This post is about YOU.
I want to know; From blogging to today, what is your inspired journey?
Did you start as just someone who liked to scrapbook and now you have an on-line store?
Were you a SAHM who now does what you love?
Or maybe you were just a blog reader and your big step was starting a blog.
How did you get there? Where are you now?
It always amazes me now that I've seen 3 years of blogging I've changed myself, and seen what other people have gone through... and become.
I started off as someone who painted furniture and did the occasional mural or faux finish, with 3 little kids, feeling kind of isolated, uncreative and a head full of crazy. Looking back now, I am not that same person... well ,maybe the head full of crazy.
We are just ordinary women doing extraordinary things.
Blogging has brought me the chance to be published, and sell for retailers and be able to explore creating. It's opened me up to all kinds of mediums, creative ideas and wonderful new friends.
Blogging brought my the opportunity to feel like I could go from calling myself a crafter to an artist.
and a writer.
So as you peeled back the layers of who you were, what did you find?
What was your journey? Where is your destination? Your dream?
Share it in your comments today so we can all find inspiration.
How are you inspired and do you have any advice for someone who wants to do more?
What a have you found?
Mine is just... try.
~Jen
this blog is amazing!!!
ReplyDeletei love your life´s style!!
greetings from Spain
Oooh...now that chair is a project!
ReplyDeleteWell, lets see...I started off as a furniture painter with a head full of crazy, too...but for me...I am still both of those! ;o)
I can't wait for the shows to end so my blog can express the "real" me. The one that paints more than just white furniture, the one that creates and tries new things, the me that one morning can wake up and decide to reno a whole room and get it done in just a couple of days. ~sigh~ I miss me. I feel I only get to really be "that me" October-April when I am not burning the candle at both ends.
I love that blogging has given me the chance to find friends all over the country but also that it inspires me to constantly change and evolve.
I heart blogging...
~mary~
I could write a book ...
ReplyDeletewish I wasn't running out the door.
I love these thoughts ... I'll be back for more
We moved from California to Idaho to retire. I retired from a job with a very large top Fortune 500 company and I was the highest paid woman there. I LOOOOOVED my job. But one day it just hit me that I wanted to stay home and bake cookies. Literally, that was my thought: bake cookies! My women's group chided me but they were always supportive of what I did, along with my hubby and kids, so we left for Idaho.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got here I didn't know what I was going to do to keep busy. I HAVE NEVER BEEN BUSIER IN MY LIFE!!!
Then came blogging. You'd have to read my very first post to see how pathetic I was but I persevered until I found my "voice" and that was a long time in coming, trust me. Now, I blog for ME. It's that simple. It keeps this old lady going and I do what I love to do which is make my home a celestial place here on this earth for me and my loved one, Love Bunny. I found I liked to write and also found I love doing photography. I honed my skills with computers (listen, they haven't always been around, ya know!) and keep our home happy and inviting. With kids, grandkids and great grandkids now there aren't many spare moments.
Let me say, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my life now. When I worked I had more time; that's how busy I am now! Life truly is good.
xoxo,
Connie
I just started blogging as a way to make friends and did I ever! I've learned I can make people smile and even laugh sometimes so that is a reward unto itself.
ReplyDeleteI was surfing the web one day and stumbled upon Between Naps on the Porch. I was in awe! Absolutely speech less. The last time I had read a blog was about 4 years earlier. No pictures, very plain, they just didn't hold my interest.But the amazing changes in the blog world in the last few years kept me clicking.
ReplyDeleteProjects and beautiful images, and creative ideas, and people who were willing to open the door to their life.
I was so inspired that I started projects that had sat idle for months, and I completed them.
Bringing back my creativity lead to opening my shoppe. My blog now is to share the journey of my shoppe and a peek into my life.
I have made friends all over the world through blogging. And the creativity never ends.
Blogging has given me permission to dream again.
I was nudged to start blogging as a way of expressing myself. Little did I know how much I loved to talk and how even more I loved the written word. Put the two together and voila...a match made in Heaven (which incidentally was Who provided the nudge proving He always has a plan.)!
ReplyDeleteGreat post and I loved the visual!
Debbie
I enjoy creating things. I enjoy writing. So it just kind of came together for me. I blogged for me and as a way for family to keep up with what I was doing. I still blog for me, but because of people who read my blog (never thought anyone by family would ever read it!) I have a direction to go with my writing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great question! I will be interested in reading what others have to say! :)
ReplyDeleteThough I am not a artist or seamstress or crafter.. art is in my blood. My grandfather was an incredible sketch artist and all of my uncles on my mom's side are all artists/musicians + my sister is currently enrolled for her master's at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Me? Well, I have always had a passion for decorating & design and was born with an esthetic eye. My love for decorating was born in the '90's when I did merchandising for Pier One Imports.. I absolutely loved doing their displays. At the same time I loved makeup/skin stuff so I went ahead and got my esthetician's license and worked as a facialist/makeup artist for 5 great years. Mommyhood came calling and for a few years SAH.. I had a missing longing for creativity. I started blogging.. my early blog days were not a niche blog.. they were sort of a trying on period for me. I started following a lot of decorating blogs and you know how to see one, and another, and another.. I became hooked. I dabbled in the beach inspired decorating thing starting out.. but found it was just not me. I started to find myself drawn more & more to white, to vintage, to flea market items. Then, I found several rustic country Swedish blogs and became inspired. I also discovered Jeanne d' Arc Living magazine through reading Tracey's (French Larkspur) lovely blog. Finding JDL was like an awakening to my decorating destination & that is my goal for what I want my home to look like.. little by little I'll get there, of course. :) I simply love blogging and the girls I've met that share the same passions.. it's just a very happy place!
xo, Lara
I started blogging as stress relief. I had all these things happening and they were big things. Scary things, sad things, overwhelming things.
ReplyDeleteI had a good friend that would always tell me "You should write a book about what happens to you, but no one would believe that one person could have that much bad luck!" And you should call it Murphy's Law...Only Worse, because that is your life.
So I started to blog. At first about my bad luck or the silly things I did. And then, when I looked at my life in writing, things started to appear comical to me...and not so overwhelming.
After a little while, I started to move around blogland and seeing some amazing projects that other people have posted. And I remembered that I was once a really creative person. And it filled me with joy to remember that. And I started to take baby steps and create things again.
Mostly, I have just had a fun time being funny again. And meeting new people. And realizing how small the world really is. Because, in reading your blog, I realized how close (geographically) we live to each other, but I thought you (initially) were from the west coast due to the fact that the first post I read was regarding the Farm Chicks show.
Blogging has given me an outlet to spread my wings and rediscover who I am. And now I get to share that in my little corner of the internet. With people I've never met, but have come to value and rely on.
That's a great gift from one very unlucky blog.
I have loved your blog since I found it...thanks for letting us all share!
Meg
Great, great post!
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, I started out being the girl who wanted to open her own shop to now being the girl who wants to be a professional photographer.
Blogging has truly helped me to rediscover my inner creativity, and the inspiration of other bloggers, such as yourself, spurs me to always be better.
Hugs,
Anne
I love your blog; so inspiring! I'm very new to blogging. Still trying to figure out how to do it & do it well. I'm an empty nester who has always loved art & decorating. I've helped friends decorate their homes and have recently decorated a huge log lodge. That was sooo much fun! With the encouragement of a interior designer friend, I'm dreaming about what the future may hold. The first blog I read was Pioneer Woman, and then Between Naps on the Porch. I was hooked. It took me a while to get up the courage to try to doing my own blog - but I'm trying! I'm discovering my own voice and releasing the creativity that God has given me.
ReplyDeleteI love how you used the chair with this great post. I agree with you...try! I think we have all changed and grown this amazing world!
ReplyDelete~*Ive been a sahm for years and now would like to rent a space in an antique shop and try it out~I have wanted to do this for years and now after being so inspired by so many amazing women in blogland I want to try!!~*~*
ReplyDeleteone of my favorite posts...
ReplyDeletetry eh?
okay!! I'll give it a try!!
love the chair metaphor...
xo+blessings,
Anne Marie
Just recently found your blog and I'm enjoying it so much. Thanks for sharing your work with the rest of the world-:)
ReplyDeleteI began blogging about five/six years ago. Started as a way to share my artwork and I was inspired by other writers (I'm unpublished but still working at it) who shared their journeys along the way.
Then life changed, we moved from LA to Colorado. And then I changed as well. So my blogging is in transition and I'm ready to put a new face forward that reflects who I am these days.
I really cherish the friendships I've developed through blogging. That is the number one benefit in my opinion.
In January I will have been a blogger for two years. I actually work out of the home, am the main bread winner in our family but love the idea of some day being a stay at home mom. That might never happen and I am ok with that.
ReplyDeleteMy blog is turning more into a family blog where I blog about the kiddos for the most part. I started it because I could not keep up with the scrapbooking.
I first surfed blogs for over a year and was addicted to it, I also started because I wanted to join in on some of the bloggy parties and be able to leave comments easily.
I don't blog as a business and really have no intention at this time to start one. too busy in my out of the house job for that. But another aspect of blogging I enjoy is the technology part that I study up on.
Great post by the way.
can't wait to see your chair :)
ReplyDeletei really started my blog to promote my shop a bit and share some common interests. as a sahm i too felt isolated especially when the kids were younger. over the years i have met so many wonderful, inspirational, talented women that i look forward to visiting each week and hopefully meeting someday too! i enjoy sharing my interests, it makes me feel like i'm part of a wonderful community.
you are among those women jen, thank you!! susan
Great post! :) I started off painting Christmas ornaments and selling them at a craft show, now I am an antiques dealer, blogger, freelance writer, designer, and artist. With two toddlers in toe. Wow, I'm impressed with myself. :)
ReplyDelete...did I mention I'm humble?
First let me say love the chair.
ReplyDeleteWell I started off almost 5 years ago as a dyslexic blogger, who had to type her posts one letter at a time. It took me forever and now I have written a novel based of my blog. So I say never say never!!! Clarice
How clever using the chair throughout your post.
ReplyDeleteYour blog was one of the very first I started following. I love reading about your projects. I saw so many amazing women's projects. I finally found a group of gals that understood that need to create that unwanted stress in their lives with really cool projects. One day, I just decided to start a blog.
Being a stay at home mom, you don't get too many 'at a girl.' I found that when someone commented on my post, it gave me more confidence. It makes me feel like I could start to think about chasing a few dreams...