January 1, 2012
I have to say that sitting down to write this I was a little sad at the passing of 2011. It was a good year for me. But with a new year comes new hopes and resolution (damn, I said it). This year instead of doing the same list, that let’s face it will never get done. I decided to come up with a color. Yeah, I know it may be a little out of the ordinary but I am very inspired by color so to sit down and come up with something that is one of a kind was very cool to me. Besides, have you seen Pantone’s color of 2012? Yuck! I knew I could do better. So here it is…
The name says it all…I am a BIG believer in karma and luck in general. What you put out to the world, I believe that you will get it back (good or bad). So this year, it’s all about thinking positive in my personal and business life. Helping others and just try to be the best person I can be. No lists required. :)
December 12, 2011
If you are a follower of the handmade community, then you may have heard about the goings on with Pinterest and DIY. Basically, there are some people who will pin handmade items to boards marked “DIY” or “Craft Projects” which leads smart minded people to the conclusion that they plan on ripping off said design and making it themselves…possibly for profit. While there is nothing new in this department, I came up with a solution that could help to alleviate the touchiness of it all. Enter Craftgawker. This site is devoted to nothing but DIY tutorials that people post so by using this as an inspiration point, you can go crazy with the DIY pins and not take a chance of offending someone or stepping on toes. Pretty nifty right? Yes, I thought so too. ;) Happy Pinning!
October 16, 2011
I was reading a great article from Crafty Pod last night discussing another article (follow along with me now) that talked about how reading less blogs will make you feel more productive and creative. I really started to think about some of the great points that were brought up. How many of us out there struggle to keep up with our feed reader only to feel less than adequate if we can’t keep up or follow along with blogs that we feel we “should” be reading instead of blogs we enjoy reading? I have been a victim of the “perfect blogger syndrome”…you know following along with those “perfect” blogs that do everything right and have all of these comments and droves of followers. I start to get envious and WANT to be that blogger. Of course, because I have a family, two businesses and a LIFE I never actually made it to the stardom that I so desperately sought.
photo by Linda Gavin on flickr
After reading the two articles above, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment and a question emerged for myself. Why do I blog? I started to think back on why I started my blog and there were a few reasons…none of which involved fame, fortune or recognition. Mostly, it was to promote my business and share my life with the world. I honestly didn’t care if anyone read it since it was more about me having the courage to put myself out there. I started to wonder where that went and why I got sucked up into the “perfect blogger syndrome”. I don’t need to be the popular kid in school and as long as I am happy with the content that I am putting out to the world, I honestly don’t care if I have 10 or 10,000 followers. In this day and age, there are so many blogs out there that I think we just get overwhelmed and it starts to make us question ourselves and our value as bloggers, writers, crafters, etc. That is why I like the idea that we are in a “post-keeping-up-era” (phrased coined by Sister Diane). We shouldn’t have to feel like we need to keep up with everyone and everything. With Twitter, Facebook and the like if something is important enough there is no doubt that you will find out about it pretty quickly.
papercut postcard by AshleyPahl on Etsy
This all brings me to my next point, quality over quantity. How many of you have overstuffed feed readers that you just can’t keep up with? Blogs that you never comment on but feel that you NEED to keep up with it? It’s time to clean out and lift some of the weight off! Elizabeth made a great point in her article about how guilty she felt if she deleted a blog from her feed reader and honestly at first I thought that was silly…until I started deleting. A horrible feeling of guilt suddenly started to come over me. My advice, push the guilt away and move forward! She gives a great example of how she prioritizes her feeds. I went a slightly different route and really thought about WHO interests me and who I want to get to know on a personal level. These were people that I had met on Twitter or Facebook and really had a great connection with. Normal people like me that aren’t trying to be perfect. ;) This narrowed my feed down quite a bit. I did keep a couple of trade magazine blogs and fun inspiration blogs that I mainly enjoy for the photos.
this is my happy place by Merriweather Council on Etsy
Now that I have lightened my inbox, my next step is to really make an effort to participate in the blogs that I follow. Participation = Comments After all, blogging is suppose to be a conversation so if you enjoy someone’s blog post, show some love and comment on it! Everyone loves comments. :)
If you feel like your feed reader is dragging you down, I suggest reading the articles above, they will change the way you look at blogging…for the good. :)
*Just a note – Most SEO people will tell you that it helps to comment on popular blogs to help with link building for your brand or website. While this is sometimes true, it can be extremely time consuming and unproductive in other parts of your business. I would recommend using other ways to help to build your brand that will not make you go bonkers. In a niche market like handmade, there are a lot more creative things you can do that won’t suck you dry.
September 22, 2011
GMO stands for genetically modified organism and it is in almost all of the processed foods that we eat. Since going on my natural/organic when the price tag doesn’t make my heart skip a beat kick, I have been reading labels pretty carefully. My number one rule has been if I can’t pronounce the ingredient then I am not eating it (scientific I know). While this has seemed to work, I really was unsure of what I was and wasn’t putting in my body. I recently came across a website that changed my way of thinking completely. It actually clarified a lot of my questions or what we should and shouldn’t eat if trying to go completely natural or organic.
There is also a cool iPhone app that accompanies the website, which makes things very easy to search for. It is also nice to know that I can go GMO free even on some regular brand foods (especially breads) which are super expensive or hard to find locally for the organic brand.
My reasoning behind all of this really stems from realizing all of the chemicals around us and in our food. It is super scary if you stop and think about it. Just look at your kid’s box of national brand cereal and there are all sorts of things that are artificial and just plain scary in it. I realize that they say everything in our food is safe but these are the same people that said toys made in China were fine and we all remember how great that worked out a few years ago. I just don’t trust big corporations that are looking for a profit over caring about what they put in their products…especially food.
Right now, we don’t know where cancer comes from or why some people get it while others don’t. I honestly think this has to do in part with what we put into out bodies or things we are exposed to in everyday products. Of course, I am not a doctor or scientist by any means but these are just my thoughts. :)
If you would like to learn more info about GMO and what is really in our food, here are some great articles that may open your eyes (ok, sorry that started to sound like a conspiracy nut, which I promise I am not). A lot of people don’t realize or even think about the things we eat…I was one of them not very long ago.
