My blog turns 1 today. I know that means I’m still a relative newcomer to the blogosphere, yet it’s been an amazing 12 months of posting and commenting, reading and writing, learning and growing, and making friends. In celebration, I’m all dressed-up and sharing 5 highlights from my blogging year. I’ve learned a lot in the past dozen months or so and, as such, love blogging almost as much as I love breathing and sleeping and eating cake.
I’ve written about poverty housing and mental illness, Haiti, Vietnam, and even the mafia, but, by far the posts over the last year that have gotten the least attention and, frankly, deserved a whole lot more, have been the ones related, directly or indirectly, to my sense of blogging chic.
So, even if you’re posting pj-ed from you Lazy Boy, you can visit vicariously the WordPress Fashion Week extravaganza run-way-ed and birthday-ed in the posts below.
1. “What Does One Wear to Meet a Former Dictator?”
I interviewed my first dictator (Haitian, Baby Doc Duvalier) this year, lived to blog about it, and managed to make no major fashion faux pas in the process. The three posts in this series begin here.
2. “Canines in Conical Hats: Lucy Does Vietnam.”
When my partner Sara and I lived in Vietnam, my Maltese Lucy traveled with us. In this post Lucy, wearing traditional Vietnamese headgear, shares the highlights of her tour.
3. “Memory Mining Via Haute Couture.”
This post is for all of you whose laundry habits have, surprisingly, not carried the clothes pin over into the 21st century or who, god forbid, lack the sartorial daring to add clothespins to your accessory repertoire.
4. “Capped and Crowned: The Evolution of a Head in Helmets and Hoods.”
If you’ve enjoyed my posts about places like Port-au-Prince, where Haitians have only tents to hang their hats, you might also enjoy this piece about my life in millinery terms—the helmets and hoods that have feathered my cap.
5. “Pixied and Permed: My Life in Haircuts and Headbands.”
Hope you appreciate this post about my personal history as told through pixies and perms, my ongoing effort to make thin, fine hair thicker and fuller, an evolution from baby bald to big girl curl.
Yes, my blog has finished it first full year with 50,000 hits, been Freshly Pressed and Eco-Pressed, but more than anything else we (my fashion savvy readers and I) have done it all fully clothed and with underwear unwadded. Admittedly, we’ve had a wardrobe malfunction or two, but, by and large, we’ve mastered the art of blogging couture.
Hope you’ve enjoyed my Blogging Birthday Party and will have a piece of cake before you leave—all on the Gucci-ed gal that’s me, of course.
(Note: If you are new to my blog, you might like to know that I’m writing a memoir and blogging about growing up in an organized crime family. To read my most recent post about that childhood, click here.)
Kathryn M. McCullough 
Happy Blogging Birthday Kathy! I will save you the torture of my trying to sing to you…… You can just picture it in your head……. Santa Claus….singing Happy Birthday….in a Sam Elliott voice…….while wearing a Batman Speedo….. Have a great evening! 🙂
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Thanks, Mark. Actually, the anniversary isn’t until tomorrow. Somehow WordPress published it early. Don’t ask me how.
At any rate, you wouldn’t want me singing to you either. Ha, ha! My voice might terrify you.
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Happy Birthday to the Reinventing the Event Horizon, one of my faves. I feel as though our blogs are growing up together (with mine being the lackadaisical sibling who rarely does her homework – oh well, there’s one in each family).
I have fortuitously baked a cake today, so will stick a candle in it for you!
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You are not the lackadaisical sibling! I’m proud to be growing up along side such a fabulous sister blog! And you have even baked a cake? You are good, Dee, really, really good!
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Happy blogday! I just started mine a little over 2 months ago and am super impressed you’ve gotten 50 K hits. Congrats!
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Thanks so much! It’s been a fun year. Congratulations on your second month and thanks so much for stopping by. I look forward to visiting your blog, as well. Hope you’ll come by again soon. It was great having you!
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Happy birthday to Reinventing!! How fortuitous for me to have discovered it! Have read all the posts you listed above and enjoyed each one…and lots more!! 😀
50000 hits?? Woohoo!!!
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Oh, thanks, my friend! I’m delighted to have found your blog, as well. And how fun it would be to meet you some day–and your sister, as well. Hugs to you, my dear!
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Happy birthday!!! May there be many more. My blog is a bit over 2 and I love doing it too, which came as a real surprise as I didn’t know what at blog was when I began. I have read most of these posts and will go back to read the ones I missed.
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Oh, thanks, Deb. Your block is rocking big time for being only 2 years old. I was impressed by how many hits I got from you the time you linked to my Haiti post. Hope you have a great weekend!
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Gotta say, it really takes balls to publish that picture of yourself in bunny ears. Congratulations!
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Balls or insanity, one or the other! And I’m thinking it might be the latter!
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Happy Bloggy Birthday!! 😀
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Thanks, so much. Hope you have a great Friday, my friend.
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Happy birthday! Look forward to more. You know the perm picture, you look like Jennifer Jason Leigh, one of my favourite actresses. I’ll try and make today’s mandala a special birthday one for you! D
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You are so dear! I loved the mandala you did for me. If any of my readers have not seen your great work, they need to visit your blog!
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Happy Blogoversary Kathy! I am so glad I found your blog 🙂
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Thanks, Jackie! I’m happy to have found your blog, as well. And, by the way, that you cat of yours is DARLING!
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Happy (belated) blogging birthday! Your blog is amazing, but that’s not surprising from such an incredible person.
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Thanks, Lisa! Actually, it’s not belated, as somehow WordPress published the post a day early. I have no idea how. Today is the birthday.
At the same time, I’m so happy we’ve found one another, Lisa. Hugs to you and Nathan and Sarah. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend————
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Oh, the Lucy post still makes me belly-laugh! Happy Happy Birthday, blog!
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Thanks, Tori! Is she a hoot or what? Such a funny little dog. Don’t know what I would do without her. Have fun in Nashville, Tori!
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Happy Bloggy Birthday!! It’s been a excellent year.
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Thanks, my friend. And all the more wonderful since you’re in it.
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Kathy~~congratulations, congratulations! Oh my you have offered so many amazing stories to read here. A person would need an hour or two (with a cup of tea) to get cozy and read. I am amazed you interviewed a former dictator. I am amazed at you, altogether. Amazement is a good thing, isn’t it? (Glad we’re getting to know each other.)
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Ah, thanks, Kathy. It’s been a fun year. I hope amazement is a good thing. Interviewing Baby Doc was a crazy experience, for sure. I’m glad we’re getting to know one another, as well.
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Happy Happy Birthday to your blog! It’s an amazing feeling, and I found out today that blogs typically don’t last a year or more, so here’s to your next year of blogging, Kathy! 🙂
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Interesting. I had no idea that blogs lasted such a short while. I have noted a lot of them coming and going, now that you mention it. Thanks for reading.
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Congrats on 12 months and 50,000 hits!
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Thanks, Heather. It’s been a good year. I appreciate your reading so faithfully this year.
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Happy Birthday, Girlfriend. I hadn’t read the Baby Doc series yet, so I enjoyed that. Soooo interesting that your main response to the event was a kind of befuddlement. It had to feel like a dream.
Here’s to the next year of Blog Discoveries!
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I have to admit, interviewing Baby Doc was bizarre. I was terribly nervous, and just didn’t believe it was going to happen. Then I was somehow charmed by the man–sort of–almost. Too, too strange. Thanks for reading, Sandy. Hope you have a great weekend!
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I am all for any occasion that calls for cake (and you know I am your cake sista!). Happy Birthday Blog! What a successful year with being FP’d and Eco Pressed! Wooo Hooo!
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I love having you as my “cake sista!” I’m happy to know that you too are a fan of the greatest food known to man–the bread of life. The French didn’t say “Let them eat cake” for nothing! Thanks for reading, my friend!
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HAPPY BLOG BIRTHDAY! Wow, it must feel great! I love all the posts you highlighted especially the one about the permed hair. Keep up the amazing work! I can’t wait until I reach my year too. I never thought I’d write for this long and never realized how much I would love my blog.
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I too love your blog, Nicole. It’s fabulous. The name itself is great. Who wouldn’t appreciate a blog called “Third Eye Mom?” Right? I’m having fun reading your China posts!
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Happy blogging birthday! Mine is coming up in another week or so, the 21st, so you don’t have me by much. It’s amazing how much we can learn and the friends we can make within that time frame, isn’t it! Keep bloggin and we’ll keep reading.
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Oh, thanks so much. This is such a sweet comment. How fun to have you stop by, and you are so right. It’s incredible the friends we can make by blogging. Happy anniversary to you, as well. Can’t wait to check out your blog!
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Happy Blogging Birthday, Kathy! I am so glad you joined the blog world and we’ve become online friends. I’ve enjoyed every minute and look forward to the next year of your wonderful words! Hugs!
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Thanks, dear Terri! I’m glad we became friends, as well. It was been a fun year, and one made all the more fun by having folks like you be a part of it! Have a great weekend, Terri!
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I can’t wait to catch up on some of your favourites. I haven’t read the others but loved the clothespin post. It’s hard to believe you’ve only been posting for a year, with such a team of followers and such a fantastic blog!
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Oh, Rose, that’s so sweet of you to say. I am blessed to be part of such a great community. How fun to know folks like you and feel connected to people all over the world–ones who share our love for words and writing.
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Happy Blogiversary, Kathy! I’m so glad you listed some of your favorite posts. I missed a couple of them. I love the hair cut retrospective. Too funny! I’m afraid to relive some of my old hair cuts. (Can you say mullet?)
Now go have some cake and celebrate, my friend!
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Oh, yes, I had the old mullet, but somehow I forgot to include a photo of that. Guess I wanted to spare myself the embarrassment. Oh, well. Hope you’ll have some cake with me and have a great Sunday.
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Wow– has it only been one year of blogging for you? For some reason, I thought you had been doing this for longer– it (i.e. writing brilliant posts and fostering a supportive and engaged community of readers– must come naturally to you! Congratulations, Kathy! 🙂
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Thanks, Dana. I did a blog back in 2009 that I archived here. But no one but my family read it. I did it for them while we were in Vietnam. When I started this blog a year later, I transfered the posts here. I didn’t even know how to use tags back then, or categories. I was so ignorant about blogging. When I started this one Sara got me some books so I could learn a bit more about how to do it corrrectly. Thus, my relative success the second time around.
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Just a year? Hot damn, Kathy! That’s impressive!
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Thanks, so much. I just know it’s been lots of fun and I’ve made some great friends!
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The Pixie- God Help Us. Who invented that curse of a haircut? Happy Birthday!
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There have been way too many bad haircuts in my day. For me the pixie was not the worst, as I have such fine, thin, stick straight hair. The perms are the thing that make me laugh the most these days.
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What I love about your blog is the variety of topics you tackle – all of them done thoughtfully, in a writing style that is casually precise. Happy birthday, RTEH!
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Thanks, dear Mark. Blogging is a blast. (How about that, as a word from the past? How often does anyone say “I had a blast” anymore?) Glad you enjoy my blog. You’re a sweetie.
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Congrats on your BLOGAVERSARY…I have just begun to catch up on your adventures!
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Oh, you’re so sweet, Chris. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you as a new subscriber. Great to have you. Welcome—————–
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Congratulations on your first year of blogging! Hope there will be lots more – I love the stories you tell. I knew after reaching my first blog birthday that it wasn’t just a phase. Even if there are times when I write less, it’s become so much part of my daily life.
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I know. I can’t even imagine life now without blogging. It really feeds my need for near instant feedback on what I write. Kind of addictive for me, actually.
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I missed your blog birthday! Oh no! You’ll have to celebrate again. 😀
Happy Blog Birthday! *throws around confetti and releases balloons* I like the posts you picked to celebrate. They are some of my faves. 🙂
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I love another excuse to celebrate. It means more cake. Hooray! Think you could bring some of that hot chocolate you make?
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I would be glad to. 🙂
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I knew I could count on you, Robin!
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I enjoyed this post very much. Put me in the pjs and robe blogging category. I feel for you with the thin, limp, hair. Been there, done all of that, including the pixie. Are we living in parallel universes?
Sounds like you’ve had a fascinating life. Can’t wait to read more.
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Thanks so much for reading this post, Christine. It’s great having you. So sorry to hear you’ve been “blessed” with the same hair. Delightful, itsn’t it? Ha, ha!
And it’s true. I’ve had an interesting life–a bit too interesting, perhaps.
I so hope you’ll come back. I loved your blog!
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