Happy 2nd Blogiversary East Willow Grove

Hi.

It's been a while. Some of you are new so let me introduce myself.

My name is Chelsea and I am a 29 year old mother of two. I'm a boy mom with a beauty room and a love for coffee and brunch, preferably together.

I'm a girlfriend of 11 years and fiancé for almost 1, our wedding is exactly 6 months from today in beautiful sunny Mexico! I work full-time in the Detroit auto industry while managing this blog, our daily lives on Youtube and running an Etsy shop. Recently I started shooting wedding videos and have developed a love for long boarding.

I make frequent trips to Target, am obsessed with finding things on sale and don't require a ton of sleep to function, I guess that's where the coffee comes into play. I have a dog who drives me crazy but can't imagine our house or life without him. My heart beats for relationships with family and friends as they are one in the same to me. I thrive on to-do lists and schedules but sometimes make big decisions on a whim.

I enjoy giving gifts much more than receiving them and have a hard time saying no to candy. I love social media, a good dance party and sleeping with the fan on. I could talk to anyone and rarely do I feel uncomfortable in awkward situations. I love adventures and the unknown but crave the security of home base.

I'm an open book, a filterless mouth and a passionate women. I am, East Willow Grove, a place where I come to document the good, the bad, the uplifting and the sad. I try not to hide in my struggles or relish in my fears because you only get one life and this is mine.

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Today is not really my blogiversary, Saturday the 26th was, but it was also our Pre-ception party and I decided to hold off writing this till after it was over. My brain has been running a mile a minute and my body can't keep up. I've started posts, filmed videos but have been too twisted around to know what side is up to click publish on anything.

I'm sure you could tell because this place has been a little scarce if we're going to be honest here. While traveling for work,  I've been planning a wedding, parenting and playing house with Jerek. Life has been nothing of boring or basic around here! This past year goals have been met, tears have been shed and new lives have been created. Jerek and the boys have been my light through the forest of unknown adventures and the reason for more laugh lines on my face.

My hopes for this next year on East Willow Grove are big. I want to travel more and showcase these adventures near and far with the boys. To post more outfit ideas from a mom's eye view and display looks for less. I want to archeive milestones while commemorating the everyday happenings on video through my YouTube channel. I want to shoot more weddings, births of new babies and time spent with loved ones.

Sharing it all here is something I enjoying doing, it's never a chore, never something I get sick of, in fact, I wish I was here more, even full-time dare I say. East Willow Grove is a place where all are invited, a place where I hope other mothers nod their heads and smile or can lift themselves up as I too try to navigate parenthood along side of them. It's a place where I had kids first, bought a house second and get married after, a place I am proud of, where I can be creative and a place where I've met new friends. East Willow Grove is more than just a dropbox for my thoughts, an external hard drive for my photos it's a place I come often to clear my head, to remember the moments and to engage with others.

Welcome, you can stay as long as you'd like.

Happy 2 years East Willow Grove, you are so loved. 

Happy Birthday East Willow Grove- A Year in Review

Happy First Birthday East Willow Grove!

As promised the winner for the giveaway posted last week is Rondah St!
{I've emailed you, if I don't hear back in 48 hours I will pick a new winner}

A year ago I was home with a newborn and two and half year old, longing to do something else than wipe ass and pump my boobs. I was lucky enough to be on a paid maternity leave and in between the meltdowns and night feedings I managed to come up with this crazy idea to start blogging our life.  Knowing that Jerek might be the only one who would read it I decided to do it anyway. I headed back to work 8 weeks after giving birth with Skylor and continued to blog but didn't tell anyone. I'm not sure why it took me so long to tell people I was blogging but it did. I started letting family and friends in and was blown away at all the positive comments. It was nice knowing that someone other than Jerek was reading it and enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I felt happy knowing that family and friends far away could keep up with our lives just as if they were nearby.

As the months have flown by I've connected with other bloggers, written guest posts, learned HTML coding along with better photo and video editing.  I've also Googled everything under the sun if I had a question on how to do something. I can honestly say that I have probably self taught/discovered 90% of all things that go into this blog and my YouTube channel. I transferred my site over from blogpsot to my personal website and I've even been able to answer other people's questions blogging and video editing related. Sometimes I have people bringing up a post that they read while in conversation and it's really cool feeling. I have other friends/mothers, telling me that I'm not alone and their kids are acting the same way. It's comforting knowing that you're not alone in this crazy journey of life. And that's why I do it, I not only blog and vlog to document our life for our family to reflect on but for others to know that I'm right there with them. That I'm loving that new OPI nail polish too, I'm failing at Pinterst projects and I'm right there with them, crying in the bathroom because my kids won't sleep and are driving me insane.

I started East Willow Grove as a baby book, a home remodel diary, a family photo album and a personal journal. Life can be stressful, exciting and scary, writing or filming it just makes sense to me. It has helped me over come feelings of struggle as a mother when times are tough, it's also made me realize just how amazing life is in the most simplest form. To laugh when shit just does not go right and to smile as we grow as a family

It's been a crazy year full of family time, weekend play dates, late night editing and amazing opportunities with companies and other bloggers. I've made some really great connections with girls across the country as well as locally. You can find some of my favorite posts here and here from this past year. These last 12 months have been great and I'm excited to see what the next 12 bring!

A big thank you to everyone who has read one post or every post. Who leaves comments, tweets, or messages, I read them all! Thank you to Jer for putting up with my crazy antics and understanding that pictures and video footage are important to me no matter how psycho I sound sometimes!

And don't worry, these are low fat blueberry muffins and not cupcakes, that marathon is T-minus 3 weeks yo! {I did however make homemade frosting and put fall sprinkles on them. Yes, I own fall sprinkles.}

Don't forget since advertising is new to East Willow Grove I'm currently offering 30% off all orders with the code 'WILLOW'. Just enter code when checking out and price will automatically be reduced!