Is blogging just bragging?

If you had your time over, would you do it? Today, here and now, would you? Would you start a blog?

A friend who is an illustrator and designer is faced with this dilemma – everyone in her industry seems to have one and she doesn’t. A blog. But you know what? After she looked at some blogs she began asking, “Is blogging just bragging?” 

Okay, I admit it, when she said that I felt a blush of embarrassment spread over my cheeks. Guilty, your Honour..  There is an element of blogging that is just showing off. But then I thought some more about that. Why do we feel that need to show off what we have made? 

For some (me included) it comes from isolation and for a need to feel some appreciation for your craft/art - whatever it is you have made. Part of it is showing off to receive some validation. Recognition. Some encouragement. Feedback. This showing off isn't a one way street.

My twins have just started primary school and I have been reacquainted with the weekly “Show and Tell” routine. The girls just glow with the enjoyment of sharing some things that they love at home with their teacher and classmates. Much of blogging is simply just that. Show and tell. Sharing what you are interested in, doing, making, wishing, admiring and being inspired by. Sharing, communicating. Getting to know people. Creating a community.

Now my blogging community tends to be of the crafty nature. And as all you crafty readers know, making things involves  a series of decisions, and these decision can be pauses in the process – commas in the sentences; or more like semi colons. And sometimes fullstops. Because making creative decisions is hard. You can be at a stage where you are happy with your work and another step may ruin it. You could be trying to decide on a colour scheme. It could be that the next step is harder. It could be you have run out of a supply and need to improvise. Should you? Shouldn’t you? This with that? Do more? Leave it alone?

My late mother, an all round crafty queen, would ring me quite often to discuss her next creative decision. Aww.. you might think. Your mother valued your opinion. Well. Ahem...no. Mum could go on for quite some time describing fabrics and prints and wools and colour combinations and choices. And you know what? She didn’t really want my opinion. I mean – we were talking ON THE PHONE! I couldn’t even SEE what she was talking about! What she needed was my ear. She needed to vocalise her choices and to talk through her creative decision process. And from talking it through she would make the choice herself. All I had to do was to make encouraging noises.

My eldest daughter and I do this together quite a lot. The other day we were walking to the fabric shop, both nutting out what we needed and wanted. The conversation – well could it even be called a conversation? It was more like parallel dialogue - went like this.

Mattie: “So Mum, I need to make this costume for an evil queen but I‘m thinking I want to give her some vulnerability.”

Me: “If I make a a shift dress would it be too plain? It would go quite well with a jacket or with a jumper over the top but maybe I’m better off making a skirt?”

Mattie: "I don’t want it to be cliched but I want to still use some of the stereotypes because they sort of work. You know, maybe some crazy spiky shoulder pieces…”

Me: "I think it would be too plain. Maybe if it were a print – a tartan? I could add a crocheted collar to embellish it?”

Mattie: “You know so maybe a stereotype colour scheme like purple and black but kind of change it to something softer like a chiffon.”

Me: "If I make a bright shift I could combine it with lots of different tights and scarves and collars. Or I could embroider a stitch pattern onto it. Yeah I think I’d like that. Or something yellow with aqua stitching...Yeah.Or a yellow tartan shift.”

Mattie: “ Yeah, a purple lace with ruffles. Soft but with scary shoulder pieces. Maybe lace."

Me and Mattie: “Hmmm….Yeah…that’s it.”

I think blogging is a bit like that. A way to get thoughts in order. Our projects in order. You crafters out there know that our minds can be on several projects at once – and our work bench can be piled with projects on the boil, on the back burner and on the side. Something about blogging creates an order to the chaos.Perhaps by sitting at the computer and navigating our blog, sorting out our post, we fire up a different set of neurons that set out a pathway for the cloud of creativity that is thundering in our heads to make a lightning strike.

 

And A blog is also a space. A space we can keep tidy and manage and do what we like in. I like what Michelle wrote recently on her blog TheRoyal Sisters 

" I know this looks all a tad glam...
but in all reality I have dishes piled high,
10 loads of washing and folding, and I cant for the life of me
think of what to cook for dinner 90 % of the time...
I spend most of my time picking up, cleaning up and tidying up...
only to realize that it seriously doesn't make a dent in the chaos
that is my life...

This is why I have a blog...it is a place to escape to once in a while
and dream..."

 

But back to my friend's dilemma - these days we do have so many options and so many tasks that require sitting *(or standing!) at the computer (urgh!)so it’s important to not overload and to choose the one that is right for you. Instagram annoys me because of the frame and filters etc – it’s just not my thing. I don’t have an iphone, I don’t enjoy taking photos and, anyway, as you may have noticed, I like words! I don’t have a personal facebook because I don’t want to. I try twitter sometimes but feel like I’ve gate crashed a loud party and don’t know what the hell anyone is talking about and which conversation to join in with and if anyone will listen and hey where are the drinks at this party anyway and let’s face it, most of the time I’m that person at the party who ends up in the kitchen cleaning up. Where is the twitter party kitchen?

 I’m slowly dipping my toe into the vast bottomless lake that is pinterest. I feel overwhelmed. I feel like singing the Dead Milkman’s song “Everybody’s got nice stuff but me.” I feel like my contribution will be a tiny indecipherable pebble that hardly even makes a plop.My illustrator friend likes pinterest. I can see her point -  I can see how it can order your ideas, inspirations and even all the projects you want to do in a very visual and accessible way. (There is the question is pinterest anti-feminist which Jill in a Box wrote about here quite eloquently.) I will pin…..eventually...

So for me, it’s words and pictures, show and tell, brag and share, talk through pros and cons, create a feeling of order out of chaos, completion out of publishing. A virtual room of one’s own. If I had my time over, the answer is yes. I would start a blog. Would you? Why do you blog?

*try not to sit for too long. It’s not good for your health.

Blogtoberfest Fatigue Syndrome

Does this count? A blog about blogtoberfest? I have blogtober-fatigue. I’m tired. We’re in the last stretch of the marathon and my legs are like jelly.  Or more precisely, my typing fingers and thinking brain are like jelly. Today I hate blogtoberfest.  Who invented it? Whose idea was it anyway? Where are they? I want to track them down and fall at their feet, burst into tears and blubber "It’s all too hard. I can't go on!"

 So this is the part in the marathon where you rely on clichés. You "dig deep”  because "your back’s against the wall", you’ve got to "take it the next level", "step up to the plate", "play hardball" because "the ball’s in your court". "Don’t pull any punches", take it "one blog at a time" and "give it 110%".

Blogging. Why? Why do we do it to ourselves? Answer? Community. It’s all about establishing communities and connections, isn’t it? (Which is why it has such a strong appeal to mothers who feel isolated through being stay at home parents.) It’s about finding interesting things – learning things, being inspired, moved, finding something different or just recognising ourselves. It's realising you are not alone. It's getting to know people. 

Last night I took the time to look through the list of blogtoberfest participants – I didn’t make it all the way of course but I had a look and found new blogs to follow. It made me think about what I like in a blog. Crochet, it seems, is rather high on my list! But other stuff too – images, topics. It’s easier to say what you don’t like about a blog, isn’t it? I won’t put out my gripes here because they are pretty idiosyncratic to my particular sensibilities and grumpiness! And I realise everyone is different in that regard. 

When I was clicking on links I accidentally clicked on my own! So I looked at my blog from an outsiders perspective - from a reader’s perspective.

So blogtoberfest12 has made me feel immersed in blogging and it’s made me want to make some changes and improvements. I’ve decided on a few things.

1 to have more consistency – maybe some regular themes for certain days.

2 to have more tutorials 

3. to tell you all more about myself (but not too much information)

What do you think? What do you look for in a blog? What has blogtoberfest done for you?

Virtual Renovating

Hang on a minute - where am I? This looks different, huh?

Old friends, yes the blog looks different. New friends - welcome - I tidied up before you arrived.

For those of us blogging in Australia, Blogtoberfest and Spring are synonymous. It's about new friends, new blogs, lots of visitors (welcome!) and a burst of energy. And it coincides with that Spring cleaning/renovating feeling that is a biological imperative in Spring (I truly think it IS biological)

So I've been tinkering with renovating the blog because, well...because that seems more achievable that dealing with the house!

Now I am no tech head- in fact, I'm a Luddite. Thankfully, over at red parka diaries there are some great tutorials from her technical Tuesday series. With her help I got rid of the frames around the photos and the shadow boxes. Thanks Ms Parka!(She has an excellent giveaway happening too!)

I designed the new header in Adobe illustrator (which I use for the illustrations in our re-sew-cool craft kits) and used elements from the kit drawings for the decorations on the blog. 

As for the buttons on the sidebar - well! Phew! It's been a roller coaster ride on the technical learning curve. Finally I've managed it and I feel like doing a little "I did it! I did it" dance.

With the help of these pages:
Blogging with kids 
(I figured if it was for kids it would be simple)
musings of a housewife

I have discovered:
how to save a photoshop image as a gif for the web.
how to use photobucket
how to use html code in blogger.

All you clever bloggers out there probably find all this very simple. But I found it all new and tricky.

What do you think of the new look? I'm in the middle of working out how to provide the old header image as a blog button with a grab box. But doing crochet and stitching and sewing seems so much easier!!