Mid-Make and Other Introspective Thoughts

Hi everyone! I’ve been busy, busy, busy over here brainstorming and making up a storm. One of the projects I’m working on involves this awesome chunky tinsel glitter. This just hollers “party!” to me, don’t you think? Life is funny sometimes. Just when I said I’m going to take the pressure off this blog and make sure I’m putting the kids first . . . WHAM! I got a BUNCH of great news last week that has jam packed my schedule. Lots to celebrate super soon.

Now, now, don’t worry, the kids still come first, and I am conscientiously not sacrificing time with them to do blog work. Still, I am amazed how much more productive I am with them back at school. I have also ceased my current work with my other job, which, yay!, means I have more time for the blog, but, gulp!, also means the financial support I’m providing my family with comes entirely from my creative endeavors–yikes! (As such, please excuse the ads, self-promotion and occasional affiliate link. All opinions I offer are distinctly my own, yadda, yadda.)

No, really, this blog started as a way to express my creative voice and I, for one, will certainly work my hardest to keep it that way. I want the projects I share with you to be meaningful parts of myself, my family and what I love. I want to stay “real,” be real, and carefully keep away from striving to look like all those other popular blogs out there. I have my own voice and my own path and I want to stay true to it. I want to thank Chelsea of Lovely Indeed who wrote this lovely post capturing a lot of what I’ve been feeling about blogging and inspired me to share this all with you.

Sometimes I panic as I move all over the making board on this blog–knitting a lot, occasionally crocheting, crafting when I can, sewing when the mood strikes, or making jewelry when inspiration hits. Some people tell me, “Anne, you have to focus on one thing or at least narrow it! Your readers won’t know which way is up.” Really? Must I? When truly, I just love creating and making beautiful things in whatever form they take. Frankly, I have refrained from giving my readers a survey about the blog simply because if you all think I should focus solely on one craft, I don’t really want to know it! Maybe some of my readers are just knitters, or dedicated crafters, or stop with sewing, but I hope all of you hang around to see the lovely things you can make in some other genre. And, my real joy comes in providing you easy-to-follow photographs and instructions to make you feel excited and comfortable enough to attempt it yourself.

On this blog, I have dipped my toe into trying inspiration posts, round-up posts, and what-I-love posts, all of which have been true to my creative voice and aesthetic. But, I wonder, are those posts what I want to take the time to share with you? I’m still not sure. In some ways, I feel like those posts just keep me from doing the things I love, which is the making. I’m working on finding what feels right to me. And, you know what, I think that’s okay. I have to tell myself regularly as the panic starts to rise: It’s a marathon here, I don’t need it all figured out by tomorrow. So, let’s just keep on chugging. It’s okay for this all to be a little trial and error. It’s okay for every photo not to be the most perfect, pinnable image ever. In fact, who would want that? What it all comes down to is wanting this blog full of simple, beautiful, easy-to-make designs that I have loved making and that you can love making, too.

Whew – that’s it, the Flax & Twine Manifesto. . . .classic, this post started as a simple Mid-Make post with one photo and comment about fun glitter. Now, that’s why I love blogging!