The Five-Year-Blogiversary! (feat. blogiversary giveaway winner!)

good morning, cyberspace!

My deepest apologies for not posting last week! It was my intention to put out something at the very least, but it turned out that I had far less time to write than I’d anticipated. I always seem to forget how BIG August is around here. For one thing, there’s the birthday of my blog, and then there’s my birthday (hello, yes, hi, that’s why there was no post last Tuesday. XD), and then I’m also preparing for fun bloggy things in September… (more on THAT soon!) And then, of course, as if all of THAT isn’t enough, Life decided to throw yet another curveball my way this year and not only present me with new promotional tasks at my job (which I’m actually very excited about), but also… other things in regards to my job that I currently cannot speak about. XD All good things, of course, all good things. But also exceedingly stressful and a wee bit terrifying, nonetheless.

And if your eyes aren’t glazing over after that extremely vague and slightly confusing paragraph, then I applaud you. XD

However, all that to say, the past two weeks have felt huge, and I needed a little bit of a breather from writing in order to get myself back up to full functioning capacity. I’m happy to report that my time away was well-spent, however, and I’m excited and thrilled to be back–and on my blogiversary of all days!

Five years ago today, Smudged Thoughts was born. Created from an inkling of a dream, this blog has been both a complicated mess and a beautiful adventure. Although frequently sporadic and typically too chaotic for my own good, for better or for worse, Smudged Thoughts has helped me become the writer that I am today. This is where I first discovered my writing voice, where I made my first real writer friends, and where I discovered a community of writers who thought and believed as I do. It feels like only yesterday that I sat at the dining room table and bounced blog name ideas around with my mom, and yet here I stand on the opposite end of five years with a whole backlog of memories and dreams in my pockets. Part of me wants to look back on all that has happened and think fondly of “the good old days” when blogging seemed like a more popular avenue for writers to take than YouTube or Instagram. But the stubborn part of me looks at the five years of blogging now under my belt and can’t help but believe that this is only the beginning. There is so much yet to come in this writing adventure of ours, and I am so so excited for what’s next.

However, since it’s already getting late and I’d very much like to get this post out into the cyberwebs by the end of the night, I’m going to try and keep this particular blog post rather short and sweet! There’s so much I still want to talk about during my blogiversary month, and now that the dust has settled on all of the Extra which happens in August, I’m fairly confident that those thoughts will be thrown out onto the internet soon enough. In the event that it takes a little longer than normal to get them posted, though, please have some patience with me. This has been a Month, and I’m still trying to figure out where I fit inside all of it. (#yaynewthings)

But anywho! Before I end this extremely short post, I have a very exciting announcement for you all! Two weeks ago, I mentioned how my sister and I were putting together a giveaway to celebrate the 5 Year Anniversary of Smudged Thoughts! Today, it is my GREATEST pleasure to announce the winner of that giveaway! If you saw my or my sister’s post over on instagram, you probably already know who won our giveaway. BUT. I’m still going to squeal about it on here, because–as we already know–I am Extra and proud of it. XD

So without further delay, the winner of Smudged Thoughts’ 5 Year Blogiversary is…..!!!!

(drumroll please!)

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once again, can we just appreciate how GORGEOUS this notebook is? like seriously, I kinda wanna keep it. (also yes, hi, I created the oreo 5. be proud of me, peasants.)

JENELLE SCHMIDT!

Guys, I am so insanely excited about this! Jenelle has been such an encouragement to me, not just as a writer who I look up to, but as a friend. She’s one of the sweetest, most precious souls, and I am incredibly blessed to have her in my life!

Congratulations, Jenelle! I’m so excited for you to recieve your prize!

And to everyone else who entered, THANK YOU. This blog wouldn’t be half as much fun to write as it is knowing I have friends to read it. You guys are what make this so much fun, and it is my hope that I can find better time management to further dig my roots into this community in the coming months.

>>> <<<

talk to me, peasants!

Honestly, I don’t even know what questions to ask for this extremely short post (the likes of which will never be seen again here on Smudged Thoughts XD). I’m just so incredibly thankful for all of the support and encouragement you all have given me over the years. It truly means more to me than you will ever know, and I hope someday to be able to give even half as much back that’s been given to me these past 5 years. <333

So until next time, my lovely peasants…

* flings cookies in the air and disappears*

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