Moving on

When I decided to take a blogging break the very lovely and very wise Dotmund told me it was great I was taking a break but if I felt the urge to blog I should. I felt that today was that day. Since taking a break, I've been feeling so excited about blogging again and have some exciting things in store for Skulls & Ponies. Even though I've been "on a break" I've been squirrelling away content, coming up with bags and bags of ideas and generally feeling a new found love for my blog. Tomorrow I move house and so this post needed to go out today and couldn't wait until I decided to come back to the blog full time. So I hope you'll forgive the sporadic nature of this post. 

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Today is my last day in my current neighbourhood. It's funny  because I've been so desperate to move away from this part of town, and only ended up living back here for the last 3 years due to various different circumstances beyond my control. Yet as I walked to and from work today, doing the oh so familiar route for the last time I felt a pang of nostalgia.

Goodbye number 41

This morning I left my house at the same time every day at 7.30am and passed the tall, grey haired man waiting outside for his gentleman friend. I see these people every day - we nod or smile but never exchange words. I've always wondered about their relationship. Are they brothers or lovers or friends? I'll never know and that will probably be the last time I ever see them.

When I walked home from work, I went into the Co-op and got served by the same frowning, uninterested girl who always serves me. I felt a sense of warmth towards her, and tried to catch her eye...but of course today was just another day to her, and I just another customer.

I walked past the butchers that I never ventured into but always wondered how on earth they kept trading when they never had customers. I passed the charity shop that I've stumbled across many a bargain in, and thought fondly of the grumpy women who work in there. I thought about the tattoo shop that's now been replaced with another estate agents and the launderettes where I discovered services washes when my washing machine broke down and how I was completely gobsmacked by the precision folding of my laundry on return. I smiled at the local hairdressers where the cuts weren't all that great but the warmth of the staff and the little old ladies that frequented it made it all ok.

I walked up the street where the man with long dreads live with about 5 dogs. He's always walking about and yelling at people and I always wonder who he is and what's his story?

I turned into my road and walked towards my flat. This is the last time I'll walk this way. I came home to my lovely housemate who I've lived with for the last 2 and a half years and I felt sad. Sad but a good kind of sad.

I felt sad because I'm leaving all of this behind and it's good I feel that way. It means it meant something to me and it was important.

Goodbye lovely flat - you've been good to me. You've been a safe haven when times were tough and I'll never forget you.

So now onwards....to a new chapter in my life and boy am I excited.

Giveaway Winner!

and the winner is.......Rhiannon aka The Last Slayer! Congratulations - I'll be in touch so you can give me your address and I can get your items off in the post!

A massive thanks to everyone that entered! I'm off on my blogging holiday now but will return in March! I've already got some exciting things up my sleeve....watch this space :)

Fran

x

Taking a break from blogging

I've been feeling a bit out of sorts this week. I've had some sort of horrible stomach bug and continuous migraines - not fun. As a result I haven't been blogging as regularly as I usually do but in a way it's been a bit of a relief. Why? Because lately I've been feeling a bit meh about blogging - well not blogging as a concept but about my blog.

My blog has been running for about a year now and in that small amount of time has done quite well - people seem to enjoy reading it, I've got regular readers and my traffic is increasing month on month. So why so blue?

I think the major problem is that when my blog started to get a bit more successful, I kept feeling like I had to make it better and better. Every time I looked at it, I wanted to change the design, I'd read other amazing blogs and never feel mine was good enough. I guess you could say my blog has a bit of an inferiority complex.

I've started feeling like I must do this, and I must do that - and as a result I've moved away from the reason I actually started blogging and what I loved about it.

I started blogging to share with the world my crafty makes - I just like making things, I'm happy to use a pattern or a tutorial - but it's nice to share what I've been working on. You can read about why I started crafting here, but I think it's all relative - crafting and blogging helped me to get through some dark times - but what now?

I think to get back to loving blogging, I need to be a bit more true to myself and what I want to do. I need to stop worrying about what other bloggers are doing and just focus on what I enjoy. For example I've been hesitant to write "wordy" posts lately as the blogosphere keeps telling me readers like a good balance of images and text - well you know what? I like words!! Sometimes words don't need pictures. Plus, having a look through old posts, lots of my wordy posts get a lot of traffic and a lot of comments - so maybe they aren't so bad?

I've got a lot of joy out of this blog, and want to get back to feeling that same excitement about it that I used to. It's opened up lots of exciting projects, ideas and I've got to hear from some really lovely people. My blog doesn't make money - it's purely a hobby, something I enjoy. So I need to get back to that.

As a result, I've decided to take a blogging break. I'm moving house this month so it seems like a good time to have a bit of "time off" from blogging. Hopefully when I'm settled in my new house I'll feel excited and passionate again and will be itching to share all my news on my blog.

My giveaway ends on the 6th of February so I will announce the winner on the 6th but then I'll be taking a break until the beginning of March. I hope all you lovely readers out there will understand why I need a break, and will still be excited to read my blog when I return.

Have a lovely February everyone - enjoy the snowdrops! :)