The Secret Sister Project: Meet Your Hosts

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Hey there loves! As many of you know, one of the biggest “rules” that we are pushing is that we hosts must “know” you. A lot of you have asked what constitutes us “knowing” you, and that is a very valid question in this digital age! Basically, we want to have faith in those that we are allowing into our precious project. We want to be able to say, “Oh yeah, that is the girl who chatted with me about her search for a job as a Librarian.” Or, “She is the girl who was active in the hashtag despite not being able to join in on last round.” We look at your avi picture, we memorize your name, we make notations next to your sign-up in our spreadsheet. Full disclosure: when we go to our spreadsheet and one (OR TWO!!) of us has to notate, “no idea who she is, she doesn’t even follow me” we give some serious side eye. Are we looking for followers? Not in the least bit. Do we think that you ONE BILLION PERCENT should know who ALL THREE hosts are? OH. YES. We actually had a ridiculous amount of people this round thank two of us, not know that they were speaking to one of the hosts when we reached out to inquire about an issue, and so on. It is embarrassing for YOU when we bring this info back to base as the information on who we are is so readily available in a few different places. With that being said, we thought it would be helpful if we each wrote up a little “about me” so that you had some points to bring up when you chatted us up over the next month. HINT: THIS MEANS IT IS A VERY GOOD IDEA TO GO AND VISIT BRITT AND AMY’S POSTS, THERE MIGHT BE A QUIZ LATER. We put the question to twitter, and some of you had some things you just HAD to know, so let’s get goin’! 

How did you get the idea for The Secret Sister Project?

To sum it up, I was having a rough 2014 and needed some cheering up and I remembered about this Secret Sister project that is put on at churches where my family attends. I brought this idea to Britt and Ame and we pondered if we could take this idea and put it to the test with our online community because who doesn’t need more cheer in their life? We launched a mini group as a sort of trial to see how it worked out and we were so thrilled to see how well it worked. I am always astounded and proud to see how well it is working and feel so lucky that this community is filled with such kind people.

How did the three of you meet?

Through the magic of the Internet. To be perfectly honest, it is somewhat hard to remember a time in which we weren’t friends as we have become family over the years. I do know that Britt and I bonded over The Princess Bride after she saw my reference in my Twitter profile and continue bonding to this day over our conversations that can be carried out by using only quotes from the TV show, Friends. I was lucky enough to be paired with Amy for my first year participating in The Broke and the Bookish Secret Santa. I remember being floored at how perfect she is at picking out presents for me (something I am still thankful for to this day) and it wasn’t long before I realized that she was the best listener and kindest person I may ever know. Somehow we got a group chat going that now is a literal consistent conversation all day, every day. Fast forward through weddings, 15 hour road trips, tears, laughter that makes you pee a little and here we are – soul friends! There are few things that I am more thankful for.

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The Secret Sister Project (2)

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Hey lovelies! We are here to announce round two of our Secret Sister Project! First, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who made our trial run such a success. Honestly you guys blew me away with your generosity and ability to hold one another up on those cloudy days I really appreciate everyone’s time (and money) and cannot tell you how proud I am to be a part of this community! So let’s get into the logistics…For those of you who are new here, you can take a glance at our initial post to get an idea of what is going on here. To my peeps who are signing up again, we have made some significant changes to the whole project so please read the below very carefully before signing up!

The What:

The Secret Sister project is essentially a cheer club. Think Secret Santa but all year round with less emphasis on big presents, and more thoughtful notes, cards, small somethings sent just to let your secret sister know that you are thinking about her!

The When:

  • Sign-ups run January 12 – January 23
  • You will be paired up with your secret sister by January 30
  • This session will run from February 1 – July 31 (this means that your last something will be sent in July)

The Who:

You guys! The only “rule” we have is that before signing up, you must “know” at least one of us. Us being myself (@withthebanned), Amy (@trippingbooks), or Brittany (@bookaddictguide) and “knowing” one of us means that we must have spoken on Twitter or SOMETHING. We are just really concerned with someone not following through, and that would just make a bad time for everyone. Continue reading