In 2009, Chris came home from work to my announcement: “I started a blog, and I called it ‘Chris Loves Julia.’ Is that okay?” He said, “Yeah! It’s true.” The name stuck, and the blog evolved into a love of home, a love of uncovering potential, a love of each other, and a love of family.

We started this blog in 2009, the year after we got married. But it wasn’t always a business! Like most bloggers back then, we were all about showing off our home projects and cute pictures of our kids. Our budget for home improvements was $20/month, and we were DIYing our hearts out (with borrowed tools).

In 2015, we took Instagram by the horns and started photographing our home and our projects with a *real* camera. We started talking to our audience every day. We got really consistent with our content, and we took big, go-with-your-gut risks.

A year later, Chris quit his day job, and we were pinching ourselves: We get to work on our house as a *job*. And we get to work right alongside each other.

Looking back, I probably should have known that the girl who would beg the local bakery to let her design their store window (and get paid in cookies) would find a way to make a living out of making spaces beautiful — a truly sweet life.

We've said it before and we'll say it again:

We’re not a before-and-after blog.

We’re an in-progress blog.
We’re a troubleshooting blog.
We’re a figure-it-out-and-then-try-again blog.

We make mistakes. We change our timelines. We get sidetracked by new inspiration. We embrace project creep. We scratch our heads and ask, “What’s not working here?” We’re a mood-boarding blog. A changed-my-mind-again blog. A what’s-my-budget blog. We do teamwork. And DIY. And knowing when to hire help. We don’t wait. We embrace what we love about where we live now and try to help our home realize its potential while we realize ours.

Right now, we’re probably spooning PB2 over our Nice Cream and gushing with gratitude that we get to inspire so many to love where they live. We’re also staying busy collaborating with our dream brands and mentoring passionate, enthusiastic content creators on their path to goal-conquering, money-making, unprecedented success.

and

Chris