The Bellingham Blog in 2025

Hello Reader!

Your author here, I wanted to take this little space in my corner  of the internet, to say thank you for being here!

♡ Lauren

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I asked my husband if writing a more letter style and posting it would be cringe and he said no, so, cringe or no cringe, I am happy to share this little recap of the blog and my adventure with it so far!

When I started this, I went back and forth on what the blog should be, look like, goals etc. When I first bought the website on April 30th, 2025 I really didn't know what to expect. I knew I had the skills as a writer to make it happen, I loved taking photos, Chef and I adventured around enough to keep things interesting.

But I must say, I'm really proud of what The Bellingham Blog has turned into.

Here are a few exciting accomplishments so far:

• 54 Blogs Written in 2025 (55 counting this one)

• 18 were about Community

• 12 were about Things to do in Bellingham

• 18 were about Places to Eat

• 10 were also labeled as My Favorite

• A few were tagged as Real Estate

• 15 Weekly Newsletter Subscribers (Peak: 16)

• 2 Monthly Newsletter Subscribers (Peak: 2)

• On Instagram: 22 Posts, 82 Followers.

• 100 Business Cards Printed!

A few things I discovered I valued about this blog:

• It Didn't Have to Be Perfect -- That's the fun of it being a Blog, it's not a newspaper, it's also not going to print, I can change photos, revisit, adjust, and make edits which is just fun.

• No A.I. -- I wanted everything to be written by a person. Which at this point is just me, but maybe I'll have guest writers. But I wanted human typos, weird tangents, run-on sentences, I can hear my journalism professors saying, "Cut the fluff!" but the fluff is what makes it fun to me. I refuse to give up my em-dashes and en-dashes also.

  I also want to be seen as a resource and a local Bellingham expert, I have the experience of living here, loving it here and in order to become a trustworthy and source of authority on the Bellingham lifestyle, I had to do it myself, no artificial intelligence was invited. Bonus point: if read anything that says Bellingham has, "Natural Beauty", "lively arts scene" or says Fairhaven is a, "brick-lined street" -- it ain't them, that's AI's version of Bellingham. No shade, as someone who works in marketing, I just know what to look for. :)

• I Had to Have Fun -- Which I have had endless fun writing for the blog. I have a massive spreadsheet of ideas waiting to be written. I also enjoy taking my photos, but I regularly forget to snap them. Which, DARN, means I get to go back with the purpose of taking photos to that spot I just visited.

A few tricky spots I discovered:

• The Instagram isn't as interesting for me. I love creating content and performing so it's SUPER interesting to me that I don't want to spend time over there. I read once that SEO is the Social Media after-life -- It lives on forever. Spooky ghosts. Maybe I'm just not as interested in creating content over there yet. Maybe I'll get Chef to play over there. I don’t know, I don’t see it being a massive time-sink in 2026, but you never know!

• I'm bad at promoting the blog. I have really cute business cards that I love and handing them out to people I know, strangers, and folks at Open Houses as been an absolute delight. But it's a funny thing to share with others that you have this blog

• I don’t know if this is Blog is called: “The Bellingham Blog” or the “I Love Bellingham Blog” I think I got lost when I bought the domain. So, for now, it shall be both until someone says I have to choose. :)

Things I hope for the future of the Blog:

• I hope someone who lives in Bellingham finds this Blog Helpful — The tag line is “written by a local for the locals” because I constantly feel like I am discovering things that are around us every day. New events, traditions, artists, places to eat. Friends of mine who were born and raised in Bellingham I can still find places they’ve never been to either. This town is growing, transitioning, but at it’s heart it still beats to it’s own rhythm.

• I hope someone moving to Bellingham finds the Blog helpful -- I want to become a referral agent in Bellingham. Why? It spreads the wealth in Real Estate (referral agents get 25% of a Broker's commission at no cost to the client). I want to someday own a house in Bellingham and mostly I'd like to pay off my student loans from WWU. I hope someday someone reads this blog about Bellingham and thinks, "This gal seems lovely, I'll reach out to her," and we can chat about Bellingham and then I can help them take the steps to move here, move around town, whatever!

• I hope I get to meet more people through the blog. It's been a steady adventure just of quietly cruising around but when I tell people what I'm doing or hand them a business card they just light-up and it's magical. 

• I hope I stay consistent. Considering I wrote 55 blogs, with many front-loaded, because I told myself I wouldn’t put this project into the world unless I wrote 20 first — to check in on my own commitment level I suppose. I think this is less of a “hope” and more of an acknowledgement that I can do it.

So much to look forward too, improve, practice and do!

Thank you for being on this journey with me!

— Lauren