flaws — Blog — Party HarDIY

When I first started my blog, I intended for it to be an organization blog. I had just bought a house, and I really wanted to blog about it. It was going to be a lifestyle blog, but I’d provide all these handy tips to get your stuff organized. Hence the (old) name, WellKeptChaos. Learn more about the name change to Party HarDIY here.

As it sometimes goes, the blog got reworked and reformed. I realized I didn’t have a passion for organization (and my house on any given day can prove that…) so I decided to go for my next passion- party planning. I did that for a bit, but then my other passion came out, which was crafting. And the blog went in that direction. I even thought about changing the name of the blog. I lined up my new social media channels, bought the domain, and just about everything else! But everyone told me they liked the old name, and so there it stayed. Somehow the name seemed perfect, but also like it didn’t fit either. (UPDATE: You can read about the name change here)

The truth is that through all these transitions, I never really felt like I found my niche or my audience. I, like my blog, wasn’t any one thing. I like to do a whole lot of everything. I have ADD and it was, again, rearing its ugly head. I wanted to do #allthethings and trying to fit myself into a box of a “diy blogger” or a “party blogger” wasn’t really doing it for me. Because the truth is, I want to talk about everything. And I can talk A LOT.

So I sat here, on this chilly almost-June day, and I felt defeated. Not just with my blog, but in general. Who am I and what am I doing? What defines me? Is it my blog, my job, my life? And if any one part changes, do I change? And I thought about that name I created for my blog, and how off it seemed, and it finally clicked. The WellKeptChaos was ME. But not just me… in a way, WellKeptChaos is all of us.

WellKeptChaos is trying to be an adult when you really still feel like a kid. It’s trying to get your finances in order when you just want to go shopping. It’s trying to hustle and start a business when you have absolutely no frickin idea what you’re doing, but you’re not going to let that stop you. It’s all the very many pieces of your life and how they fit together and make you YOU, when they don’t seem to even make sense together. How a person can be lazy in life but dedicated in their business. How a person can love food and hate cooking. How a person can be obsessed with becoming an adult but not feel ready once they are. These are our quirks, these are our personality traits, and this is our chaos.

But despite the chaos, despite the pitfalls, and despite the world around us trying to change us, we are doing it. We are being ourselves, we are fighting the norm, and we are trying to find our way in the world. We are changing and adapting every single day, even if we don’t feel it, or sense it, or even believe it. Every day is a change, every day has potential, and every day we learn. And although we might be panicking inside, we put on our big girl (or boy) pants and we get through that day with a smile. We pretend we know what we are doing, we have a sureness in our voice that even we don’t believe, and we pretend we’ve got our shit together. That is our WellKeptChaos.

One thing I always liked to do, and wanted to do, was to help people. And I think that with all the very many things I do on my blog and in my life, I do help people. I’m not an art teacher, but I can sure as heck help you DIY almost anything. I’m not a party planner, but I can plan a shindig that looks like it came out of a magazine- and tell you how to do it too. I’m not a life coach, or google, or the town wiseman, but that doesn’t stop people from coming to me for advice, for someone to listen to them, or someone to encourage them to get their “show on the road”, so to speak. Throughout my life, my career, my jobs, I am that person that people go to for help. It’s something I always knew but also always overlooked. By not being perfect at any one thing, I was fairly proficient in a great many things. And this allows me to help a whole lot of different kinds of people.

So who is my target audience? Anyone that needs help getting their life together. Anyone who needs a girlfriend to tell it to them straight, but with kindness. Anyone that needs help doing this thing called adulting without going absolutely bonkers in the process. She’s probably a woman, she’s probably in her 20’s-30’s, and she’s probably like me. Maybe she’s someone that wants to laugh at her failures while she cries, maybe she wants to dress better but she’s SO bad at it, or maybe she just got her apartment and she’s broke. None of these things are bad, but they aren’t what you see on the internet, or in magazines. Everything looks perfect on there, but I can assure you, it.is.not. And that’s ok, because no one is perfect. That’s a fact, and you can quote me on that.

So you do you, boo. Be weird, be crazy, be broke, be stylish, be lazy. Be everything that you are, that makes you who you are. Keep improving, keep striving, and keep navigating your way through adulthood. We’ll all figure it out someday, someway, and at our own pace. But for now, let’s figure out where the heck to start. And let's do it together.

So, let's get this helpful thing started. Tell me your #1 challenge right now, and I'll do my best to give advice, help you out, or create a blog post about it. Is it something simple, like how to refinish your dresser? Something harder, like how to update your wardrobe on a budget? Or something really tough, like how to move forward when your mind is filled with doubts? Let me know in the comments below, or contact me.

I can't wait to go on this journey with you!