Welcome! (Again)

This photo was taken a few years ago, my hair is no longer dyed this color. 

Dang ya'll, how many blogs do I need, right? THE ANSWER IS ALL OF THEM. Ha, but seriously, hear me out. Or not, whatever. You do you.

About TWO years ago (I meant to launch this new blog in January 2017 but I wanted to get some blog posts finished first and then I kept dragging my feet on actually DOING that and then before I knew it, bam, 2017 was over), I noticed that my blogger friend Becky from The United States of Becky had her blog and all her social media platforms congruent, and it got me thinking that mine feels all over the place and lacked consistency. I looked up everyone else that I follow, and yeah, they had their "branding" steady all across the board. Dang. But then I realized that no, there wasn't a lack of consistency on my end, there was just one outlier: my blog It's Like A Potato. I had unintentionally matched all my other social media to one name: Faerie Eye.

And am I going to have to do a FAQ on this blog title like the potato one? Because I don't have an answer. Well, I kind of have an answer. I have used this name since right after high school because I use to be all into faeries, I even had a plan to get a faerie tattoo. That never transpired, but it was totally in the planning stages. Planning something permanent is a huge deal in my world, yo. Commitment? Making a decision that can't be undone? WHAT. Also, I spell it "faerie" and not "fairy" because 1. faerie encompasses all of the creatures of faerie land (fairies, imps, brownies, etc), at least, as I have understood it, and 2. fairy feels too Disney Tinkerbellish while faerie feels more ethereal and sophisticated. Because being into faeries is totes all adult and the epitome of sophistication, ya'll.

I have been feeling less and less connected to the title I chose for my original blog, oh so long ago that was a funny inside joke at the time but faded as jokes do. I still love me some potatoes, and my husband always jokes about my Irish (Welsh?) heritage (ha, what. why do Americans do this, I'm as Irish as my cats. my family has been here forevvaaaa) and obsession with potatoes (it's not an obsession, ok? I JUST REALLY LIKE FRIES. and potato skins. and mashed potatoes. and more fries).

He did try to get me to stay with the original blog and title, he thinks it's still funny and original and sounds more like a blog (whatever that means), so I'm not going to delete it (also I still like a lot of my posts from there and will probably be referencing them in the future). Who knows, I might end up blah about this one too, and then go back to the potato one. Or start another blog, because apparently, that seems to be the trend. ALL THE BLOGS ARE BELONG TO ME. And apparently all the oldest internet memes, too.

My husband also mentioned that I'm going to lose my SEO ratings and I told him my bounce rate is like 90 percent so it's not a loss (ha, check me out sounding like I know what the f I'm talking about). He then said, well maybe your most popular post shouldn't be about wearing panties on your head. I CAN'T HELP IT IF THEY ARE LOOKING FOR SEXY BUTT TIME AND GET MY STUPID FACE INSTEAD.

But that isn't my most popular post, this one is. It's the most popular post by at least 1000 clicks. Which is a pretty big deal for me if you knew how little each post gets (they average about 20-30 views, so having a post that has had over 2000 views is a huge victory for me). And for reference, the g-string one is trailing behind with 175 total views. So CLEARLY not my most popular one, Neil, Mister Wrong That Has Wronged With the Wrong Information.

Ahem.

I had to ask myself, why? Why go through the effort of making a new blog? What is my goal here? What am I trying to achieve?

money?
fame?
followers?
sponsors?
free shit?

All the nopes. Most of that sounds like more work, so no. I mean, I wouldn't say no to some of that stuff if it just happened, but at this point, I can't see myself actively trying. My main and only goal at this point is just to have a blog I'm not ashamed of.  Yup, that simple. And I've come to the realization that I am ashamed of my potato blog. Every once in awhile, my husband will try to bring up my blog IN REAL LIFE with REAL PEOPLE and I get all what, no, pretend I heard nothing, change the subject on him. 

And yet, I enjoy blogging. I love the community that I've managed to tap into. The weird juxtaposition of those feelings led me to re-think my path.

Even though I still view this as a hobby, and if I think about it, it's actually an accumulation of a lot of my hobbies: photography (ha), crafts, party planning, bento, writing... I really think that's the biggest allure of blogging for me, all of my introverting somehow rolled into one thing.

I want it to be a hobby that I don't feel ashamed with sharing in real life. I have actively avoided sharing any posts on any of my social media (Instagram, Facebook) where I have real life friends (no one new in my life knows I blog) because I kind of did in the beginning of my blogging foray and oh my god the posts were ROUGH. I have since deleted the worst offenders. 

The people in my real life are fantastically intelligent, creative, amazing people, so I feel like the bar is set high for sharing something so personal. Not that anyone has said anything negative! Like I said, great people, but I didn't get any comments at all (well, except for Katrina, she is amazing and always has such positive things to say about my blog. Any time I start to waver on it, she texts me with something super sweet after a binge fest. Thank you so much, Katrina!). Which I hope means they never looked at it, please, oh please let that be the case.

I want to push myself to take better photos (I still need to figure out my camera and stop using it in auto mode), write better posts (there's this thing, called "editing" and I should do that), and utilize all the random blogging information I have learned (as little as that is, but it's something! In fact, I might do a blog post about it. Ha, be still our hearts. Tell us, oh wise one, how we too can one day get up to 30 views on a single blog post. Okay, maybe I'm not the best person to be writing about how to blog).

I want my blog to look clean, readable, purposeful (purpose still to be determined), but still me. I feel like my other blog still had a very amateur/novice feel to it and I wanted to change that. Which for me meant starting completely over instead of overhauling the existing blog. One seemed just so much easier, and anyone who knows me knows I'm all about that.

If blogging was a skill set from 0 to 10 (you know, like the Sims. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS LIKE THE SIMS), I feel like I'm a level 3 now and I would like this blog to reflect my new expertise. Yes, that's right, LEVEL THREE BITCHES*. Totally arbitrary and self-proclaimed. So official, much credibility. Don't be jelly, it totally only took me almost six years, so I'm like a certified blogger genius over here. /s**

TL;DR***: So I have this new blog, new title, fancy template (that I paid cash money for! what. thanks, Etsy), and a favicon**** and I think this means I'm a professional blogger now*****.

So what do you think, does my new blog feel like I've leveled up? Because it's always so cool to refer to real life like a video game...

any feedback is welcome!

*WHY AM I YELLING SO MUCH IN THIS POST. Also, I may have gotten a little crazy with all the asterisks.
**denotes sarcasm. learned on Reddit!
***Too Long; Didn't Read
**** That little square doohickey on the tab that represents the blog. The blogger default is that orange one with the B.
*****No.