This past week, I’d say the blog hit a few minor milestones. For the first time ever, I got to outwardly promote the blog…in front of people. And I got cute little business cards to help promote it!
Since I love stationary and paper goods (see my instagram for the_diary_library as an example), picking out cards was a pretty thrilling thing and felt like a huge step for the blog. I’ve wanted cards for a while but never could quite justify it until the tunk-or-treat event came along (and yes, people do promote their blogs with business cards. I swear this is a thing!). I was taught at an early age from someone who ran their own business that cards should be both unique and memorable, which I was attempting to achieve. I had seen square business cards online some time ago and the idea stuck, especially considering I love unique paper good ideas. On a whim, I designed the front myself using a free design software online and decided I would use a picture of myself on the back to show the face of the blog. At the event, a guy eagerly lunged for my cards saying he’d never seen square ones before as he closely inspected one. I felt that the mission to have a unique and memorable card was then achieved!
A lot of preparation went into getting myself ready for the trunk-or-treat, including picking out candy! I don’t think I’ve had to actually spend time thinking about what trick-or-treaters want in their little plastic pumpkins or sacks by the end of the night and I actually found this part to be quite fun. Perusing party stores and grocery stores, I decided on a nice mix of assorted candy that seemed to have time traveled right out of my child hood: strawberry hard candy (quite the find, if you ask me! A parent at the event came to find me just to grab one of those things, saying they’re hard to find!), Dubble Bubble (the best gum for about five seconds), Smarties, Now and Laters, Jolly Ranchers, etc…As soon as I dumped it all out, nostalgia hit big time!
Another preparation was making up this poster board as added promotion to passerby’s. I picked up this white board that had – hello – gold glitter around the edges, which I had no idea they made (A.C. Moore craft store) and black letter stickers for the project. Attempting to put the letters on straight and centered was pretty challenging and after re-positioning a few letters several times I stopped going for near perfection. Ha! After it was all said and done I felt like I had just completed a school project that was due the next day (some things never change. I used to always wait until the last minute to do projects when I was in school. And in my true fashion, the trunk-or-treat was the next day).
True confessions, I’ve never seen or been part of a trunk-or-treat before and had only ever heard of them within the last seven years or so. I had no idea what to expect or even how to decorate. I was asked to be part of it because a company needed more vendors for the event and thought it would be a great opportunity to try and promote the blog. So, I went into a party store looking at regular Halloween decor thinking I wanted to go the friendly ghost and pumpkin route, but none of the decorations seemed to hit home with me. How does one decorate for a trunk-or-treat anyway? Especially a blogger. I tried looking for ideas quickly on the web but they were all over the top. I found myself in the aisle where the Autumn decor was and figured doing a Harvest theme would be a perfect idea for me since you all know how I love her so. Once I had the Harvest theme idea, everything started coming together, though I still didn’t know how it would look presented in the back of my trunk.
For my first time doing a trunk-or-treat, I don’t think my decorations were too terrible! I made sure to wear my gingham/buffalo plaid poncho all night, even when the temps dropped, since I felt like I was part of the decor. Ha!
I loved seeing all the little costumes of the trick-or-treaters and seeing what candy they would pick from the pumpkin basket (I let them have at least two. Some got away with more. Ha! We were expecting about 300 kids to show up, so I had to ration out the candy, sadly). One thing I’ll remember from the event is how I walked away from the basket for literally two seconds and three older kids (maybe around ten) kept grabbing handfuls of candy even when I went back and kindly told them they could only have two pieces and trying to ignore their greediness. Lesson learned – never have an unattended basket full of candy with a bunch of kids around, even for two seconds. I forgot how utterly exciting that is as a kid! Hello free candy! And no adults around to supervise? Heck yeah!
Another thing I’ll remember is having to explain what a Lifestyle Blogger is. I think I was asked this enough times to where I felt mildly pioneer-like, since I realized so few have heard of the term. As much as I was prepared for the question, my response needed some polishing! I’ve never actively promoted the blog, so I’ve never had to actually explain what the term means. Since I don’t have a specific niche, Lifestyle Blogger is where I categorize myself since I share a little of everything. Some people seemed to get it, some people left still confused, and some could have cared less about what I do. It was great practice for me and I was honestly proud of myself that I publicly owned the fact that I am a blogger.
I’ve kept my blogging in a semi small corner over the last five years, so it felt a little odd when people at the event would ask with confused furrowed brows “So what is it that you do?” Oh this little thing I’ve got going on here? It’s been a hobby for quite some time and I’ve always kept some distance in calling myself a blogger. There was always a detachment when I tell people I blog. But I think over the last year I’ve been trying to become a bit more serious about it. And the trunk-or-treat event was the absolute perfect way to step out into the world and totally own it for the first time!
Brandie Sellers 