I know valentines day is over, but would it be awkward if I still give you guys a teddy bear holding a heart?

…since a teddy-bear-holding-a-heart is the ultimate sign of love and devotion, plus I know how much you’ve been wanting one.

Yes? It would be awkward?

Because it’s always awkward to give someone a teddy-bear-holding-a-heart, no matter what time of year it is? Because, why are you buying gifts from the drugstore anyway? Okay, I hear you on that.

But here’s the thing: I’ve now officially been blogging for three years, and I never can quite find the words to tell you guys how thankful I am that you read, and how it is literally a dream come true that I get to do this. It’s all a bunch of mushy-gushy feelings that I bottle up and can’t release, until one day I’m going to explode into a million pieces of heart-shaped confetti, hugs and rainbows, and that’ll just be the end of me.

In honor of my third blogiversary, I thought it’d be fun to look at VATW by the numbers…

• 391: Total posts to date.
• 1.6 million: pageviews the first two years combined. 1.4 million: pageviews last month. (Yeah, mind blown. Does not compute.)
• 16,223: Comments you’ve left. (Or, times my heart has exploded with joy.)
• 1,256: Number of brass animals it would take for me to stop thinking I need more.
• 5.5: Years we’ve lived in this house.
• 0: Rooms in the house I consider finished. (We even have one more thing to do in the laundry room.)
• 3+ and counting: Number of extra weeks it’s taken me to finish my closet beyond what I expected.
• 100%: Times when I hit “publish” on a post and feel immediately positive that you’re all going to read it, and suddenly decide you’ve had enough of this nonsense and will not be returning.
• 212: Number of you who linked up to last year’s Hey Girl party, arguably one of my favorite moments in all three years of blogging.
• 4: Number of days it took for my face to stop hurting from all the smiling and laughing reading through those Hey Girl posts.
• 2: Number of tiiiiiny favors I have to ask of you today.

Let’s make this whole shebang better, whaddaya say?

I made a TEEEENY little survey and I would be SO grateful if you’d fill it out, so I can figure out how to make this place better for ya! It’s only 9 questions, and they’re all optional, and I’m not even going to ask which age bracket you fall into, I promise. And it’s totally anonymous so you can be real with me, y’all.

Click right here to take the survey. And THANKS!

One more little request?

Ummm so I feel awkward even asking, but there’s this thing… It’s the Apartment Therapy Homies, which is like a giant contest (really-big-deal) where you can vote for the best Home and DIY blogs… and you only have to be in the top five to qualify for the final round. Here’s the ridiculous thing: I’m actually really close to placing. I thought maybe you guys could help sneak me in? Kinda smuggle me past the Real Grown-Up Blogs and into the finals?

This is all thanks to you, after all — VATW is something we’ve created together and you guys are what make it so fun!

Reasons you should vote (choose any of the below):

1. You love View Along the Way
2. You moderately like and/or tolerate View Along the Way
3. You dislike View Along the Way and are not even sure why you’re reading right now.
4. You have never heard of View Along the Way and are mildly lost and/or confused.

If you fit into any of those categories, congratulations! You are a perfect candidate to hop right on over here and click the little “+1” next to “View Along the Way.” (You may have to create an account, but it only takes about 3 seconds and there isn’t even an email verification or anything.)

It’s also a great way to discover other blogs. If you’re a blogger and you’re on the list, let me know and I’ll go vote for you! Holla!

A Call for Questions

For last year’s blogiversary, I went waaaay outside my comfort zone, took any questions you had and made a video with Andy where we answered them. It was all very awkward and there was a leprous hand involved. We can totally do that again if you want!

SO. Is there anything you’ve always wanted to know? Any burning questions or weird unknowns out there that I’ve neglected to answer? Feel free to ask anything about us, our family, the house, something totally random, whatEVs. Post your questions in the comments here, or email them to me at kelly@vatwblog.com.

If I can get Andy to cooperate, we’ll make a little video and answer them all. Should be fun weird!

Recap

• Click here to vote
• Click here to take the survey
• Leave your questions below – any question you want.
• Please accept this photo of a plush bear as a token of my thanks.

He’s holding a heart-on-a-stick, in addition to the other heart, so it’s a pretty extreme gesture.

I love you guys. The end.