These days, every blog has a sidebar with a “Sponsors” option. It has a list of various sized images of different bloggers who paid money for a little tiny spot on the side of their blog. In the non-blog world, this is referred to as ADVERTISING, but for some reason within the blog world we’re all about “community” and the word “advertise” sounds a bit more cold than “sponsor.”
Here on my blog, I’m never going to do sponsors.
Instead, I’m just going to keep my little “friendlies” section.
They are people I KNOW. and people I LOVE. and whenever I tweet about them or write about them on my blog or share what they’re doing… it’s not because they paid me. It’s because I believe in them.
and because I believe in them, I want to take a minute and introduce you to the people I want you to know.
Mary-KeithIf you have paid any attention to my blog over the past 10 weeks, you’ll notice the name Mary-Keith has been popping up more and more often. I met Mary-Keith on Instagram two months ago, and we have become quick friends. Not just the comment on each other’s blogs kind of friends, but the non-stop texting maybe if I got married she’d be a bridesmaid kind of friend. She is sincere and honest and driven and I am honored to be her friend. Mary-Keith just gets me. She makes me feel #blessed.
SusannahSusannah and I were paired up for a blog swap awhile ago and when we realized that we live basically in the same city, we decided to meet up in real person. We have had coffee a few times since then, and I absolutely adore her. She is brilliant… one of those people who knows a lot but doesn’t throw it around like it is where her value lies. And now she is mom to one of the cutest little baby boys I have ever seen in my entire life. He is tiny and wonderful and he is lucky to have her as a mom. And Nate as a dad, though I’ve still yet to actually meet Nate so I am not sure if he is real or if Susannah has mad photoshopping skills. 🙂
RobynRobyn is one of the first bloggers I immediately decided that I loved when I started branching out into the world of blogging. I am drawn to her sincerity. Not once have I felt like Robyn is trying to get people to believe she is something that she is not, and I appreciate that. She is a true gem in a world where so much seems styled and staged and I hope to one day be able to meet her.
JessSimilar to how I met Susannah, I met Jess through a blog swap. She has an annual pass to Disneyland and so do I, so when I was down in California in September we went to Disneyland together for the afternoon/evening and let me tell you… if I still lived in SoCal, I would spend so much time at Disneyland with her. She is so incredibly sweet and genuine and FUN. If only I could do some of her cool DIY crafts with her and then go to Disneyland and watch the fireworks! That would be perfect. Oh and she’s getting married in February and her fiancé is just fantastic and I am already dying to see the pictures, because it’s going to be magical.
MeaganWhen I was little I went to music camp. My arch nemesis was this guy named Aaron who was always better than me and won awards before I did and ugh. He’s grown up to be a perfectly decent human and then he married Meagan, who I have only encountered a few brief moments in real life, but I only hear great things about through the Sarahs – Aaron’s aunt and cousin, who are two of my closest and dearest friends. I wish I lived closer so we could walk around Camp together with coffees in our hands more often, but in my heart we’ve already done that a zillion times.
RyanEndless Pursuit is a faith based multiple sclerosis non-profit run by my good friend Ryan. It’s weird how one day you don’t care about something at all and the next day you realize how strongly someone you care about is affected by it and suddenly you give all the craps in the world. That is me – MS – Ryan – my craps. You know how there are those “You have as many hours in the day as Beyonce” mugs? I want one of those but substitute the name Beyonce for Ryan Thompson, because he also is a co-owner of
Pines, my favorite coffee place (and that is how I met Ryan). All that and he still makes time to engage in deep emoji conversations with me. The one thing he hasn’t made time to do is watch Catfish,
even after I made him a list of the 5 best episodes. Can you all do me a solid and help me convince him that watching Catfish is time well spent? Thanks.
you are too sweet! 🙂 haha it is funny that you haven’t met Nate yet! Susannah must be one mad photoshop expert!! 😉 and how cool that you found a BFF through instagram!!! we live in a neat world! 🙂
p.s. i hope we meet IRL one day too! i am always up for a road trip to Nashville! ha!
haha yeah there are even pictures at her apartment with him in it. so he’s either real or Susannah is the ultimate catfish! haha jk ;D
I’m going to Nashville in January! but my window of hangout time is so so so small. one of the days we will make it happen. I’m trying to convince mary-keith that we need to go to the renew retreat next year, just saying…..
You are so nice. and if I quit blogging today I would consider it a win because I got to know you. and you get me, and you are so funny. One day I am going to be a bridesmaid. so there’s that. As I am typing i see below about the renew retreat, and I am all over that! let’s seriously go! I like retreats. I like renewing. really nothing can go wrong. Now. also catfish is SO good. I am going to immediately go down and read that post after I finish this. I LOLed about the fact that Susannah photo shopped Nate. so then, did she photo shop the baby, too? THAT is the question!
okay well i held her baby so if she mastered that in photoshop, she is literally the master of the world. i just love you. <3 you're the best.