Keeping it Real....

So, welcome to my typical chilling out garb. Pom pom slippers and trusty sloppy trackies. Bet you never thought you'd see tracky bums on a 'fashion' blog! But there again, I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk about the nature of blogging in general and how some bloggers feel pigeonholed by their looks, wealth (or lack thereof!) and followers in terms of how they rate their own blogs.

There are probably a handful of really, really popular blogs who most people will have on their blog roll. Then I think there is a tertiaty level where there are 'big' blogs who have maybe a couple of thousand follwers-again, maybe you follow a few like these. Then there is a third level, with blogs with maybe a few hundred followers (I think my blog would fall into this category) and then there are blogs with a few followers, maybe bloggers who are just starting out.

Over a couple of other blogs just lately I've been reading posts around the subject of 'it's not fair-itis', where some bloggers are posting around subjects of 'this blog has more followers than mine because...' and usually these reasons evoke feelings of unworth or even a little envy. I suppose the only thing to do in such circumstances is consider a moot point: Why are you blogging? What's your purpose? My blog was only ever concieved as a platform to promote my written work. I love to write and I would like to freelance maybe at some point in my life so I thought it would be useful to have a blog as a sort of 'living portfolio' of all the pieces of my work. As my confidence with blogging grew I decided to branch out into outfit posts; these were recieved with mainly positive reviews and so I carried them on, but that was never the purpose of the blog in the first instance.

I've made no bones about the fact that sometimes I find it hard-I sometimes lack inspiration, and of course, I have the same moments when I look at other style blogs and feel like the elephant in the room, like, what am I doing here? I don't feel like my style of blog fits in with what a fashion blog should be like, but there again, thats what makes it mine. All my followers are really important to me, but I've got to stop hanging my hopes on getting a lot more; it feels like a popularity contest! You guys always leave me great comments and I really appreciate them, but here's the rub: I'm not a model, nor an excellent photographer (Adrian is, which is why my outdoorsy shots are so much better!) and yes, I wear tracksuit trousers and pompom slippers of an evening. I am THAT cool. (not!) I think I can write a little, and I appreciate the fact that you guys read and comment, it's of great wonder to me that anyone would take the time to read and comment but I relish every comment I get and I do really enjoy writing my posts and so it's just a lovely outlet for me to be able to put my thoughts and ideas and wants out there and to get all the reactions that I do.

Blogging is FUN and I think thats what it should stay. Whenever I get to a point where I think 'I can't be bothered' I walk away from it for a day or so-whats the point in forcing yourself to do something that you should want to do for the sake of interest? I always think that if I have nothing important to say, I won't waste your time! If I wouldn't want to read it, I shan't bother writing it.

Without wanting to sound all Brady Bunch on you, you guys are unique: keep it so. I don't want to read ten of the same blog-which is why I follow blogs of all shapes and sizes, covering all sorts of topics; and I relish in the fact that they're all their own.

Bloggings a funny old world isn't it. Do you guys have ups and downs with it too? Are you hell bent on making your blog the next big thing, or are you quite happy to just use it as a platform for a creative outlet? I'd love to know your thoughts.

xoxo