Thank You.

On Friday, with a healthy dose of nerves, I hit "publish" on a post I'd been drafting for weeks and announced the coming launch of This Is Verity, a site I've been passionately working on for months. Knowing the response I hoped for This Is Verity to receive, but not being certain, I hit "publish" and held my breath. Would anyone comment? Would people "get" what I am trying to create? Would they feel it's as needed as I do? Would you all help spread the word? In true me fashion, and in true This Is Verity fashion, I'll keep it real. I've been blogging for years but I'm not one of those mega-popular bloggers with thousands (upon thousands) of followers thus giving a new venture like This Is Verity a huge automatic following by association. What I do have though, and am very happy to have mind you, is a modest number of folks, like you, who read my blog and interact with me on social media. Who are super supportive and super vocal and super encouraging. No, I might not have thousands of "followers" but the growing number that I do have are amazing and collectively, our voices are loud.

So I hit publish hoping that you all would get it...and support it...

And you did...you are.

Since Friday I've been overwhelmed and humbled by the emails, tweets, re-tweets, DMs, and comments you all have written in support of This Is Verity. Prior to Friday, although I've been working away at it since fall, it wasn't quite real to me. But now, it is and I'm even more pumped to continue to work my behind off to create something that we all feel is missing from the current online landscape.

So thank you, thank you, thank you. Yes YOU. Thank you for your tweets and re-tweets. Your kind and encouraging words and support sent via DMs and comments and emails. Your follows on instagram and twitter and your "likes" on facebook. I might be the one creating TIV but YOU all are the ones who will give it life.

I promise to keep you all posted but please, if you're not already, follow TIV on Instagram (@thisisverity), Twitter (@thisisverity), Facebook (facebook.com/thisisverity), and even Pinterest (pinterest.com/thisisverity), and of course you can visit the site (www.thisisverity.com) to subscribe to be notified of the official launch...and please continue to spread the word! By following along you'll begin to get a taste of what to expect from TIV - the types of things we're inspired by and passionate about - and in the new year I'll begin sharing more behind-the-scenes of interviews that I'm working on and specific content that is being worked on for launch week! And, of course, the launch date is still to be announced...

And in unrelated TIV news, the year is winding down - and what a year it's been. While it probably hasn't been my most exciting or productive year to date, it was a good year. A year of growth. The year I finally found my apartment after searching for months. The year I welcomed a new niece (she's one week old!). The year I made relationships more of a priority and really tried to make time to nurture them. The year I took one of my many ideas and decided to make it a reality...

Couldn't close the year out without a picture of Howard!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for continuing to read this little blog of mine. There are times when I'm not sure how I can continue to blog with all of the other things I have going on but it's something I love to do and have gained so much by doing - I've made incredible friendships, had great opportunities presented, met really cool people, and connected with a bunch more of you that I have yet to meet in "real" life. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to see what I'm up to over here, I really appreciate it.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and are able to spend time with your loved ones just revelling in their company; as of Saturday I have 10 days off work and hope to do just that (and work on TIV!). I hope you have a Happy New Year (I have plans to dress up, drink wine, and eat sushi with Howard as we watch a movie in the living room and hopefully fall asleep before the countdown...yes, that's actually how I want to spend New Years Eve this year!). I hope 2014 gets off to the best possible start that you could ask for.

I'll see you back here, in this space, in 2014.

xo
k