“‘The time has come,'” as Lewis Carroll wrote, “‘To talk of many things.'”

And so, at last, it is time.

It’s been over 12 years since I started blogging, and I’ve reached the end.

Many things have played into this decision – which has not been an easy one to make.

For one thing, I’ve changed. I no longer spend hours poring over fashion magazines, following the trends, looking for the cutest, chic-est clothing…and thinking up ideas for how to knock it off.

I no longer have the time to indulge in elaborate projects that take over my living room or dining room table.

I no longer enjoy laboring over puncturing spikes into my heels, adding embellishments to a top, or remaking a man’s shirt into something for me.

I guess I’ve aged out of it, and my time is now spent with my family, on home improvement projects, in my garden, and new entrepreneurial endeavors. My interests have shifted as I’ve gotten older.

When I sent a survey to my readers earlier this year, I was pretty surprised at the results.

My readers wanted to see far more home DIYs than I had expected, as well as clothing and jewelry tutorials.

I realized that so little of my life now is spent in DIY’ing anymore…that after thinking about it I realized I couldn’t really deliver on what my readers wanted. I don’t makeover things in my home enough to make it into something to blog about, and I’ve done progressively fewer clothing and jewelry DIYs over the years as I’ve gotten happier with my closet and what I have.

I need new things rarely, I don’t desire things I see other people wearing, and the amount of stuff that running a DIY blog creates – as a side effect – has been bothering me for some time.

Creating DIY tutorials also takes a huge amount of time, materials, money, and editing – much more than an average blog about digital marketing or traveling, for example.

Finally, blogging as an industry has changed in the last 12 years.

To run a profitable blog nowadays takes an enormous amount of time and creative input. You have to run an excessive amount of ads and popups, that I believe have negatively impacted the user experience as a whole.

I don’t spend much time reading blogs anymore because the user experience has gone so downhill from what it used to be. Plus, paid sponsors and everything a blogger has to do in order to generate income (partnerships, plugging product, features) has begun to dilute the authentic, creative voices.

I definitely succumbed to that in trying to keep this blog profitable and growing, year over year.

It’s been a wild ride, though – and I have certainly learned a lot.

I want to thank all of you, dear readers, for this journey.

I am onto the next one already.

If you want to follow along in my next endeavor, I am founding a marketing and sales consultancy with a business partner.

Just us two women, sparking business growth for SaaS and tech companies, for startups to mid-stage organizations. $0MM-$15MM ARR. Playing in the boys’ pool and hoping we emerge swimming.

I’d be so thrilled if you followed along!

ElleSpark Website  |  ElleSpark on Facebook  |  ElleSpark on LinkedIn

Thank you for coming on this ride with me, over more than a decade.

I’ll be leaving this site up for the foreseeable future as a resource and archive for those looking for a little DIY or fun ideas to bring creativity and joy into their lives.

Goodbye, Chic Creative Life and all of you, my amazing readers. You were awesome, creative, and one-of-a-kind.

Don’t buy, DIY!

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