Navel gazing about blogging, or not blogging

Swatch at Mood


If I've met you in person the last three years, we've probably had this conversation at some point, where I talk about giving up blogging.     It's been on my mind for awhile, but I've pretty much stopped blogging this year.    I have not stopped creating, though.  I have a lot of things to show you that I've made recently (garments, keychains, embroidery.)   I have a lot of stories to tell (how I sewed a sweatshirt that is the most expensive thing I've ever made, how I used another sewist's scraps to sew 2 shirts for myself, how I used two lengths of fabric that I thought were the same to sew stretch velvet pants, and then it turned out they were not the same fabric, how I am getting the Jalie Eleonores to fit me better in the waistband.)   I still have flowers to show you.  I went to the Day Without a Woman rally in NYC yesterday at noon; I'd like to tell you about that.  I bought a cover stitch machine last weekend, I can totally see writing about that too.

However, I have a dearth of desire to write the blog. It takes a lot of time/effort to write the blog, match up the pix to the text, caption the pix, remove flickr tags that embeds flickr branding in the photos, etc etc etc). Most posts take 90 minutes at least.   Larger posts can take 3 hours.  I have tried challenging myself to write complete posts in 60 minutes including incorporating already-taken pix into the posts; most of the time I go over.

I used my blog as a public journal for keeping track of my sewing, for writing out what I changed about garments, writing about techniques, and just plain show and tell.  Sometimes I search my own blog for information, but I also keep a hand written notebook of techniques, and I could go back to the "pre blogging days" of writing changes on the pattern envelopes themselves.

My blog wound up being a way that I met fellow sewists, through your kind comments and your own blogs, and stayed connected with you.   I have never had a Facebook account (and never intend to) but I joined Instagram in August 2015 and have really enjoyed it. If there is a point I want to record for posterity, lately I've been adding it as an Instagram comment.  At this point I think I've met maybe half as many people IRL from IG as I have from my blog, but I expect that number will grow.

My entire creative life is there on IG.  You don't need an IG account to see my IG account on your computer, but you do need one to like and comment.  AFAIK, you can only get an IG account by downloading the app on your smart phone and signing up for an account--then if you want to you could log in, like and comment from your computer, or just use the app on your phone.

I love IG and am addicted to it.  IG feels like appetizers.  Blog posts are like 5 course meals.

I attended Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA for the first time ever this past weekend and maybe I will write a post about it this weekend?  I just don't know.  I don't know if writing this post tonight will somehow reignite my desire to blog.  It certainly doesn't feel like an official goodbye, but it doesn't feel like I'm just taking a break either.

I will be at PR weekend in NYC June 2-3 this year.  So maybe I'll see you there?  Or on IG?  Or maybe I'll meet you back here, this weekend, or next week, or next month.  

Here's my link to Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vacuumingthelawn/
Right now, there's a lot on there about the Day Without a Woman march, and then Sew Expo, and then the creative stuff!
Thank you for reading and commenting!  Be well!!!