A Decade of Blogging

Today marks ten years since I started Gracefullee Made.

For those of you who are new… I started Gracefullee Made on October 8, 2010. Every year I do a blogiversary shoot, but this year… I decided not to go with the flashy balloons, coordinated outfit and shoot location. This year, I wanted to do a round-up of some of my blog post photos from over the years.

I got a little nostalgic last night going through my old blog posts from the early years. 2010 - 2015 were rough, but as I cringe at the poses I thought were cute, or the outfits I put together that were questionable, or even the words I used in certain blog posts… I’m reminded that everything I did was trial and error. There was no guidebook to blogging. There was no right or wrong. The structure of blogging was essentially what we (bloggers) made of it. The content I shared, the photos, the captions… all of it was an experiment. If it worked, great. If it didn’t, then what could I do differently? Blogging really helped me find the career path I wanted to pursue. I found interest in marketing and understanding social media. It’s cheesy, but blogging is how I’ve gotten to where I am right now.

I want to thank all of you for following along on my journey from my high school days in Fayetteville, North Carolina to my college days at UNC-Chapel Hill, and then my move up to New York City. I know I say this every year, but I truly am grateful to have started my blog when I did. I’ve experienced amazing opportunities, met so many incredible people, and more importantly, enjoyed sharing my life and helping others through social media.

I have a question I’d love to hear from you:
I’m curious to know WHEN you started following me and WHY you follow me.

Is it for fashion, my podcast, my travel guides, blog posts, etc.?

Did you start following me during high school, college, or New York City?

I’d love to hear from you!

SCROLL THROUGH FOR SOME OF MY FAVORITE BLOGGING MOMENTS SINCE 2010…

I remember being SO proud of this outfit. Especially with my neon Nike sneakers.

4th Blogiversary

this is from one of the early years when I bought my first DSLR camera. I remember this was my cover photo for my blog.

5th Blogiversary

I used to shoot A LOT around my neighborhood in Fayetteville, NC.

… A LOT.

And sometimes I would drive to Raleigh to shoot with my sister.

I had a favorite color combination.

Clearly.

I always did a Valentine’s Day shoot every single year.

I had a weird obsession with this grapefruit bag. Lol.

I’ll never forget this shoot. I wore this in Seoul, South Korea while visiting my grandparents…

A shoot from when I partnered with a Raleigh boutique.

This was when I was interning at Rebecca Minkoff and Lele Sadoughi in New York City the summer of my junior year.

That one time I brought sprinkled donuts to my photoshoot.

That one time this blog post featuring this outfit went viral on Pinterest.

That one time I wore a sequin jacket to my lecture class and then did a photoshoot right afterwards on campus…

Or that one time I did a photoshoot right outside of a frat house during halftime of a game…

I had a braid obsession my senior year of college. I was always experimenting with different ways to braid my hair.

I busted out the tulle skirt at least once a year during the holiday season.

Holidays in college were a lot of fun.

But then so were the holidays in New York City when I moved up in 2017.

And then moving to New York City, my style definitely started to evolve.

Thank you for reading!