What happened to 2012...

Where did 2012 go? I can still remember New Year's Eve 2011 celebrating on the couch with my hubby and thinking how cool it was that I was texting Casie in Florida! Casie from The Name is Casie that is! She was the first blogger that I got the chance to meet in person and I hope there will be many more bloggers to meet in person and hang out with! There are so many friendships I've built online and can't believe how lucky I am that I have this life and get to interact with bloggers from all over the world. Just this year I have gotten really close with a wonderful Mama named Tairalyn over at Little Miss Mama, but sadly she lives all the way in Vancouver, Canada...but I know one day we will meet in person. It's just crazy though how you can build a friendship and trust online with someone you've never met. Years ago I would have never thought to even talk to anyone online or even trust that they were who they said they really were. But now it seems that blogging and facebook has really changed all of that...and I'm grateful for it!

Another amazing woman I met after hosting a giveaway with her is Katie from Vintage Vinyl Journals...you have to check out her online shop. She takes old, unplayable vinyl records and turns them into journals! She contacted AWS (All Women Stalk) about doing a giveaway with us and I found out she lived right in the next town over from me! How cool is that! After we worked together on the giveaway for AWS, she was doing a show with some other vendors at a local restaurant so I went over to meet her and check out her journals in person! Now we are really great friends and we are in a few local clubs together.

I'm very grateful for meeting Katie because the beginning of 2012 wasn't looking so great for me. We have lived here for 2 years now and I still didn't know many people yet other than my husband's friend's wife. My best friend lives about 2 hours from us and my family lives about an hour. I just felt like I was stuck in the house all the time since I was working from home or that the only time I got out was when my stepdaughters needed to go somewhere. Yes, I would go see my family once in a while, but our weekends always seemed consumed with whatever the girls had to do for school, birthday parties, etc. I didn't have someone I could hang out with and just be one of the girls and most of the moms of my girls' friends weren't someone I really saw myself hanging out with. But when I met Katie she helped me get involved in the community and even volunteering for different projects. When we're hanging out I just feel like this is someone who I can relax with and feel like myself, be the Philly girl that I am...not the suburb mom I sometimes pretend to be! Who would have thought that someone who wanted to do a giveaway with AWS would turn out to be a wonderful friend and one I know will last for a life time. Thanks Katie for helping me come out of my shell in the suburbs!!

Ps here is one of her journals that I won in a raffle...the photos from my phone don't do any justice to her amazing product...so check out her site Vintage Vinyl Journals!