September 28, 2013
When I opened up shop here a year and a half ago, it was on the heels of a 6 month search for a name. I had dreamed up this space long before it launched, but what took me so long was deciding on a freaking name. One that had longevity, wasn’t tied specifically to one thing, one which wouldn’t sound cheese or corny or truly despicable to me in 5 years. Tristan is the one who finally helped m settle on For The Love Of…and quite a few people I’ve met at blog conferences have sincerely (I think), told me it is a great name for a blog. It’s not so great for google search engines though, but oh well, you can’t have it all I suppose.
I originally wanted to call this space For The Love Of Style, but Tristan had the foresight to delete the style part and leave it more open-ended. I still thank her for that almost 2 years later because it has allowed me to comfortably write about my children, crafts, food, and whatever I have love for. She’s smart, isn’t she?
2 years ago when I was blogging away at my other space, I thought the thing that made me special was my experience in the fashion industry. Turns out, that doesn’t really mean anything to anyone, and it’s been things totally unrelated to style at all which have brought me any modicum of success in blogging. Crafts, writing about my children, and now writing about food, have all been big propellers to other worthwhile business ventures. To those that say you have to be singularly niche focused as a blogger, I say psshaw. I’ve come to realize you have to be singularly focused in writing about what you love, no matter how wide and varied that is. So I’m going to work on just that.
My time here has been sporadic, because I’ve long held this idea that because of my experience in the fashion industry, each style post has to be revolutionary and offer some bit of styling advice. I often think how lucky that Atlantic Pacific girl has it, so gifted in the styling department she doesn’t even have to write out actual words, other than outfit details, to get hundreds of thousands of people to visit her blog each month. We can’t have it all I suppose.
I’m letting go of these self-prescribed pressures and will continue to just share what I’m into. Right now, that’s getting my closet ready for fall, and cooking a lot. You know that scrolling list on the bottom of your Amazon home screen which shows items you’ve currently looked at and recommendations based on your browsing history? On mine, you’ll see a combination of books on food, kid’s lunch boxes, sequins and glitter glue, and juicers. My tastes and interests, as always, are all over the place. Bringing all those varied interests here to the blog may be a big blogging no-no, but it makes me a well-rounded person, so I’ll take the latter over the former. Expect to see more food-related posts, less crafts because I don’t have time for crafts right now, and at least 1-2 style posts a week. I hope that’s okay with all you lovely people out there, and will enjoy seeing a wide array of different post topics and content.
And now, let me share with you what else I’ve been writing about this past week:
At Babble:
How To Get Your Spouse On Board With Healthier Eating – how to overcome the 4 most common hurdles
The Secret Of Clean Eating That’s The Hardest To Overcome – it’s probably not what you think
Let’s Move Past the Chipotle Video Discussion Now, Please?
At Disney Baby:
The Beauty Of Sibling Age Gaps – why I love that our kid are much older than the baby
8 Food Hayden Can’t Get Enough Of – at 1 years old, who knew he’d love beets?!?
The Clinginess Begins – I’m starting to get my comeuppance for having such an easy infant!
I think you’re on to something here…think about reality tv – people are interested in how people live. So it makes sense to blog about what you are into 🙂
I feel this way about my blog too, sometimes – it’s not just a SINGLE focus. And then I remember that Liz from Say Yes to Hoboken said she has never wanted to specialize because she loves so many things. If she can do it, I can do it 🙂
Yay! Finallly … an argument against a super-specific niche!
“I’ve come to realize you have to be singularly focused in writing about what you love, no matter how wide and varied that is.”
I wholeheartedly agree on the above, when you love something it’s a lot more effortless to get excited about it as well. Thanks for the props. I also love seeing the new addition and how you have managed to stay stylish (and crafty) with an infant and two young children!
Andrea, For the Love of… is such an amazing title. I adore that you follow your passion and allow us along for the ride. Disney Baby and Babble? You’re rockin’ it, girl!
yes! yes! i think that as long as your posts come through as sincere and well thought out, it doesn’t matter what you write about. as long as its YOUR passion.
plus…i love seeing well rounded people.