Hi friends! It’s been a while! I’m sorry about that.

The truth is, we needed some time away from here to think and talk about blogging, what we want for this space, and the future of House of Humble.

Our commitment to blogging began to waver last year when we were going through a very difficult time. Though we have always tried to be authentic and honest here, we are actually very reserved people, which can make it difficult to strike the right balance between “blog life” and “real life”. It means so much to both of us that anyone would be interested in what goes on in our world, but when we began blogging we never imagined that one day we might have thousands of readers. We sometimes feel very vulnerable when we think about our pictures and stories floating around the internet available for anyone to see and read. Because of this, there are many aspects of our lives that we are not comfortable sharing. I know you all understand and respect those boundaries, but it can be quite limiting when you feel you can only be open about a sliver of what’s happening in your life. When there are other things weighing on your heart, it’s hard to find the motivation to talk about the “safe” stuff. That’s what happened late last year. There was a shadow hanging over us and coming here to blog about other things just felt hollow and weird.

We tried to continue blogging (somewhat sporadically) despite really just wanting to withdraw for a while. The flaw in that plan was that we needed a break from talking about ourselves and our little corner of the world while we waited for our hearts to heal, but we had painted ourselves into a corner. Our blog has always been about us and our journey. The problem with this is that if you only write about your life, there’s not much left to say when you go through a patch that you don’t fancy sharing. We were trying to post the same kinds of things we had always posted, but instead of feeling fun and natural, it started feeling forced and difficult. Rather than addressing the fact that something was a bit off and making changes to fix the situation, we pressed on (hoping we’d eventually fall back into our comfortable, happy blogging routine) but instead of things resolving themselves, blogging got harder. The discomfort in sharing snowballed. In hindsight it all sounds a bit melodramatic and silly, but I actually became quite exhausted by the thought of talking about myself, and it reached the point where having to write a post made me really anxious. This all boiled under the surface for months until finally, a few weeks ago, we hit a brick wall. I sat here at the computer staring at a blank screen with absolutely no inspiration or motivation to write and I realised something had to give. We decided we shouldn’t post again until we had figured out how to move forward.

Since then Reubs and I have done a lot of thinking about blogging. I’ve found myself questioning why we blog, what we want from blogging and how we should proceed. At times I’ve wondered if we should just let House of Humble go and give up blogging completely, but I’ve slowly come to realise that blogging in itself is not the problem, it’s how we’ve been going about blogging that has stopped working for us. I love blogging! I love this space, I love the sense of community and all the sources of inspiration in the blog world, and I love the bonds we’ve formed with all of you who read here. I studied journalism at uni and worked in publishing for a little while and for me, blogging is like the best bits of working as a journalist (writing about the things I’m passionate about, connecting with people, being able to express myself with words) without the worst bits (strict deadlines, having to write advertorials and stories I’m not interested in, being accountable to someone else’s vision). The problem is not blogging, the problem is that we’ve become stuck in a rut.

Though I follow many personal, journal-style blogs that I adore, I’m no longer sure that blogging solely about ourselves and our life is the best fit for Reubs and I. For a very long time our blog has been very much about us, and though I love sharing our story, it has started to feel a bit suffocating and repetitive. I believe wholeheartedly that everyone has a story and there is value in sharing it, but Reuben and I are just two regular people, living our regular (mostly uneventful) lives. Honestly, there is only so much we can say about it before we begin to bore ourselves and likely, bore you. I realise now that if I could have changed the topic and talked about stuff other than myself for a while, I probably never would have had my little crisis of blogging faith. We have loved sharing our journey to a simpler life but what we’d really like is to zoom out, look at the bigger picture and open House of Humble up, so that it is less about Reuben and I as individuals, and more about all of us on a journey to a different kind of life. Basically, we’d like to talk about people and things outside our little bubble and make this space more community minded. With this in mind, I’ve been working on some posts featuring other amazing people and glimpses into their own versions of a simpler life. I’ve got a bunch of ideas for other features and new kinds of posts too. We plan to continue sharing bits and pieces from our daily life and our thoughts on things, but we’d like to move away from our life being be the sole focus here. We hope to make the conversation at House of Humble less one-sided, share a broader range of posts (more often!) and create a real sense of community. We’d love this blog to become a place of inspiration, learning, sharing and togetherness.

I realise that change isn’t always popular and some of you might not like the gentle shift in the focus here, but at the end of the day we have to do what feels right for us. We’ve been blogging for three years now and I think it’s quite healthy and natural for us to want to make some changes at this point. The important thing is, the ethos and tone of House of Humble will remain the same. This blog will always be about the pursuit of a simpler, more mindful, more beautiful life, and our story will always be at the heart of it, but it’s time branch out a little bit. We’re really looking forward to the next chapter for House of Humble and I am feeling really excited about what lies ahead. I hope you will join us on this new leg of the journey. I believe the best is yet to come!

Thanks so much for bearing with us when we went quiet, for reading, and for being a part of House of Humble so far. Your support means so much to both Reubs and I. I hope all has been well in your world while we’ve been away. We’ve missed you guys!

Katie (and Reuben) x

PS In honour of the next chapter I’ve given the blog a bit of a cosmetic makeover. Fresh start, fresh look!