a post about unintentional blog breaks, sucking at goals, and big announcements

well hello out there all you beautiful people of the interweb. i have returned from the depths of hiatus to let you know that once again, no, i am not dead. i just accidentally stopped writing for an entire month. again. (oh, and excuse the totally random family photo, i couldnt really think of an appropriate image for this post). 

while my summer break was an "on purpose" break that just kind of dragged on and on into the fall, this one hit me hard right when i was getting back into posting again. i could give you a list of reasons why this happened, school stuff, health stuff, busy life stuff, but really that feels like making excuses. the truth is, i was starting to feel really fake and somewhat insincere about the state of my blog content. mainly i think over the past (almost) two years ive tried to do too many things here and tried to be too many people in terms of who i am/want to be as a blogger. i needed some time to back off on posting things i wasnt so sure about and figure out what kind of blog i really want this to be and how to reflect that in my writing/content/monetization. its really a much more complex issue than i think anyone outside of the blogger circle would expect (though i do think the majority of my blog friends would be able to relate to where i am right now), but thanks to this little writing break and a very, very, VERY patient husband willing to listen to the exact same dilemma over and over again, im getting there. 

but there was another big factor involved in my writers block as well: ive been feeling really, really bad about myself and my abilities after going almost two whole months into this new year and making zero progress on our 2015 goals. none. ok i did try a couple of new recipes, but thats about it. i know this is somewhat expected since the vast majority of this years goals were the slow-and-steady-take-all-year type of goals (and, that as a naturally task-motivated personality, if i had made a list of 400 tiny goals id have a post today about how im halfway done) and i shouldnt beat myself up about the lack of momentum, but at the same time... im having a hard time staying motivated to reach those goals i made back in january. 

but instead of making this a mopey bummer post, i want to take a little time to share a few exciting announcements of whats to come here at poverty luxe: 

1. as i kind of implied at the beginning of this post, im working on a rebrand of sorts. ive spent a long time really considering what type of work i want to do here, and i think ive nailed down a better general direction. which i am absolutely thrilled about, if, maybe a little terrified to shift gears so drastically. but if i want this blog to keep going, i need to be excited about it, so its necessary to make some changes. also, not that i have the skills/budget for a full site re-design yet, i am working on a spiffy new logo, and hopefully i can debut that by the end of the semester. 

2. im leaving etsy. this was a hard, hard decision, because ive been with etsy since the very beginning of my first business (which wasnt all that long after etsy was started), and it pains me to say it, but, its just not a productive outlet for me anymore. i want to focus my efforts with the shop on designing new products and selling at craft fairs. etsy kind of just... gets in the way. for now ill be moving my online presence to instagram (obviously ill talk more about this when it happens), and maybe, maybe ill consider building my own ecommerce site someday. 

3. im no longer offering paid sponsorships. blogging for money is tricky, tricky business. as ive been considering what i want to do with blogging and the best ways to monetize it, ive realized that this avenue is maybe not the best for keeping things consistent and authentic and without distractions. now this has nothing to do with me being against blog sponsorships because (with very, very few exceptions) my experience with them has been nothing short of amazing. its just not whats right for my blog right now. 

4. were having a baby! actually, you may or may not have already been aware of this for a while since its been public on social media, but i feel like pointing this out because 1. i am 20 weeks today and HALF WAY DONE cooking baby #2, which is a huge milestone considering i am just not into this whole pregnancy thing, and 2. as per my last statement, while i do have some pregnancy/baby related post ideas, there will not be weekly or even monthly "bumpdate" posts, or (unless something really, really insane happens) a birth story happening on the internet. sorry to disappoint. but i did make a GIF! and that is very much not disappointing!

so yeah, this blog is still a thing, its just, theres been some major work happening behind the scenes. and be sure to stay tuned because i DO have some great posts coming up (as well as a few posts elaborating on some of my recent business decisions)!