Seven Years

Our first house was ninety seven when we bought it. Our Victorian was one hundred and twenty two. My marriage and corresponding wedding ring will turn ten this year, but it’s also the year my engagement ring turns one hundred. August will be three next month, and in April, Eleanor will be five. Today, Making it Lovely is seven years old.

Wil We Have Rainbows
I designed that print a few years ago, and you can download it here, for free. It’s hanging in the play room on the third floor, which I haven’t shared with you yet!

Seven years ago, I started this blog as Brandon and I moved into our first home. It feels really good to still be writing here, in a new (even older) home now. The kids, when we talked to them about moving, wanted to move to “a rainbow house.” We found it. We’re here. And I get to share everything about transforming and personalizing a home with you again, from the beginning.

Thank You!

Thanks for following along, day after day.

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64 comments

  • 7 is a magic number, so magic 7th birthday. And I hope to read you for 7 years more !

  • I’m here for five years and it was always a pleasure! We also buyed an apartment, than a house and we did a lot in it. Two kids crossed our ways.. Thanks for every single inspiration!
    Katja

  • Where are the table and chairs from? Love them!

  • thelady

    I’ve been reading your since before you were pregnant so I guess that would be 6-7 years! Wow didn’t realize it had been that long.

  • Well, happy birthday and thank you for your generosity, sharing many things, and bringing beauty to my computer. For example today with your “rainbows” print. Have a beautiful day and a beautiful 8th year. Joyeux anniversaire.

  • Happy 7th Birthday, mine was 6 last week. Cannot believe where the time went !? I am so happy to have re-discovered your blog as yours was one of the first I followed when I started out. Looking forward to catching up with what I have missed as I’m sorry but I have been a bad blogger in the last 12 months – hoping to get back to it this year. Take care Michelle

  • Happy blog birthday ! I really love read Making it lovely “day after day”. Merci pour tous ces morceaux d’arc en ciel.

  • Looooooong term reader and fan here. Huge congrats to you on seven years.

    I absolutely love your content, but also have enjoyed watching your career grow. I admire the way you’ve shaped your work around the life you want. That’s incredibly inspiring to me.

  • Happy birthday blog! Thank you for letting us read along for 7 years!!

  • Karlie

    Happy 7 years! I love having Making it Lovely a part of my day. I found this blog about 5 years ago and check it almost daily. Thank you for inserting a little humor, beauty, and reality into our hum drum lives!

  • I found your blog through that Rainbows printable someone had pinned on Pinterest, when I was pregnant with my second daughter. It was a difficult time in my life because my first daughter had been stillborn, and I was still coping with the intensity of that grief (ongoing) and my anxiety about my second pregnancy (which ended with a healthy baby girl). Your blog was a bit of an escape for me, and an inspiration for me to get back some energy and transform some of the things around me that I could control, and that could add some measure of satisfaction and even happiness to my life. Babies born after a loss are called Rainbow Babies to represent the light that comes in spite of and because of the storm of grief. That Rainbows print now hangs in my daughter Caroline’s nursery, and I took more pleasure in decorating that room than any other in our home.

    All this to say–thank you, and I still enjoy reading!

  • Happy 7 years! I can’t wait to see what you and the gorgeous Victorian have in store.

  • Aw, happy MIL birthday!

  • Lindsay

    I love that your blog manages to be successful without feeling like a corporation. It still feels fresh, real, transparent, and inspiring. Thanks for sharing your life with us. I am so excited to follow the progress with your Rainbow House!

    • A

      Thank you.

      And ha, I actually did become a corporation this year, technically! Making it Lovely Inc. is an S-Corp now, because it’s better for taxes than being a sole proprietor. I’m my only employee, and it’s an odd-feeling to issue and receive my own paychecks!

  • Leslie

    Congratulations! I’m a reader from close to your start, I found your website through another house blog which appears to be now defunct- House in Progress. They had a search to find other home blogs and I found yours and it was delightful on many levels. As a new home owner too I was looking for other owners for inspiration to decorate my old home and you had many great ideas. Good luck and many happy years ahead!

  • Congratulations, and here’s to many more years of making things lovely! I found this site some 4-5 years ago, and it’s one of maybe four blogs that I read regularly. Thank you for all you do!

  • Thank YOU

  • Ilaria

    Thank you! For such a love and passion for what you do and for sharing it with us!
    Happy birthday!

  • Tina Slocum

    Hi Nicole,
    Following your blog all these years has been and will continue to be a total pleasure.!

  • RebeccaNYC

    I don’t know how long I have been reading your blog, but it’s been a long time… I will keep reading as long as you keep writing! Here’s to many many more, and THANK YOU!!!

  • Derricka

    Congrats! I’m a brand new commenter, but I’ve been reading Making it Lovely for about four years. I’m 27 and just recently moved to Chicago and started my big girl career. Your blog has been an endless source of inspiration for me in decorating my cute (but tiny!) Lakeview apartment. Specifically, the MIY series on the traditional red rug was a big push toward mixing Ikea with traditional/antique pieces. Perfect for my current financial situation!

    I’m really looking forward to keeping up with your new house. It truly is beautiful, and you should be so proud to call it yours.

    • A

      Doing that MiY changed my style, too! It was a request, but it had me looking at those traditional rugs with a fresh perspective. (And I love Lakeview. You’re in a great neighborhood!)

  • Happy Anniversary! I haven’t been a reader for all seven years, but I have been reading for a good part of that time. Eleanor was just an itty bitty little lady when I started reading. I’ve enjoyed every post! Can’t wait to see what you do with the new place. xoxo

  • Happy 7 years Nicole!

  • Courtney

    This blog is aspirational and inspirational for me! Thanks so much for sharing your home with us for the last 7 years! That is awesome!

  • Fredericka

    I’ve been around since your pregnancy with Eleanor. I voted for your painted porch in that Better Homes and Gardens contest so long ago. You’ve got a long term reader in me. Happy seven years; here’s to seventy more!

    • A

      I loved doing that porch project! Well, maybe not they physical aspect of it, being 9 months pregnant and hand-painting a rug… but the outcome was worth it.

    • I actually followed you since you were carrying Eleanor and even though I think you’re a genius with all that you do-parenting, writing, blogging and business-I was fascinated with the saga of your family and the wonderful photos that noted the growth and progress of your children. They reminded me of how fast it all goes by and how you (and Eleanor and August) will appreciate them in future years. Imagine their children seeing them as babies…..
      good luck with the next seven!

      • Nicole-I meant good luck with the next 7 years not the next seven children………….although I do believe you could handle 7 and all your other interests-no problem.

      • A

        I plan to continue the photo project yearly with them, too. I hope they’ll enjoy looking back on their photos, but I know I like it!

  • jbhat

    Wonderful! Congratulations to you and your blog and your family! Here’s to many more years! You do such a good job and have such exquisite, specific (although ever evolving) taste. Your work gives me a lot of joy.

    jbhat

  • Josephine

    High fives lady! Always a pleasure to visit this space. I’ve been reading since before you had Eleanor and will continue to visit as long as you feel the need to write this blog :-)

  • elisha

    And the amazing thing is I still have that print in my daughters bathroom. Happy Blog anniversary! Thanks for sharing your home with us.

  • I’m pretty sure I started reading not too long after you started blogging, and of all the blogs I read around that time period yours is the only one I still check. Kudos on your anniversary.

  • Awww, yay! My own business (as an online dating coach) turned one sometime earlier this year, but I’ve actually been doing it for more like seven years myself, just not full-time and not with a proper business name and everything. So great to see this joy from you in making the blog your primary source of income—I aspire to become as awesome a web guru as you are! Thanks for sharing all your adventures and ideas. :) Happy Blogiversary!

  • Tammy Saltmarsh

    I’ve been reading your blog for a while, and you truly inspire me to try new things. Hats off to you :)

  • Congratulations on every one of those accomplishments!

  • Ally B

    Wow congrats! What exciting milestones!

  • The thing is… You’ve been a part of our lives, too. So, thanks, for that.

  • I’ve been a follower for five of those years and have enjoyed following your adventures every step of the way. Happy Blogiversary, Nicole!

  • Wow! Seven! I’m happy to say I’ve been following you for at least 4 of those years – I remember when you announced you were pregnant with August! I love coming back to your blog day after day to see what goes on in your little corner of the world. Thank you writing for all to see! I truly appreciate that you continue to share tidbits of your life with us.

  • Rebecca H

    Happy Blog Birthday! Here’s to many many more! Thank you for letting us all be a part of your journey.

  • Wow, congratulations! You’ve kept me interested this whole time, which makes it pretty easy to keep coming back. Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s still working for me!

  • Also, I have to say, you’re one of the “old school” bloggers I respect the most, and I’m not just saying that because I consider you a friend IRL ;)

  • what an accomplishment! congratulations. and I can’t wait to see you in 2 weeks! :)

  • Interesting. Your blog is the exact same age as the iPhone! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/iphone-birthday_n_4568653.html

  • Congratulations! Here’s to seven more years…

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