How I named my blog + Giveaway

How did you come up with that name? 

I get this a lot. 

I get this from my dog's name Ducati, 

my sons' names Tracen and Skylor 

and also with this blog.

None of these names were thought up over night. In fact I'm so crazed about naming such things that it took me months to think of dog names, baby names and a hell of a lot of blog names. Since this is about how I named my blog, I'll shy away from the other boys mentioned.

East Willow Grove began in my head while I was pregnant with Tracen, writing in a baby journal that I will give him when he's older. It began in the glider in the nursery as I was projectile vommited on and crying. As I rocked him to sleep I thought about the day, the things we did and the pictures I took. It began when we went to cider mills and pumpkin patches, dinner dates and early morning brunches with friends. It began in bathrooms waiting for pregnancy tests to show two pink lines to house hunting, lots of house hunting. It began after disappointments, hospital visits, tears, after loosing house after house after house. It began after birthday parties and anniversary celebrations, after first heard heartbeats and laughter. It began after drives to church and snowstorms, after births of babies and nights of screaming toddlers. The funny thing is, it began years ago, before I hit publish.

I've been reading blogs for years now, and always thought I would love to have my own, but never took the plunge. This was most likely because I was in college, always working three jobs, maintaining a long distance relationship and trying to figure out what the hell I was doing after school. It wasn't until I was pregnant with Skylor that I thought, 'hell, I'm going to do this, I need to start thinking of a name!' I use to write names down in my phone and and go on namechk.com to see if the name was available. I wanted to make sure that I could have the website as well as all social media accounts under one name. To me it was important as I hated finding bloggers and YouTubers that have all different names on social media. I also Googled, how to name your blog and read every article there was. I'm not kidding, I honestly read tons of articles on 'What's in a blog name' or 'How to name your blog.' What I got out of it all was it needed to be short and sweet, something that people would remember easily and that could not be spelled wrong {or in a way that people would get confused.} It also shouldn't have the word 'the' or 'blog' in it, such as www.chelsealovespizzablog.com or thechelseablog.com.

I also started thinking what I wanted my blog to be about or what 'category' I would consider it to be. I read blogs about fashion, finance, babies, DIY, beauty and lifestyle. I knew that I wanted it to represent me and my life and everything that I'm interested and involved in. Because if I'm sharing my life with the world, I want the world to see it through my eyes. This is why you will find beauty and hair posts, fashion finds and coupon deals, mommy moments and toddler meltdowns, real life confessions and photos, lots of photos. East Willow Grove is simply a lifestyle blog that focuses on life, imagine that!

Now to the part of where the name came from, which I'm sure that's why you're reading this {minus the fact that I have a big giveaway, right? right.} Now as I mentioned before I had notes in my phone titled 'Blog Names'. I remember thinking that I loved how short and simple Pink Peonies and Ivory Lane was and I had been thinking about the name 'Sequins and Sippys.' While the name was available I thought about it and in 3 years now from now I may hate sequins and sippy cups may no longer run my life. I also had the word willow written down. I can't remember when or why but it was there and I just loved it.

On Sundays I usually would go to church with either all the boys or sometimes just one. This Sunday was weird, Sky wasn't up from his nap, Jerek wanted to do things around the house and Tracen wasn't feeling like leaving the house, so I hopped in the car and took full advantage of going solo. I also needed some alone time. While I had actually left early, I took a route that had so much construction I was actually 10 minutes late. Sitting in traffic behind a kajillion cars turning left into the parking lot, I glanced over and saw the street name from the picture. Looked at it and realized it had willow in it. I wrote it down and went to church. I had never been to church alone and it was a totally different feeling. I told myself if by the time I got home, looked up the name, if all of the social media sites weren't taken, that was it. When I got home and checked I was pretty disappointed. The website was taken as it was a resort in Tennessee. I started thinking I was never going to find something that I liked. I'm not sure why I kept looking and trying to make it work but I typed in East Willow Grove and boom. NOTHING was taken, so I took it. Every account that I thought I would use.

And there you have it, the story that started it all! Sorry that was so lengthly! 

With next Wednesday being my 'actual' 1 year blogiversary {since pushing publish} I'm having a big giveaway with some of my favorite things as a huge Thank You! I would love to personally thank each and every one of you that has read, commented and shared East Willow Grove but that would cost a lot in gas and as you remember, I live in a house full of boys with very large stomachs. All details for the giveaway are below and it will stay open for one week. The winner will be announced next Wednesday, the 25th in the "one year" post.

{Everything was purchased with my own cash flow & this is in no way shape or form a sponsored post}

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