Alt Summit Recap: My thoughts, experience, and how I left feeling surprised

So last week, I bid farewell to my family, and embarked on a journey and an experience where I was surrounded by hundreds of creative entrepreneurs and bloggers who I got to mingle with.  My experience is called Alt Summit.

Motherhood and Sisterhood Time

You've probably noticed that for a couple weeks we've been MIA.  We've posted a few giveaways and our weekly link party on the blog but haven't really posted any new content on our site.  We're still alive and moving but have decided to take little break.

The past three weeks have been a whirlwind.  Melanie and the baby came into town so they could attend Caitlin's wedding, which is in two days, and spend time with the family.  So for the past three weeks the three of us, the two babies, and my mom have been spending every waking moment together.  It's been so much fun catching up with my sisters, holding that adorable baby, and just hanging out.  I seriously haven't done laundry for like two weeks and my house is a pig pen because I'm never home during the day.  So any of you robbers out there, please don't break into my house, haha.  

A month ago I attended SNAP!, it's a blogging conference in Salt Lake City and had a great time but left feeling a bit overwhelmed due to the thousand of new things I learned and wanted to apply to our blog.

When I got home from the conference, I really didn't have a drive to blog. So I didn't.  I've learned over the past year that I need to listen to my body and mind more.  If I feel stressed, tired, overwhelmed, or not passionate about something anymore, I need to listen and take a break.

By taking another blogging break it's made me realize how sometimes I miss just being a mom, and not having to worry about answering emails, taking photos, writing posts, scheduling social media, and feeling the pressure that I put on myself to try to manage the many other things I need to do.

Melanie, Caitlin, and I have had some heart to heart conversations these past weeks about the state of our blog.  We've felt for the longest time that our blog was really eclectic and we really didn't have a mission or a way to define who we are as bloggers.  We've come to a point in this journey where if we're going to continue Fry Sauce & Grits something needed to change.

We spend A LOT of time on our blog to create thoughtful and quality content, to post consistently, and to do the many things that bloggers are "supposed to do."  We're at the point where we don't care what we're "supposed" to do and want to focus on giving back by helping and inspiring others with our blog.

A couple weeks ago my sisters and I attended a blogging workshop where we learned how to create an elevator pitch for our business and blog.  While doing this exercise, we had an aha moment.  We were able to pinpoint what were really passionate about when it comes to our blog and a way to tie in all of our eclectic passions together that makes our blog make more sense.

That's when we decided we want our blog to have much more meaning, quality, substance, to be a source of inspiration for women, a place where women can come and feel beautified, and leave our blog feeling more confident.

With this aha moment we've decided to make some changes to our small little blog.  I'm excited to announce that we're in the early stages of redesigning our website to reflect this new philosophy of ours.  We're also not going to be posting as often, but by doing this we hope to create and write better and more beautiful content, and now that life will be settling down for all of us, we'll be able to dedicate more time to this mission of ours.

So thank you for being patient with us as we discover ourselves, make a lot of mistakes, and take some time to be with our families and with each other.  Your support means so much to us.  We'll be up and posting more consistently in the coming weeks.

Wanted to share with you some of the fun pictures we've been able to capture while Melanie and Scarlett have been in town.

Don't you like our makeshift Easter portrait studio right up against my parents fence?  These two cousins sure do love each other.

Reality Check

Okay friends:  It's time for me to be real.  I have been somewhat MIA from the blog recently.  Courtney has been running the show, so to speak.  I have been busy falling in love with and adjusting to our new addition.

I have been busy sniffing her head and baby neck rolls, kissing her face and singing her songs.  I have been busy trying to get cuddles in when she falls asleep after feedings.  I am just trying to soak it all in and enjoy it.  I love her so much.

Scarlett at church with daddy

I have to be honest, blogging is really hard for me.  It is hard for me to put myself "out there" so to speak.  I worry about what people might think.  A lot of the time I feel like what I have to say is trivial, or doesn't matter and so I talk myself out of saying it.  But this blog isn't meant to be serious,  it's an outlet for us to share our creative worlds.

One of the main reasons I have been hesitant about blogging is because when I read other blogs--I like to look at the perfectly styled and polished photos, the beautiful images, the "edited" lives.  And then when I go to create a post for my own blog, it never seems to measure up: my pictures are fuzzy because my camera isn't professional and my photog skills are lacking.  Sometimes I find out after researching a "great idea" that my idea isn't as original as I thought--it's been done before.

Sometimes I get writers block and I just can't find the words on a topic.  What I want you to know is that I started this blog with my sisters in order for us to have some fun, to keep in touch, and to learn a few things.  But blogging has proved to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.  Sometimes it takes me hours to edit things, to add in photos and links.  It is much more of an investment of my time than I originally considered.  But I'm not ready to give up.  So, I ask you to bear with me as I figure out how to be okay with what I'm doing.

What I also want you to know is that I always want FS&G to be just what it is.  We are working on a few things to give our blog a "facelift," make it look more clean and streamlined and we want to keep improving it.  But, we also want it to be genuine.  Our lives aren't always perfectly edited.  There are thousands of those types blogs already out there with artistic pictures and beautiful designs.  We are here to be us, and I need to be okay with that.  

Phew.  I needed to get that out of my brain and onto this blog. I already feel better.