My New Life and My New Project

Hi ya'll! So as many as you have probably noticed I haven't been blogging much in the past year. I have still been adding recipes and DIY projects occasionally and I appear on KTLA to do lifestyle segments, but the posts obviously haven't been as frequent and that was partly due to me just trying to wrap my head around life. Where I am today isn't where I was five years, three years, or even a year ago and I needed to take the time to really figure out the direction I wanted to go and quite honestly find purpose again. I had originally started my company, Lilyshop because blogging made me happy. I use to love trying new recipes and writing tutorials and taking pictures and it made me happy to read the comments and see people genuinely excited to try out my creations. But over the years my life changed, my marriage ended, my needs changed, and my world became very complicated. The blogs that use to make me smile just made me exhausted. It was like reading a diary of a life that didn't work out as planned and I didn't want to keep reliving it over and over again. I stopped reading the comments. I stopped answering the emails. I just stopped caring. There have been a lot of terrible memories made over the past several years. A lot of tears, a lot of anger, but also a lot of good that came from the unexpected. I wasn't happy before. I was trying to make myself happy by burying myself in my blog, but I wasn't happy with my life and where I was or who I was with. I wasn't happy with myself. But sometimes you need to hit the bottom to see what you're really made of, to see who's really your friend, and to see who's really your family. After many quiet days of sitting at home, playing with my babies, traveling, healing, and trying to figure out life, I ultimately decided to get rid of the Lilyshop website. Lilyshop still remains my company, but it just didn't feel right anymore. I thought about the idea of not doing any of it anymore, but that didn't feel right either. Let's face it, I can't sing, I can't dance, I am terrible with math, or anything that involves any type of athletic skill so crafting and baking really is my jam. I decided to rename the website jessiedaye.com and go a different direction. I am going to continue to post recipes and home decor ideas, but I will be doing less DIY projects as my priorities have changed a bit now.

I purchased a house in Los Feliz about two months ago because I have always like designing my own homes and I wanted something I could pour my heart into. I wanted a house that had good bones, but something that was in desperate need of purpose. This house is from 1927 and I imagine that at the time it was built the people who lived there absolutely loved it. In fact, I know they did. A little old lady named Ethel lived in this home and she took care of a gentleman named Mr. Longfellow. She loved her house and put a lot of life into it. Over the years she passed away and other people came in and out and ripped out floors and added contemporary IKEA cabinets and some unfortunate laminate flooring. The house ultimately was rented out for the last several years and what was pretty and perfect once is imperfect, complicated, and quite messy now. The house needs purpose and it's absolutely perfect for me. I will be renovating this house myself and posting the pictures here on my website as well as making new YouTube videos on my new channel to show the progress. I am excited about this new project and this new journey and I hope you will be too. It's been a while since I have been here blogging so let me reintroduce myself.

I am Jessie, mama to Lily and Olive, founder of Lilyshop Inc., and maker of all things creative. I love crafting, baking, cooking, and wearing sweatpants all the time. I go to Disneyland way too often. I am a total neat freak. I love confident people, strong women, and a guy with a soft heart. I like holding hands and I love hearing I love you. My babies are my life and I would do anything for them. If I could only eat one type of food every day it would be tacos. I am obsessed with gummy bears, coffee, and super comfy blankets. My favorite place I have ever visited is Italy. My second favorite is Japan. I love the feeling of traveling somewhere new. I love the rain. I love New York during winter. And I love that feeling of spending Christmas morning with people you love. My favorite show is I Love Lucy and I have every episode recorded so I can watch it all the time. I don't like scary movies, mashed potatoes make me gag, pumpkin pie is pretty awful as well, and so are people who don't say thank you when you hold open the door for them. I use to be a perfectionist and I had my life all perfectly planned out at one point, but sometimes what we plan isn't what was intended for us so cheers to being perfectly imperfect, to not settling for just ok, to less stuff, more happiness, less planning, more living, taking chances, loving unconditionally, being vulnerable, and to always taking the high road, because the view is undoubtedly better. Welcome to my new website, jessiedaye.com.