then I’ve taken you through product reviews, tutorials and more on my natural hair journey.

I’ve also often shared my successes and failures, including my taking the biggest leap I EVER have in my career by choosing to leave my job last year to work on my blog full time.

I even shared my pregnancy journey with you all! I made the announcement at last year’s anniversary party.

You guys have grown over the years from just being my readers to being my digital family. You’ve celebrated with me every year for my blog anniversary in 2011, in 2012 and in 2013. You prayed for me when I was in the hospital and baby girl was trying to make an early entrance , you’ve encouraged me when I was down, you’ve even put me onto new fashion and beauty faves. You, my readers, have provided so much to my life over the past five years and for that I have to say THANK YOU!

Now, going into my 5th year as a blogger, many of my priorities have changed. Now that I’m a mother, my little lady comes first. As we’re approaching the second half of her first summer in life, I’m planning to dedicate my time to enjoying it with her during this precious time in her life that is literally flying by. Cadence is already almost 6 months old and I feel like she was JUST born!

What I would sincerely hate is to look back at this time a few years from now and say “I wish I had spent more of my time with her when she was young.” Summer time is such a wonderful time to explore and spend time with your children and so I’m dedicating myself to being a mom who spends lots of quality time with my daughter before she’s old enough to decide that she doesn’t want to spend time with me (hehe).

With that said, I’ll be taking a brief summer hiatus from the blog over the next 3 weeks. The crazy thing about being a blogger is that although it can be incredibly rewarding, when you do it full time you never really get a “break”. You are always working. Day, night, weekends, even holidays. There is no break when it comes to lifestyle blogging. In fact, I never even had a real “maternity leave”. Up until the hour of delivery, I was tweeting and answering email! And less than 2 weeks post-partum, I was headed on a work trip. So for the first time ever in 5 years, LoveBrownSugar is going on a summer hiatus.

I’ll be focusing my time on documenting the rest of baby girl’s summer over at BabyBrownSugar.com and also on preparing some new and exciting new projects for LoveBrownSugar in the Fall. Sometimes the best way to innovate and get inspired is to take a small break, and come back with a bang. Think of it as my “Year of 4” a la Beyoncé. Except it’s not a year, and I’m not a millionaire.

I know the natural inclination for a momentous occasion like the 5 Year Anniversary is to go all out. Turn down for what, right? Well, considering this July was only the beginning of my 5th year, we still have plenty of time to make the 5th year major. I love you all to bits and thank you so much for riding with me for 5 years. LoveBrownSugar wouldn’t be the same without you! I’ll see you guys back here on Monday, August 18th. Until then, keep up with my shenanigans on social media @LoveBrownSugar and @BabyBrownSugar on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for daily updates.

Leave a comment below telling me how long you’ve been following LoveBrownSugar.com and what your favorite post or memory of the site is. Can’t wait to read your responses!