What's in a Blog?

One of the best (and worst, I suppose, but let's not focus on that now) things about the blogging community is that anyone can become a voice of authority on whatever s/he chooses.  I love that some of my favorite bloggers seemed to have just woken up one morning and thought, "I love cooking/decorating/photography/whatever.  I want to share it and my knowledge thereof with the world."  The blogosphere has become this amazing community of people who want to actively enjoy their passions with others - I love that.  It's great that I can visit a blog and know that the day's post was inspired by something that just happened.  It makes me feel like I'm part of a wider world of people who cook/decorate/photograph/whatever, and that community can be invaluable, especially when you're moving to a new place.

This is sort of related: I read a post recently - I fell down the rabbit hole of clicking on a link that led to another link that led to another and so on - about the emotional authenticity of blogging.  "How much," the writer asks, "does a blogger have to reveal to engage with their readers, do you think?"  She apologizes, saying that she just isn't capable of opening herself up entirely to her blog and to her readers. She received tons of comments on the post, most of which said that as long as she was herself she'd have interested readers.  I hope that's true.  I'm finding that there's a fine line between what I share and what I don't share here; I know that my family reads my blog as well as strangers, and what I would tell my family I might not reveal to strangers - and what I might tell strangers I might not reveal to my family.  It's tricky, really, and I hope I'm negotiating the balance alright.

I thought about all of this because I've been trying and absolutely failing to define my blog.  I'm inspired by so many creative people out there and I've been trying to squish all of these inspirations into my blog.  That's why you're finding decorating photos and recipes and political commentary and links to jewelry and stationery and - well, that's why you're finding this mashup of a blog as it is.  I'm sorry if it's messy, but it's everything I like, and it's everything I want to share, and, honestly, it's everything that I am.  So now that this blog has been up and running for a few weeks, I just want to say this: I hope you're enjoying reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it.