Blogiversary

One year ago today I started this little blog. Let us pause for a moment of silence while you ponder this thought:

It all started with my very first post. I love that my mom is the only one who commented and both of us were such newbies to the blog world. 288 posts later, here I am: officially addicted to this strange virtual reality of blogging.

I remember the very moment I decided to blog: I was sprawled out on the couch with our now deceased laptop [R.I.P.] perched in my scalding hot lap [that baby didn't mess around and was probably a fire hazard, come think of it. Is that why my thighs were always bright red?] I just decided, "Hey. I'm finally going to make this stupid blog and see what happens. It would be nice for my family and friends to come to the blog for updates on life, so I don't have to send out a bunch of emails or...gasp...actually make phone calls. Does that make me lazy? If nothing else I can make it really pretty with fancy headers and whatnot."

True story. What?

But seriously, I had no idea how much I would enjoy blogging. There is something quite special about capturing your everyday life in words and pictures. I've invited you all into my life, to share in it's highs and lows...and sometimes boring plateaus.

And I've met some amazing people in the process.

-With much encouragement from my readers, I followed my dream and started my own creative business.
-I shared my grief with you as my best friend was diagnosed with breast cancer.
-I shared my joy with you as I completed my first full marathon.

-I shared my fear with you when I found a suspicious but normal lump of my own.

-I survived yet another move and multiple renovation projects at our new place.

-I survived my first wedding anniversary.

-And of course, I shopped, scrapbooked, and traveled. With an occasional craft thrown in there for fun, in honor of my inner Martha Stewart.

What a year.

Let's take a walk down blog-memory lane, okay?

My very first header, probably in November 2007:

[it's so tiny and meek! Probably because I really didn't know what I was doing, and didn't save the stupid thing correctly. I'm pretty sure there was another original header I tried for a bit but I cannot find it anywhere. Ah, how I've grown in the past year.]


December 2007:

January 2008:

February 2008:

March 2008:

April 2008:

May 2008:

[please note that June was a busy month, and no new header donned my blog that month. I think it's more than coincidence that my monthly blog lifts stopped in June---because that is when J.Lorene started to take off. And voila! My free time became consumed with album design and not blog design. ]

July 2008:

September 2008:And you are looking at November 2008 at the top of this blog.

Then there are the stats. You know I love me some numbers, right?

Since I installed my Google Analytics on January 22, 2008:


~Visitors from all 50 states. Missouri is still holding it down for me as #1, beating Wisconsin by about 3,000 hits.
~Visitors from 83 countries across the globe. Our neighbors to the north in Canada visit me the most besides Americans, of course.

~Total number of visitors/individual people: 12,449
~Total number of visits/hits: 63,278.
~My ticker on the blog says 87,858 hits but I can't remember when I installed it.

[these numbers are both frightening and awesome at the same time. I can't wrap my head around 12,000 different people in the world reading about my boring little life.]

~Most people to visit in one day: 318 people visited on October 6 [marathon day!]
~Most number of hits in one day: 503 hits on that same date.
~Average number of hits in a day: 300-400 [I started at 100 or less, I'm sure.]

~80% of my readers are returning visitors. Thanks for the loyalty, guys!
~277 subscribers on Google Reader.
~Most number of comments on a single post: 44 for my Eat it, Oprah post.

~Biggest referral sources [besides Google and a direct visit]:
1. Sara at The Seven Spot with 3,542 hits
2. Kristal at Good Food, Good Friends, Good Life with 3,306
3. Darci at With This Ring with 2,032
Way to work it, ladies.

~Most popular posts since GA tracking:
1. Motherly Love
2. 100 Things
3. Why Blog
4. Attack of the Skort
5. Official Request

I'd be lying if I said I never thought about closing up the Transition shop. Sometimes I feel burnt out on posting, and so I don't. Sometimes it bothers me to know that thousands of people know all about me [well, what I choose to post, that is]. And sometimes I hit a writers block and don't want to be one of those ultra-boring blogs clogging the internet pipes. I guess you could say the novelty of writing a blog has certainly worn off.

And yet, something about blogging keeps bringing me back. Consider this: I am probably unlike 90% of you out there. I cannot blog at work nor do I even get a chance to check my email. For me, my work day is full of running around and rarely sitting down---no computer time is possible. So all of my blog time comes in the evenings and weekends. I must really enjoy it then, huh? It's funny: I managed to give up my addictions to wedding related chat forums [ahem, The Knot, The Nest and STL Wed] over a year ago, and it didn't even require a stint in rehab. But I just can't give up El Blog-o. You like my Spanish, don't you?

Limited computer time=prioritizing my online life.
Blogging=winner.
End of story.

I'm not giving anything away in honor of this occasion and I've already told you more than 100 things about myself. But what else do you want to know? Is there something you've been dying to ask me but you just never have? Give it a shot: leave your questions in the comments and I will answer them accordingly. I already have one request for a DIY instructional post--for blog decor and Christmas decor, to be exact. What else you got?

And so, here's to another year. Plenty of transitions to follow, I'm sure.