OMG ... Thank You

tassel garland on etsy

Thank you guys so SO much for taking that survey.

It's not too late to take it ... click here if you'd still like to give your (anonymous) two cents.

It is the first time I've ever really put myself out there for criticism and feedback, and I'm not the type of person who always handles that the best. Back when I was working, I always loathhhhhhed annual review time. Most people approached it like, "yay! raise time!" and I was the one with a pit in my stomach all day, already focusing on the ONE piece of negative criticism I would receive.

BUT - I took time last night to read over all of your responses, and ... they made me feel good. It made me feel like we have something pretty good going on here -- like two girlfriends chatting over a cheese plate and a New Zealand sauv blanc. Or cheese fries and a beer. Whatever suits your fancy. I like both :)

Here are my takeaways:

What do people like?
Words that kept popping up over and over again: real. relatable. honest. positive. optimistic.
You know about me that I won't harp over some product that I don't really love or use.
I seem to have quite a few local readers (hi Charlotteans and those in nearby areas!).
You like seeing my cute girls. And man, they're cute.
You LOVE LOVE LOVE the bargains and deals I share. Yay!
And the biggest compliment to me ... several of you mentioned that you like my style of writing. My wit. My "voice."

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What do you want to see more of?
You guys like Five On Friday posts way more than I thought you did. I was wondering if you were "over" them, but it's a resounding NO! I think it's because it's a nice little smorgasbord of topics ... style, family, television, girlfriends, recipes, bargains.

Your general opinion on Saturday Sip & Shop is "take it or leave it." And I get that. The main reason I came up with that idea is that I wanted a "regular" feature for my blog that you could check in on on a day that not a lot of people share new blog content. Weekends in the blog world can be a little slow. But if you're not truly digging those posts, I may pump the brakes on them a bit.

You want to see more day in the life, more hair and makeup, more marriage tidbits, more decor posts and a new home tour, and ... the most surprising one to me, more "real" April, more opinionated posts. I like that you are curious about my opinion on things, but I don't share a lot of that here for a reason. I want this spot to be a happy, easy spot to be (and a happy, easy place for me to write). I figure if I write about politics, I'll lose half of you. Someone who really loves/lives for politics would be all "well good riddance!" -- but that's not me. I'd rather keep you ALL here, differing opinions and all, and talk about things we ALL can agree upon, like creamy drugstore lipsticks and how adorable my daughters are. ;) But I will definitely take that into consideration. And I appreciate that you want to get to know me more ... peel back the layers.

SOOOOO....
My new domain name has been purchased (yay!). And fun little fact, when making that purchase, I happened to see that someone purchased alizadventures.com (I've always just used the free Blogspot version and never purchased the actual domain name). Oh, and they are willing to sell it for around $800. Ugh. People are so weird. So, probably a great time for me to change names anyway. Only a few more days until I make the big switch!