Funny thing really but I find it amazing how many people ask me why I blog – well I can tell you straight off, it is certainly not for fame or fortune! After having this question posed to me so often lately, I decided to bare all in my Confessions of a Blogger!
First a bit of histrionics – I started off blogging over 4 years ago, with very little intention of it ever being more than a personal journal. Little did I know where it would end up! When I started blogging my motivation was to write about my experiences as a mom and share this with, well I guess in the beginning, only my friends and family. My children were much younger when I started out and I was still very much in the “mommy” phase of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I am still very much a mother, but both my family’s needs and my own, have changed.
Along with the changes in my personal life, my blog needed to change and evolve as well, which is what motivated me to eventually change the name last year. There have been quite a few times over the past year, for other more personal reasons, that I have come close to giving up blogging altogether but I here I am still doing it!
I guess the natural question is what makes me keep doing it? I have always enjoyed the creative side of life, whether it be drawing, cooking, putting an outfit together or painting my nails – it all comes down to being creative. I have always loved fashion and beauty – especially as a teenager, I loved pouring over copies of my mom’s Fairlady magazines, swooning over the gorgeous models and all the stunning fashion! Before leaving school I even considered a career in print media but life had other plans! I think this is one of the reasons I am so drawn to blogging and why I keep coming back to it! Blogging has become my creative outlet, a platform to explore and share the things I love.
As I mentioned before I do not blog to earn money {much to my hubby’s disappointment as he would love to retire} but I do it because I really enjoy it! There are definite perks to blogging and I won’t lie, I love receiving lovely free goodies, being invited to amazing events and meeting new and interesting people. Blogging has opened many doors for me and forged new friendships, across the globe but my favourite part of blogging is still creating the post. It does not matter whether it is writing a review or an interest piece, it is the creative process that I love. One of the most enjoyable aspects for me is the photography – I am by no means a professional photographer but I love styling and photographing – well just about anything! I guess in essence it is being able to sit back and say “hey look at what I have created” and feeling proud of it.
With the fun creative part, comes the slightly more tricky part of balancing everything. One of my greatest blogging challenges, at the moment, is the lack of time to do everything I would like to do or the inevitable FOMO – lets face it nobody likes to miss out! The balancing act of being a wife and a mother sometimes does not lend itself to being as free and independent as I would like to be but my family comes first!
So in a nutshell I blog because I like it and it makes me happy! 🙂
The greatest lessons I have learned from blogging are not to take myself too seriously, to do what I love, that I can do anything I put my mind to and not be too concerned by what those around me are doing or saying, especially if it is negative.
I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes…
If you are a blogger and would like to be featured in my new blog series “Confessions of a Blogger” please email me for more details.
Great post. I can identify with a lot of what you’ve said, but for me it’s also very important to establish connections with other people around the world who have similar interests, and how they fit them into their lives. Or, as in my case, try and change your life and have it revolve around the interests!
Thanks Jill – yes agreed the connections are a vital part of blogging, forging friendships which otherwise may never have happened! I think blogging has definitely changed my life for the better and help me explore and navigate things I may not have had the courage to do before! 🙂
Loved your post and looking forward to being featured in your new series, Fiona! 🙂
Thanks! Looking forward to featuring you – will email you details shortly! 🙂