Y’all, Bunny Baubles officially turns 3 today! Three years ago I thought it would be fun to start-up a blog to share sewing and baking projects with my friends and family. Little did I know I would be turning this into my part-time (basically second full-time) job and getting paid to do it!

Creating Bunny Baubles has been a dream come true for me. Getting emails from food and fabric companies asking me to collaborate with them is surreal. Would you like us to send you this free ice cream? OMG, obviously! Are you interested in featuring our sewing products? Can I say yes 100 times over? The fact that people outside of my loved ones read this blog and really appreciate and value it is so humbling, and I feel so blessed to have had as much success as I have.

It hasn’t just been a walk in the park though. In the first two years of blogging, even though I consistently posted once a week I rarely had offers for free product, let alone paid posts. In the last year I invested in a nice camera, attended local blogging events to make contacts with other bloggers, spent countless hours commenting and interacting with people on Instagram to create a following, emailed back and forth with probably 50 companies about posts, created a media kit, and upped my posting to twice a week. It’s not easy, it doesn’t come naturally, and it sure as hell takes SO. MUCH. TIME.

When people think about starting a blog, it seems so casual. Come up with a cute name you like, post a little here, a little there, take some shots on your iPhone, and call it a day. That’s not even close. Here is a typical timeline of post creation for me:

1. Brainstorm ideas for a seasonal project. If we are talking about a Christmas DIY, I am thinking about it in early November. Do some internet research and shopping around, 1-2 hours.
2. Contact companies that I think could work well as sponsors for the post. Sometimes I get emails back for an offer, and then I have to create a contract and an invoice, 3-5 hours.
3. Go out and purchase supplies for a project, 1-2 hours.
4. Create the project. If this is sewing or a DIY, I would say anywhere from 1-6 hours. Cooking and baking usually takes 1-3 hours.
5. Photograph the project, tack on another hour.
6. Write a compelling post that I usually make three versions of, 2 hours.
7. Edit the photos and the post, 2-3 hours. Sewing projects, add-on another 2 hours for an instructional drawing.
8. Schedule the post and all social media shares. This includes creating more written content for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, as well as researching hashtags and coordinating a theme, 2 hours.
9. Email a company back about their post being live, as well as all social media, 0.5 hours.

All in all, a post can take me between 10 and 25 hours. Two of those a week, and I’m at full-time job #2.

Now it might sound like I’m complaining, but working hard on something that I truly and honestly love beyond belief is something that I want to do. I always tell people I would be doing all of the projects even if I didn’t have a blog, so why not share them all with the world? It brings me so much joy to get a question about a sewing tutorial or a comment that someone tried a recipe that they liked. Heck, I even love getting texts from friends with spelling errors because that means they are reading my posts!

So really, THANK YOU!!! From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate you reading along, whether it’s only been a week or the full three years. I can’t wait to share with you what is coming in 2017 for year four! Look out for a poll – I want your input!

On that note, I am heading off to England on Tuesday for a week and a half! I will probably only be posting once a week for a few weeks and will only be lightly engaging on social media, but I promise to get right back on schedule once vacationing is over. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

NOTE: Taking a confetti throwing picture with a self timer is not as easy as it looks… this was like the 10th try, and yes, I did have to pick up all of the confetti after each toss.