7 Things We’ve Learned In 7 Years Of Blogging

Good morning!

We have some news! This month marks SEVEN years of blogging for us. It’s truly crazy to actually type that up!!! We have several fun things planned to celebrate our blog anniversary so stay tuned for our blog posts the next few weeks. For today’s post not only are we are going to share about a fabulous 40% off sale, but we also want to talk about the things we’ve learned over the years of running TheDoubleTakeGirls.com. Whether you are a blogger or not, we hope you enjoy this roundup. 🙂

1. Always remember why you started your blog

Over the course of 7 years, so many trends and such have come and gone. It’s often hard to remind yourself to not get caught up in things that the “in crowd” is doing. Lindsay and I have worked hard to stay true to why we started our bog: to help women feel their best on a budget and to share deals to help you all save money! We have always wanted our blog to be a positive, colorful and uplifting place for you all to visit. It’s never been about being popular, trying to set trends or going viral {which there’s nothing wrong with that LOL}. For us, we wanted to create a space that brings colorful outfit ideas to life that bring a smile. Life is too short to wear boring clothes!

2. Your website is always KING

Earlier this month with the “Instagram Outage of 2019”, it was a real life reminder that you don’t own your Instagram followers, your Facebook followers, your Snap chat followers, etc. However, your website is 100% YOURS. We aren’t saying that incredible brands haven’t been built solely off of Instagram. It’s just a reminder that at the end of the day, would your business be sustainable if all your social media accounts got removed and all you had left was your website?

3. Social Media is in your control

Whether you are a blogger or a follower, you are in control of how much time you spend on social media. Instagram can definitely be a rabbit hole if you let it take over. If you find yourself spending too much time watching IG stories, we suggest picking a time slot per day that you can catch up rather than continuously watching through the day. This will help your productivity without you missing out on things you want to see. 🙂 It’s so easy to lose track of time, so I like to watch stories when I take a lunch break and then after my kiddos are in bed. While I’m sure I do miss some stories I’d like to see, I feel much better at the end of the day when the extra time has allowed me to check off everything on my to do list.

4. Clothing and Shopping

This might sound funny, but after years of being style bloggers clothes and shopping aren’t that important. They are of course necessary for our business. But shopping is not a pastime anymore. Before I had a blog, shopping on the weekends was a way to unwind. Now that finding deals, styling looks etc. is part of my job, I much prefer not doing those things on my time off. But of course we will always still enjoy seeing all the new arrivals that come out and putting together new outfit combinations for you all!

5. Donations and Selling of items

As clothing bloggers, donating and selling items we aren’t able to use any longer has become very important. Otherwise my work space gets cluttered very quickly! We take items to our local consignment store, donate often and also host local clothing sales. We also list items on our Facebook page. Make sure to follow us there if you want to see our items! The thread is saved at the top of our page.

6. Don’t follow trends just to make sales

This goes back to our first point, but you must stay true to yourself in your blogging journey. This it not to say trying out trends or new things is a bad thing – not at all! But Lindsay and I work hard to only share brands and promote sponsored content if we 100% love it and will use it in real life. We turn down paid work all the time because something is not what fits our brand. We will never promote something that we haven’t tried ourselves or would wear in real life. This is why you don’t see us wearing revealing clothing, short shorts, etc. That is not our brand and never will be LOL 🙂

7. Blogging can bring you amazing friendships

Over the course of seven years, Lindsay and I have meet SO many amazing bloggers from all over the country. We have made so many close friendships that continually bring us encouragement and inspiration. Ashlee from Little Lovelies and Amanda of The Miller Affect are just two of the handful of talented women that we feel blessed to call our friends. If you are a blogger and haven’t yet connected with anyone else, we highly suggest you do this!

8. Life is short, have fun! {oops we have one more thing to share LOL}

Okay this is going to sound cheesy, but as we’ve gotten older blogging reminds us that time truly goes by so quickly. When you have a “journal” of your self from years and years, it’s a vivid reminder of what you have accomplished and worked hard at completing. It reminds me that I didn’t need to stress about X campaign or Y collaboration like I did. It also reminds us both that likes, followers etc. have nothing to do with your self worth. Yes, they do help your business and having more is always nice.

But at the end of the day, spending time worrying about those things only zaps your creativity. When I look back in a decade, I want to remember that we had such a great time running TheDoubleTakeGirls.com. Your sweet comments and direct messages always make us feel this way. So thank you for taking them time to to do that!!!!

Now that our roundup is out of the way, we have to tell you more about our looks!

As you all know, we are all about dresses! From stripes to ruffles, lace to polka dots – we love it all! For today’s sister style look, we are wearing new arrival dresses from Ann Taylor! We are loving the fabric and fits of both of these dresses! Lindsay’s floral clutch adds such a fun pop of texture and pattern too.

We are both wearing our very favorite Mila tan heels. They run true to size and are available in black too. They have amazing reviews as well!

Whitney’s Look:

Lindsay’s Look:

Lindsay’s stripe sweater dress is oh so soft and runs true to size. For my scarf print dress, I would say it runs a tad big in the top half. I went with the petite version instead and it was the perfect fit on top as well as the length. I can’t wait to wear it to a spring wedding I’m going to next month! How pretty is this floral clutch in the coordinating print? It also comes in a gingham print too!

Now for the best part: starting today until 3/29 you can get our looks for 40%!!! We always love getting to share a great sale with you all! Whether you are looking for a cute top, new purse or that perfect dress for spring events – there’s something you will definitely love from our top favorites list below. Just use code “DRESS40” at checkout to receive 40% off all full price dresses, skirts, and shoes until 3/29!

Update 3/30: You can now use code “TOPS40” to receive 40% off all tops, sweaters, and shoes!

1. Dresses

2. Shoes

3. Blouses

4. Purses

5. Jackets

6. Accessories

Also, you can use the ShopRunner checkout option to get free shipping when you spend $25 or more! We also enjoy using the pick up in store option which allows you to still get your items on promo and then you can pick them up in store at your convenience. Our orders are ready in a matter of hours!

Thank you all SO much for stopping by our new blog post today. We truly can’t thank you all enough for your ongoing support over the years. It truly means the world to us!

xx,

Lindsay & Whitney

Photos by Logan & Maddi Magill

Outfits c/o Ann Taylor // Thank you to Ann Taylor for sponsoring this post. All opinions are our own.