6 Years of Blogging | Blogoversary

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase with one of these links, I recieve a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read the full Affiliate Policy.

Well the day has arrived my friends! Thank you, firstly, to all those who entered my blogoversary giveaway! Congratulations to Sandra, who was drawn randomly as the winner earlier today. To those who missed out this time round, I’m thinking about doing another (slightly smaller) giveaway when I reach 500 likes on Facebook, so if you haven’t already found me other there, now’s your chance!

Like I said in my giveaway post, ‘the story of this blog is a little higgledy-piggledy. While I have had a few different blogs over the years, this blog in particular has had 2.5 incarnations. First there was From L&P to English Tea, and then I moved home to New Zealand from living in England for several years and so the blog became From L&P to English Tea (And Back Again). I name that the .5 part. Now it’s This Splendid Shambles, which is perfect really, as it defines not only my life but also this blogging journey.’

You can read more about this particular blog’s journey over on my About Me page.

The 29th of August marks 6 years of blogging here, and each year when this date rolls around, I do a giveaway and I express my gratitude and appreciation for you, the readers. But I just wanted to ensure you that it’s not just once a year that I think about this – it’s every.single.day. One of the reasons I love blogging is the community that it creates, and that can only happen when people like you engage and read and hang out with me on the blog (and other social media platforms). It truly means a lot.

I thought, just for interests sake, I’d share of the posts form over the years, including the ‘first’ posts from series, and some of the more popular ones. Feel free to click through, and see how much my blogging has changed!

---

Archives

An Upcoming Change

The very first blog post I ever wrote for this blog. I talk about the change that started it all.

Dune, by Frank Herbert 

My first ever book review. It’s amazing to see how little I actually wrote about it. Book reviews look very different these days!

Frozen Movie Review

First movie review. Yup, it was Frozen. I didn’t really share much movie-wise before this film, and it was probably just my love of the movie that made me want to write about it.

DIY Matchstick Words

First DIY tutorial. I’ve been thinking I need to head on back through some of these and re-take the photos, and slightly re-write them. But until then, you can get the general idea from these older posts. Oh how times have changed though!

Emmalee Art and Photography

The lovely Emmalee was my first ever guest poster! it’s been so amazing watching her grow in her photography over the past years. You can check out her Facebook page here and her website here. So stunning!

Cry, by Hanz Zimmer

I still love this song. It’s so beautiful. This was the first Sunday Song I ever shared, way back in 2012. This is the only constant post this blog has had for this amount of time.

Take Two Nail Art Challenge

At the end of 2012, Jessie at Nailed It NZ and Hannah from Polished NZ and I did the Take Two Nail Art Challenge.

35 Followers Giveaway

Naw, bless. Look at me go. All excited about hitting 35. But you know what? Without those first 35 people, this blog wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. So if you’re one of those 35, then I thank you from the bottom of my blogging heart.

Dresses With Jess

The beginning of my first viral pin on Pinterest, and the start of what would become the Character Fashion posts.

---

Closer to the Present

The White Rabbit 

My first ever Brunch Club with the lovely bloggers from Auckland.

NaNoWriMo

While this was a few years ago now, NaNoWriMo continues to be a highlight of my November postings. This post was here it all began.

Fandom of the Month Club April 2015

Oh April 2015. The month I discovered the wonders of subscription boxes. I tried out a bunch of different ones that month, but FOTMC was my favourite and I still get it to the day.

Star Wars Cross Stitch Patterns

By far the most popular post on the blog ever.

3 Great Auckland Areas for Pokemon Go Players

This post got a lot of hits during the first few weeks of the released of Pokemon!

Huffledor-Gryffinpuff 

When even Pottermore didn’t know where to sort me.

Let’s Talk About To Be Read Piles

A popular one just recently. Talking about how you tackle TBR piles.

Staying True to Yourself in the Blogging World

Another popular one about being true to yourself when you’re in the midst of the blogging world.

---

Looking back on some of these posts really makes me see just how far I’ve come. I didn’t really know what I was doing back then, and as far as I knew there wasn’t much out there in the way of tips and hints, nor a big blogging community. I made do with what I had at the time, and while that was okay for then, I’m glad I have learnt what I have learnt, and I have improved and grown in my blogging since then.

If you’re new around here, welcome! I hope that you will enjoy hanging out here on This Splendid Shambles. Have a wander around – there’s lots to see – and feel free to contact me at any time or leave a comment (I love comments!) on a post.

*raises a glass* Here’s to another 6 years, and more after that!

---

Image by Chris Adams on Unsplash using C00