The summer before last Stephanie was in a small plane crash with her husband and the pilot. She almost died, but survived with burns covering over 80% of her body. Christian had less damage to his body, and the pilot did not make it. The Etsy community rallied around them to raise money for medical bills and to take care of their four children. I found her then, post-crash, and spent several hours of Hazel’s tiny, always-attached-at-the-boob life reading every single entry in Stephanie’s archives. She has a beautiful, charmed life, and she is incredibly brave. And faithful. Even though her young Utah-Mormon mommy life seems a billion miles removed from my own life, I totally delight in reading tales from another young mom who wants nothing more than to make and love and raise lots of little babies – and birth them at home! We have come from totally different universes, practically, and ended up in the same twenty-something-crafty-vegetarian-kid-rearing place. I love to read her. Not too long ago I had a peek at her sister cjane’s blog and also check it from time to time when Hazel is in a nursing frenzy and I just lay in bed with her and blog-hop on my iphone. I checked it this morning, though, and her most recent entry links to this: cjane’s friend needs help with her thesis! It sounds super-interesting to me, so since Mikey and Hazel were still sleeping, I settled in with my cafe vienna (still on the wagon, but have not bought more) and filled it out for her. You should, too, if you’ve got about ten minutes. Here are some of the bits I thought y’all might be interested in, with a bit more info for you guys – stuff that didn’t seem relevant to her.
How long have been blogging?
Ten years, since I was 17. When livejournal was brand new, my first wave of really close friends was graduating high school and going off to college. A whole bunch of us started livejournals as a mass way of keeping in touch. I can’t remember if mine was public or private. I’ve had a few of them over the years (three? maybe Maggie or Manda could remember more), and I had a diaryland in high school – can’t remember why I kept two or what was public/private. I had a couple of private, anonymous things in college that only Manda and Emmalee knew about. After I was done with those I kept blogs on myspace for a few months before I bought my old domain. I think the only things that exist anymore are one of those anonymous ones (if I can remember how to get into it, I’d probably delete it) and a private LJ that I still use to read friends… and this one, which I’ve had for four years next month.
How long have you been reading other blogs?
The same, but only in the past couple of years have I started reading blogs that are not my friends – 100% of them being Etsy / crafty blogs. And postsecret :) Sometimes when Hazel is nursing a lot I’ll read house blogs, but never come across anything I want to add to my daily reading list.
Why do you blog?
I guess this has evolved as my life has evolved – I mentioned why I started, but I’ve kept it going for various reasons. Mainly I like doing it. It’s much easier for me than keeping a paper journal, because I can so easily include photos and stuff. I guess I always just did it for friends until we were getting ready to move to Canada – that’s when I bought my old domain and let everyone know about it. I thought about the easiest way to keep in touch with everyone. I made a flickr account for photos, and thought about sending a weekly mass email about Canada life, but dediced to just blog instead and people from home could read or not read. I’ve used it increasingly more over the past couple of years as an Etsy promo tool and letting it be known more readily to total strangers – I try to post things relevant to crafters: tutorials, projects, supplies & thrifting inspirations, etc… and it has, of course, evolved into a mommy-blog to keep everyone updated on Hazel’s developments. I used to do that for people at home, and now I do it for people in Canada. I have it linked everywhere for anyone to find, and have thousands of visits per month – I’m sure I don’t know most of them.
Do you post your name and/or your family members’ names on your blog? Why or why not? If you don’t post their names, do you use nicknames?
I do – I suppose only because I have always used real names, as it was never for anyone but my friends and often private. And then for family. And I’ve been doing it since before I even had a family or had met Mikey. So I didn’t change things when they came along. If I started blogging tomorrow I might just use an initial… but probably not.
Do you have badges on your blog that state allegiance to a particular blog, religion, political affiliation or website? If so, what are they?
Blog, religion, and political affilitaion – no. Since I’ve always done this for people who KNOW these things, I never considered it. Now that it’s partially for people who don’t know me… I don’t know. I suppose I don’t feel the need to mention that I am Catholic or vegetarian or anti-war or democrat or against mountaintop removal to the core of my soul or any of that in a button because a.) I don’t think strangers who come here via crafty venues care, and b.) it looks cluttered, and c.) you could peek at my links and find out most of those things anyway.
I have an Etsy-mini and a flickr badge for easy access to those pages. I have a twitter button, which I debate daily. I’ve been tweeting blog entires with projects or thrifting finds or other semi-interesting things, but nothing else. I need to add a button to my Tea & Laundry facebook fan page because I’ve had a handful of sales from there in the past week that I’ve actually been updating it, and would like to promote it a little more. There is an Amazon Associates widget that I added last month (?) but never really mentioned. I debated and debated whether or not to put an ad on my blog, but Mikey and I talked about it and figure that if we don’t let it change the way we get books – some online from amazon or the publisher, some locally, lots and lots used, many swaptree swaps – it’s no huge sin. So I just put it there and didn’t say anything about it, but I try to keep it updated every week with a few of each of our “current reads”. If you click over to amazon from that widget or one of my links and end up buying something (anything, not only the things I mention), I get a small percentage of what you spend. I have always linked to stuff on amazon for you to find what I am talking about, so it didn’t change the way I blog. I am in a position to take money just about any reasonable way I can get it, and if you buy some books from amazon and I get a drop in the bucket towards staying home with Hazel, I can deal with any vague ethical qualms I may have with advertising on my blog. I’ve also considered selling 6 or 8 ad spaces to Etsy sellers that would change monthly – I have the traffic to be able to do so, but am still pondering that one. Oh – and I just remembered that I have a “handmade pledge” button somewhere at the bottom, because I think buying handmade is important :)
. . . . . . . . . . .
So, last night Hazel pushed a button on a toy that would have made it sing the alphabet had it been turned on. She pushed it again with no result, so she looked at me and said “A-B-C?”
!!!
Mikey and I sat there for about fifteen minutes to try to get her to say it again for a video, and we got it out of her a few times, but mostly she just said “A-Bs”
This morning when he got her up and was changing her I could hear him trying again. A few minutes later she came running out into the kitchen and exclaimed “A-B-DOGGIEEEEEE!!!”
My child is a genius, people.
Listening: Sesame Street – it’s pouring outside
(I am) Reading: The Poisonwood Bible
(Hazel is) Reading: M is for Maple
Working on: jewels; bunnies; editing ebay photos in another window while I do this :)
