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.