welcome back… again.

My love for writing started the first time I watched Harriet the Spy. She carried around her composition book and wrote notes about everything she saw. And I was hooked.

That is one thing that I have not left behind in all these years of growing and changing. I still carry a composition book with me everywhere I go. And that’s where all of my notes go. Through the years I have bought many different types of notebooks and planners, and I always go back to the composition book. The pretty notebooks I bought, I would never write in because they wouldn’t be pretty anymore. The pages wouldn’t be clean. These were considered “special” notebooks, so what would I actually write on these “special” pages? I had too much anxiety to choose. I even tried different notebooks for different occasions. That didn’t work – so here I am. Back to my trusty composition book. Thank you Harriet the Spy.

The older I got, the more that the writing developed into a love for something else. I loved writing, and I loved reading. Reading was a hobby of mine, and I read all the time. Even as a kid I could get lost in books and would feel what the characters felt. I would cry with them. I would laugh with them. and when the book would end I would be so sad because that was the end of the story. The story was over and there was nothing else. I would take a minute to mourn, and then I would move on to the next.

I remember when I first started getting really interested in fashion, and the very first time I remember doing this is when the movie Mean Girls released. It was always on repeat at my house, and I loved the fashion and their rules, as funny as that sounds. This led me to take out my composition book, and I would go back and analyze every single character that I liked and I would write down every outfit they would wear. I would break it down by pieces. So Regina – I had a whole section of everything she would wear. Tops, bottoms, shoes, jewelry, bags, everything. Gretchen, Karen, and Cady had their own sections. Literally every detail. Then I went as far as to cut pieces out of magazines (I am showing my age here) that looked similar, or that I liked, and I would recreate those outfits on the pages and I would put them into a folder.

I had this for multiple movies and tv shows. The hardest one that I was keeping up with was Laguna Beach. Laguna Beach is what started my love for blogging. Because of Lauren Conrad – I saw what she was doing and what she building with her career and that is what I wanted. As with mean girls, I followed the same protocol with Laguna Beach. I would write down everything that Lauren, Kristin, Alex, Lo, all the girls that I loved their style, would wear. That was a lot more difficult because they LOVED to change outfits!

That is when I started noticing the evolution of Lauren Conrad. She moved on from Laguna Beach and had The Hills, and fashion school, and then she started her blog. Her blog is when my love for reading came back an that is when I fell in love with blogs. Those stories didn’t really end. No matter what, I could count on Lauren Conrad and her team to have a new blog post out weekly. Sometimes even more than one blog post per week. She always had something to say and about different topics. Hence, the story never ended. There was always something else to talk about.

To me, this was the perfect way to pull the things I loved, together. Writing, reading, cooking, fashion, all the things. I could put them into one place. And all of this started when I was 7 or 8 years old watching Harriet carry around her composition book. What started so small has elevated into this love of blogging and writing. I don’t blog because I want to become this famous person who is known for what outfits that I wear. I blog because I writing, and putting random outfits together, and creating recipes, and traveling and spending time with my family.

Here is where the negative comments to myself start happening. A lot of people start blogging because they thing it’s easy money. It is not. It absolutely is not. And they think it’s a way to get rich and/or famous quick. So the “market” is always full of new faces and new bloggers. And then there is the comparison game. This person started after you, but they are growing so fast. Or why is this person getting more likes when we post almost the same exact thing?

If I had just stuck with blogging and not let all this negative talk to myself deter me, who knows where I would be. I could be so much happier with where I am (because I published my very first blog when I was 19 years old) and not trying to jump back in multiple times and getting discouraged even more and quitting again.

I have lost myself so many times because of the comparison game. Then I would stop posting what meant everything to me, and would post what was “popular”. And if that is the approach that you know you want to take, that is fine. But that’s not why I started. That’s not what keeps bringing me back to blogging.

I write all of this to say, I have to keep reminding myself why I started. Probably 13 years ago when I published my very first post. I have to remember the fire that was lit inside of me as a 7 or 8 year old watching Harriet The Spy.

My love for writing and sharing my writing has not changed. I love clothes, but it may not be the most trendy clothes or most expensive. I love cooking. Some days it may be from scratch, but some days it may be let’s open this and throw it on a sheet pan because I am exhausted. I love sharing my family and the place that we are at in our life. What we do as a family. Whether it be a quick weekend getaway or an afternoon in the garden. That is real life. not some made up fantasy that we can’t keep up with. This is my life. And I can make it my dream life. And you don’t have to go on 17 vacations a year or have the most expensive purse or biggest house to have your dream life.

You are only given one life, and you can make of it what you want. I choose to live my best life. To make my dreams become my reality. And to share all this with you as I go. Not because I want to become “famous”. But because I LOVE this. I love sharing.

So, for the millionth time. Welcome Back to Tabatha Bacon Blog. I hope you enjoy and please reach out if you have any requests or comments about what you want to see!