It's Been a Year Already: 1 Year Blogiversary

We almost can't believe it's been an entire year since we started this here collaborative blog and began sharing our little adventures for the internet world to see — it's been fun and we've loved making so many friends and meeting new people through this little corner of the blog world. It's amazing to us how many people have commented or emailed us to let us know how similar of a story they share with us or just enjoy following along with our sometimes crazy ramblings — which makes us feel great.

This time last year, we had no idea we'd be 7 months into living in a completely different home, that we really would find a solution for Basil's separation anxiety and that we'd actually consistently post for a full year here on the blog — ha! Other things have stayed relatively consistent, like our regular Weekend Basics column and our trips to the Farmer's Market.

As a way to celebrate our first year of blogging together, we thought it would be fun to just open up the forum to you guys, so we asked for your help in asking us anything you wanted. Today we're excited to share all those things we missed mentioning over the past year that you've been wondering about — so let's get started!

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1. Jennifer from our Facebook Page asks:
I have a question, who is photo-bombing in the background of #4?

Mary: This photo was taken in the photo booth at the Brooklyn Etsy offices during an office party — that's one of my longest-standing coworkers, Anda, surprising us there in that last shot. It was hilarious, and so is she. Find her design work all over the Etsy website, physical Etsy promos and her personal Etsy shop, boosterseat.


2. Monica of Moon Over Maize asks:
For a while I have been wondering what Tim's day job is?

Tim: Monica! Monica was the very first person to ever comment on our blog and was also the first one to post this question an entire year later — we are so lucky to feel like we've gotten to know you over the past year. OK, no more stalling. I actually work in a jewelry store. I have a small office in the back where I repair watches — a lost art in my opinion. It is fun to see folks starting to wear wrist watches again. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the hipster generation bring in watches from ancestors asking me to repair them.

Monica: Also, have you set a wedding date? I look forward to some wedding posts coming soon.

Mary: We sure have been quiet on the topic, no? Well, everything is still in the works, we've just had a bit of a dragged out time finalizing where we wanted the ceremony & reception — which we are excited to say we've finally shaped up plans for. Not to jinx anything, but we are planning for June 1st, 2013 for the actual wedding and are seriously considering the Edgar Allen Poe Museum garden here in Richmond for the ceremony.

Here's a shot Tim grabbed of the garden space while we toured it:

We're looking forward to sharing more wedding details as plans shape up, but I've been a bit hesitant until we have both the ceremony and reception sites secured for the date we want until I really start turning into a crazed bridezilla :)

I can say with confidence that I've been pinning inspiration and ideas like a mad woman on my Pinterest Wedding Inspiration board. We've also got a shared "Real Wedding" board going which we're reserving only for the actual components we incorporate into the big day and planning once solidified.

3. Lauren Sammon from River City Sammon asks:

Yes, I was also wondering about your wedding planning! I love seeing how other people plan, what they use for inspiration, and seeing wedding styles. I'd love to see wedding inspiration posts.

Tim: Lauren! We haven't met in person yet, but we know it's just a matter of time, being here in the River City. I'll put Mary on it asap — she's been doing a lot of talking, and now that we are getting under the 1 year wire, it's definitely time we do more planning — all of which we hope to share here on the blog.

4. Anonymous emailer asks:
You 2 seem to eat pretty well, what does Basil get to eat?

Mary: Tim and I made a commitment early on that Basil would eat as well as we do, but we do both agree we didn't want to feed him table scraps. After trying out a few different dry dog food brands, we've settled on and enjoy getting him varieties from the Blue Buffalo brand. In addition to dry food, we oftentimes will cook him a farm egg to put on top of the food or mix in cooked brown rice, plain Greek yogurt or a few heaping spoonfuls of canned dog food that doesn't contain any filler or added ingredients other than the basic meat and vegetables.

We also love trying to make our own natural dog treats for Basil which you can browse through below:

• Dehyrated Sweet Potato Treats
• Homemade Fruit Leather
• Carrot & Banana Treats
• Apple Treats
• Frosty Paws

5. Angie Lawlar of Steampunk Funk Blog and Steampunk Funk Jewelry asks:

You are being marooned on an island, you are given a choice, you can take one produce plant that will help you survive (so long as you can keep it alive) what would you pick?

Tim: Can I have an egg laying chicken on this island?

Mary: I'm sticking with Tim on this one. I can barely survive in the real world eating as it is without his cooking and leftovers! Do we both get to pick a produce item? If so, I think I'd go with potatoes like you, Angie — they are my favorite and store really well.

6. Anonymous emailer asks:
Who sleeps closer to the bedroom door?

Tim: Hey Now! Is this a trick question? We're not married yet...


7. H.Scott, mystery blog commenter asks:

More of a request — who is your online community? Maybe you could do a map (based on your lovely old school room map) of where we (your subscribers) live? Be great to see how far round the world your posts go. And of course it might help me find some like-minded people in my neck of the woods :)

Mary: Let's tackle this last request in a couple phases. First, we went into our blogging analytics to show you a slice of our online community and the different regions we're all keeping in touch from:

We pulled from the top 20 listed countries since you can technically see we're hitting from all regions, but the list goes on and on down the page — it's pretty cool to see where everyone is coming from!

Here's a similar slice from another analytics platform we use to illustrate again the heatmap and listed countries:

Tim: As far as finding like-minded people, we'd love for you to peruse the list in our sidebar called "read" where we collect an ongoing list of blogs and sites we love to keep up with. Speaking of which, it needs some updating, so thanks for the much needed push!

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And that's it folks! We went ahead and linked up this post to our FAQ's page and are glad we didn't get too inundated with questions this go round — maybe we've started our own little "Blogiversary" tradition!

Thanks for reading along everyone! We hope we were able to shed some light on the lesser frequented topics and if you had a question you didn't see answered in today's post, feel free to submit in the comments section below or shoot us an email anytime.

Tim: For those of you who made it through this entire post, you will now be rewarded. Actually, in my profession I am a sales manager for a global electrical distributor, handling outside sales for 3 branches. I have been in the electrical business since high school, starting as an electrician and moving up through the sales channel into sales management. You know I am always keeping you guys guessing on what I do but that there is the actual truth.

Here's to a great year getting 17 Apart off the ground and to continuing along in this adventure.