It seems fitting to launch a blog on New Year’s Day. New year, new possibilities, all that jazz. My name is Jessi, and after much encouragement from (and debate with) my younger sister, I’ve decided to create a little corner of the internet to call my own. I’ve been a Tumblr user for a few years, and while I’ll continue to love it as a source of inspiration and escape, I found myself needing and wanting more. So here we are.

I follow a lot of bloggers whose style I adore, whether their home or their fashion, but as much as I aspire to achieve their level of fashion sense, I don’t always have the, ahem, means to back it up. In the past year, my husband and I bought our first home and got married, so let’s just be honest and say it wasn’t the cheapest year of our lives. We have student loans, car payments, a mortgage, and all sort of other bills, and as much as I’d like to outfit myself head-to-toe in J.Crew and other pretty things, well, it just isn’t in the cards. So we make it work.

I’m a communications professional by day, and I like to think I have a decent eye for design, whether in how I dress myself or decorate our home. My husband went to school for furniture design, and while he doesn’t currently work in the industry (gotta pay those aforementioned bills and all), he indulges my at times ambitious project whims.

So that’s me. Newly 30, newlywed, and a new homeowner, just trying to live life a little more sparkly. We spent the past year getting to this place in our lives, now we get to enjoy our progress and keep digging in to make it even better. Real Life Sparkle is my way of chronicling my journey, whether it’s outfit inspiration, tackling a new project, whipping up something delicious, or just sharing some thoughts on life. I hope you’ll join me, and hopefully you’ll like it here.