6 years of Journey to the Darkside!

I knew that our blogging anniversary was coming up soon but I checked and got a very big surprise! It's today! Six years ago we decided to start our blog. I wasn't really sure what to write about or who would even read our blog. Almost 2.5 million people have dropped by our blog! And we've met a lot of really special friends from starting our blog. I am really thankful for the people who have supported us and been there the last 6 years. We really appreciate it! Thank you for reading our blog. It's been quite the journey. We watched many other blogs disappear through the years. There were a few moments that I even considered deleting this blog. Hard to believe! But there were some really stressful things which happened during our blogging years as well. It wasn't always easy. Blogging has become a big part of my life though. I can't imagine giving up on it now. It's helped Anakin and I a lot in our relationship. Some blog posts inspired some good conversations between us. Other times it let him know that I was horny and needed a spanking! I found twitter and Fetlife (padmeamidala on both of them) through the blog. I also found Eden Fantasys and become a sex toy reviewer because of this blog. I don't think that I would own half as many toys right now if I hadn't started this blog. :) We've shared lots of pictures along our journey. We have participated in the HNT (Half-Nekkid Thursday) for years now. We've gotten tons of compliments on our pictures. I'm always really glad when our pictures can arouse people or make them think. Anakin is a big force behind this blog although he doesn't write as many blog posts as he used to. He always reads and comments on my posts. He also takes the majority of our pictures. And now he also participates in my toy reviews! I really love that we have grown closer because of our blog. I've been published in the Peep Diaries book! I've been interviewed by the Globe and Mail! There have been some really exciting things which resulted from our blogging. We also started an online store, Darkside Digital Arts! Anakin is very proud of our store and we wear and use many of the things from it ourselves. My "beach girl" t-shirt is my absolute favorite!! I had to reorder it recently because my other one had become so worn. We have been listed as "top sex blogger" for 3 years in a row. We are well known around the bdsm community in Vancouver. I've written about many of my experiences through hosting a munch or going to Rascal's or MVK. I've lived a lot of different experiences the last 6 years which I have blogged about and shared with our readers. It was always a bit strange for me to have people approach me at events and want to talk to me because they knew about my blog. I've had many people refer to me as a "celebrity" although that feels very strange to me. I'm just a lonely housewife who writes a blog and has kinky sex with my husband. I like to be spanked and enjoy sharing our adventures with people. Our blog is fairly small compared to others out there. I am always very happy when people tell me they've read our post or liked one of our pictures. I think that I have matured as a blogger over the last 6 years. Anakin made a comment recently that many of my blog posts have been him think about life and death. I've been told that others have laughed or cried because of a post that I've written. That my writing has affected them somehow. That always moves me deeply. I write my posts for me but glad if it can make others think. I've shared some of my deepest struggles on this blog. The challenges of poly and many heartbreaks along my journey. I wrote a lot after losing my Dad and then my MIL. I've opened up myself a lot because of this blog. Sometimes writing out my feelings helped me to deal with my grief. I've gotten e-mails from people who told me that I inspired them in different ways. I really like to help people and that is one of the things that I like the best about blogging. I spent many years feeling alone because of my desire to be spanked. Hopefully there were others who came to our blog and realized that they were not alone. I think it's great that the blogging community can help others who are new to M/s or spanking to not feel so alone. That was the main reason that I started my blog. To find others out there who understood and that I could relate to with the kink and spanking desires. I wanted to find friends and that happened. Some of the friends that I've met through this blog have been the closest and dearest to my heart. We would really like to hear from you. Please leave us a comment. Let us know how long you have been reading Journey to the Darkside. What brings you back to our blog? What would you like to see more of? What do you enjoy about our blog? I love blogging but find the lack of comments very frustrating sometimes. We used to get a lot more comments than we do now. I really miss hearing from some of my other blogger friends. Hopefully some people can come out of the shadows and say hello. Happy Anniversary to Journey to the Darkside. I hope there will be many more years on the Journey to the Darkside to share with everyone! :D May the force be with you all!! ~padme amidala