As I sit in the same chair I do almost every day of the week, where I do my work for my job and where I do a good portion of the social media posts for Paper. Pretties & Dirt, I have a huge smile on my face as all the memories of this past year flood on by. I did it, we did it, all of us did it, we made it to 1 year of PPD and it has been quite the ride.
We all have the ideas in our heads and the dreams that very few ever come to fruition, but why? Why do we not act on them? Are we scared to fail? Don’t know where to start? But what if we do start, and it turns out to be more than you expected? What if it is all in your life’s timing? I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. At that time, we don’t know what the reason is, but one day, it does reveal itself. That time could be hours away, it could be years away, but it does eventually reveal the “why.”
One will ask if I just created the group and blog and had instant success, and then I will tell you, nope. What if I said that a few years ago I wrote on a sheet of notebook paper the plans for an event planning blog and had all of the drop downs for the site mapped out. Then, what if I said I started a free version of Paper. Pretties & Dirt as a blog and it sat. Then, I’ll add that I had dreams of being a product tester where I would get free items, try them out, then tell you all about them. I had no clue how to run a blog, I had no idea how to get these products, I had no idea how to mesh all of this together. But here is what did happen, I designed, I laid out something that was not in my eyes “finished” and hit the GO button. I then things evolved, plans in my head came to light, new ideas made the road turn. You can’t get anywhere in a car unless you first turn it on, right? Same concept. Turn on the car, and just start driving.
Here we are, 1 year later and I’ll still say nothing is “finished.” Heck, I really let the blog sit stagnant this past year with huge intentions to grow it, to write more, to share more ideas, but well, that didn’t go as planned, and I am very OK with that. That gives me room to grow, to expand, to learn, to fall, to pick back up and try again. Now, I will say that a global pandemic and having my kids home with me while working full time for almost 3 months, plus life, may have played a part in not pushing the blog, but it is not the sole reason. I am going to play the “balance” card, I didn’t find it and that is this next year of PPD’s goal.
On the topic of goals, I as I am writing this, PPD on Facebook reached the goal I set for 10,000 by the 1-year mark. This morning, we did it!! Each month I have goals for this group, some months I hit them, some, not even close. I then asked myself what can I do better, am I remembering the groups intent, am I serving the group to what is expected? It is when I reflect back to these questions and ask if I put in what I wanted out, I then have my answers in to why I am where I was.
As I sat at campfires last summer, joking about saving money on my daughter’s night-time pull ups and I needed to share how I did it, the nudge of life has me here. This place of “here” has many of you that have enjoyed a coffee, a giveaway, fun jewelry, gift cards, pens, laughs, saving some dollars, got ideas for gifts, shopped for yourself, learned that a product wasn’t worth buying, got your Christmas and Easter shopping done in a few clicks, shared your business, learned life tips, shared how a box delivered made you feel, friendships, helped in support to local groups that were recipients of donations from PPD, and so much more. Yes, saving money is always great, but I wanted Paper. Pretties & Dirt to be so much more than that, and it is because of all of you that it is.
I cannot say it enough, thank you. Thank you for supporting an idea that is now my passion of having a space to again, not only save money, but one that when you enter, you feel happy, excited and have fun with.
With so many thanks and gratitude, I appreciate you all for this past year and I cannot wait to see what this next year brings us all.
Always ~
j.
Paper. Pretties & Dirt. The blog. 