Hello! I’ve missed you all SO much! Many of you have noticed that I have been absent from social media for the past year. In today’s post I am going to explain why I was absent + give a life update.

WHERE I’VE BEEN THE PAST YEAR 

March of last year the Army moved me from Columbia, SC to Nashville, TN. This was my second major move in less then 12 months. When I moved to the Nashville area I knew I would be a part of a brigade combat team which is an infantry unit. I had never been in an infantry unit before, but I knew infantry units have extremely high operational tempos and I was going to have my work cut out for me. Just to clarify, I am not an infantry officer (I’m a human resources officer!), but I was brought to the infantry unit to provide HR support to hundreds of infantry soldiers.

This new job required all of my time and attention. To give you an idea of what my schedule looked like I would usually wake up at 4:40am , my first meeting started at 6:00am, and I would work until 7:00pm (most nights) and then come home exhausted and spend some quality time with my husband. This was my schedule when my unit wasn’t out doing field training exercises for days (or weeks!) at at time. When I was out in the field I had no access to the internet, my computer, or even sometimes my phone.

When I first started my new position I tried to blog and stay active on social media, but I honestly was not able to devote the time Blush & Camo needed to continue growing. I also felt the content I was creating and sending out to you all was slipping since I wasn’t able to give this blog 100% of the energy I normally do.

I also knew my blog was headed in a different direction with my style, how I wanted to grow my blog, and the content I wanted to create. My style is more down to earth then my blog/social media posts were portraying and I wanted to creatively change direction in the photographs I took, the clothing I wore, and how I wanted my social media platforms to communicate my style with you all. Essentially, I wanted to be more of myself on social media- posting images from my phone instead of waiting for perfectly edited photographs to post.

After two months of trying to maintain the blog, work the long hours I was at my new position, and spend quality time with Chuck I knew something had to give.

That’s when I made one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make- to step away from the blog I had spent two years pouring my heart and soul into. During this time, when I made the decision to take a break from blogging, Blush & Camo had exciting collabs lined up and I even had edited photos of 10 separate looks ready for blog posts that never got published. I was completely crushed, there were lots of tears, but I knew with my current schedule that I couldn’t run B&C the way that it should be- especially since I knew I wanted to take Blush & Camo in a different creative direction.

So this past year I tried to make this time off from blogging a positive one! I took a step back and really thought about the content I wanted to produce and how to best change my social media platforms. I thought about the things I did really well with Blush & Camo and also the things I wasn’t great at and tried to fix those for you! I completely updated my blog to make it easier for you to shop all of my looks and make the clothing I was wearing easier for you to know where I was getting them from. I also decided I wanted to post more of my day-to-day life such as workouts, healthy recipes, and work #OOTDs which I was never able to do before since I was always in uniform.

I apologize to you all for not letting you know what was going on, since it’s you who makes this blog possible. Every time I got on my blog or Instagram to write a post explaining why I wasn’t active on any platform I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

LIFE UPDATE 

So here’s the exciting news! I am currently transitioning out of the Army and relaunching Blush & Camo with a whole new look! I redesigned Blush & Camo as a fresh start to a new chapter in my blogging journey. As I transition out of the military I have started an internship with Plumlee & Associates in Nashville and love the company I am with:). Now that I am transitioning out of the military, and currently have an internship with a company that I love, I am able to share more of my life with you that normally I wasn’t able to before.

Chuck is still in the Army and is a Company Commander. He is one month into a 4.5 month long field training exercise in New York and I’m hoping that he will get some time off so I can visit him at least once this summer. If you notice him absent from my social media this summer it’s because, sadly, he’s off doing a big training exercise.

I am so excited to be back, sharing content for you, and getting back to the blogging community that I love.

Thank you for stopping by Blush & Camo and cheers to a fresh, new start!

xx Julianna

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