Hiya Luv, You Changed my Blog, I Luv Ya For It

Bei Lexian- Owl Lover 2011 calendar

Recently I received an email notification that  I needed to moderate a comment I had received on a blog post I wrote about a year ago on a blog I no longer use.
The subject of my post - "Why I Am A Blogging Failure". I read and approved the comment, then I went back and read the post. Here is a bit of it~

I really would love to have a sweet blog and a few readers. I have ideas, really I do! But I never seem to be able to create time to blog on a regular basis. Why? You may ask, well, here is what I have come up with-

My excuses why I am a failure at blogging-

1. I do not wear a camera around my neck 24 hours a day, nor do I have an area of my home set aside for perfectly lit photos. Apparently lots of beautiful photos of every moment of my blissfully creative and beautiful days is a prerequisite for blogging.  (Ok, there is so much contrary to my life in that last sentence it is laughable)

2. I have active inquisitive children who have a passion for pushing the envelope and on frequent occasion, ripping the darn thing to shreds whenever the occasion (ie: mom’s not watching!) presents itself.

3. I am not perfect. I am incredibly imperfect, and not in a quirky bohemian way that makes people smile, but in a my kids watch too much tv, eat too much fast food, talk loudly in church and I end up yelling more than I should and my house is a cluttered mess of toys, dirty dishes, scattered shoes and laundry begging to be put away kind of way. (yes, clean and folded clothes, you are my nemesis…) Mrs. Cleaver I am not.

4. I do not crank out gorgeous handmaid items with blinding speed and astonishing creativity.  I look a lot, too much in fact.  I start a few. I finish even fewer. I forget to take photos along the way. Add that to I am slow and a perfectionist. = Not a lot to show.

5. I am tired – a lot. My 1 year old does not sleep through the night. My 3year old’s nap does not coincide with her baby brother’s naps. My 5 year old is vehemently opposed to napping. My husband works crazy hours.  I have a teenager who thinks 10pm is tragically early to go to bed.

So, that’s about the size of it. I’m sure I will think up more excuses. Maybe someday I will actually have a blog people will read, but most likely not. 

I realized that it pointed to a lot of the things that were still holding me back from blogging. Mostly things that are up to me to change or just not worry about.
I also realized that the voice in the posts sounded much more like me. I was not writing for anyone else (since my blog had no readers) so it was just written from the heart - to me, from me.
The comment I received, the one that headed me in this new direction, was from the very amazing, lovely, and incredibly wise Gina, who is the creative and talented woman behind the awesome blog, Hiya Luv .
She said~

hang in there luv. blogging takes time. don’t put pressure on yourself-I did that at first and it was a major fail for me. Let topics flow. If you are experiencing something with your child-good or challenging-could you blog about it? probably. do you have adorable pics of your family-probably. start off with a post or two like that. something you find joy in. Then visit other blogs-comment and keep going back to comment. Get engaged and people will visit you-keep writing. It will come…:)gina

Man, she was so right.
For some reason I thought having a focus would help me with blogging. I thought "My favorite blogs are craft blogs. I love to craft! I'll have a craft blog!" And so I went about creating what I thought would be a craft blog. But then I felt pressured to do it. To craft. And I am one of those ornery types who just HATES to feel pressured to do things. I will dig in my heels and resist doing it. So I was not feeling inspired or excited. I was just getting cranky with my lack of progress.
So here goes.
This is a blog about stuff I love.
Some of it will be really cool (I promise) some of it will be funny, some of it will be just for me.
You can read it. or not.
It doesn't really matter.
It's for me.
(though friends are nice!)

P.S. Thanks Gina! You are amazing! And wise - very, very wise.