As the Brady Bunch so wisely sang…..

When it’s time to change, then its time to change
Don’t fight the tide, come along for the ride, don’t you see…..

Over the past six months or so, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much blogging and the design blog world has changed since I started FTRB. I remember first coming across design blogs about six or seven years ago. Everything was so new! So exciting! They were what inspired me to start my own blog. Looking back now, it all seems so innocent and naive (in a good way) compared to how slick blogs are today. And a part of me sort of misses those days.

And I guess it was inevitable after so many years but I have been feeling sort of restless with the whole thing. Along with wanting to have more time for life offline (which I talked about earlier) and some big realizations, shifts and plans in my personal life, this has had me in a strange place mentally most of this year. So I’ve spent a lot of time mulling it all over, meditating on it and trying to figure out what, if anything, to do about it.

After giving it a lot of thought, what became clear is that I need to make some changes. I still want to continue blogging and with the same mission of sharing how I’m creating a global modern home inspired by my travels around the world. But I’m going to change how I do it.

I’ve always tried to keep the content here personal, unique and different, balanced with plenty of inspiration images. As long time readers know, I started FTRB as a journal where I could organize my personal files of inspiration photos and to document the decorating of my house. Well, the way we find, view and save these images has changed a lot too over the years with Pinterest, Tumblr, etc. (Pinning is essentially what I was doing here before Pinterest.) So it makes the most sense to me to cut back on inspiration types of posts and focus more on original content. Those posts aren’t going away – there will just be less of them and more likely in the form of roundups. They’ll probably be longer too since I still have a lot to say!

Consequently, I’m also going to cut back on the frequency of my posts. I’ve always prided myself on blogging regularly and consistently. (Over 1,000 posts in 4 1/2 years!) So I really agonized over this decision but in the end, I decided I can accomplish my mission in fewer, longer posts just as well as with daily ones. So beginning today, FTRB will publish once a week. I know that sounds like a huge scaling back but content-wise, I really don’t think it will be. And remember you can still get a daily dose of FTRB in one of these places where I share peeks behind the scenes of FTRB, interesting finds, design-related news and snapshots of my travels and daily life.

Facebook
Twitter (@FromTheRightBnk)
Instagram (@FromTheRightBank)
There’s also Pinterest for what catches my eye.

So, it’s new chapter for FTRB and I feel great about it which is why I know it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s going to be good for me personally and hopefully, even more enjoyable for you as readers.  I would love to hear any thoughts you have so please share them in the comments below. And as always, thank you for reading and supporting FTRB.

See you back here next Monday for my weekly post!

(Hilarious and clever cartoons by John Atkinson, Wrong Hands)

I was talking to some friends about how much I’ve been enjoying my edesign projects lately and just then, I was serendipitously invited to join the freshly launched Tastemaker, a brilliant new site that matches up homeowners with decorators for edesign services. So now, in addition to clients who come to me directly, I’ll have the opportunity to work with a whole new group of homeowners and that’s really exciting.

The way it works is simple. Based on an online quiz, homeowners are matched up with three decorators that match their style and budget. The three decorators submit a vision for the space along with a fixed quote. The homeowner chooses the decorator they like best who then creates a custom design for the space. The final design is delivered in a beautiful Design Box with floor plans, moodboards and detailed product information to finish the room. Tastemaker can even finalize purchases for the homeowner if they wish.

It’s an exciting and innovative new concept and I’m thrilled to be a part of the team. If you’d like to learn more, please visit the Tastmaker site. And if you’d like to work with me directly, please visit my updated Decorating Services page.

Hi, friends, happy 2013! Don’t you just love the clean slate a new year offers?

Along with the fresh start, I’m really happy and grateful to be celebrating FTRB’s four-year anniversary today. As this milestone was approaching, I started thinking a lot about why I do what I do. Four years is a long time – especially in web years – and I thought it was a good time to take stock of things to make sure the blog continues to reflect who and where I am currently.

The short answer to why I’m here everyday is I love sharing my passion. It’s funny to look back at some of my old posts and see 30, 40 or even 50 comments on one post! That has been slowing down and nowadays some posts don’t get any comments at all. I know some bloggers find that sort of thing discouraging but I get it. I myself can’t find time to comment on blogs anymore and a lot people/blogs have come and gone from those early days of blogging and been replaced by an explosion of new blogs which I can’t and don’t even try to keep up with anymore. I admit I do miss the comments, mainly because it told me a little about who you are but it’s enough for me that people are reading and I can see from my stats that FTRB’s readership continues to grow.

Not a lot has changed for me since January 2009….. other than that little move across the country! I’m still all about global modern style, French and Scandinavian everything, good art (art walls!), not-so-serious decorating and creating truly personal spaces. There have been a few little things that have shifted for me which leads me to some goals for FTRB (and me personally) for 2013.

- I want to be more fearless in my decor and use my house to try out ideas that may be too daring elsewhere. This should make for some interesting posts, don’t you think? I also want to post more of the process at the risk of you thinking I’m a total nutcase. For every reveal you see, there are usually a dozen variations that led up to it that I don’t post.

- I plan on paying more attention to living la belle vie this year and writing more frequent posts for the series. I love my big adventures to faraway places and they will continue but we spend most of our waking hours on everyday events and routines and I want to really focus on making those as enjoyable and lovely as possible.

- I will be taking on more e-design projects this year. I admit I shied away from doing too many of those because I prefer being hands-on and it’s just so much easier to design a room in person. But I had the best experiences with long distance clients in 2012 and that has encouraged me to do more of them. If you’re interested, please check out this page.

- I’ll put my new Photoshop skills to use to enhance existing features and to create new ones, including more moodboards for my projects.

- All of the above will result in a lot more original content.

- A few things I’ve already done are to re-organize the categories and tags, update the About page and make a few tweaks that I think make the blog read and look better.

You’d think after four years, I’d have run out of things to say but actually it’s the opposite. I’m bursting with ideas and can’t get them down fast enough. So I look forward to another year of blogging and hanging out with all of you here in my little corner of the web. Thank you so much for joining me everyday and for your support and friendship. It means the world to me.

Good god, this was a long post! Here’s to 2013 and to year five!

(Photo: FROM THE RIGHT BANK. Taken while flying somewhere over the U.S.)