Monday, February 27, 2012

The Plan

I’m completely useless these days. I'm over my slump from earlier this month and am crocheting away, but I've lost my blogging focus and voice.

I've got myself tied in knots over what I want from my blog and what I want to give and share through it. Blogs are many things to many people and I've had to step back and work out what's important to me. Probably a good thing to do from time to time.

Anyway, the main conclusion I've come up with is that I need to be much better organised in both my crafting and my blogging in order to achieve my goals.

I would love to sell my patterns and toys and to put more time and effort in there. But, let’s face it, I just don’t have the time, and I need to remember that! I’ve always taken a laid back approach to both crafting and blogging. After all, I’m supposed to be doing this for pleasure. But if I want to actually achieve specific goals, I can’t go on like that.

The goals below relate to specific blog posts that I’m aiming to write, starting in March. You can see that they also dictate how I organise my crafting.

1. 1 post per month- Beyond the Square motifs with Barbara’s challenge (motifs to be crocheted the last weekend of each month)
2. 1 post per month – MTM update (aiming for around the 25th of the month as that’s when I blogged about it in January, but movable depending on how it fits in with everything else)
3. 1 post per month - new pattern/tutorial: most of the patterns below only need the final write-up, others are still wonderful ideas floating around my mind, but I need to get myself a bit more organised to do it all.
  • Tassel
  • Petal
  • Cedric
  • Pin cushion & craft caddy (an idea that’s been in my head for a very long time)
  • Victor variant
  • Mrs Tittlemouse?
  • Owl Babies?
  • Hippy monkey?

4. 1 post per week - other finishes and WIPs
5. 1 post per month – would like another group activity
6. 1 post per month – something around Pinterest? Yes, I am addicted, and yes I have read some of the many recent blog posts about appropriately crediting images etc. Not sure what I think, but maybe I'll look into watermarking (if that's the right term) my photos?

I’m still looking for suggestions for numbers 5 and 6!

I hope this list will also help me organise my blog writing in advance and to put aside some time every month to sort out photos and upload them to Flickr.

And my blog layout does need some attention too!

At least I have a new iPod to help me! Wish me luck!

4 comments:

Erica said...

You can do it!

Laura said...

That looks like an excellent plan! It can be really hard balancing the serious side of crafting - routine, publishing, making, photographing, blogging etc - with the fun side that just wants to make everything right now!

Looking forward to seeing how you get on :)

Julie said...

Good luck with the new plans, looking forward to coming here, i love to see what you've been crafting.

Happy time with hook and needle xx

Cuckoo said...

I feel similarly. I love to blog. I love my blog. i love others blogs. I like to comment and receive comments and I like to reply to comments but sometimes I just haven't the time for it all and also I wonder where I am going with it. What is my blog these days? Will it turn into a thing that is linked to a business I may or may not set up? Is it a family diary? Is it a crafty chatty place...And then I think does it really matter as long as I enjoy it.

I'm like you n that I have a heap of things I want to do with my blog lay out and I have quite a few blog posts in draft form. Perhaps it would benefit me to write a list of objectives like you have. Good luck with all your goals. You've got a real chance of making them happen now you have written it all out.

xxx