2.15.2012

Satisfaction

Helloooo blogging world. Remember me?

I guess it has been a little while. Do I have some kind of excuse for my absence, like things have been busier than normal or we've been traveling the world or something? Sure don't. The truth is, I had been growing a little blog-weary lately. Allow me to explain myself.

First off, let me start out by saying that I love this world of blogging that I dived into when I started this thing. I have made amazing connections who have become my friends in real life and also with people who are wayyy far away.  Tell me if you don't do this too, but when I stumble across a blog I like, where the gal is wearing a cute shirt or her hair is fabulous or there is a giant photo of a cupcake or something equally beautiful, I immediately add it to my 'follow' list. I just head right up to the top of the browser, and boop, followed! Next thing I know, I actually start reading...and I'm not really enthralled. There's not really anything we have in common, but the blog still sits in my follow list untouched until I, gasp, unfollow. Which I've done, let's see, never

So I find myself with a handful of blogs I really love, that I really connect with. Ones where I have developed genuine relationships, ones where I comment and they comment back! And then there are ones that I envy from afar, like a giant creep--I see from afar this girl's perfect life, with her adorable outfits and perfect hair and picturesque meals and wonder why my life isn't all perfect curls and a closet full of vintage goods and time to create meals that could be featured on the Food Network. And I leave comment after comment, like be my friend, I'm coooool! Sometimes I have good hair and delicious food! And never hear anything back. It's sad. 

The bottom line is, I got frustrated. Frustrated that these days, blogging seems to have turned into a giant popularity contest. Where the only way to get ahead is to spend hours upon hours perusing blogs, dropping comments, hosting giveaways, doing advertisements, and taking gorgeous pictures. Sometimes I can't help but wonder when I look at a blog that has nothing to it except for a million photos of one person in one outfit, followed by some bad writing about what they did that day, followed by a million and one comments by people who love it, I wonder, what am I doing wrong?

I started this blog primarily to document my thrift/vintage store perusings, but it evolved into much more than that--a place where you can enjoy (hopefully!) good writing, good pictures, and entertainment. In fact, one of there very first blogs I ever read when I was still doing my other blog (A Swell Cup of Bren....check it out if you dare...), and one that really inspired my writing style and just overall my passion for writing, was Mrs Taryn Maxwell over at A Peine for Your Thoughts. She is truly one of the funniest people I have ever read, combining a natural talent for excellent writing with hilarious stories and great photos. Unfortunately she hasn't blogged in almost a year, I still go back sometimes and read her old posts just to remind myself why I'm really doing this. (Seriously...you gotta go back and read some of the old stuff. She is hysterical.)

Ultimately, it's really not about the amount of people who read this, or how many followers I end up with. It's about the comments from the people who do, both online and in person; people who I haven't spoken to in years who drop me a message or who stop me when I'm home to say that they love reading my blog. Those are the important things, and they were something that I was overlooking in my quest to be popular. A little bit like middle school, isn't it?

 I think I needed some time away from obsessing over what to blog about that day, from capturing every moment and cute outfit on camera, and overall, from the pressure to be perfect. Because, as we all know, no one is perfect. What we see on each others blogs are the good things. 

So for now, I will leave you with some good things. 

Like wine tasting on Sunday afternoon and getting giggly with some new friends:

Photo by my new friend, Kristin!

And Girl Scout cookies.


And, of course, my first Valentines Day as a married woman. 


I hope you find satisfaction in the good things in life this week. I sure am. 

8 comments:

  1. I completely understand this! Things have gotten crazy with my "real" life lately, so I haven't been able to blog much at all. And as much as I miss recording my days and being able to read about everyone else's, it's also been nice to have a break.

    (But, I'll keep reading yours as long as you keep posting! There are maybe five or six blogs I can't live without, and this is one of them!)

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  2. "Sometimes I can't help but wonder when I look at a blog that has nothing to it except for a million photos of one person in one outfit, followed by some bad writing about what they did that day, followed by a million and one comments by people who love it, I wonder, what am I doing wrong?" -- could not have said it better myself. Keep doing what you're doing, Brenda -- your blog is a pleasure to read whenever you feel like posting!

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  3. Do you boo! Don't even worry about, I love reading your blog. AND unfollow away, trust me they'll live.

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  4. I feel the same way! I look at my blog, which is a little labor of love, and then I look at others that I think are just plain not as good and I wonder what I'm doing wrong. I guess what I'm doing wrong is 1. I don't host giveaways and 2. I don't comment on a million blogs a day. I comment when I actually fell as though I have something to say about the post (i.e. more than you look cute!) and 3. I don't take outfit photos everyday with a fancy camera. So, be assured, I follow your blog because I genuinely enjoy your writing (and you look cute at the wine tasting...haha). I blog because, honestly, it's given me more confidence in my sense of style and I only take outfit photos when I think the outfit is worth sharing with the blogging world. I don't plan on changing the way I do things and I hope you don't either. Keep blogging!

    Tara
    Penniless Socialite

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  5. OMG...I sort of could've written this blog post myself. I actually just unfollowed a blog that had about 2k followers because it was just too big and I felt like I was the unpopular kid trying to get in with the in crowd kinda like you said. I love my blog and I love blogging but every now and then I do have to step back and remember why I started doing it in the first place. I love to write!

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  6. I'll never unfollow you blog xoxo

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  7. It is so true, all of what you have written. I love your blog and writing style. I am adding you to my front page. I should have done this a while back. Most bloggers go thru this same thing, I wish to delete my rant that I posted but I leave it as a reminder of how far I have come. Set some goals for your blog, make a calender for the days in which you will post. Go to IFB and read about how to bring traffic to your blog. I have a calender that I try to stick with. Monday is two birds Inspiration...join us in that fun, Thursday is thrift and a link up, wed is 70's day...and so on. Even if you can only do 3 days including, food, outfit and diy, one on each day. I know you can do this and you are funny and and a talented writer. Let me know if this helps. Dawn Suitcase Vignettes xo

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  8. what a great post! i love reading blogs and have found that i have made some great friends (both in real life and online) through it. so while it's more good than bad, there is a lot of red tape in the blogging world. you put it so well!

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