This calls for a celebration!

I can hardly believe it, but today my blog is 3 years old! Wow!

I started Pughs' News on April 16, 2007. I was pregnant with Sawyer and looking for a way to connect with friends and family overseas, and thought a blog would be a good way to do it. I posted lots of photos of Dylan (who was just 2 at the time!) and updated relatives on pregnancy news and toddler triumphs. The blog was private and only a few people read it, which was okay by me. I loved it though, even with just a few readers. I have always wanted to write, and it was a great outlet to express myself and keep in touch with people who were far away.

Last year, I discovered a wonderful blog called Three Beautiful Things and I started to do my own 3BT on a fairly regular basis (to keep me looking on the bright side of life, and also in an attempt to fight off the fear and worry I felt about my dearest friend's diagnosis with breast cancer... It worked, by the way, and I can't recommend 3BTing enough). I discovered that the writer of the original 3BT blog would link to yours if you posted your own beautiful things. So I opened up my blog to the public and started posting like crazy. I went from 7 or 8 posts a month to 30 or 40! I started reading other people's blogs, and they started reading mine. I loved it!

Today Pughs' News is still about me and my family but it has evolved since that first post three years ago. I still write about the boys a lot, and post photos of our everyday adventures. But I also write about the things that I'm interested in, like books and films and decorating (and LOST!) I try to be honest and share the not-so-beautiful things that life throws at me too. I love connecting with people from around the world, and have made some really wonderful new friends as a result of this blogging that I do. I love the weekly traditions that have developed, the many swaps I've taken part in, the new pen-pals I've made. It is such a fantastic part of my life, and I am so grateful for it. I love reading all of your comments and it's always exciting for me to discover I have a new follower. So, thank you! Thank you to all of you for helping to make my blog such a great place to be. I love it here.

And so... Happy Birthday to Pughs' News! I think we should imagine that we could all get together to celebrate this milestone in style, don't you? It would be so much fun!

We'll gather around a pretty table on a patio somewhere in the sunshine. There'll be plenty of party lanterns and flowers. We'll laugh and chat away the afternoon, catching up on each others' lives (imagine! we'd be coming together from all across Canada and the US, from England, Ireland, France, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark... how amazing would that be?)

We can wear our prettiest party dresses, in every different hue.

We'll eat cupcakes and drink fruity girly drinks (like bellinis... mmm!) with paper parasols in them.

I mentioned the party lanterns, didn't I? They're vital, don't you think?

I hope you can make it, each and every one of you... And I hope you'll stick around for as long as I keep writing! Thanks for being here, for being part of my party! It means so much.

love,

Erin xoxo

PS: I wanted to do a giveaway to celebrate, but finances are tight at the moment. Once I hit 50 followers, I'll have something exciting lined up, I promise!

images via my tumblr blog, j'adore