If anyone were to read this, they would realise that I haven't posted for a while, over 6months in fact. I am still not sure that I want to start doing this again, and have been trying to decide one way or the other. I think half the problem is that I didn't start this with totally the right intentions. It began initially as a fashion thang! I had come across WIWT (What I Wore Today) set up by Poppy Dinsey. The idea was that she posted what she wore every day to try and encourage her to make the most of her large wardrobe. I was inspired by this as I also have far too much stuff and yet seem to live in the same few pieces. When she extended the website out for members, I decided to join in to see if it would help me to wear more of my own stuff. (I didn't tell anyone I had done this, at my age I felt a little daft and wasn't sure I would keep it up.) This had a few effects: 1- deciding what to wear each day became massively more stressful, as the other users could comment and approve it and I had to remember to photo myself. 2 - I realised I enjoyed writing the comments under the outfits more than what I was wearing, 3- I found blogs as other users put links to theirs up.
Naturally most of the blogs I started reading were fashion ones, and I was surprised at the feedback the bloggers got, not to mention the freebies, despite the fact they were just taking pictures of their outfits and adding some, often badly spelt, text underneath (yes I realise I am opening myself up to having every spelling and grammar error I make pointed out to me!). I decided I could get in on this too, after all I had far too many clothes and could use my husband's DSLR to take some decent photos, plus I was fighting multiple health issues so this gave me something new to focus on.
So as I said, my intentions were not the purest it was more just to prove that I could do this. Well it turns out that trying to think of new 'on trend' outfits and then fitting in time to photograph them in interesting locations to create a beautiful fashion shoot-esque post is bloody hard work and exhausting. The more I looked at other people's blogs for inspiration the more pathetic mine seemed. I tried mixing in travel and food etc to embrace the 'lifestyle' trend but when you have spent an hour making a cake only to realise you forgot to photograph half the stages you begin to lose the will to care let alone have the time to make it all over again. This coincided with a lot of people on the blogs I was still reading talking about the meaning of blogging, why people do it and if we should do it.
When a week of no post slid into 2 weeks and then a month I admitted defeat and decided I wasn't cut out for this blogging thing- and anyway don't we all overshare too much these days anyway etc etc.
Despite this I continued to read blogs and found myself thinking how things I did would make a good post, so after too many Negronis in the New Year I swore I would give it another go, seeing as it is now mid-Feb you can see how successful at resolutions I am! Nontheless here I am and this time there are a few basic rules to keep me sane:
Outfits- I am not a trendy waif like 20something (despite all my wishes) who hits up Topshop every weekend for the latest outfits. So no more posts where I do my hair and makeup and photo a new outfit of the day, before washing it all off and putting my joggy bottoms and hoodie back on. If I wear something I like maybe I will share it.
Food- No Macaroons, they don't taste good and surely no one would ever choose them over a large slice of cake!?
Lifestyle- more real life and less stylised life. This might make for dull reading, but it will be truthful.
I guess this could all be summed up as honesty. If I keep this up I want it to be something I can look back through and remember the weekend I spent on the sofa with a box set and southern fried chicken not wonder why I was wearing high heels and a dress in the middle of winter in the woods.
Let's see if it lasts or if I lose interest again.
Little Owl
