The Blog I Almost Didn't Start

This blog sat in my phone for a long time before it became a website. Not the posts themselves. The idea of it, and underneath the idea, a running list of reasons to leave it there.

The list wasn’t short. The internet is full, the corners all feel taken, and the people doing this well have been doing it for a decade with better lighting. Also, and I’ll just say it: people from my real life might read this. There’s a certain kind of fear and trepidation that keeps you from starting something like this, and it’s not laziness. It’s picturing someone you went to high school with finding your little website on day two.

So what changed? Honestly, maybe just my age. It took until my mid-thirties to stop caring so much about being watched while I figure something out. Not caring less about the thing itself. I care about this more than I’ve cared about most projects in years. Caring less about who might judge it. People are going to make judgments regardless.

Nobody’s waiting for another blog about everything. That’s not what people look for anymore, and it’s not why I read the blogs I love. People want to feel a connection to content. They want to see how someone else actually does it: how she packs, what she returns, which of the viral things are worth it, what her attempt at a calm week really looks like with two kids and a full schedule. The more crowded it gets, the more it matters to find the one voice that feels like a friend.

Here’s the part I can’t deny: I’ve been doing this for years, just without the website. I’m a chronic oversharer in real life. IYKYK. If we’re friends, you’ve received the link, the review, the warning, and the follow-up photo, whether you asked or not. The group chat has been telling me to write it down for ages, and they’re not wrong. So here we go.

One thing you’ll notice, and I want to name it once so it never feels out of place: you’ll hear about our boys constantly, because they’re half of my life, most of my laundry, and a lot of my inspiration. But you won’t see their faces here. I love to overshare about my cart and myself. Their stories are theirs to post one day, if they want to. (Their outgrown rain boots, however, are fair game.)

So this is Pine & Page: outfits that work in real life, the home and travel finds that earn their keep, and a little of the schoolhouse, since teaching is where my love of a calm routine was built. Some posts will be lists of links, because that’s my love language. Some will be more like this one. I’m not promising a schedule. I’m promising it will be real.

If you’re new here, the first post, a travel kit for our Tofino countdown, is a good place to see how this will go. And if you made it this far: thank you. It took me until my mid-thirties to hit publish, and I’m glad you’re here for it.

Warmly,
Kristen