 |
| Photo byPixabay |
My very first post on my P. Lynne Designs blog. My Ambiance Life is not the first blog I
started. The evolution of my blogs goes
like this: MDN Creates. This started as a hodge-podge like a blog that
covered topics such as “What heck am I doing” to “I got this, but it is time to
split the blog because there are too many different topics on here”. That last
topic I owe to my friend, who told me that I was covering too many topics on
the blog. The first post was an
introduction to me and the blog itself, so I will not reminisce on that
topic. Nothing much to reflect on. The next post, the one I will be commenting
on was dated January 5, 2009, was titled Resolutions, and again, it was before
I separated and divided the blog into the three blogs you know of today.
Reflecting on Resolutions
As I am reading, I am first reflecting on how much I have grown as a
writer in the past 10 years (January 1, was my anniversary). In order to get anywhere, you need a starting
point. The only things I knew at the
time in regard to blogging was;
1) This blog had to be
interesting to grab a reader’s attention to the point where the reader cannot
wait until the writer puts in a new post. This means that I needed an interesting
topic and the content of that topic is not of your typical, boring textbook variety
2) Consistency is the
key to all, even though I have not always reflected that consistency. I am getting better.
I also had a moment or two, where I reflected:
·
I started the blog (now called P. Lynne Designs) at a time
when Oprah was still on the air. In
fact, I referred to something she said on her show.
·
I mentioned that I had goals in 2009. They were:
o
To organize
o
To stop beating myself up
o
To love me more
o
To do more of what God asked of me
o
To scrapbook more
o
To take my business more seriously
o
To take time for me, to learn, and to grow.
·
I mentioned each goal and how I would do it. Now I am finally going to give you an update
on those goals in a moment.
·
Joel Olsteen came up in the conversation about never be
still.
·
I submitted an article to Associated Content. I am not sure what the results of that were,
I am a terrible person in the art of follow-up.
Some of those moments made me cry.
Why? I get extremely emotional at
times or there is something in my eye? I
love gushy moments like this, and this is one of the reasons why I started
blogging and journaling in the first place, to not hold it in. I have gotten better on where to channel my
anger, but that does not mean I do not get angry anymore. That is like taking an emotion away from
someone. For someone like Abby Lee
Miller to tell a dancer to save their tears for their pillow or to tell a boy
that men do not cry does not do it for me.
Yes, there is a time and place to cry, but if you must cry, do it right
there and get it over with.
So, back to my reflections on resolutions….
I mentioned that the post was long.
Why did I say that when the average post is supposed to be at least
between 1,000-2,000 words? Yes, back in
2009, “Resolutions” would be considered a long post. No one knew exactly how long a blog post had
to be at that time. Experts used to mention that anything blog post beyond
500-800 words is a fairly long post. Another
reason for that statement is back then the experts thought that such a lengthy
post would give way to repeat phrases and ideas, and you cannot and should not
repeat what you said 5 minutes ago unless you are summarizing.
Summarizing a post
When I summarize, I call them TAKEAWAY MOMENTS. During this time, I am telling you again what
I said throughout the piece, or I am giving you little nuggets of information
that should help you should you be going through what I have been through. I
start out by reminding the reader of my topic then I sprinkle in the repeated
information that was mentioned in my blog post.
When I repeat, I often remind the reader what is important, and I try not
to sprinkle in the fluff. Finally, I concluding
with on a bit of advice to carry through.
What has changed since Resolutions?
This is an update to the goals I mentioned in “Resolutions”. Not only has
my writing changed from that post, but the goals as well. The most noticeable change is the blog name. It is now P. Lynne Designs and it reflects
that on the blog when you first click on the blog post. It is about the change again soon because I
am working on my website, P. Lynne Designs, and new posts will be going in the
blog section on the website. It has been a good ride on Blogger, but I have
grown, and my writing has grown. At the moment, I have a coming soon on the
website, but you are welcome to signup to be on my mailing list to be notified
when the website is coming.
Also, the niche has changed. It is
no longer a hodge-podge collection of what I feel like writing. I own that splitting the blog up into
bite-size pieces. My Blessed Life (now
known as My Ambiance Life) is part of the split.
So is At Home with Tricia's Baskets, a combo of former blogs Simply
Organized Crafts (which is now ONLY a Facebook page), Traveling to the Mouse’s
House, and Tricia’s Baskets. These two
blogs will also leave the Blogger Home for WordPress. The foundation of the blogs are there, I need
to start the final setup and launch.
Updating my goals since that date
Since I wrote that entry, here is what has transpired:
- To Organize: well, I am not totally organized to that point. I can receive company now, even though I was always able to receive company. When you are in possession of things, even things that people agree you should have or not have, you want to make them presentable and so not messy. I was on the side of messy, and even though people had places to sit, hold a conversation and eat my food without feeling ill to the pit of their stomachs, I did not feel comfortable without someone saying something. That may have been my OCD kicking in at the time. As my pastor puts it quite eloquently, I am an extrovert introvert. More on that in another post. If you do not understand, try not to overthink it for now.
- The next three I will tackle together; To not beat myself up, To love me more, To take time for me. This does not mean I was harming myself. When I do something that was a mistake, I am harder on myself more than anyone. I am constantly saying why did you do that. To love yourself means, do not get upset because you are not married, you do not have children, or you are not a certain status in life. Just because you see someone who has those things that you desire does not mean you do not have to say things like, “I wish”, “Why did this happen”, “why was I not more intensive”, or “if only”. That ship has sailed, or it has not come to you.
- Scrapbooking More. Actually, that has slowed down a lot. Since that time, I have created one scrapbook album for someone in 2018, a lady at church. The reason was around October 6, 2010, a little company called Instagram got started and paved the way for scrapbooking the traditional way obsolete. Instead of sharing scrapbook pages you have made with the photos you took, you share them on an account. No one was asking for an album to be made because they can make them on the phone and in an online account. Not only that, there were people who asked me at work why to make albums when all you are doing is wasting paper and making the world a bad place to live. Please do not get me started for there are worst things a person can do to desecrate this world than making a project out of paper. I shifted my focus more to making cards and learning how to turn my skills into freelance writing, graphic design, and projects. This lead to;
- Taking my business more seriously. No explanation there, except I am still learning. This also leads to-
- I am still learning and growing to better myself and to teach others. I keep mentioning that in a former career move, I was once a preschool teacher. While I may never find myself teaching anyone (children or adults) full-time again, I enjoy learning more so I can teach. Last month (June), I was thrown into being a teacher’s assistant for my church’s Vacation Bible School. I actually had double-duty. I was the assistant director and a teacher’s aide. One of the teachers ended up in the hospital before VBS got started, and since no one volunteered to be a helper and substitute for her, I volunteered. Even though it was for one week, I enjoyed listening to the children (ages 4-11), and it reminded me of why I chose to be a preschool teacher in the first place. Every once in a while, take in the small moments on why you started something in the first place. For me, it was the love of children, and watching how they process things and ideas. I will have a whole blog post on why I quit my teaching job later
 |
| Photo by Pixabay |
Conclusion
and takeaways
If you
are a blogger, I suggest that you take a look at your first blog post to see
how much you have grown as a writer. Even
if your blog is only a few months old you will discover in that few months’
time how much you have grown as a writer.
If you are
not a writer but do not know where to begin, start with journaling. Once you are in your comfort zone, try to
expand your writing. It does not have to
be a blog, but I can tell you right now that sharing in some compacity helps
you to grow. Also, sharing helps you to
be mindful on your writing skills. If it
a journaling post you do not have to share every detail of your life.
If you
do start blogging, use a program like Grammarly (a program I use and
love). Grammarly is a free spell checker
and grammar checker. Grammarly also
comes in a premium subscription too.
Finally,
if you share things like goals, it makes you more accountable than to say them
and forget them. Work on those goals and
update your readers.
Until next time,
take care of those things that matter to you, which include those persons in
your life that matter to you. You matter
to me, so, take care, and God Bless you and your week.
July 15, 2019: PS- Please share this post
July 15, 2019: PS- Please share this post
