On January 1, 2014, I officially launched a new blog project called The Court Jeweller. Ten years later, I can’t believe how much this community has grown and how much we’ve enjoyed together!
I’ve always said that, when I first started blogging, I assumed that my mom would be my only reader. Well, she’s still reading, but so are hundreds of thousands more of you (!), and we’re still growing together! The Court Jeweller has been my passion project for a decade now. What started off as an escapist hobby has become a full-time job, and I’m thrilled to be able to show up for you every day with sparkling posts all about royal jewelry and history.
I’ve been thinking back over the last decade, and I’m just in awe of all of the things we’ve experienced together. We’ve oohed and aahed at royal wedding jewels in Britain, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Jordan, Japan, and Germany, and we’ve experienced jubilees, abdications, enthronements, royal funerals, and even an honest-to-goodness coronation!
On a personal note, I’ve spent my thirties with you here at TCJ. I recently turned 40, and over the past decade I’ve finished my Ph.D., struck out on my own as a freelance writer and historian, gotten married, and had a daughter. And I know so many of you have gone through big life changes during this decade as well, and I’ve always been so pleased and proud that The Court Jeweller has been a safe haven of beautiful joy in the midst of challenges for all of us. I’m so grateful for you, I can barely put it into words!
So what’s next on the horizon for The Court Jeweller? Well, more of the same, for the most part. Going forward, I’ll continue to be sharing bejeweled articles here, for free, every weekday. On Sundays, subscribers can receive my free TCJ Newsletter, which features a digest of all of the week’s sparkling happenings so you don’t miss a glittering moment.
But I’ve also got something new up my sleeve…
Starting today, I’ll be sharing articles and content every Saturday in a new place. I’ve started a newsletter, Hidden Gems, on the Substack platform. Many of you have very kindly asked how you might support my work, and this subscriber-supported newsletter is my answer to that question. All of the details, including subscription tiers and benefits, can be found on the newsletter’s about page. But to sum it up: every other Saturday, I’ll be sharing in-depth, thoroughly researched articles on royal jewelry and history at Hidden Gems for newsletter subscribers. On alternate Saturdays, I’ll be sharing discussion posts for members of the Hidden Gems community. While The Court Jeweller will continue to be a free, ad-supported website, the Hidden Gems newsletter will be an ad-free, subscriber-supported publication, with a focus on long-form, research- and writing-intensive pieces.
I’m so looking forward to seeing many of you at the new Hidden Gems platform each weekend, and I’m also looking forward to continuing to see you here at The Court Jeweller from Monday to Friday each week!
As a little teaser, the two images above will feature in two upcoming issues of Hidden Gems. As you might expect, after Sunday’s bombshell announcement from Copenhagen, there will be some Danish royal history content included soon as well!
Ten years. Whew. It feels like a legitimate lifetime in the world of digital publication! Thank you, thank you, thank you—from the bottom of my heart. I couldn’t have done any of this without each and every one of you.
I’ll see you back here tomorrow morning with a full report on the New Year tiaras in Denmark—now a much more poignant event than we might have previously expected!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.