thoughts on blogging... or not.

I blame these two for my year long sabbatical from blogging ;)

I guess I've inadvertently joined the ranks of women who stop blogging after having children. It's been over a year since the last time I blogged and that was a recap of 2017, four months into 2018.

I've been missing writing—in my journal or here—so I'm toying with the idea of starting this blog back up again but I'm not sure for a number of reasons:

Time / I can't say I don't have the time because I firmly believe that we make time for what's important to us. So, in all honesty, I'm just not sure I have enough motivation or desire to blog. There are so many other things I could be doing. (But really, I should spend less time on my phone.)

Will anyone even read it? / I know I still read blogs, but who else does? (I guess you, if you're reading this). We all know that according to the internet, blogging has died. People are hanging out on Instagram and even if you click over to a blog post, there's not (as) much engagement happening there. Of course, I also am of the mind that I'm not necessarily blogging for you (the general "you"), but for myself—to have a record of my life, my thoughts, and to just practice writing. But then I ask myself... should I just be writing in my journal?

Creating vs. Consuming / I think I've written about this somewhere before, probably on Instagram, but I think a lot about creating vs. consuming. I think I'm in a season of life where I'm consuming a lot of things (social media, television, books, podcasts) but am not creating because I'm just not sure I have the desire, bandwidth, space, etc. There is so much quality content out there and I wonder if I have anything of value to contribute.

Community / Part of what I love about social media is the community it creates (when it is used mindfully and with kindness). This is connected to time, because I wonder if my time would be better spent "hanging out" on Instagram, commenting on people's posts, replying to stories. I've always loved Instagram, but I seem to love it even more in the time right after I've had a baby. Life with a newborn means spending a lot of time on the couch and in bed—cuddling and feeding that baby—and I love connecting with other moms who are experiencing similar events and feelings.

Phew! This is a lot of rambling but it feels good to get it out here. I think I'll be back in this space soon. Maybe regularly, maybe not. For now, would you mind answering a few questions for me?

Do you still read blogs (other than this one)? Which blogs do you love to read? What would you like to see me blog about? 

around the world in 40 bags.

I did another interview!*

This time I was interviewed by the Anonymous Beauty Blogger for her fun, new series, Around the World in 40 Bags.

If you're curious about what I carry around while I'm living in Beijing, check it out!

P.S. It was cool to see someone I met here featured as well.

*My first interview: "True Story: I Moved Halfway Around the World & Met the Man I Want to Marry."

true story: I moved halfway around the world & met the man I want to marry.

I was interviewed by Sarah of Yes and Yes about moving abroad and my relationship with Tony!

It was a lot of fun to answer Sarah's questions and to think a bit more about our relationship. Plus, this feels kind of like a blogger milestone: my first interview!

Let me know what you think if you read it!

P.S. Wow, so many exclamation points. Sorry. (Had to try really hard to refrain from using them right there.)

a blog makeover & stop comparing.

Did you notice? The blog got a little facelift!

I should have taken a "before" screenshot so you could really see the difference.

I hadn't changed much about my blog since I started it back in August 2011, but I've been wanting to for a long time. I had actually bookmarked Summer's shop, Show and Tell, a while ago because she designs blog banners and a new banner was what I really wanted. I just couldn't seem to justify spending $25 (although that's a steal and well worth it!) on a banner because "I don't need it, right?" (That's what I always say when I'm thinking about buying something.)

But then Summer had a sale and was offering custom blog banners for $15! I took it as a sign and I emailed her right away. She was so easy to work with and super sweet; I was so worried that I was going to annoy her with all my requests... "can you please make the yellow brighter? and the font less round? and two examples, one with the tagline and one without?..." If she did get annoyed, she hid it really well. Thank you, Summer!

AND! T-Man made me a new favicon! (That's the little square symbol that shows up in the corner of the tab in your browser. See it up there? Gmail's is an envelope, Facebook's is the letter "F"...) Mine was the same as all Blogger blogs', just a "B," but now it's balloons! Yellow balloons! It only took him maybe 5 minutes and I was over-the-moon-happy about it. I think he said I was "crrrAzy" because I was so excited. Little things, people, little things :)

AND! Speaking of blog facelifts and T-Man, here's a chat conversation we had recently about me thinking of switching to Wordpress*:


Me: ...but I want wordpress because you can customize it even more than blogger

T-Man: thats not the point

Me: and I don't think you need to use a vpn to use it. what's the point?

T-Man: the point is inside your blog

T-Man: people like your blog not because of the beautiful lookings, but just the meaningful things you wanna tell people thru your blog


Hmm... I can't really argue with that. Although appearance does matter to an extent when it comes to blogs, and I do hope you like what you see here, I hope you like what you read even more.

AND! That leads to something else I've been thinking. I need to stop comparing myself to others. Stop comparing my appearance, my blog, my life, everything. I could write so much more about this, but for now, that's what it all boils down to: Just. Stop. Comparing. Do your own thing!

Anyway. Hooray! for the new banner and favicon and white background! And I'm still fiddling around with things here, so don't be surprised if you see a few more changes over the next little while.

P.S. Summer also designed a new banner for my friend Melissa! And Summer sells prints in her shop, too! (My favourite is the apostrophe print, of course.)

*Mostly I want to switch to Wordpress because I want to be able to have blog categories AND tags. Not just labels like here on Blogger. Blogger, can you make this happen?