5 Years Later — The Trendy Files - Fashion, beauty & lifestyle blog.

My blogging journey

It was July of 2015 and I was in between my first and second year of college. The fall semester might have still been a month and a half away, but I already wanted to get a start on one of my projects for second year: a blog.

This wasn’t going to be my first time starting one, as you see I actually had to have a blog in first year as well. At that time I had no clue what I wanted to write about so I simply named my blog VanesSays a play on “Vanessa Says” and made it a place where I could write about random topics. I did everything from quiz to my first DIY Halloween Costume post.

Here’s my blog banner and old friend of mine drew that picture of me!

That banner is seriously such a throwback. Anyways, during that summer I went to an event where I met fellow Winnipeg blogger Jennifer from Pretty Little Details and she really inspired me to start my own style/beauty blog. I had already decided I wanted my blog to have a focus, but meeting someone who actually did it was just the icing on the cake for my decision. And that’s where The Trendy Files was born (I actually have my cousin Josh to thank for the “Trendy” part he had helped me brainstorm my name). But it was a perfect fit. I’m all about feeling comfortable in your own skin, which is a “Trendy” factor that NEVER goes out of style. You can read more about that in my About The Trendy Files section.

So fast forward a month and bit and I found out the platform I was using at the time, Blogger, was not the one that my course wanted me to use. So instead transferring my whole blog over I made a sister-blog called The Trendy Nail Files where I did nail art tutorials and cross promoted it on my main blog. You can still read it: https://thetrendynailfiles.wordpress.com/ - side note would anyone want me to post some nail art? If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed I’ve been doing a lot of at-home mani’s these days.

So I simultaneously ran The Trendy Files and The Trendy Nail Files for about 7 months before I then switched all my focus to The Trendy Files.

Then over the next five years I started to grow a loyal reader base, collaborate with some amazing brands, and connect with SO many other amazing bloggers, creators, and small business owners. The relationships I’ve been able to make is really one of the biggest highlights being a part of this blogging community. You can visit my post from my 2 year blog anniversary where I post highlights from my first couple years of blogging: https://thetrendyfiles.com/blog/two-years-of-trendy-files.

Here’s a highlight of my Instagram posts from my blog anniversaries over the years! Ps. I know, the first year I really dropped the ball on the ‘holding the number pose’. Ha! Also fun fact, for year two it was so hard to find those big number balloons unless you went and got one from a party store, so I just decided to make a ‘2’ out of paper board and gold paint.

Well, that was a nostalgic little trip down memory lane! Now to end off this little celebration post of my blogging journey I thought I do a Q&A with myself to answer a few questions about my blog.

Is thIs where I thought I’d be five years down the road?

To be honest I had no idea what to expect when I started this blog and for that reason it’s hard for me to answer that question. The one thing I think I for sure thought I would be doing is posting consistently and as we all know (very well) that I am definitely not doing that. But I guess that’s the beauty about creating something by yourself that you own, it’s that you can do that. It’s up to you to set your pace and what you want and don’t want to do.

Where do I see the blog going in the next five years?

Well, I hope to still be typing away and creating a little place of inspiration where you can jump on have a browse and maybe (hopefully) see something that inspires you.

Will The blog still be fashion, lifestyle and beauty focused?

For the most part yes. But I do have a pretty big change coming in my life later on this year that will definitely influence a new area on the blog. So stay tuned!

I could probably go on more, but I think this post is already getting on the long side. As always, thank YOU for joining me on this little blogging journey and whether you’ve been around for 5 years or 5 days I truly appreciate your support.

Lemon Dress: Valencia Boutique