It’s surreal, in a weird way, to be back “in the blogging world”. In many ways, I never left. I kept my Instagram going throughout the years (although far less active) and I’ve been actively contributing to the XO Marshmallow blog. But I’ve been out of the game, if you will, for quite some time and now I’m “back” and it’s both extremely cathartic and scary at the same time.

If you’re new here or to my Instagram account, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about — so let me take you back. I used to run a successful blog called The Trendy Sparrow. Don’t bother looking it up, it doesn’t exist anymore. While I was busy running my shop, XO Marshmallow, I let the domain lapse without realizing it and someone snatched it up (it would cost me over $3,000 to get it back). It’s a little sad — knowing that all those posts are gone. There were years where I blogged every.single.day. so to have all those posts gone is well…kind of a bummer (you can google “The Trendy Sparrow blog” and find all the old pinterest posts and what not, but the long form posts are long gone).

At the same time, I’m sort of loving that they are gone — like I’m getting a “clean slate” into the blogging world if you will. I started my blog, The Trendy Sparrow, in 2014 during graduate school at the University of Chicago. I hated grad school, and was thinking about turning my Etsy shop of the same name into a full time gig and was trying to learn how to market it better. I read a bunch of articles that said to blog. So I did. It’s honestly that simple. That’s why I started. As both my blog and business grew during graduate school, I realized I could do this full time. I graduated and went full force into my shop and blogging — earning a decent income from both. I even had interns. It was really something surreal.

But then something crazy happened. I won a popup shop in downtown Chicago for The Trendy Sparrow store. For free! And hired a girl to work in the shop named Kat Connor. Sound familiar? She mentioned in her interview that she liked to make marshmallows — umm I love marshmallows — and I invited her to make some for the shop. They were incredible and sold like crazy. I was hooked. I knew there was something major to this whole marshmallow thing and I couldn’t shake it. We decided to become business partners and XO Marshmallow as born. What then happened over the course of the next 5 years was something I don’t think neither of us could have imagined — it was a hit. I mean a massive hit.

We opened an online shop which led to popups which led to opening the World’s 1st Marshmallow Cafe. Yeah, you read that right. We were on The Today Show, The Chew, Food Network, and more. Our Butterbeer marshmallow went viral when we had only been open a couple of months. It was crazy! And exhausting. And wonderful. And a massive challenge. I had never owned a restaurant before or worked in a kitchen or had full time employees before — the learning curve was steep and I wasn’t prepared. I’m not sure anyone who opens a small business ever really is all that prepared. What I knew was marketing and branding — and I was good at that part — but everything else took up a lot more of my time and emotional energy than I ever expected. Did I mention I was still running The Trendy Sparrow blog and store?!

And then something crazier happened — the owners of the 2 restaurants we were subleasing from left. Yup, they left (that’s a story for a different time and frankly, it’s own post). The only way to keep XO open? Take them over. That was the only choice the landlord gave us. We were subleasing and couldn’t move XO. Suddenly, I went from co-owning 1 restaurant to 3 and that’s certainly not something I ever imagined I’d be doing. Yes, I was still running TTS. And oh yeah, this all happened 2 months before my wedding! My time and energy was divided more than ever and it came time to make a choice. The only thing I could reasonably let go of at the time? The blog. So I stopped blogging, and in the busyness of it all, let my instagram slide and my domains lapse. That was 3 years ago.

About a year later, I let The Trendy Sparrow the store go, too. I was barely creating anything new, and honestly didn’t love it anymore. And even though I didn’t feel like it really reflected who I was anymore, it was still hard to let go. It was a shop I started my freshman year of college on a whim. By the time it closed, it had been open for 10 years, even though I wasn’t even 30 yet. It had been such a huge part of my life during such formative years that I found it hard to fully let go. I didn’t even change my instagram handle until a couple weeks ago — and when I did, it was really freeing.

Even with TTS closed, I still had 3 restaurants to run, and XO was picking up in popularity. One of the restaurants had done poorly from the beginning. When we took it over, it was already in such a hole, I’m not sure anyone could have climbed out of it. We had a lot of not so great managers and confused customers who just couldn’t grasp that it was new owners — so in December of 2019, we closed it. It was a massive weight off my shoulders, and also freed up so much time and physical space for XO that it continued to flourish.

Fast forward to March of 2020. The pandemic hit and suddenly I had 2 restaurants that had to close for indoor dining. XO was able to pivot hard to online — we had an online store since 2015, so we just pushed all of our marketing and resources there. We have such an incredible following for XO that they kept us going — and growing — in a time where many places were closing. I was and am forever grateful. As XO grew, we started taking over the other restaurant’s dining space (it wasn’t being used) for shipping and storage. The other restaurant was struggling, but we were able to keep staffing slim enough that we could keep it going… until last week. With indoor dining reopening, it just wasn’t possible to keep it anymore. We didn’t have enough staff, and the cost of running a full service restaurant is much higher than to-go only. Customers were demanding indoor dining, and we couldn’t give it to them. We made the incredibly hard decision to close the restaurant so that those staff members could go on to do something great, so XO could use the space, and so we could get some energy back. I’m sure I’ll talk more about this process later, but right now it’s still a bit too fresh to fully discuss.

Whew. Are you exhausted yet? Because I am! It’s been so long since I thought about this all at once that I completely forgot just how much happened so quickly. I went from owning 1 shop in 2014, to 2 in 2015, to 4 in 2018, to 2 in 2020 and now back to one. That’s where we are today!

So back to blogging. Over these years of running all of these shops and going for what feels like 24/7 nonstop, I’ve really missed blogging. I love sharing my favorite home decor ideas, little snippets into my life, business advice from someone who (certainly feels like) she’s seen it all and more. So that’s what I’m going to get back to doing. XO is still going strong and growing like crazy (heck, yes!) but I’m also realizing I don’t have to do everything. I’ve got a killer team in place that I am really grateful for, and for the first time in (ever?) I have… a little free time. I’m redoing my home, learning to cook, and kind of learning who I am now that I’m not too busy to even think — and I’d love to document all of that with you.

This blog will be a little different than The Trendy Sparrow. It’s sole purpose isn’t to promote a shop or generate income. It’s for me. And for you. It’s a way for me to get back to writing and photography and DIY — things I love so much. It’s a way to share my experiences with you so that maybe you’ll find some similarity or connection or helpful advice. Or a dress you didn’t know you wanted. Or a DIY project you want to try. The point is — this blog isn’t intended to be another business. Will I turn down great opportunities to work with brands I love? Nope. Will I turn down ad revenue or sponsorships? If they align with me, then I’ll accept. But I won’t be writing for them or spending extra time trying to figure out how to generate revenue. I also won’t stress out when XO gets so busy that I can’t blog for a little while — life happens.

Anyway, that’s how it’s going, and where it started. The last 7 years of my life have been a super wild ride. I’m looking forward to new adventures and a new wild, but of a different kind. I hope you’ll join me on that journey.