with the pursuit of inspiration I am able to grow...

What makes me qualified to write a blog? What makes Tyra Banks qualified to host a talk show? I love Tyra, but if she can do anything she wants to do, than so can I.

But really, it's after a few months of internal debate that I decided to blog. For me, blog reading started because blogging is a big part of the knitting world, and since I have no one in my life who shares a love for the 'art of purl' I get my inspiration from mysterious yet familiar strangers from afar. Knitting was the gateway drug that then led to to sewing blogs and DIY blogs and vegetarian blogs and interior design blogs... it's a big world out there folks! There's a lot of inspiration to be found. You can find examples of some of the bloggers who have given me inspiration on my sidebar. They are amazing. I am not delusional to think that I am as gifted or artsy or talented with the camera as they are (I don't have an SLR or Photoshop... frankly my laptop can't handle any photo editing period). I am certianly not as elloquant as many, yet I still really want to be a part of this sharing of ideas and thoughts. I can't express how women like Aura Joon and Sarah Britton have made me feel more comfortable about who I am, knowing that there are other's out there with similar values as mine. Why can't all these amazing women get together for an amazing women party at my home?? Well we can't. We can, however, meet up in blogland. So, here is my contribution. Thank you to those who have inspired me to be a part of this!

Not too long ago I was at my parents home helping them empty out the basement when I found a box of things from between the years of 1997 to 2002. Everything that I kept from before university was in a box (let's not be delusional... there were several boxes of hoarded half broken crafts and trinkets). Included amongst the treasures were past journals and notebooks. I have always written in a journal. Even now I write. As I read some poems and passages out loud to my mom we were both amazed at what I was writing, even as young as 14 years old. I just loved to write. While I still occasionally write privately in a journal, I don't pour myself out on paper like I used to. Granted, these were very private notebooks, and the internet didn't even exist for most of it, but I was somehow able to express some very insightful thoughts about significant developmental milestones. My mom asked me why I don't write anymore, and why I never pursued writing as a career. I told her that no job could ever be as glamorous or financially rewarding as social work (wink wink) but agreed writing is something that I enjoy.

There is something about writing that helps my thoughts to become organized. As someone who spends a lot of time in my head, it helps to turn thoughts into sentences. There is also something both terrifying and exhilarating about the transparency that comes with writing thoughts down. There is the chance that somebody could read it and (horror) know what I am really thinking. Well, I don't promise to share all of my deepest darkest secrets, but I do want to share a few thoughts. To anyone who is out there. Or to no one. I really don't care. This is partly for me too, you know!

So a little known fact about me is that I am a journal hoarder. I love them. I have some journals that I have found on my travels that I don't even intend to write in. I also have my journals organized thematically. For example, my journal library looks something like this:

- kitchen journal - where I record recipes that I hear a

bout, dream about, or concoct

- gardening journal - what I grow, where, and how it's doing each year

- knitting/crochet journal - when I make up a pattern I write it down - there are not many of these. It also includes ideas for a knitting business which I will probably never get around to!

- travel - oh, this one is a cherished one. It documents, in depth, each day of my travels when I am alway, except for, inevitably, the last few days when I am sick of writing

- a journal for poetic thoughts and insights

- a journal for the juicy details!!

And you know what... unlike my old journals, blogger has spellcheck! Lucky for you. Seriously.

I hope this serves to explain the purpose of wanting to make a blog. I figure I will have a thought, something to say or share to the world, and maybe document it for the whole world to read (or maybe nobody - and that would be fine too).

Love always,

Joan Blondina