Four Years of Tattooed Martha!

Photo by Lindsey Rickert Photography

Exactly four years ago today I sat with my laptop in front of me, knowing nothing about blogging, but made the risky choice to jump feet first into purchasing a domain and launching a blog. I had no idea that it would soon become my outlet, passion, biggest source of challenges and frustrations, and yet one of the most rewarding choices I’ve ever made.

Photos by Lindsey Rickert Photography

Since I’m self-taught in all areas of blogging; cooking, crafting, photography, styling, editing, etc.. my progress has been slow, but steady. I’m very hard on myself so I grow impatient and frustrated when I feel that I should be further along than I am, but I also need to step back a bit and remember how I began. I still cannot believe that I used to photograph my food at night under fluorescent lights in the kitchen! Or my personal favorite: I thought I would try the lighting in the bathroom because we had a sun lamp and photographed our dinner within inches of the toilet! I also used to hang a white sheet from hooks in our ceiling in the living room, set my food on an IKEA end table, and use my Nikon Coolpix to photograph it.

I mean.. can we please take a moment to laugh at this atrocious photo of chicken I took four years ago?

Hahah talk about humble beginnings!

One of the most unexpected surprises when I started blogging was the multitude of connections that I have made with my readers from all around the world. From a fellow blogger in Pennsylvania that I chat with regularly about everything from gardening to babies to a group of football fans in the UK that got together and threw what they called Martha-fest, cooking any recipe of mine that involved rum! These readers.. YOU.. are why I continue to do this every day. You inspire me, encourage me, and motivate me to keep moving forward and striving to be better every single day.

With that being said, I want you to remember that this blog belongs to you as much as it does to me. TM is about to get a fresh new look on Monday and I’ll be introducing some new content and features in the coming months. This is your time to voice what you love, what you want to see less of, or new features that you would like to see. I look at today as a relaunching point, so let’s create this together!

I sincerely thank each and every person out there that has believed in me because I would have never made it this far without you! Here’s to the next and best year yet!