THREE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SALE!

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Happy Friday! Today is a very happy day indeed. (And not just because there’s a Design Darling promo code at the end of this post!) 😉 Three years ago on March 1, I launched designdarling.com, an online boutique that would complement the daily blog you’re reading right now. I was ten months out of college, four months out of a desk job I hated, and had been blogging nearly every day for two and a half years. What had started as this little labor of love had become a fast growing community of women around the country who loved the same things I did, a readership and customer base I’d been almost unintentionally cultivating since my junior year at Bucknell.

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I was just starting to get into Instagram and Pinterest at the time and couldn’t shake this crazy feeling that I was meant to take the leap and turn Design Darling into what it is today. I wanted to build a business that was one part daily fashion/interiors/lifestyle blog, one part product assortment — pretty little things I wanted to share with my readers and would ship out myself, at first from my parents’ dining room table and later from my studio apartment. It didn’t make sense to most people I knew in real life but I’m so glad I trusted my gut and went after it with all I had.

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I always get a little sentimental this time of year, and there are days when it really does feel too good to be true. Every day I get to write about the people, places, and things I love and share them with tens of thousands of young women just like me. I get to scour the internet and trade shows for products I can’t live without and introduce them to customers who share my aesthetic. I get to take pictures, to work with bloggers and small business owners, and to meet readers and customers who inspire me, challenge me, and keep me going day after day, year after year. I tend to gloss over the day I started blogging (five and a half years ago… what?!) but I never forget March 1, the day I went from being a slightly lost recent grad to a fledgling but determined small business owner.

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Not every day in the past three years has been sunshine and rainbows but I know I’ve been insanely blessed: to have started blogging before it was cool, to have parents who let me live at home for a year after college, to find vendors who were willing to work with me when I had literally $1,500 in my bank account, and to have awesome siblings, girlfriends, and a boyfriend who’ve pitched in on late nights shipping boxes in time for Christmas Eve. I know I’m not saving lives over here but in the story of my own tiny life, Design Darling has changed everything. I can’t thank you enough for reading, shopping, sharing with family and friends, pinning, tweeting, instagramming… It all means more to me than you know.

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So today I’m celebrating three years. Three years of small business ownership, late nights, endless monogramming, post office runs, pink grosgrain bows, and happy customers across the country. If you’re so inclined, please use Design Darling promo code CANTSTOPWONTSTOP for 20% off all designdarling.com purchases now through Monday at midnight eastern. Thank you for an amazing three years and here’s to many, many more! xoxo