Monday, December 05, 2011

Why I Decided to Continue Blogging...


Let's not talk about the fact that I've been MIA for several months okay?  Shhh...  Really let's just not talk about it and move on. You forgive me? Okay great... now that's out of the way...  I did want to discuss why I decided to come back.

When I first started this blog, I wasn't shopping for a year.  That was my slant.  "Great dress." Gee thanks, I've had it since senior year of college.  "That shirt is awesome!" I totally dug through my friends piles of clothes before they sent them to Goodwill.  I was that person.  Then, my year was up.  I learned a lot.  I realized how much I expressed my emotions through shopping (bad Alyson). I learned how to cope with life without shopping (kick ass Alyson).  But most importantly, I made some very sincere friends.  They aren't the friends that you have because of proximity and physical closeness.  These are the friends that you have because of the simplest form of similar interests, they make you laugh, of course, you genuinely care about them (which is how I feel about all my friends).  This is why I want to continue blogging.  But what to blog about?

Things I don't want to blog about:
-designer collections I will never be able to afford.
-shoes that I can't walk in.
-the stuff that people email me asking to blog about
-details about my job (that and I can't... seriously, its why I have a disclaimer)
-how much I love Forever 21 (b/c I don't love F21, ack!)
-what I wear every. single. day.

Things I do want to blog about (and most likely you don't want to read):
-excel functions and pivot tables (looooove)
-Cheez-Its
-Frozen pizza
-my super awesome talented hottie boyfriend (okay you do maybe want to read about that)
-how awful traffic is
-how awful winter is
-soup
-how I can't stand the competitiveness between bloggers

Things I do want to blog about (and you'd like too):
-my thrift store finds
-crafting
-product reviews
-recipes
-funny stories from my life
-some outfits, not all
-finances
-being a professional who is also a creative person
-the importance of knowing the conditions of the places where you buy stuff
-cool stuff I find on the internet
-people doing cool things
-my own personal struggles in life
-women's issues
-cool places I go
-books

So where does this leave me?  Well, if you follow my blog because you think I have a great pouty blogger face, then just stop it!  That is just one thing I don't enjoy anymore.  I don't enjoy sharing my outfits everyday.  I like what I wear, and I get enough satisfaction from that.  I may still share an outfit or two that I'm particularly proud of; an awesome thrift score, great boots, an awesome outfit, etc.  But this lady's days of setting up my tripod and avoiding people is over.  There are a lot of reasons.  They all come down to, sometimes I just don't care, and that is okay.  It really is okay to sleep in an extra 20 minutes, not wash your hair, put on black pants and a cardigan, and walk out the door.

I do love thrifting.  I love it a lot.  I'm also a huge thrifting advocate and I tell everyone they should do it.  I invite people to come thrifting with me all the time, but I tend to be a tiny bit maniacal about it.  I have a method, I go a little crazy, and then I wish my hands (always wash your hands and your purchases).  Over half of my clothes were previously owned by someone else, and I'm not grossed out about that.

I am incredibly passionate about my job.  If you remember the year of no shopping then you were also here for the, "Oh shit, I got laid off."  You may have been also here for the "I got a job!".  I honestly couldn't imagine myself anywhere else.  I love my job.  I love the people I work with and I love the bigger picture of working where I do.  More importantly, I actually love straddling the line of being professional but also appropriately showcasing my sense of style and creativity.

I miss writing.  I miss writing clever remarks.  I miss being informative and passionate about what I write about.  A girl can only obsess over jeggings for so long.  There is a myriad of social issues related to the fashion industry and to women that I want to talk about.  I want to challenge myself, and research things that are hard so that I can express how I'm coping with that.  I'm incredibly passionate about buying things that do not come from poor sweat shop-like conditions.  Working in fashion manufacturing makes you realize that not every place that makes clothing is a sweat shop, but not every business cares about the cost of human lives.

What do you think?  Can I do this?  Well, I'm going to do this.  Thanks for sticking with me.  I promise nothing terrible happened.  I wasn't sick... I was just sick and tired and unmotivated.  I hope that this new structure will elevate my desire. 

22 comments:

  1. I say you are awesome and I would love to read about any of those things. Especially cheez-its :)

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  2. I'm so excited you're coming back to the blog! I've missed your take on things! xox

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  3. YAY! Welcome back! Ever since I found your blog I've been envious of your discipline to maintain such regular posts. Especially with all the photos involved! You were a bit of inspiration to me, so I'm glad to see you back in action. Your new list of potential content sounds great. Looking forward to reading.

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  4. Glad you're back! I want to hear more about your thrifting secrets, especially your favorite places in Nashville. I haven't yet found any place here as good as my standbys in the Chicago suburbs.

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  5. Yeah! Welcome back! This is a great start to a new more you blog! You'll see it's a lot less stressful blogging when your outfit isn't involved!

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  6. WHAT?! I'd totally love Excel tips hehe Blogging is definitely a journey and self exploration. It makes us human :) I'd love to see how you restyle older clothes or thrifted items. That always inspire me to look at my clothes differently. Good luck!

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  7. You go girl! Woooo!

    Welcome back. Also I'm sorry I'm always overwhelmed and a flake and we haven't yet met in real life.

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  8. what kind of frozen pizza cause I could write a novel on how DiGiornio does not taste like delivery.

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  9. Yay! So glad you are finding new ways to engage your blog life-giving ways! I can't wait to see what comes in this new season!

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  10. Amen sister. It is totally ok not to care sometimes.

    I was actually just thinking about you the other day and how I haven't posted in awhile. I've been so self-absorbed (wish i was kidding) that I didn't take the minute I wanted to take and shoot you an email.

    But i'm glad to see you are back, and I don't know about anyone else, but I would love to hear you talk about excel functions and pivot tables. Pivot tables are sexy.

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  11. I'm super excited to see you are back in action. I needed more sass and less jeffrey campbell oogling in my blog roll. Bring on the new content!

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  12. I'm soooo looking forward to your posts! I'm glad you're back.

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  13. you can do! you are awesome! i am very interested in reading about so many of those things. good luck as you find your niche. do what makes you happy! and on a side note, we should make the boys babysit and go out for yummy food and drinks some time soon! yeah!!!

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  14. I'd love a post on Cheez-It's... bring it! ;)

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  15. I've just found your blog and though I haven't been around since the beginning I've gotta say that I'm intrigued by what you DO want to blog about. Those are my favorite things to read so I hope that you'll be around now for me to catch up! I'm a new follower :) I'd love for you to stop by my blog some time and say hi (and follow back if you're interested).
    Sarah
    http://comingunstitched.blogspot.com

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  16. I think it sounds great! Sometimes when people talk about blogging and why we do it, etc, it can get complicated... What is our niche? what do our readers want to read? how can we get more readers? but doesn't it come down to one thing in the end? We do it because we like to, because it's fun, because we get something out of it for ourselves. Go for the fun stuff, it will bring more joy to you! :)

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  17. I've been away from blogging for a few months too and I just started up again, mainly because of the great community! I'm really glad you're back to blogging. You have such a great sense of humor and I can't wait to read the rest of your posts!

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  18. Alyson - You are still super Neat! And tho it's been a while since I've visited I'm glad you are still up, still blog, and still there for me to get inspiration from. And yeah, blogging, working, networking, outfitting, photo'ing....it's all effin hard work and hell yes it's totally ok to not want to do any one of those things for a day or two. As long as your lifestyle is rad and satisfying while you live it and you share a little bit of it for us outside your world it's all good :)

    Glad you are staying awesomely neat here on the internetz ;)

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  19. I just discovered your blog because of an old comment of yours I thought exceptionally intelligent (right here: http://suzegeeksout.com/2010/12/16/whos-screwing-who/). I for one would LOVE to read your musings on the social issues related to fashion. A little sad to see your last post is a month old - I hope you will continue!

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  20. wait...somehow i missed this post. But rest assured you're not alone, i don't give a crap about my outfits anymore than the rest of the world does, so I had to stop blogging about it because it was one big fat CHORE. And so what if I'm a fashion professional, I wear jeans 85% of the time...and I don't want to care if I wore this same jeans/tshirt combo last week or not. And really, who wants to hear me talk about another pair of Uniqlo jeans??? hahahhaha, but I do want to have a journal where I tell tall tales, and talk about my adventures, and my random thoughts. So that's what I do now...and I think the world is much better off! And I still like you, with or without clothes talk!

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  21. I've actually been thinking about shutting down my blog for a while... I've been thinking about a lot of the same things that you've written here & maybe I just need to refocus because looking at pictures of myself in all the outfits I've worn kind blows... but still, I like keeping track of what I wear with an excel spreadsheet. That I like doing, seeing pictures of me, not so much.
    Thanks for the inspiration to rethink things, rather than just quit.

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  22. Hey Alyson, if you're still there, I'm still reading! :D This is the second post I've read... (the first being the 'I hate my clothes' post). Actually, I would love to read about "how I can't stand the competitiveness between bloggers" because it's something else I can't really stand either. Lol. It seems like most every "style" blogger posts pictures every day, writes a really complicated guide on how to do ONE facet of make up, or humble brags about the launch party/some other "fashion VIP event"...

    It may be hypocritical of me to say, but I really wish styling wasn't so superficial. I wish bloggers wore what makes them happy or feel good about themselves. I wish more style bloggers would talk about real shit that's going on - or talk at all, lol, because it seems a good majority don't even talk, just post pictures of themselves. But saying that would just go under attack from the younger generation of Twitter, Instagram, etc.
    Even though that's supposed to be the generation I'm from -_- I don't like it much.

    I could also relate to this a ton:
    "I miss writing. I miss writing clever remarks. I miss being informative and passionate about what I write about."
    I'm sure it's a harder struggle for you, than for me, because you have more readers. Always risk shooing readers away with what you actually want to write about; or feeling unfulfilled when you write what they want to read about. Lol.
    Also, I really liked your quote at the end:
    "Working in fashion manufacturing makes you realize that not every place that makes clothing is a sweat shop, but not every business cares about the cost of human lives."
    REAL.

    I'm going to save your blog as one to follow. Hang in there, Alyson! If I knew you, I would hug you!

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