The Return?

Hi Guys! Wow, has it been a while since I've been on Blogger!

I honestly meant for this to be a short break from blogging that would only last during the Summer, but that obviously didn't happen as we are now well into Fall.  As much as I love to write and engage with other bloggers, though, it has been very tough for me to come back to blogging. I'm sure most bloggers at some point feel this way, like blogging has become more of a burden than an enjoyable hobby.

This little break really made me realize how much of a strain my blog had become for me. It was all "gotta catch up on the latest posts," and "gotta put up new content." It was more of a chore than anything. Now that I've had time to step back and enjoy life without my blog, and I have been able to really assess my feelings about it.

For me, I feel that I am no longer able to express myself through my blog, and I'm not sure the direction I want to take now. In general I feel that fashion and beauty blogs are a little superficial. No offense to any of my fellow bloggers out there; I am an avid reader of a few fashion and beauty blogs and find their posts very enjoyable and informative. However, the majority of the fashion blogs I follow I never even visit simply because their posts are entirely high fashion/designer oriented. I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all, but for me, it is not at all something I'm interested in, and, for my tastes at least, there is no substance to such posts. My opinion holds true for most beauty blogs out there as well.

Whenever I tried to do fashion or beauty product posts, it always felt so forced and fake for me. I don't mind sharing a few products or outfits that I really like and would recommend using, but to consistently do this is a strain to me.

I think part of my problem is that I try to pigeonhole myself into a certain "niche." I know there is a lot of advice out there on "creating your personal brand" and "finding your niche," but this all seems more like a hindrance to my blog. This advice is great if you use your blog as a way to advertise your business, or if you want to attract sponsors. I started my blog as a way to continue writing after college and to keep myself preoccupied while I was looking for a job. Of course, when I was jobless I thought about trying to create revenue with my blog. Ultimately, my blog is a personal blog, where I want to share my personal thoughts, ideas and interests, regardless of how all over the place they may be.

Lately, my main pastime has been my dolls. I joined BFC (Barbie Collectors Fan club) this year and have been able to find and connect with a great community of collectors on Flickr. I've also found several blogs devoted to dolls that I have began following. My dolls have always been a big part of my life since I was four years old. They've helped me through some distressing situations during my childhood, and have become the only creative medium where I can unapologetically express myself. But as I got older, I've always felt a little weird telling people that I still play with dolls. However, being exposed to other adults who have the same passion has actually made me more open about my collecting. Seeing what other people do with their dolls was one of the things that led me to publicly share my doll pictures on Flickr (which you can check out by clicking the "See My Photos" button in the sidebar).

Regarding this blog, I want it to be my one and only blog, but as I mentioned, I'm not sure what direction I want to take with it. Right now, I use Flickr to post my doll pictures, and this totally works for my needs. I have been toying (no pun intended) with the idea of creating doll stories since I basically do this anyway when I play with my dolls. If I do ever go this route, it will be in the future, and not anytime soon (I need to get over my fear of rejection/criticism before I start posting any stories for the world to see). Since the majority of my time and resources go to my dolls, I would love to post some doll related things on my blog, but I don't want my blog to only be about my dolls. I also don't want to have to deal with posting the same content here and on Flickr, so I want to avoid strictly photo only posts on my blog. That being said, new content is on hold until I can figure things out.

Sorry if this post turned into a rambling mass of text, but I wanted to make you, my readers, aware of what's been going on and why I haven't been posting. As I've mentioned before, I have a serious problem with people dropping off the face of the blogsphere without a word. I believe if you are busy, then say so. If you are quitting, then say so. Don't just leave people hanging and wasting their time checking for new content that will likely never come. Also, I hate being fake. I do a lot of keeping my thoughts and opinions to myself so as not to rock the boat as it is anyway, but I don't want to have to do this on my own blog. I want to let everyone know how I feel my blog should be going forward so it can be more true to me.

Taking a Break....

Hey y'all! I know a lot of you haven't seen me around the blogosphere in quite some time. Don't worry, in the words of Pink, I'm not dead, but I have been super busy with work and in my personal life. When I'm stressed and disillusioned, I usually like to spend time with my dolls, so I've been focusing on my collection a lot.

This summer, I'm going to take an official break from blogging. If you want to see what I'll be up to with my dolls, check out my Flickr album!

I plan to pick back up with my blog sometime in the Fall.

H.A.G.S (have a great summer)!!!

4th Blog Anniversary (Say What)!

Wow, I can't believe my blog is already 4 years old! I remember when I was 4 years old, and those were go times indeed.

Looking back at my original posts, I can definitely see how my blogging style has grown and developed over the years, and even recently I can see changes: changes in the kind of posts, the frequency of posts, etc. I have tried many new things over the years, and have found out what works for me and what doesn't.

Best of all, I have been able to share my life and thoughts with tons of wonderful readers! You all have seen me through the good times and the bad times, especially these past two years with all the issues and drama I had with my old job. 

For this next year, my blog goal is to create more original posts about my opinions and feelings. I also hope to start doing book reviews!

Thanks a bunch all you faithful readers and followers!!

5 Tips for Posting Regularly on Your Blog

There seems to be no end to the amount of blogging advice out there (all of which I somehow completely missed when I started my blog), but there is no such thing as too much good advice. After recently reading a few of these posts myself, I thought it would be good to share how I, as a casual lifestyle blogger, blog.

If you are a full-time blogger, making regular posts is a must. But, if you are a casual blogger, you have a little more freedom to create posts based on our own personal schedule. However, you want to post frequently enough that readers still know you are around; after all, no one wants to start following a blog only to have the blogger drop out of site for months on end. This can be tough when your blog is more of a hobby and not your top priority, so here are my suggestions for keeping regular content flowing on your blog.

1. Assess your life. The first step is to assess your life and lifestyle. Not in an existentialist "what am I here for" kind of way, but in a "When do I anticipate being the busiest, and when do I have the most free time" kind of way.

2. Write when you have the most time. Once you know when you anticipate having a lot of free time, you can plan ahead by writing the bulk of your posts then. Obviously, there will be situations that come up that can't be anticipated that may rob you of your time, but, in general, try to write as many complete posts as you can when you have the time.

3. Schedule your posts. Now that you have a months worth of posts written, it's time to spread them out, especially during times when you know you will be very busy. This is where the post scheduling feature comes in to save the day! I try to post at least once a week on this blog, so I use the post scheduler to post for me during the times that I'm super busy and can't post content myself on a weekly basis.  

4. Write out your post ideas. This has been something that I have seen time and time again on blog advice posts. Now, I'm not too good with jotting down ideas when they come to me, but I when I do get an idea for a blog post, I create a draft post in blogger. In this draft post, I make sure to include the title (or perspective title), and then a few sentences in the post body to remind me what the post is supposed to be about. This is a great way to accumulate post ideas for when boughs of writers' block set in.

5. Hang around the neighborhood. Even if you can't post as regularly as you might want to on your own blog, try to keep up with other blogs and comment frequently. Not only does this let people know that you are still around and part of the blogging world, but it's a great way to stay connected with the goings on of your favorite blogs and get new inspiration for posts.

I hope these bits of humble advice help you and give you  all some ideas on how to keep those blog posts coming!

5 Tips for New (and Old) Bloggers

...Or things I wish I new when I started blogging way back when.

It took me a lot of trial and error over the course of three years to get to the happy blogging place that I am now. I was actually inspired to write this post by a post a read on how to be a happy blogger (thanks to Bloglovin's top 10 picks of the week!). These are the top 5 things that I think every blogger should now starting out (and even those who have been at it for a while):

Liebster Award No. 3!

Epic Win!!

Well, what do you know; I've been nominated for my third Liebster Award, and the second one this year (I wonder is this a record)! I guess it just goes to show how my popularity is growing! This nomination came from Corinne over at cat eyes & thigh highs.

The rules:

You must link back to the person who nominated you!

You must answer the 11 questions given by the person who nominated you.

You must post 11 random facts about yourself.

You must pick 11 nominees with under 200 followers to answer your questions.

You cannot nominate the person who nominated you.

You must tell the nominees that they have been nominated by you.

Third Blog Anniversary!!

It's hard to believe that I've been blogging fairly consistently for 3 years now! (I'll be honest; last year's anniversary seemed to have completely fell off the radar!) Surprise, surprise since most of my web related hobbies and projects usually fizzle after a year. But what has kept me coming back, and droning on mercilessly in everyone's ears (or eyes!) for the last 3 years? I must admit that I'm not quite really sure, but I think being able to share with others, and also reading the always interesting posts that others write.

It's amazing for me to see how much my blog as changed over time, both the look and the content. One of my biggest challenges throughout the years has been to blog more about me and the things that I'm interested in, which is something that I'm getting better at.

A big thanks to all of my readers and followers for making these 3 years of blogging possible!

Now on Bloglovin'!!

Yay me!! I finally made the move to Bloglovin'!! I had heard of Bloglovin' for a while now since I started blogging a few years ago, but I never thought of joining because I always felt it was only for "serious" bloggers, like the people who have their own brand to promote, or who are sponsored by companies. It wasn't until I was searching through Bloglovin' for the Liebster Award that I realized that not only are there many casual bloggers such as myself on Bloglovin', but it is also a great way to discover new blogs!

Setting up an account and adding my blog was pretty easy, although deciding what category it fit into proved to be more tricky. I was tempted to put it under "Other", but decided that "Personal" had a more appealing sound to it, and my blog is more of a personal interest blog than anything else.

For those of you who haven't tried Bloglovin', I definitely recommend it! You can see all of the blogs you follow in one place and it's easy to get updates when there are new posts, so you can keep up with new content easier than with the blog list on Blogger. It's easy to discover new blogs since you can search by blog name, author name, or category/topic, and Bloglovin' gives you suggestions of other blogs you may be interested in based on the ones you are already following. You can also easily follow and like blogs and posts through the Bloglovin' interface. For the mobile-savvy out there, there is an app that is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Liebster Award No. 2

Thanks to aki! of 7% Solution for tagging me earlier this month (I've been super busy so I'm just getting to it)!

I'm super excited because this is my second Liebster Award, so here goes! 

The Rules

1. Share 11 things about yourself.
2. Answer the 11 questions that your tagger gave you.
3. Choose 11 other blogs to nominate.
4. The nominees must have less than 200 Bloglovin' followers and be told via comment on their blog.
5. Think of 11 questions to ask the bloggers that were nominated.
6. Thank the person that nominated you and link back to their blog.

100 Posts (and Counting)!!

I'm giving myself a great big star for this one!

I know a lot of people set blogging goals and milestones, like getting "x" number of posts or "x" number of followers, but I've never been one for setting goals (much to the chagrin of my bosses) since I believe in having a "live and let happen" outlook on life.

I actually accidentally found out that I had 100 posts. I was checking my post lists for to make sure I hadn't already posted on a topic I was creating a new post for, and lo and behold, I saw that I had 100 published posts! Realizing that I have 100 posts under my belt made me think about my blogging. For me, blogging is a fun hobby and good way to pass the time during slow days at work, so I never really thought to keep track of my blogging activities, other than blog views. Well, I'm glad I've been able to keep the blog going for 100 posts, even though the first 50 were total crap.

Sorry, no giveaways for this milestone (I'm too poor for all that lol), but I'm sure you all will get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside when I say thanks to everyone for reading my blog!!

The Sunny Blogger

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive!! It feels like forever since I posted anything on my blog three months ago, or have even checked in on other my fellow bloggers! Part of the reason for my hiatus has been because of work (more on my not so great work-life balance skills in another post). Lately, I also haven't really been inspired to write about anything either. I mean, I've had tons of ideas for posts, I just haven't felt like writing. Now with the sun shining all over the place, the birds and squirrels out and about, and the warmer weather, I've been feeling like blowing the dust off the old blog and getting to work again. Apparently, I'm better at blogging in the Spring and Summer than in the Winter and Fall, which makes sense since it was in Spring and Summer when I started blogging seriously.

Sorry this wasn't some super long intensive post, but this is all I can think to write about for now!

Liebster Award

A very special (and somewhat belated) thanks goes out to aki! for tagging me for the Liebster Award! I'm a little late on this because I've had tons to do because of work for the last couple of weeks, but somewhere between last minute employer registrations, and catering orders, I find time to carry on. I'm also super excited because this is the second blogging award I've gotten!

The rules are that you tell 11 facts about yourself, answer 11 questions, create 11 more questions to ask others, and then tag 11 people.

Whose Watching Your Blog?!

Côte d’Ivoire's flag

I've been writing cover letters for job applications for the last two days, so I just need some silliness to quickly alleviate my brain. I seem to be getting myself a nice little international following, at least according to my Blogger Audience stats. I'm not really sure how relevant or helpful these stats are but they make me feel all warm and fuzzy and world wide popular inside.

Anyway, this all started when I was checking my blog stats for the day. This has been a daily routine for me since around August of September. It's been interesting for me to chronicle the viewing stats of my blog over time; when I first started, I was getting maybe 5 or 6 a day, but now it's up to nearly 20 a day! This may not seem like much to some people but for me, this is a big, huge deal. I'm also getting blog views from other countries such as India, Australia, and the UK, instead of just US and Russia (although apparently most of the ones from Russia were spam and porn sites). Today, as I was checking, I noticed that I had one view from Côte d’Ivoire. This was very interesting for me since I had never hear of Côte d’Ivoire before. When I did a little Wiki-ing, I found that it was actually the Ivory Coast (why couldn't they have just said that instead of confusing people by putting it in French). This made me think "Wow! My blog has made international fame! People all over the world are reading it now!" Of course, this person probably just mistyped a web address and accidentally found themselves on my blog, but still.

So, in an effort to make my blog a little more interactive, I ask you, my loyal readers:

1. Do you ever stalk study your Blogger viewer stats?
2. What is the strangest/most random place you've ever gotten a view from?

Versatile Blogger Award

Wow! So it seems that all of my hard work remaking the look and content of my blog has finally payed off: I've been nominated by Valentina Stanley of http://vivalavidavalentina.blogspot.com/! Thank you , Valentina Stanley!

 RULES of the award -

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging
2. Let them know you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the bloggers you who have nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Picture to your blog.

The 15 nominations might be a little hard since I'm relatively new to blogging myself, but here goes:

1. http://emi-doll.blogspot.com/- Very, very creative and kawaii blog!!
2. http://iriescope.blogspot.com/- I'm not sure if it's considered a relatively new blog since there are posts from 2010, but I love her illustrations.
3. http://anaqueenbee.blogspot.com/- Very nice cosmetics and beauty tips!
4. http://bandwatch.blogspot.com/- Great blog for finding new indie bands!
5. http://www.curlygirlbeauty.org/- More great beauty tips and contests!
6. http://fashionnectar.blogspot.com/- Great and creative fashion blog!
7. http://lispbazaar.blogspot.com/- Great blog for Second Life furniture!
8. http://littlevictorian.blogspot.com/- Interior decorating blog with great ideas for reusing furniture and spaces!
9. http://wordsfromraras.blogspot.com/- Great poetry and inspirational blog!
10. http://nemeira.blogspot.com/- Very cute and creative lifestyle blog!
11. http://makingtheparty.blogspot.co.uk/- Another cute poetry and creative writing blog!
12. http://f-a-i-r-y-l-i-g-h-t-s.blogspot.com/- Very in-your-face, creative blog!
13. http://najatau.blogspot.com/ Cool blog on dream interpretation!
14. http://danakerrandjacobpatrick.blogspot.com/- Very inspirational Lifestyle blog!
15. http://loredana-donovan.blogspot.com/ -Very fresh and visually pleasing lifestyle blog!

Now for the 7 random facts about me:

1. I lived near a horse farm when I was in high school.
2. I have a cat who is almost as old as I am in human years (I got her when I was 6 and she was a kitten)
3. I grew up eating Chinese food, even though no one in my family is Chinese, or even ever been to China!
4. I only drink coffee for the taste, not the caffeine (really random).
5. I attended five different schools growing up.
6. I still don't have my driver's license, and can't drive.
7. I think Hello Kitty is the cutest thing ever, next to my cat, of course!

Blog Getting A Face Lift and Liposuction

In addition to the new background, banner, fonts, etc., you may have noticed that many of my older posts have disappeared. "Why?," you may ask. Well, I've decide to completely change the theme and subject of my blog. Originally, I envisioned this blog to be a place for me practice my creative writing. However, over the course a year, it turned into a blog with dress up game pictures and Second Life screenshots. Although this is not bad, I now want to blog about more uniform, personal topics. So, from now on, I'm going to try (with emphasis on the word "try") to blog more about myself and my creative writing.

Blog Aniversary!!!

Wow! I can't believe that one year ago today I started my Blogger Account. I only just happened to be editing my blog description when I saw my sign up date, and nearly hit the floor; I couldn't believe that I had started blogging way back in March. For some reason, I can only remember posting things in July, so that's when I assumed that I had started. The crazy thing is looking back at how my blogging has changed.

I have two blogs, Sheer Interest and this one. Sheer Interest is based on some creative story lines involving some of my Barbies. I never really post in this one anymore. Femme Noblesse Oblige started as an place for me to do some historical fiction. I think both blogs were an attempt to disconnect myself from reality at the time: graduating from college. It wasn't really leaving college that bothered me, it was what to do afterwards. The thought of getting a job and having grown-up problems (paying bills, rent, etc.) really made me anxious, especially since I still really don't consider myself an adult even though I'm 23. On top of this, I was anxious about what to do at night. I had been in school since I was 4 years old, and had had homework since I was 5. So the idea that now at the end of the day I would have nothing structured, or required to do, was both liberating and frightening. My initial idea to cope with these feelings was to never grow up and live like a member of the aristocracy; never work, live for leisure, wear cute clothes (this was no doubt influenced by my having to read Kamikaze Girls for one of my course. I figured one way to do this was to express myself through creative writing on a blog, which would also give my something to do at night and while I looked for a job.

I actually became more active on both my blogs once I started interning. I had absolutely no idea what kind of career I wanted after college (still don't actually), so I decided to do some post-grad internships in order to gain work experience and hopefully land a nice job. The first one on did lasted from June to July and was the most boring thing I've ever done. I literally sat in front of a computer all day doing nothing, which is when my blogging really picked up. I started writing posts at work as a way to make it through the day. My next internship lasted from July to August and kept me busy, but after that I spent the next three months looking for a job. My blogging kept me busy and kept me from getting depressed about not having any structured work to do. This is also when I got on Second Life.

Once I saw how cool Second Life was, I wanted to share screenshots on my blog. At first I was only concerned with showing what I wanted to show (the outfit, the building, etc.), but after a while I started setting up scenarios and scenery with my SL avatars, which allowed me to create stories and personalities around them. This leads to what my blog is at present; a place for me to share pictures, mainly from SL, but also from other games.

It's hard to believe that in a years time I was able to make such drastic conceptual changes to my blog without even being conscious of it. Whether or not anyone even reads my blog doesn't matter to me, but being able to share my thoughts, screenshots, or whatever else does. I hope anyone who reads it enjoys it as much as I do! And yes, I still refuse to grow up!