Monday, February 15, 2016

Honestly Julia

Welcome to Honestly Julia!

I am excited to start writing a blog again! This is going to sound a bit silly, but last week while I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night (and my mind was racing!), I remembered that I had a blog! Granted, I hadn't written in it since 2012, but I had a blog! It was then that I realized I wanted to resurrect it and begin writing again.

The original blog was created with the purpose for me to have a place to write and document some of my travels, etc. I started this blog with the name "theadventuroustravller" just before my dream trip to New Zealand and Australia in 2011. Yes, I used two “l's” in traveller, I accidentally spelled it the British way! I enjoyed writing a blog and it was fun to document my pregnancy with our son in 2011.

I was fairly consistent in blogging for the first year of our son's life. Around the one year mark, I just got busy with life (learning how to cook/bake for us with dairy/wheat sensitivities became a full time job!) and the blog was completely neglected, so much so that I actually forgot I even had it!

Our son is now 4 and life seems to be going at a bit more of a manageable pace so I'm excited to start writing again.

A little about the new name of this blog:

I knew I wanted to rename the blog to something more generic than just one interest/hobby, etc but not too specific (I didn't want a lot of identifying information, etc). I did some brainstorming and asked my Facebook friends to weigh in. My top three names were "juliainalaska", "journeyofgrace" and "honestlyjulia". I was leaning towards "journeyofgrace" but also liked the other two. "juliainalaska" is convenient but it's also a bit identifying as far as where I live, etc. I think I was surprised by how many votes "honestlyjulia" got. Here's the funny thing about the written word as we have all come to realize in the past decade plus with social media, texting, etc....it's hard to discern tone. For example, "honestlyjulia" could be interpreted at least three different ways:

Honestly Julia
This is the way I hope most people view it: genuine, honest, real and authentic.

Honestly Julia!
This is interpreted or conveyed in a sarcastic or snarky tone. Almost like "shame on you!", pronounced with exclamation.

Honestly Julia?
This also has a sarcastic tone or pronounced in a "what are you thinking?" sort of way.

Honestly, Julia
At a recommendation of a friend (who actually suggested "honestlyjulia" in the first place), I can sign my posts with "Honestly, Julia" instead of "Sincerely, Julia", etc. Thanks, Nikkole for the great suggestions!

As far as the design of this blog, I'm learning how to make it "cute"! A dear friend of mine originally designed the layout and theme for the blog when I started it in 2010. I had her wipe it all clean so I could start fresh and learn how to make changes and add things to it on my own, without having to bug her to change things (she has 3 kids which includes a newborn). If anyone wants to give suggestions as to how to add things or make it look better, please let me know! In the meantime, I'll be educating myself through YouTube videos on how to design/maintain a cute blog! I will probably use a free template to customize it more, but for now, I'm just using a Blogger template to keep it simple. The look of the blog may change a bit before I get it the way I like it but that's ok!

One last thing...I will not be using my family's real names on this blog out of privacy concerns. My name is obviously fine but if you know us in real life, please refrain from using my husband or son's names in the comments. I'm still working on nicknames for both of them. It's easiest to just say "my love" or "my husband" for my spouse, but it'd be kind of fun to have an actual blog name that isn't his real name. For my son, his name while in my belly was Bobo so I could continue on with that I suppose. Or just call him "my son", but that gets kind of boring!

I'm excited to have a little corner of the web to process my thoughts and share my life with friends and family. I hope you enjoy reading along!

Honestly,
Julia







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