A Note from Mel -
The best thing about January is that you can start new, erase all the trials and tribulations of the past year and be whoever you want to be! I never had any online platform before, though i am an avid blog reader and always wondered what it must be like to run your own blog... and so the birth of Penny and Dash was created in April 2016 with the ambition to build an audience and share our experiences and friendship as we navigate our way through our twenties!
It is no secret that being a creator of any kind is extremely difficult. It takes a lot of creativity, dedication, and self motivation, combined with the fact that we both have full time careers. It was a lot to take on, but I loved it! Even in the early days, Jess and I made the commitment to each other to be consistent (post 2x a week) and most importantly, create good content. And so, we spent our weekdays planning the following week's photoshoots, writing our posts, editing photos, purchasing props and rose early on weekends to take photographs before the rest of the city even had their first cup of coffee. This went on for the past 1.5 years, even when we were on vacation because of course we couldn't pass up an opportunity to share the new and exciting country we were visiting!
Somewhere along the line, my passion for the blog slipped away and something that use to excite me and pull me out of bed at 7am on a Saturday morning became a chore and grew to become something I dreaded to work on. Over time I recognized I was making small decisions (albeit nothing life changing) for the blog. Since we were mainly fashion bloggers, I felt the pressure and need to purchase excessive amounts of clothes to keep up with trends which just comes with a fashion blogger's territory. Although I still wear the majority of the items I bought, there was always the question lingering in the back of my mind of "would I have bought it if I didn't want to showcase it on the blog?" While I genuinely do love taking photographs to keep as memories while on vacation, being a blogger meant having the added what I felt were unnecessary stresses, but sacrifices that it takes to create content. Eventually, I came to terms with the fact that I would have enjoyed my trips more I didn't spend my time taking pictures for our lookbooks. Of course, at the end of the day. it was my decision and technically I didn't have to do all the work I did, but again, we aimed to create good content and I felt like I needed to do what I did to sustain our vision.
The past month, I really reflected on everything in my life, from my friendships to what was making me feel happy and fulfilled. There are so many things in life that is out of your control (i.e. health). However, what we are responsible for is our own happiness and what we can manage is how we spend our limited free time. Unfortunately for me, I came to the realization that blogging was actually taking time away from doing other things with my time that would make me happier. I also realized that was never too comfortable with sharing the details of my personal life (this post is probably the rawest and most honest ones I've written), which is why our posts were mostly surface level though the intention of Penny and Dash was to share things that were going on in our lives. As much as I love the community of Instagram and our readers, I felt like I was doing Penny and Dash an injustice by no longer having my heart in it or being 100% fully committed and so I turn over the reins fully over to Jess who genuinely loves creating/sharing and can give all the love and work that Pennyanddash.com deserves!
Thank you again for all of your support and I cannot wait to join as a Pennyanddash.com reader!
Lots of love,
Melissa
