(Ed) // The Why.

I've made many attempts over the past decade at starting and maintaining a blog, knowing on some level that it had great potential to enhance my life.  What makes it different this time is that I have finally figured out, at least for myself, why it is exactly that a blog could be a life enhancing experience.  Here are the conclusions I have come to in no particular order:

A blog will hold me accountable

As some of you know I started a small project this year on Facebook that has already greatly enhanced my life. I got the idea of taking and posting a picture for each day of the year after seeing a similar project on another person's blog. In this project, I take and edit all my pictures completely on an iPhone with the intention that the photo with "represent the day".  It is now day 198 and I have stuck with my commitment and already have a wonderful collection of photos. At the end of the year I will be able to compile all of my pictures into a book; providing a wonderful keepsake for my family. A blog is similar to my 365 project in that, my commitment to it will hold me accountable to put forth content on a daily basis.  Knowing that each day I am accountable for a picture, I am reminded to slow down, take a look around, and try to capture a little piece of my life. And I suspect that blogging about my day (the things that I care about, the places I go, and the things I do)  will motivate me to live a life that produces a blog worth writing (or reading); a creative, fun, and inspired life.

As a stylist and a designer I mainly deal in the realm of image. My work is based on the idea that by helping a person cultivate their own unique style and image, they in fact can shape the way they are perceived. I dispense advice about beauty, health, and image on a daily basis and I'll be honest..sometimes I don't always take my own advice. My hope is that if I am documenting my day to day in the form of a blog, I will be more  mindful and begin to consistently  implement the skill, knowledge, and wisdom that I have gained throughout the years; ever aware that not only am I writing to an audience...but, most importantly, I am writing this blog to myself. For me to consider myself successful at what I do, I need to practice what I preach... as well as blog. 

A blog will remind me who I am and what I love

With my 365 project, I was reminded of where my talents truly lie and what I enjoy doing the most. I learned early on that I am not a particularly talented photographer and that my original photos are actually pretty ordinary. It has been in the editing process that I have grown the most and can see that this is where my true talents lie... trying to make the ordinary (a picture taken with a crappy iPhone camera) extraordinary (through design).

original photo

post production: PS Express and Instagram

I find post production of photos endlessly fun and endless with possibility. It was this aspect of my 365 project has most excited my interest in all things related to graphic design.  My excitement has overflowed and I have acquired a few freelance design gigs and have been encouraged to revisit graphic design as career!  Now I can supplement my families income through design (something I enjoy dearly AND that I can do from home) after deciding to only do hair styling part time once my daughter was born. It was all because of my commitment to a creative project that I grew as an artist, got inspired, and was reminded that, in this life, I can be and do oh-so-many things!  I suspect that blogging will develop, reveal, and remind me of even more things I want to do and be in my life.

A blog will foster a sense of connectedness and intimacy with my friends, family, clients, and perfect strangers

Look around. We are a virtual society as much as we are a physical society, maybe even more so.  Everyone is constantly connected to the Internet: checking Facebook every five minutes on our phones, reading a book on our  Kindel,"flipping through" a magazine on our iPad, or chatting on our computer with loved one we rarely ever get to "see".  We send thank you emails instead of a card and we expect Google to answer any random question that may pop into our overstimulated heads. There is a lot more to a person's life other than the life that we simply "see". I imagine that Blogging will allow me to share a larger part of life with anyone and everyone who desires to have a connection with me.   With the business of life, I will often go days (even weeks) without seeing anyone other than my husband, daughter, and clients. Blogging can keep those in my life who love me feeling close to me even when we are unable to be physically close. It can also allow me to be a part of someone's life with whom I may never know in the physical... which I find to be a fascinating idea.  

And that, my friends, is why I started a blog!

(Lov)e,

-k.