honesty time: doing what you're good at.

I haven't been blogging a lot lately because I haven't been so sure of the direction I want to go in. My life has been so caught up in the small details (and big ones!) that I haven't had a lot of time to focus on my blog and make it into what I want it to be. As I was thinking about this tonight, I had to really think about what exactly it was that I wanted for this little space.

My blog has turned into a way for me to connect with new people from all over the world. I've made some really good friends, and have loved so many things about it. However, I've been feeling some pressure to "keep up" and to produce content that is consistent with many of the blogs that I enjoy, even if that content is not quite my forte. I don't want to do that anymore.

So, what is it exactly that I want this space to be? I've been thinking it over for weeks now, and I think I've finally come to my conclusion. I want this space to be:

• a place to share my photography -- I don't do nearly enough of this, and I think it's because in the past, I haven't gotten a huge response to my photo posts...that really shouldn't matter, should it? If it's what I love, and it's one of my talents, I want to share it.
  
  
• a place to share my crafting and love for vintage -- I've come to the realization that I need to craft in order to maintain my sanity. If I don't work on a creative project for a couple days, I find myself getting cranky and unhappy. Even if I'm buried in grad school work or actual work, I have to take that time to make things or else everything feels out of balance.
  
  
• a place to share my love of fashion. For various reasons, I don't really share enough about this either.
  
  
• a place to share my daily life - a lot of times, I feel like my days are mundane and not worth sharing the little details of, but I realized that my favorite blogs are the ones who share little bits and pieces of their personal lives, not the ones filled with DIYs or recipes or professional things all the time.
  
• along the lines of connecting with other people, I want to make an even better effort to respond to comments and check out new blogs. I feel like so many bloggers fall into the trap of being in a particular "circle" and rarely take the time to branch out and "meet" new people... what's the fun in that? I like to meet everyone!

So, there it is. My goal for this blog is to share what's important to me and to make connections based on that; not worrying about what topics would get the most comments or how many people read each post. In case you haven't noticed, I gave my blog a little makeover to support this transition -- bigger photo space and less distracting nonsense on the sidebars. I love it, and I hope you do, too! 

Have you ever taken time to think about your identity as a blogger?