Nothing to gush here. Sure I have views on the pandemic, the state of the Nation, and what our favorite baked good was from this past crazy year, but do you care what I think?! I hope not. At least not about those things. I started writing this post back in April 2020 PS. Then life happened…

I became teacher to my then 3rd grader and Kindergartner. Full time. You were all jumping into that pool with me, so I’m not looking for sympathy. Full disclosure, I loved and hated it all at the same time. I cancelled our amazing Paris + Amsterdam vacation we had scheduled for July of 2020 (that only took 2 years to plan). I helped celebrate my beautiful (inside + out) Mama’s 70th birthday. We got a dog (& for those of you that know me well, you know this was a big one for me). We celebrated Lucy’s 9th (eek!) birthday. My precious first born all grown up. My beautiful Mama was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Two days after her diagnosis she went into emergency surgery and we almost lost her. She was in the hospital for twelve days recovering and started her treatment in September. She’s kicking (major) butt and has already completed her first round of treatment. It has been an uphill battle, for her especially, of course. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and wow did we really learn that this past year. We learned a lot about ourselves, our relationships and our love.

We celebrated Greer’s 6th birthday. Where has the time gone?! My second baby is growing up, too. Everybody warned me when they were babies and toddlers that it is fleeting, but you just can’t seem to let that advice register when you are in the trenches. To all those who warned me, I hear you now loud and clear! However, I am loving my girl’s ages. They are my buddies through and through.

The best part about all of these peaks and valleys of 2020? I never once thought to post any of this to social media. I fully engaged with my family. I put Bitsy aside to be Mom to Lucy and Greer (and now, our puppy, Mack – who’d ever thought I’d be saying that?!), wife to my uber supportive, loving and amazing husband, daughter to my special, awesome Mama (who needs me now more than ever) and sister to the two best sisters ever. Ever. Call me stupid, but I just can’t engage via social media any longer. I cannot play the game of giveaways and posts and who did what first. I don’t want you to care what I am cooking for my family or what fun day-trip my family and I are taking on a Saturday. Instead, I want you to come to BITSYSTYLE.COM because you trust I am hunting and experiencing the best in clothing and styling for your kiddos. Best…my definition of this is; the fun stuff, the heritage stuff, the wear-once-and-throw-away stuff and the new stuff from the reliable brands that we can’t seem to get enough of. The pieces that make you & them happy. My photography won’t be winning any awards or inspiring new, ground-breaking techniques. I don’t care if people will come to my site to steal ideas, etc. I don’t care if I make any money off of my ideas or posts. Bonus if the latter happens, of course. If not, I still plan to share. It is what I love to do most and I get great joy from learning about the brands and sharing them with people that are interested. My favorites always seem to be brands and product that are off the beaten path and kept a bit quiet. They keep me ticking and I can’t wait for that inspiration to start up all over again.

So now, in this new year we begin to navigate more of a new normal. Prior to the pandemic hitting us in early March in CT I had been planning a mini trunk show showcasing about 10 new children’s brands to my little nook of the world. This is something I was beyond ecstatic to do. Working with these brands/designers and getting to tell their story through a mini merchandising/styling event. Getting their names heard in a part of the world that may not have been. Getting to interact with people through their purchases. Telling a story. I will be honest, I loved every second of the Bitsy Pop Up Shop back in March 2019, but realized after that experience that opening a full-time children’s boutique just isn’t in the cards for me & my family right now. Through that experience I learned that what I love most about touching children’s fashion is the interacting with the designers/brand creatives, learning their inspiration and conceptualization and then eventually sharing (with you) why their creations are so awesome and worthy of purchasing for your little ones. Prior to the Pop Up I started to fall down the hole of social media and the pressure of exposure, followers, etc. I’ve learned this past year that those aspects of organically becoming an “influencer” is what was dragging me down. It just isn’t me and it just never will be. I like in-person interaction best.

So…After weeding through 999+ emails (it took me 2 whole school days with Greer home remote learning in a classroom quarantine for me to get the number in my inbox down to 24! Lesson learned.), I am starting back on my brand awareness journey. I will continue to post via Instagram. Most likely not via Twitter/Facebook. If you hear my words, great! If you hear them and want to share them, even better! If you don’t see them ever, I cannot stress about that. Call it a bad marketing move, but this will be my personal survival. I realize I will probably lose subscribers, followers. That’s okay. I get it. I’ve probably already lost a couple after they read my first paragraph in this post. Please know that is not why I am choosing to do this. I am choosing to do this b/c I fully get great joy finding great product from great brands and sharing them. Styling and merchandising is in my blood and for me to “love what I do” and show my girls to follow their dreams is where my priorities are falling right now.

So, I am back and I am here to set out to do what I originally set out to do back in 2011 (look at that, it’s been 10 years!) - Before all of the blogging/influencing/social media hoopla. I plan to have fun hunting for new brands and collections and designers and share them with you all. Hopefully along the way I will get to style and merchandise some of them as well. Hopefully, even more, I will get to showcase them to those of you LIVE in my little nook of this world. And until I can do this in-person as I have been planning & hoping, I intend to use this website as my platform. I sincerely hope you stick around.