It's been almost 5 months since my last blog post, for no real reason except that I felt like having a break. And once I got out of the routine of blogging; putting up things that inspired me, things I had found, things I had made and littlemiso updates - I just forgot what and how to say it.
It feels like the internet is overloaded with content - I follow at least 100 different blogs through blogger, 84 pinners on pinterest, as well as updates on facebook and instagram and constant emails. Some of the content out there is fantastic - informative, well designed, thoughtful... and I just felt like I didn't have anything to add to that. Would anyone really read what I posted?
When I looked back through my blog today, I found myself reading posts and recalling what I had done over the past few years. I found the content so valuable to look through - tiny things, like how looking at furniture and styling at Empire in November last year, made me remember how happy and inspired I had felt.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not here to gain 100,000 followers and play the 'business' of blogging, and would absolutely hate to be labelled that way. I think it's important to remember that this is first and foremost a blog / diary for myself, and really it would just be an added bonus if these tiny snippets of my life and what inspires me, may inspire you.
On that note,
here is a snippet of a post from Sarah Tolzmann of 'Note to Self', reacting to the 'business of blogging':
"...with all of these conferences, workshops and referral programs, I have a strange feeling that the blog world is coming to a boiling point. There are so many of us with thousands more popping up every day. And I'll be the first to admit that the longer you're at this, the harder it seems to get. We can get caught up in the competitive element and even start imagining rivalries. One day it's euphoric and friendly and the next it's stressful and personal. Ideas are duplicated, designs are duplicated, and the angry, passive aggressive Tweets start to fly (yup, I've done that, too). This environment is not what I want for myself, my blogger friends or Note to Self. I have to wonder: where will we go from here? Will blogging continue to be an individualist push for traffic and sponsorship? Or will it (as I hope) evolve into a series of strong niche collectives, lead by groups of talented bloggers working together?"
Further to that, Cassandra's post from 'Coco and Kelly' hit the nail on the head for me:
"But, what I’ve realized is that I really miss other parts of the conversation going on at the table. I don’t talk about books I’ve read because it’s probably been a year since I’ve actually finished one. I barely catch the news and can’t decipher politics these days for the life of me (I can only blame politics itself for so much of that). I miss intelligent conversation, and yet I’ve forgotten how to have it. Or rather, I’m smart enough to know that I’m lacking the information I need to participate in those conversations on an intelligent level."
As much as designing, creating and making things is my passion, I enjoy immersing myself in other things, which maybe I'll blog more of over the coming months. I believe that it's beyond important to designing to absorb inspiration from other fields. Finding that subtle balance between design, design, design ....and the rest of my life will be my next goal, hands up, feet first.
Photos taken by Max Wanger,
here and
here.
