Happy July dear friends! Another Canada Day & OMHG birthday are here, funny how I end up writing these birthday posts late at night after a day of painting, two years running-it’s getting to be a tradition! This time I’m sitting here at the tail end of 730 days of blogging at least five days a week-as editor I’ve pressed publish on 700+ posts and pages, made too many graphics to count, moderated 10,000+ comments (and uncountable amounts of spam), hosted weekly #OMHG parties for 2 years in February, and worked daily to build our community. Last year I was getting ready to publish my first ebook and now I’m the proud mama of our Guide to Businessy Goodness. So much has changed since I pressed publish on that first ever post (after anxiously reading & re-reading the directions that Sara sent me when I bought the site), sent my first OMHG tweet & began to meet the loving community of friends and supporters that have changed my life forever.
It awes and inspires me that many of our brilliant contributors have been adventuring with us since before I became editor, that I have friendships with some of the commenters on my very first post, and that according to our analytics some of you have visited 1000’s of times! It was exciting when StumbleUpon/Pinterest sent over 12,000 people in one day and when we passed 100,000 page views a month, then 200k. All these milestones and numbers! But what gives me happy goosebumps every time is that so many friends have been here for the long haul and built this community together daily. The collaborations and friendships I have seen begin right here are what inspire me to post every day.
I used to think internet relationships were only pixel deep but you all have taught me they are real, beautiful, and life shifting. I thought my creative work was my play job and making the world better my real work, you showed me that they were the same thing (duh!). I was sure my big silly unicorns + cupcakes + ethics heart would always feel sort of lonely, now I know without question there is a place and welcoming for all of my me-ness. For all this and much more I am so overfull with thanks I could only say it properly with a month long theme celebrating the awesomeness that is OMHG and the community + contributors that make this journey so incredible. And 200pt font:
Click here to download the full colour 8×11 print
Click here to download the colour-me-in version
Cheers to another year of community, creativity, and businessy goodness! This is the year I visit with as many of you as possible in your towns and cities, build us a website that will help us all connect in new exciting ways, and support my family in our new town while supporting you. I feel the next year is going to be the best one yet, because you are with me!
Since we can’t party in person together today please come share your stories of OMHG awesome in the comments! Has our community has helped you on your journey? What do you love most about visiting here or at our chats? Do you have favourite posts, contributors, themes? How did you first discover us? Are there things you would love to see more of? If you have never commented before, say hi!!! You make my life awesome every single day, I would love to know if I’ve brought some awesome to yours!
