We’re finishing off these last weeks of winter before we head into the warmer seasons and believe me we are ready.
I say “we” because my baby and I are still very attached at the hip most of the time. He isn’t quite four months old yet, so we are very much still one at the moment.
With that, I’d like to go ahead and give some updates about the coming months here on The Art of Cottagemaking. If you’ve been here with me since the beginning, you’ll know that I post twice a week pretty religiously with content made up of home renovation DIYs, decorating, recipes, crafts, and gardening. All of these things are my life.
Though they’re hobbies, they are also just a big part of my everyday world. We need to eat, so I cook and bake. I like fresh, healthy food when possible, so I garden. Our house is old and always in need of updates. You get the picture. I have always just documented what I am already doing in my everyday life and let you peak in just a bit through this blog.
However, lately my world is my son. He was born in late October of last year and has completely changed our world. He is such a blessing, but we have really had to adjust our routine to make plenty of time and energy for him.
Believe me, I still cook (just with less ingredients). I still plan on gardening this summer (but with much smaller goals and less variety). I love decorating for the seasons as they change, but much of our home is set for a while. We also don’t plan on any more major renovations in the near future until we have more time on our hands.
That’s just the nature of the beast.
With that being said, it wouldn’t make sense for me to create posts of things I’m not going through in real life. It doesn’t feel authentic to make it just for content when it’s not real.
I just don’t have home projects to show at the moment. The recipes I want to share are much simpler and “boring.” I have less time for crafts or big gardens in the summer.
I refuse to spend extra time creating content just for the sake of content.
I would rather show you what I’m actually doing, even if it’s not perfectly in line with my original content I’ve always shared. That’s why you’ll be seeing a lot more posts on motherhood along with my regular content in the coming months and years.
I’m still in the thick of postpartum and motherhood. I can’t always promise 2 blog posts a week and since they’ve remained at one post per week since I had our boy, I may stick with that schedule for a bit longer as it fits my life better right now.
You just don’t truly know what goes into running a blog until you’re actually doing it. I know when I first started I thought it would take me a couple hours a week to throw up a post I wrote and be done with it.
That is not the case! … At least not for high quality content.
Recipes have to be tested, made multiple times, photography takes styling and editing. Writing and editing takes even more time… Not to mention the research for what I’m writing about, keywords for marketing, and the current trends.
I also have to format everything very carefully to make it easier for you all to read and “digest.”
Then I have to create content to share on social media and Pinterest to increase traffic, too! And don’t even get me started on Google updates and whatnot.
You get my point–it takes hours and hours of work each week even running it on a part-time schedule.
It is truly a business and I treat it like one.
I only make a very small income from it at the moment, but this blog is my baby that I’ve built from scratch and run for nearly three years. I’m proud of it. I have big dreams for it, but right now this blog is sort of in survival mode. I’m a busy new mom.
That’s also why it makes sense for me to shift to posting content more about being a mom. It’s who I am now and it’s a very big part of my identity.
I still do everything I used to do before becoming a mom, but on a much smaller scale. So if you want me to post weekly, I need to be able to talk about what I’m actually experiencing in my everyday world.
I plan on continuing posting about the classic homemaking topics I always have, but balancing that out with reviews on baby items, kid-friendly recipes, decorating our National Park themed nursery for our son, and so many other topics that mothers can relate to.
If that isn’t for you, I completely understand. But I have to be able to have a space that accurately represents who I am.
And even though I’m not comfortable with publicly showing pictures of my son online or sharing every personal detail about his life, I do want to talk about topics involved in parenting and raising children. I’ve planned on this change for a long time now, and it’s been gradually shifting since I became pregnant a year ago.
Just know these topics may be a little more prevalent on the blog now.
Remember, you are always free to do what’s right for you and not follow along on my journey any longer if that’s what feels right. My world isn’t for everyone and that’s okay.
If you do choose to stay, though, I can’t wait to show you what we’re working on next over here…
The Art of Cottagemaking 