Celebrating Blog Friendship

Welcome to the Blog Hop Party for the “Blogging for Scrapbookers” reunion! You may have arrived here from Maya’s blog “Chronicles.” If not, you can start at the beginning by going to Lizzie’s blog “Lizzie Made.” Thanks to Jo and Lizzie for organizing this reunion. I’m looking forward to visiting everyone’s blogs.

I wrote my first blog post in June of 2005. My daughter, Sarah, had brought home her new boyfriend (and husband-to-be) who was an avid and popular blogger. He had encouraged Sarah to start a blog, and helped me set one up while he was visiting.  Here’s what I wrote about starting a blog on that first post:

So why start my own blog? I’m hoping it will encourage me to be more reflective about my life, attend to the daily instances of grace in my life, and to record significant events in my life. Stamping and scrapbooking have made me so much more attentive to design, light, and color; perhaps blogging will make me more attentive to journaling which I find so much more difficult.

Over time, things have changed a bit. Photography wasn’t even mentioned in that post because it wasn’t until March of 2007 that I took the BPS “Photography 101” online class that stimulated my interest in photography. I started categorizing my posts a year or so ago, and Typepad shows a visual representation on my sidebar of the frequency of each category. My most frequent posts are to share my passion for cardmaking, then photography, and then scrapbooking. Sprinkled in among those three hobbies are family excursions and events.

But it wasn’t until last year, while I was enrolled in Shimelle’s online class, “Blogging for Scrapbookers,” that I found an online community. And truly, that has been the very best thing about starting a blog. I have friends who just don’t understand the time I spend online, nor do they think online friendships amount to much. It is their loss!  The blogging community is a truly supportive one—supportive of creative endeavors, family celebrations and tragedies, challenges, and accomplishments.  I have learned so much as part of this community: from new vocabulary and cultural traditions in different countries to techniques I can use in my papercrafting. This post would be forever long if I tried to list them all. So in gratitude for all the many lessons learned and kindnesses extended, here’s to our very special blogging community.

Cardstock: Summer Sunrise & Kraft (Papertrey) ;patterned paper: Distressed Dots (Papertrey); stamps: Take Three: Summer; Friends To the End & Framed (Papertrey), Friendship Definition (Hero Arts); rhinestones: Kaiser

“P” is your letter for “secret” phrase, and now you’re off to Melissa’s “Daily Life—Bits & Pieces!” Enjoy the rest of the tour!