dream in neon turns one!

to me, dream in neon means thinking outside of the box, having fun, being crazy, testing your limits, and going after what you want. when i started this blog one year ago i had been reading style blogs for years, and always imagined having one of my own. it seemed like so much fun! create awesome outfits, take cool photos, and go on adventures. it would be like visually diary of my life. and on top of that, i loved graphic design! i could make my logo and create cute graphics. i had it all planned out. but i was nervous. of what? i'm not exactly sure. it just seemed like something that was easy to think about but would never actually happen.

then one day i just did it. i had just moved in with my boyfriend anthony, was working an internship part-time and was honestly kinda bored. it was summer and i wanted a hobby. anthony had been encouraging me and said he would take my photos. i thought, what the hell? let's just do it!  i put on a new dress and we met up for a date after work one day and he took a bunch of pictures of me and they turned out kinda dark and blurry, but i didn't care. i had outfit photos! i edited them and wrote a post about our night out in dc. i clicked publish. it was scary but i did it. i didn't tell anyone about it at first. i just kept planning outfits and taking photos. i had so much more fun than i ever expected.

now that i was planning posts, it gave anthony and i an excuse to get out and do cool stuff. we went on picnics, hung out at the maryland seafood festival, had our best friend visit, went to an awesome wedding, hit up the county fair in anthony's hometown, visited emerald isle with my family on vacation, went to NYC for the day, and so much more. it's so fun to be able to look back on all my posts in the past year and have a photo recap of all the fun things we did and all the cool places we went to.

i never knew how much i would fall in love with blogging. i got to meet a bunch of lovely ladies from the DMV area when we had a blogger bunch, i've worked with some awesome brands such as chloe + isabel and adore me, and i've created my two favorite kinds of posts-- totally thrifted and nine to five, that showcase my favorite thrifted finds and what i wear to work.

while there is so much about this space that i love, there is also so much that i want to improve upon. my goals aren't to post more or get more followers, my goal is to make this blog a representation of me. all of me. not just a few snaps of an outfit. i want to talk about things that are real and important, i want to focus more on writing out my thoughts and feelings, sharing more photos of family and friends; to put it simply-- i want to write from the heart. i am a writer by nature and want to dig deeper than just the color of a dress or what the weather was like today.

starting this blog has been one of the coolest and most interesting adventures in my life thus far and i'm so excited for the next year! thank you to every single one of you who reads this. whether you're my friend, acquaintance, or a blogger yourself, thank you. thank you. thank you. sharing bits and pieces of your life on the internet might seem strange, but if you're out there with an idea for a blog of your own my only advice is-- just do it!

thanks for reading and cheers to year two!

xxoo,
n

outfit details
skirt + headband: forever 21 (old)
shirt: random store in the mall (similar here)
shoes: buffalo exchange