Monday, June 17, 2013

Antagonizing (and a questionnaire! )

Life post-graduation has been antagonizing. I am thrown between utter fascination of things and ideas and the potential for creativity and then whipped back into a sleepy, glass-eyed stupor consisting of aged iced tea and watching The Cosby Show on Hulu. I've had trouble sleeping at night, regardless of an imposed bedtime of 10 o'clock or waiting until my eyes won't stay open, which is typically around 12:30. The moment I get comfortable and my husband begins to snore I am either struck by a thought that won't be tamed or the upstairs neighbors begin playing a video game with large explosions. Hubby sleeps through them. I am not capable of such blissful ignorance. But of course, if I wanted to take a nap during the day, no problem! Except that then I get a horrible post-nap headache especially on days like this one with atmosphere the density of fog on Mt. Everest but hot as a deep African jungle.

And I know what you're all thinking. Or, at least, what my mother is thinking! I should get a job. Lord knows I try to. I have made myself a beautiful resume and I have advertised myself on three websites (not including FB). Most of the time I don't get replies at all, and sometimes I get an immediate reply, but usually the person says, "Oh, I just found someone to tutor my daughter for free. But I'll send your name along!"

But I don't want to write about job searching or my reasoning behind not looking for burger-flipping jobs (maybe some other time. sorry, folks.) and I definitely don't want to talk about my frustration with the people who look for babysitters and tutors. What I DO want to explain is that somewhere in the midst all this frustration is a beautiful thing called art.

I mentioned in my last post, a whole three weeks ago, that I've been doing a lot of painting. I painted a dresser and a bookshelf. I fixed another bookshelf. I've made quite a few other things as well, and due to a recent trip to the North Shore Unitarian Church in Deerfield, where I picked up a few free items, I now have a mountain of ideas and things to mess with. But I want to do something more constructive with them than just put pictures up here.

I'd like to start a craft blog. I tried this on here once before and while it seemed like a good idea at first, I certainly had no idea what I was doing. I look back at that post, which I put up in December, and I roll my eyes at myself and I cringe and feel like my very own most annoying friend who is that crazy but inept Pinterest lady. I know that many of you ladies out there have meandered (or scoured) your way through Pinterest, so you've seen the sort of blogs I'm talking about. With that in mind, I want to ask a few questions, if you'll kindly respond in the comments below.

1. What features of craft/DIY blogs do you like the best?
2. What are two or three of your favorite craft/DIY blogs?
3. What about these sort of blogs frustrates/irritates you?
4. I can't think of a good name for my craft blog. Any ideas?

So pass this on to your friends, because I'm very interested in the responses! These sorts of blogs are everywhere these days so I'm really curious to see what "the people" actually think about them.

2 comments:

  1. 1. Since I don't go to that many craft/DIY blogs, I don't have a lot to go on. But the ones I do randomly see are only interesting if they have some slight practical value. 2. The one blog I see regularly and like is Babble. 3. They don't really frustrate me, I just sometimes find them uninteresting. 4. Sorry, I'll have to think about the name.

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  2. 1 and sort of 3) Pinterest has become the biggest wealth of DIY blog searching and I find lots of great home decor ideas, but what I hate is the unfocused nature of Pinterest. If I want a DIY project I want to be able to look up the items that I have to work with and see what I can do with them. I also want something that helps me on a budget...a dollar store budget. Maybe even a garage sale 50-cents-or-less budget. But I'm not looking for crafts that look like I did them on a dollar store budget. I want something people can actually use, or that I'll actually be able to use time and time again.

    2) Pinterest is great, but again it's unfocused. http://www.outsapop.com is another good one for fashion. Another one for home and decor is http://theinspiredroom.net.

    4) It really depends. Usually DIY blogs have a main genre they focus on. It would have to be a name somewhat dependent on that focus I would think. I'm not sure...

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