I Love You All, Thank You So Much

I would like to offer a very heartfelt

to all of my readers.

Your outpouring of condolences after Ellie's death made the adjustment to life without her easier.

How could I have thought for even a second that I would quit blogging?

It is moments like these that help me remember how wonderful this community is.

I truly love all of you.

We got her back today. This poem, which has meant so much to me in the past, was given to me by the kind people at Rutherford Funeral home in Columbus, OH.

Disenchanted with my Blog

So I am having a difficult time writing new posts. I am disenchanted. I started blogging with such zeal. Now, after four years, I feel stagnant and a bit tired of it all. About a year ago, I spent up to 12 hours a day working on the blog, commenting, doing blog hops, working with sponsors, etc. Back then, I got up to 30 comments with each post. I was on top of the blogging world. Except I was bitterly unhappy in MY world, my children made comments about mom never being off of the computer, my husband knew that in between cooking and cleaning I wouldn't be available to anything but the blog.

Then I got my head together and my priorities in order. I started spending lots of time with other people. I wasn't rolling in angst. Sure, there are worse days than other, but by and large I am able to manage my psyche pretty well. I quit responding to 50 blogs a day. I no longer participate in blog hops. Instead of writing posts about how difficult life can be, I write recipes and observations. And I've lost readers, comments are down, I have no sponsors.

At some point I had to face the fact that blogging simply is not going to pay the bills. God bless those who have been able to turn it into a career, but just like any form of media blogging is competitive and the people with the money like other bloggers more than me. So then if blogging isn't going to be my job it is a hobby and it should be fun, enjoyable, something I look forward to doing.

But lately it isn't. I realize I haven't posted for days and I don't have a problem with it mostly because it feels so "blah." I would like to get my blogging mojo back; I think I maintain a good space. So help me, my blogging friends. What do you do when you want to call it quits? How do you get the spark back? How do you banish the disenchantment and start with new vigor?

12 Dad Blogs That You Should Be Reading

There are some amazing Dad Blogs out there (and a few wonderful Dads who Blog, too) and I am guessing that you probably aren't acquainted with them. For some reason, being a Mom Blogger (even if you hate the term) is hot, but being a Dad Blogger is just a totally overlooked blogoverse category. And I don't get it AT ALL. Who better than a dad to help us understand our husbands, the fathers in our lives, and their thoughts on parenting and life in general?

The men listed below write wonderful, thoughtful, often hilarious blogs that cover everything you could ever imagine. I am so happy to have become blog friends with them and excited to introduce them to you.

Richard Monroe and Barry Silver

1. Richard Monroe writes The Butterbottom Blog, "the blog that is strong enough for a man, but made for a woman." He writes posts about the absurdities and humor of life as a husband and father. The word "lovely" comes to mind, but is that a masculine enough description for a Daddy Blog? Well, it's a lovely blog.

2. Barry Silver is my first Dad who blogs (but not a Dad Blogger). A Life Lived Well Concludes With A Smile records "life's small moments that create life's lasting memories." With posts on everything from family to technology, entertainment to life in general, A Life Well Lived provides the prefect mash-up of everything you ever needed to read.

John Willey and Ben Moffat

3. John Willey is the author of Daddy's In Charge? and one of this year's Parents.com Best Dad Blog Award Nominees. I love his Lego movies (starring everyone from Chuck Norris to Spiderman) which record his singular views on fatherhood. Read the bittersweet My Son is a Swinger to appreciate those days when your kids are dependent on you, especially if you have days like me where you wish they could do their own laundry and cook for themselves.

4. Ben Moffat is The Angry Scot, a Scotsman living with his family in Sweden. The Angry Scot is his place to write and rant about life, parenting, and all of the exploits that come with them. Ben is incredibly opinionated and not afraid to let everyone know (sort of like my Scotch-American hubs).

Justin Mannato and Dustin Christian

5. Justin Mannato's Daddy Knows Less is listed as Circle of Moms #12 Best Dad Blog. His post about Ikea (a store which I am DYING to shop at), "To Hell and Back" is an absolute must read. Absolutely hilarious and really showed me how my husband feels on our shopping forays!

6. Dustin Christian, author of Daddy Geek: Raising the Dungeonmasters of Tomorrow, is another blog author who writes about a wonderfully varied mix of parenting topics. Check out It's Okay to Hate Being a Parent. . . Occasionally. Dustin will be one of the dads guest posting over the next few weeks, so look out for him.

Todd Howard and Edward Staples, Jr.

7. Todd Howard's LessonMinder.com is an invaluable resource for homeschooling parents and any parent who wishes to help further educate their child. He has a real passion for teaching our children, and his website shows it. The blog is an adjunct to Todd's educational organizational tool available online.

8. Edward Staples, Jr. of FatherEd is a Christian father who writes insightful articles about child rearing. He has an evident love for his children and you can tell from his posts that he is intentionally raising them with honor and dignity. Oh, and his youngest is a William, too, and both are darn cute!

Matthew Peregoy and Alex Walsh

9. Matthew Peregoy of The Real Matt Daddy is funny, funny, funny. Did I mention that this blog is hilarious? Really, you've got to read his recent post on how to get a toddler to sit still. Where was he when William was 1? Also nominated for Parents.com Best Daddy Blogger of the year.

10. Alex Walsh of Daddacool can explain himself best: "What's there to say really? I am a father to two small children who haven't yet pushed me past the point where my sanity disintegrates and I turn into a gibbering wreck but that can only be just round the corner." Listed at #8 on Cision's list of Top UK Daddy Blogs; Alex has also been published in my go to English news source, The Guardian.

Derek Markham and Zach Rosenberg

11. Derek Markham writes Natural Papa, Treehugger's 2010 Best Health and Wellness website. This site goes beyond most eco-parenting sites which seem to be geared toward eco-deals by tackling topics such as home birth, parenting, and eco-living in an amazingly insightful fashion.

12. Zach Rosenberg is one of the Editors of 8BitDad: Paternity in Pixels, has appeared on radio on His Side with Glenn Sacks and written for publications such as Filter Magazine and The Los Angeles Sentinel. This wonderful blog brings together soundbites geared toward everyman about fathering, parenting, and being a man from all over the internet. Often absurd, usually hilarious, always entertaining, this blog is worth a bit of your time.

What is Triberr and why Should I Join?

You've heard about it, you've seen the tweets. You might even be in a tribe but you have no idea what you are supposed to do now. I'd like to introduce you to the world of Triberr, the reach multiplier.

There are discussions all the time about how to drive more traffic to blog sites. Triberr is a tool that does just that. Triberr is made up of individual tribes, the members of which typically have similar blogs or simply are joining together to reach new people. It works this way: each member of a tribe sends out automatically generated tweets with the names of the other members blog posts. Let's assume that you have 10 Twitter followers and you have 10 tribe members, each of whom have 10 members. This means that info about your latest blog post will be sent out to 100 people.

You can approve or disapprove which tweets you send out from your homepage so if you don't think your twitter followers will appreciate tweet X from tribe mate Y, you don't have to send it.

I currently have around 1150 Twitter followers. Through my participation in Triberr, my reach is currently close to 120,000 Twitter users. Traffic to my blog has increased three fold, although the number of comments I get has not.

If Triberr sound like something you would be interested in, I am starting a tribe of parent Bloggers who publish original content. You may have the occasional review or giveaway on your blog, but reviews, deals, and giveaways cannot be the primary focus of your blog (there are a lot of tribes on Triberr for deal bloggers).
If you are interested and are new to Triberr, either leave a post with your twitter name and blog address or tweet me @erinswallace. Any other questions? Ask me!

Tomorrow's post will be about the ins and outs of Triberr: bones, karma, etc. See you then.

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Thanks bunches!

I'm always thrilled to receive blogging awards and this week I was graced with two of them. First, Sonia Florian of Sonia's Wonder World awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award. Sonia's blog is really cool; she's Romanian, studied in Germany where she met and fell in love with a Japanese man, so now she lives in Japan. Her blog is an interesting look at her life in Japan and Japaneses culture, architecture, and art.

So, I'm passing this award along to

Cup of Serenity

Trains, Tutus, and Teatime

Chrissy in America

Scenic Glory

and

Small Things

Sarah from Through the Picture Window gave me this award:

Sarah's blog is a great mash-up of family, life, recipes, and every little other great bit she decides to write about. Thanks Sarah!

I'll pass this on along to:
She Smiles, She Writes
Splittergewitter
Whimsybeams
Peace and Projects
My Best Friend Jules
Bohemian Backbone
and
grainline

And now, in the great tradition of blogging awards, 7 random things about me!

1. In my life, I've owned 15 cats. I like dogs, but I truly am a cat person.

2. In medical school, I wanted to go into Forensics (this was long before CSI) but then the Chief Forensic Examiner of the State of Ohio came to school and showed us some pictures of cases and I ran like the wind from that idea (beyond gory - so far beyond)!

3. I collect tinted lithographs, statues of saints, and art pottery (though not so much anymore).

4. I have a celebrity crush on Colin Firth (I know, who doesn't) and John Cusack (a hold over from high school, when Lloyd Dobler was the ultimate.)

5. I'm a PokeManiac. Yes, and a geek, too.

6. I have a thing for Yo Gabba Gabba. The music is incredible and it reminds me of Sesame Streets psychadelic good old days.

7. I either sleep A LOT or am a total insomniac. I never know which it will be.

So thanks a bunch for the awards, they are always appreciated!

Working on an e-course!

So I've talked a lot on here about being yourself on your blog, letting your authentic self shine through. I have lots of new readers who are relatively new bloggers and who seem hesitant to get beyond the superficial stuff with their blogs for fear that they'll tick someone off or lose readership. So the idea came to me to write up a course on a series of writing and art exercises to take place over a three week period to help bloggers dig deep, to give them the skills and confidence to write the type of blog they want to write.



I also thought I'd include a few of the things that I do when I have absolutely no idea what to write. It would give a break from some of the deeper stuff and help develop some skills to use then the old writer's block hits.

This is going to be based on how I've approached my blog. But I'm certainly not trying to create Erin clones - one of me is quite enough, thank you very much!



So what I'd like to know is if there is interest in this course. I'm going to charge a bit for it, but I'm thinking like $30, not the $150 that you'd usually pay. A girl who can't find a job's gotta find a way to make a living (by the way, have you seen my shop? I've been giving serious thought to donating 10% of all profit to a rotating list of charities that my readers can choose. My first one would probably be some Salvation Army effort directed toward the Gulf, but I think what I'd like to do is a poll every three months or so and the readers can choose from a list of pre-selected causes.) K. So if you are interested, please let me know! And if there's enough interest, I'll start writing!


source

Your Authentic Web Identity

So this post is geared a bit toward the newer bloggers in the crowd but I'd love to see what those who have been in the blog world a while have to say about my words, too.

I was reading my September Vogue again (yes, the same magazine that led to the horrific tub overflow - it's a little wet) and a sentence caught my eye. I don't know if I'm quoting it directly, but it said something to the effect of "How much do we hide behind our web identities?"

Those of you that have read my blog for a while know that I (pretty much) an open book. I'll tell you anything that is going on in my mind, all of the bad things that I do, and those moments of absolute bliss as well. However, I'm not good at cleaning house. You are more than likely never going to see my home in House Beautiful, and I can tell you right now that you will NEVER see my bedside table or dresser. As much as I try to keep those clean, they always seem to be overflowing with Hot Wheels and magazines, unpaid bills and Incredibly Important Papers. It's not pretty. So I will be a blogger who admits it; my physical world is a little (okay, incredibly a lot) air brushed.

It does bother me when I read a newer blogger who is struggling with whether she should let all of the controversial or icky stuff that she is thinking about out there. All in all, it's her blog, but if it's something that's weighing on her mind and she needs to get it out, gosh darn it, it's her blog!! Now I will say that I have a few BIG rules that I follow when it comes to blog revelation; I Never air the family's dirty laundry, I try not to complain, I never talk about a trying or hurtful subject that has happened to someone else without first getting their permission, and I NEVER, EVER talk about the larger events in my children's social lives on my blog. I'm sorry, Perez Hilton, but gossip is never becoming of the gossiper.

So how much of ourselves do we share? I will tell you that when I am having a particularly bad depression day there won't be a post; the words swimming around in my head don't really need to be published on the blogosphere. But I'm never going to try to pretend that I'm Martha Mama when I'm really not (have you seen those Dora the Explorer cupcakes on Nick Jr? Come on. I'm doing good if the cupcakes actually get frosted!). There are ubermoms out there that I am actually in awe of (Lisa of 5 Orange Potatoes and anyone who home schools their children well come to mind).

I think what it boils down to is that a person's blog is their place of expression, and whatever that person feels comfortable expressing has a place on their blog. There are blogs that I don't read because I don't agree with the content or the posts just rub me the wrong way. But it's not my blog or my thoughts on that screen, so more power to the author.

If you are a newer blogger and you are still trying to find your voice, I urge you to take a look at a few of the following blogs. These ladies (and man), I believe, are truly authentic, artistic souls. They show it in very different ways, but at least I get the feeling that if I met these people I'd feel like I'd known them for years.

always time for tea
be yourself . . . everyone else is taken
CHAI, CINNAMON, & COUTURE
come sit by my fire
Earth Mama
Give a Girl a Fig
heartfelt and homemade
moments of perfect clarity
Practice is Perfect
Puzzling Posts: An Admission of Cluelessness

ramblins...
remedial eating
SPLITTERGEWITTER
Soul Aperture
Thst's Mrs. Mediocrity to You
The 60/40
There is a Time

And I'm going to stop here. I have so many more I could share with you. Check out my blog roll - these are the people that I wanted to be like when I started out. Be yourself. To heck with the haters. You wanna talk about hiding behind a web identity? Ms. Anonymous Commentor has that avenue covered!

Photos from We Heart It

Friday Follows 7/16/10

I LOVE blog hops! They have introduced me to some amazing bloggers and brought so many new readers to my blog. And Friday is one of the great blog hop days!





logs

Sponsor Love: Knot-Cha-Chá!™

I have my first sponsor and I am so excited to introduce you to her!

I've been reading Sharon's blog, Knot-Cha-Chá!™ for a long time and it has become one of the required stops on my blog list. Sharon is "a designer/maker, teacher, writer and spinner of yarns with a love of color, texture, and simplicity of line." Her articles on spinning (and the beautiful results) have made me want to learn to spin and her featured knitting is beautiful. In addition, she writes fun articles about her life and adventures and includes tutorials for some really beautiful projects (I Love the Understatement Necklace).

Her Etsy store, Knot-Cha-Chá!™ is full of gorgeous knitted and crocheted confections like this merino wool scarf (that I have been coveting) in a lacy ribbed pattern. Buy it for me, won't you?

She also makes hats, bracelets, wraps, cowls, and many other delicious handmade accessories. Be sure to check them out!

Thanks, Sharon, for being my first sponsor!

More information on sponsorship opportunities can be found here or by clicking the "Become a Sponsor" button in the left sidebar.

Friday Follows

The CSN giveaway is here. Go enter it to win a $40 Gift card!

It's Friday, time for all those crazy follows!! While you're at it, enter my CSN Giveaway for a $40 gift card. Welcome to Dropped Stitches!

Time for Tuesday!

Tuesday Following



We're Following the leader, wherever she may roam!

A ramble with some knitting and kitty pictures (and a profoundly amazing title)

I started this blog as an act of desperation. We had no money, and I was caught hook, line, and sinker by those internet ads promising gobs of cash if you just blogged about something you knew. I knew knitting. So one day, I sat down, signed up for a Blogger account, and wrote about a knit along. Easy peasy! And I incorporated Adwords and waited for the cash to come pouring in.

You know what happened next, don't you? Where was the money??? I quickly learned that blogging was about something completely different than money. I also learned that although I loved to knit, and Dropped Stitches was supposed to be a dedicated knitting blog, I just didn't want to write about knitting all of the time.

So I started putting in tidbits about my life. Then a recipe here and there. I wasn't really dedicated to posting, and for a time quit writing. I hadn't figured out the cardinal rule of blogging: if you really don't want to write about the stuff you are writing about, you aren't going to write a good blog. Easy as that.

Somehow, one day I decided that I was going to start writing again, but this time, I'd use my blog as a creative outlet. It would be my place to let off some steam, explore who I was, and share a bit about knitting. It slowly morphed into a completely different monster. One that will rock you to sleep and sing you a lullaby (because there are no mean monsters in my Dropped Stitches world), but an very interesting monster with a VERY interesting hairdo nonetheless.

The first time I wrote about faith I was scared to death. Who wanted to read about a girl and her faith struggles? As it turned out, a lot of people did. I received more comments than I ever had. I learned to be authentic. And transparent. Every time I revealed more of myself, flawed, scared, depressed, all of the yucky stuff, I felt lighter, more free. And I decided that if people didn't want to read about the yucky, well they just didn't have to, did they?

I don't even know how to categorize what I write now. I just try to share, be true, and you all know that I like pretty pictures, so I share them. I don't share a lot about my family because they need their anonymity, but I share some stuff. By the way, eldest daughter broke her wrist attempting an axel. Figure skating is a dangerous sport!

So that's my ramble. This is what you get when I'm sleepy and a bit migrainous. And in a totally unrelated bit, kitties and knitting just sort of go together, do they not?

Enjoy your day and be good to yourself.

Photos We Heart It

The Bunny Hop 6/14

There are a growing number of fun blog hops out there; this one's mine. You don't have to share a craft, a tip, or any other area of brilliance, just share your blog!

For the uninitiated, a blog hop works this way: Join my blog. I WILL follow you back, but it may take me some time to get to all of the blogs. Then add your blog to the list. Grab the button and publish it and the info about the hop and IN A SEPERATE POST, post it on your site (please add the button to publicize the hop - the more people that know about it, the more participants we'll have). Ad your linky to the list. Check out the other blogs and join them if you like them. It is super kind to follow anyone who follows you - you give a little, you get a little. So, let the fun begin!

The Versatile Blogger Award!

So, wow! Yenta Mary of Food Floozie thinks that I'm a Versitile Blogger! If you have not read her blog, you must! It is wonderful, she's really cool (she wrote an Ode to the Peanut Butter Cookie - now come one, that's cool), and I am so honored that she would pick me for this award, especially considering the wonderful group of bloggers that I am included in!

Tell 7 Things About Yourself

1. I've been crocheting for over 25 years, yet never attempted a granny square until last week. Now I am obsessed with them. And I cannot stop thinking about how I need more colors of cotton yarn!

2. I majored in Biology and minored in Chemistry. I loved Chemistry infinately more than Biology, but didn't figure this out until I'd have to spend another year in college to get my major. But Biology is the stuff, too.

3. My first job was as a cashier at Meijer.

4. I am a magazine-o-holic. I will read almost any magazine that you put in front of me, except body building ones, since they freak me out. And now that there are so many online magazines, I should never be bored again.

5. I've always wanted a descented skunk as a pet. I don't think it will ever happen, as my husband thinks that this is totally insane.

6. I'm a personality quiz junkie - my Myers Briggs type is INFJ, which includes less than 1% of the population; Mother Theresa and Martin Luther Knig, Jr. were INFJs.

7. People always ask where else in the world you would like to live - well, I'm pretty happy with Ohio. It's a pretty darn great state.

And now I get to choose 15 bloggers with whom I've recently become acquainted to pass the award to. They are

Curious Girl
Green Submarine
Irresistible Icing
Life-n-Reflection
Tell Love & Chocolate
Urban Farm Designs
The Cottage Sisters
The Seventy Tree
ephemerette
tales of a jUnkaholic
bury me in leaves
le passion for fashion
elycia
*simply scratch*
Ida

Laugh about work? Yes indeed!

Most of you know that I wasn't always a SAHM. At one point I worked as a pediatrician in an office and a hospital. Politics, politics, politics. And more training videos, motivational speeches, and interoffice memos that you can imagine (well, you probably can imagine, as a lot of you are in the trenches as we speak). Which is why I love Workforced, the office comedy blog. Written by Don Joe (who calls me knitting addict Erin - he has a nickname for me! And it makes me smile.), Workforced exposes the absurd folly that is the corporate environment. And it is really funny.

Okay, it's not just really funny, it's laugh out loud funny. A recent post, Emails Part 2: One small Step for Spamkind, contains this nugget:

"2 B or not 2 B, that’s the ?
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind 2 suf4
The slings & arrows of outrageous 4tune (lol),
Or 2 take arms against a C of troubles,
& by opposing, end them. ; )

If you send emails like this, next time you are sitting at your workstation, please shoot yourself with a silencer so everyone else can sleep."

Mr. Don Joe likes ninjas, too. Who doesn't like a man who likes ninjas?

So next time you are sitting in your cubicle wondering "Ummm, really, is this place run by chimpanzees?" (as I often did) go to Workforced. And laugh.