Cherry Roll Needle Case... or is it?

Hello there!  It's been a while hasn't it?  Well, more than a while, almost a year in fact!

Something about writing a blog post has been calling to me lately.  Nothing stays still, and since my more prolific blogging days my attention has been captured by first Instagram and then You Tube.  My 'blogging' voice has turned into my 'podcast' voice.  It's also where I now find that connection with other creatives that I once found here.

Instagram was always an 'also ran' for me.  Never a replacement for blogging, but an accompaniment to go along side.  Admittedly the app's design worked on me as intended and I did end up spending more and more time thinking about how to please it but it didn't change my thinking like podcasting did.  

I started watching podcasts on YouTube so long ago now I can't remember, but it hit me the same way blogging did.  I discovered it and soon after, I wondered if it was something I could do.  So I tried it and people watched it and so I kept doing it.  

I actually got quite into making videos.  I started creating tutorials, because more and more people requested video over photo tutorials.  I have never mastered 'vlogging', it's far too off the cuff for me, but I did discover 'vlogmas' which serious tempted me into trying my hand.  I also found 'silent vlogs' which really hit a cord.  A kind of curated vlog, this seemed more blogging.  It gave time to consider and collate, much more comfortable for me.  So I tried my own kind of vlogmas, a curated, considered version, at a slower tempo, which I could manage.  From there grew 'quiet moments' my silent vlogs, my favourite kind of video to make.  Time to enjoy some slow and relaxing crafting and share it in a soothing and peaceful way.

At the same time, whatever buzz or gratification I got from Instagram has been declining for a long time.   When something is enjoyable you want to be a part of it, you want to share and connect.  There is very little of that left on Instagram now.  I've been saying for years that Facebook was ruining it, that they were turning Insta into FB, a place I never enjoyed.  I could never understand why they wanted to create another FB when the reason they took over Insta is because FB was starting to fail.  Young people don't use FB.  If the trend continues, it will wither away.  Why copy a failing model?

But despite all this, there was still obviously enough to keep me hooked.  I got enough from it that I kept going back.  But this year I've noticed a real change and I'm just not drawn to it as I was.  It's falling off my radar as a place to share and where I had got into the habit of posting there regularly, I'm now beginning to forget to create anything for it.  I still post quite often and I do still find things I actively want to share, but I notice the balance has shifted and it is becoming more something I am deliberately trying to keep up, rather than something I naturally want to do.  It's becoming more obligation than enjoyment.  I can't help feel that is the beginning of the end.

I've been pondering these two things lately.  This evolution of creativity and sharing, the places I find connection and enjoyment.  Also the fact that the part I enjoy most about video is the part that feels most like blogging.  I guess that's what has brought me back here today.  I've had a few attempts at trying to revive my blog and I think ultimately you can't go back and you can't re-capture something which has gone.  Like many things in life, there are great parts but they don't last forever so the only thing to be done is to enjoy them while they last.

So I can't revive what I had here before, but I guess I've been wondering if I can find something new here?  I seriously wonder if I will have any time to share anything at all here.  After all, keeping up with videos, instagram and blogging has proved too much in the past.  It's the main reason this blog has laid unused for a year and barely used before that.  As much as my Instagram habits are experiencing a material shift, I do still use it and I don't think I'm ready to give it up just yet.

All this is of course before we even consider the fact I'm also trying to earn a living and how much all or any of these various activities do to contribute to that endeavour.  I can think about what I want to be doing but I should also be thinking about where I need to be spending my time.  But let's not get started on that complex minefield!

So why am I telling you all this?  I don't know.  Maybe because I don't think anyone is still here?  Maybe there is no one to listen so it doesn't matter what I do.  Maybe I just wanted to get it all out of my head.

This was supposed to be a post about my new interchangeable knitting needle case.  That doesn't seem to have happened.  Maybe next time?

S x

♥

#CherryHeart

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