1. The name. Back East Blonde. If I renamed it right now it would be Back East Whoa-look-at-those-roots! Not only can’t I change my hair color, my blog title is pretty much the least creative part of my blog and somehow the most important. Damn.
2. My complete lack of branding. What does this even mean? I’m not a brand. I’m a human. My blog design is totally generic (it’s simple and pretty and I love it but it’s a template, anyone could have it). I have read over and over again that I need to “brand myself”. I spend tons of time pinning design & color inspiration and still, nothing.
3. I love blogging about blogging and I hate myself for it. I’d love to take a poll of how many of my readers are actually bloggers. I’d imagine these posts annoy those who aren’t. And yet my fellow bloggers seem to love them.
4. The ads. Not the sponsor ads. That ugly one up there under my blog title. Yeah, that one. It’s ugly. I know it’s ugly. You know it’s ugly. But making $1 a day from that silly ad makes me feel a little less bad about how much time I spend on my narcissistic hobby.
5. My blog posts are entirely dependent on my emotions. I don’t have a content calendar but if I did, I’d change my mind in the morning based on how I’m feeling that day. I wish I could stick to some sort of schedule but that’s just not how my brain works. I haven’t decided if this is totally a bad thing or not.
6. How much I love gifs and overuse them. I love them. I don’t know why. They slow down my blog and some people hate them (even my bestie doesn’t love them, says they make her dizzy) and still, I can’t help myself.
7. I’m always a little bit nervous because of it. My last name isn’t associated with my blog. You probably can’t tell exactly where I live. But because this blog exists and because I share so much of myself on the interwebs, I’m risking (to some extent) my personal safety, professional credibility and my pride. Very few people in real life know about this blog. I’d like to keep it that way.
8. Some of my old posts are cringe worthy. There was a whole period of lots of “me” posts, link ups, and more link ups. Most link ups (though not all) are boring and recapping a weekend where all I did was watch 20 hour of Netflix was just plain unnecessary. I also used to center align my posts. Again, cringe.
9. If there are any English majors reading, I’m sorry for my run-on sentences, starting sentences with the word “and”, and for the fact that neither of these things really bother me. They should. So I hate that I’m not bothered by it. My college degree hangs its head in shame.
10. But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate it. Not even close. Not even a little bit. Not even at all.
Go ahead and add major cheeseball to the list. I’m the worst.
HI, I’M NADINE.
I left California after college to start my life on the east coast. East & is what happened after that.
