A Look Back

Grab a cup and copasquat - relax with me for a bit

As you may have noticed, this past week was the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week.  It is an event that encompasses all of us crafty bloggers - if you so choose to participate - and one subject per day.  Some found the exercise as a great way to jump start their posting, some found the exercise almost painful because of the parameters and some fell smack in the middle - walking aimlessly around the neighborhood called Writer's Block in the foulest of moods.

I missed the inaugural week last year because I had yet to re-enter the blogiverse.  Wait, what's that?  Yes, I did say re-enter.  Once upon a time, I had a different blog dealing with different aspects of my life.  It was a funny little thing and if your interests are piqued, just click here for a gander.  Now, back to the topic at hand... I missed the initial week last year but to be honest, I might have been too intimidated to have joined anyway.

My blogging is different than most of what I've discovered this past week.  Some write like a reporter for a newspaper - a technique I don't much care for because it's too clinical and less intimate - and some write on the level of an intimate personal diary - another style I don't care for because it makes me uncomfortable, almost voyeuristic.  I like my blogs to be more along the lines of bits and pieces of random conversations between friends... I'm very content with that approach.  It gives me the shameless warm fuzzies... and who doesn't like to feel warm and fuzzy?

When I read someone's blog, I want to feel like we're sitting on a sun soaked patio, shaded by a tree that is gently rustling in the softest of breezes whilst we drink coffee and work on our projects - an easy conversation that is full of life and laughter.  I like to feel connected - as dear Anne says, a kindred spirit, and if you get that reference then chances are that you are already one with me.  The posting should say "Come in, take your shoes off, curl yourself up in a corner of the sofa, grab that homemade afghan off the back and let's chat... how have you been?" - more like a friend and less like an executive assistant rattling off information without an ounce of feeling.

Care for another cup?

I have several friends that I have met through blogging, many of whom I hear from on a daily basis and have for over 5 years.  We've gone through so many things together - births, deaths, new jobs, loss of jobs, weddings and any other life event that you can name.  These people, like any other, started out as strangers to me but through the simple act of writing, we became friends... and they are friends I cherish.  It doesn't matter that I haven't met them all face to face - we still correspond almost daily.  I know more about some of their lives than I do my own family!  They are my kindred spirits.

So looking on this past week, I noticed that I started off rigid and slowly relaxed back into being me.  I was initially intimidated by the project but once I wandered around the blogiverse, on the hunt for new friends and faces, I realized that I had nothing to be intimidated about - we were all just sharing in a way that makes us comfortable and proud.  I enjoyed my dear friends twist on the subjects and made some new friends along the way.  All in all, I would call the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week experiment a success - at least for me - and will more than likely participate next year... and I promise to not be intimated again.

I hope that you enjoyed the past week but I must admit that I am slightly excited and a tad overjoyed to steal a phrase from someone whom I have no idea originated it ~ we now return you back to your normally scheduled programming.