I have been blogging here at Naturally Chic Mama for over
two years now. When I started this blog, I was entirely new to the world of
blogging – both in reading blogs and having one of my own. This blog has been a
journey of self-discovery in many ways. I’m a born people-pleaser and have
always gone with the majority on most matters in life. I have never been one to speak my mind or
offer an opinion, so this blog has been a place where I have felt safe to
explore my passions and express my uniqueness. At 31, I have finally started to
grow comfortable in my own skin, and feel like I have a good understanding of
who I am as a person.
As a blogger, I have struggled to find my niche. If you look back through my archives, you can
see my blog content often changing from Natural Parenting to Green Living to
Homeschooling to Decorating to Crafts and DIY’s to Faith and then back again. I
have a Type A personality and I love categories and nicely organized
compartments, and have tried very hard to figure out into which one I best fit.
In doing so, I have learned a lot about my strengths and my weaknesses, my
likes and my dislikes.
I have learned that I am not a photographer. I have finally
accepted the fact that I will never have a beautiful lifestyle blog on Typepad.
Other than taking pictures of the little things in life with my iPhone,
photography stresses me out. I do not enjoy posting DIY’s, recipes, etc.
because those involve a lot of step-by-step photography and I do not have the
patience. Although I am homeschooling, I do not enjoy blogging about the
details of homeschooling life because I can barely plan out our own weekly learning
experiences much less resource everyone else with great printables. (I hate printables anyway.) And although I
try to live green and natural, I am not original in this and most of the things
I do can be found on other natural living blogs, so I do not feel the need to
reinvent the wheel.
So that leaves me with words. One thing I have learned
through all of this is that I love to write. I have always loved reading and
fell in love with writing in college, but other than journaling and a few short
stories, I never really considered myself a writer. But as I have been
blogging, I have discovered that writing is my favorite part of the blogging
experience. I love to process my thoughts and organize my ideas. I love to sit
in bed at night with the computer on my lap as I tap away at the keys.
Jeff Goins says that Step 1 of “Mastering the Habits of
Great Writers” is to declare yourself a writer. So that is what I am doing here today.
I am a writer.
And I am excited to announce that I am currently in the
process of moving this blog over to a self-hosted Wordpress site. My blog will
have a new name, because although I love the name Naturally Chic Mama, I
sometimes feel trapped by it, as though I only need to blog about Natural
Living and Natural Parenting. Those are both very much a part of who I am, but
just a part. What is true of the whole of who I am is a passion for intentional living in all areas of life, so that will be the common thread woven throughout
my new blog. I have many ideas for posts
and series scratched into my notebook, as well as some other big dreams that I
will share with you someday soon.
So this site will be quiet for a week or two while I work on
getting the new blog ready for you. In the meantime, I have went ahead and
changed my Facebook page from “Naturally Chic Mama” to “Amanda Medlin”, and
changed my Twitter name from @NaturallyChic_ to @AmandaMedlin_. (Hopefully
someday Twitter will release the unused account @AmandaMedlin, but until then,
I will live with the underscore.)
If you are a subscriber to Naturally Chic Mama, your
subscription should transfer over. (Fingers crossed!) If you have my site
bookmarked, I will give you the new web address soon, so that you can bookmark
it. If you keep up with my posts on Facebook or Twitter, you won’t have any
problems because you will simply be clicking on the links I provide.
I will let you know when the new site is ready, and invite you over to check it out. I am very excited to embark on the next chapter of this
journey and I hope that you will stay along for the ride.
Always,
Amanda
