Food for Thought...

I've been reading lots of thought provoking blog posts recently...some on introspection and many on the balancing act of blogging and commenting.

Beth of Hint Jewelry has a wonderful post up today about uncovering the "dust bunnies" that are your underlying beliefs which could be influencing the way you choose to take action (or not!). I found it very thought provoking, especially when I put it into the context of the other blog posts/comments (here, here and here for example) that I've seen recently about acknowledging bloggers whose posts you visit.

I visit LOTS of blogs weekly, skim most and read a good handful thoroughly. All these posts together made me start to examine why I blog and what I want to achieve with it... I really started off blogging (January 2006, Wow!) solely for business purposes but in examining my "dust bunnies" I realize that I do this for other reasons now as well... I try to show new work, have gradually begun to share a bit more about myself/my life, and hopefully can entertain a bit sometimes as well. I've made some connections with others that have extended beyond blog comments...some have faded to the wayside and returned to comment exchanges and others have continued to develop. So what started as just business has turned into a way to connect with others- other jewelry and bead artists, ceramic peeps and my customers. That said, I comment on other blogs when I feel like I actually have something to contribute to the conversation, usually not just "I'm here". I find when blog posts are very inspirational I actually comment less... in shaking out the "dust bunny" responsible for that action I realize that it's because I don't consider myself to be an artist so to speak and feel that I can't measure up to the conversational exchange. Interesting isn't it when you start to peer into those corners under the bed?

For my own blog I adore comments of course and sometimes can't help but to judge the post/work quality by the validation from others in the form of comments. However, I don't want it to be a measure of my satisfaction with my work or posts so I need to continue to focus on the purpose of my blogging and not use it as a barometer of how much people like me or my work!

Now, to wrap it up with a look at a great bracelet by Candace of Ruby Tuesday Bead Company that uses one of my Jade Koi Bracelet Bars...Be sure to bookmark her website and check back, she's going to be offering beads online soon and she carries a huge selection of gorgeous pearls!

For me this has definitely been a wordy post and, in my opinion, much less superficial than my usual! What do you think, stick with the typical posts (new work, customer jewelry, critters and food) or expose the dust bunnies and give them a good shake?