Wednesday, June 1, 2011

why blog?

I started this blog for a lot of reasons... as a hobby, a place where my family and friends can come to see what I've been up to when I leave my home state of Wisconsin for Bloomington, Indiana, this upcoming fall. As a replacement for the journals I used to scrawl in addictively, chronicling the days' events and my feelings and the way the world was during a particular time and place. And as a way to connect to an online community of like-minded individuals. I'm completely in awe of the many crafty, creative, stylish bloggers out there and every day I look forward to the glimpses they allow into their lives. So I thought to myself, why don't I have a blog? I think if I can survive the initial awkwardness of writing to a nonexistent audience I should be fine...with no readers it does seem like a rather indulgent exercise to ramble about your life, but after I get into the habit of writing here I plan to alert people to this blog's presence, give it a debut of sorts. 

I can't exactly say my previous blogging experiences have been the most positive. I currently have two other blogs; one is my "professional" library blog and the other chronicled a project I undertook to sew pillows for a local women's shelter this past fall and spring. With the latter, my posts were coming at a trickle, then not at all. I was sewing pillows (and ended up donating approximately 50) but writing about it didn't seem particularly necessary. As for my professional blog, I'm not giving up on it and I'm hoping to have more material to cover this fall, when I begin attending the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University. I've often felt stilted and dull and ungenuine while writing it so far because I knew it would be on my resume and that the admissions committees for grad schools that I was then applying to would judge me based on what they read. I struggled with finding my voice, and deciding where I wanted to draw the line between formal and informal tone. Did I want to expose my inquisitive, irreverent self or stick to writing in a safe (albeit detached) way that doesn't show the many, many things I don't know about the world of librarianship? Ultimately, I opted for the safe route, and who wants to read that? I know that when I read blogs I want the juicy bits, I want life.

So, I return to the blogosphere with a little bit of wariness, but mostly excitement. This will be a lifestyle blog. I'm taking inspiration from bloggers that write about their day-to-day lives: their friends, their outfits, their moods, all accented with big gorgeous pictures. I'll likely write about style, decor, crafty things (scrapbooking and quilting, primarily) and also books. A random, uncategorizable assortment of topics... I can't wait.

5 comments:

  1. Stumbled on here from waveatthebus. Looked like you needed a comment...so here you go.

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  2. thanks! this blog is a new secret summer project of mine; i haven't told anyone about it yet. you're sweet to comment - it's much appreciated :)

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  3. Me again, i'm actually really enjoying the irreverent and frankly kind of kooky thrift adventure postings and it's hard not to smile reading your absolutely infectious writings on of all things..your button stash. Even your librarian blog is really interesting - yes i equate librarians with old grey haired bespectacled women and I hadn't really thought of it as a career...certainly several stereotypes were banished quite quickly. Keep up the good work, you have a wonderful blog.

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  4. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it! And I'm extra pleased to have shown a different perspective on librarianship. It is certainly a profession that not a lot of people know much about... as you mentioned, people picture the mean, frumpy old woman who checks out their books at the public library when they envision a librarian. When I told my dad I wanted to go to grad school for librarianship he thought it was a dying profession - it's changing rapidly and librarians need to embrace technology, but hardly dying.

    And yes, ha, I'm quite irreverent and I write about lots of random things :) Thanks for reading, and if you ever have suggestions, feel free to let me know!

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  5. I know all about the stereotypes - i also went to UW (ok, so i'm in Canada so the W stands for Waterloo) for accounting so we get the horn rimmed glasses with tape, pocket protector, high belted pants, comb-over hair-do, plaid pants, all the good stuff. The reality...i might wear plaid pants for golf but i'd rather be windsurfing, mountain biking, skiing or snowboarding.

    Still reading, still enjoying the blog...everyday Wisconsin life is like something out of the movies for me so keep up the randomness! What might be mundane for you is like some alternate reality from big city life here in Toronto...everything is sooo different, but in a good way.

    aloha eric

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