New Journey, New Blog?

Tomorrow begins a new journey for me to lose weight, a dear friend will have surgery to remove cancer and start chemo therapy, and many fellow teacher colleagues and students will embark upon a new school year.  My fabulous friend, Nicholas, who has also decided to shrink himself, believes blogging about our endeavors could prove beneficial.  He's probably right; anything to hold yourself accountable helps!  As per my suggestion, we also plan to log our food and exercise daily on MyFitnessPal.com.  I've heard only rave reviews and success stories from friends about this app, several losing 50 pounds or more using it.  Fantastic, right?!  Nicholas lives in Georgia, I live in Texas... This app will allow each of us to see if the other person is (or isn't) doing the work, so you can write them little notes of encouragement or congrats on their accomplishments for the week.  Say you notice they're not exercising enough: "Dude!  Get your butt to the gym!!!  You've got this!  :-)"

MyFitnessPal.com  -  News Feed

Now the question comes in: For this new journey, should I start a separate blog or is it okay to combine personal with business?  Perhaps having both on one platform would encourage me to blog more frequently, which obviously would be a good thing.  What are your thoughts?  Do you enjoy seeing a combination of personal and business posts on the same blog?  Does it increase reader engagement or is it just plain annoying?

Listomania

Alright, Blogosphere... Have you missed me??  I think of you often but then never write.  It reminds me of my nanny, aka grandma.  Nanny occasionally calls, always while I'm teaching or otherwise unavailable, and leaves a sweet message saying she loves me and to give her a call sometime.  Guess what happens?  Yep, I will think about it now and again, usually at some obscene hour like 1:00 AM, and then never actually call back.  Horrible.  I'm a horrible grandchild.  And apparently not the best blogger... YET.  Never give, never surrender!

Since it's summer, though, I've been a busy little bee the past few weeks.  Yesterday, alone, I added SIXTEEN new listings!!  Two weeks prior, thirteen items were added.  You should go check it out... Seriously.  Go.

Here's one of my favorites from yesterday.  They're upcycled/repurposed coil hooks with hand painted flat round beads.  Anything to help save Planet Earth!  And they're truly unique, which is rare these days.  I'd be happy to make them in any other color by request as well - just ask. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/156956575/zinc-plated-steel-coil-hook-with-matte

One of the pairs listed yesterday that I wear often consists of tiny brass hex nuts in a chandelier formation.  Despite numerous pieces of metal, they're surprisingly lightweight!  For more definition and pop, I used silver jump rings to contrast with the brass hex nuts.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/156940910/brass-hex-nut-chandelier-earrings

Of course, there is a slew of men's necklaces that need to be listed, BUT the silly Texas weather did not cooperate.  I loaded up my jewelry cart - which should be another blog post itself sometime soon - and started to roll it out of the office and towards the back door.  (As you may or may not know, it is best to take photos in natural light, aka outdoors.)  Right as the cart passes the threshold of the office, BOOM.  Thunder.  Pretty sure I actually said out loud, "You have got to be freaking kidding me!!"  Haha!  Then more thunder followed by pouring rain... Sigh.  C'est la vie!  Maybe today?

Here's a preview of the men's jewelry line.  See anything you like?

Dear Blog, We Need to Talk...

Dear Blog,

What can I say other than "I'm sorry."?  I've been cheating on you, profusely cheating, with many other social media sites.  There, I said it.  Okay?!  Wheh, much better.

Seriously, though, it seems that I take to all forms of social media, like Carrie Bradshaw to Manolo Blahniks, except for blogging.  What's the big deal anyway?  Why do so many people struggle with keeping a blog going?  Once you begin typing, it just flows... but there's that tiny matter of starting.  Blogging reminds me of the love/hate relationship many share with going to the gym: It feels a-ma-zing to finish a workout, like you're the "King/Queen of the world!" (insert classic Leo impersonation here), but getting to the gym in the first place is the real challenge.  There's always an excuse - I'm too tired... I need to send those emails... My eyelashes are sore... blah blah blah - or the classic "I'll get up early and go tomorrow morning instead."  Yeah, right.  Don't hold your breath!

Now, we're all aware of the problem, but I'm more interested in solutions.  What's your best advice for maintaining a blog and posting regularly?  Do you have any useful tips for me and the rest of the blogosphere?

And so it begins...

How does a flutist with a full-time private teaching schedule come to the unexpected decision to make jewelry and open an Etsy shop halfway thru a school year?  An excellent question, for sure.  While I've always adored jewelry - see just a small part of my collection below - creating it never occurred to me until very late in December 2012. 

What pushed me to the other side?  Why, Pinterest, of course!  Who isn't inspired to create by that wonderful website with its wealth of beautiful pictures and project ideas?! 

Then, the most amazing thing happened on the morning of January 4th in the shower: my "Aha!" moment.  I thought of an awesome design idea for a necklace but needed to check Etsy to make sure it hasn't already been done.  Much to my delight, it is truly an original idea - very unique and FAB-U-LOUS!  Execution is still in the works, and I can't wait to reveal my brainchild, hopefully sooner than later.  

Please follow my new shop, IND[ustrial] ReEvolution, to keep up with the latest: 
Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/IndReEvolution 
FB at https://www.facebook.com/IndReEvolution 
Twitter at https://twitter.com/IndReEvolution