Ella from Paper Umbrella tagged me last week in a "Confessions of a Blogger" post so I thought I would answer some of the questions for you. I don't really have a day of the week that's for personal posts so I thought I would stick it under the Shenanigans section. Close enough, right?

1. When did you first start blogging and why?

I started this blog in the middle of August this year. I started it for a few reasons. One reason was that I felt I wasn't well rounded enough - I spent all my time online on Modcloth and eBay. As much as I loved doing that, I wanted some motivation to do other things. I felt if I had a place to document my adventures, if I had something to hold me accountable to going out thrifting, going out with friends, watching and reviewing movies, then I would be a more rounded person. Also, in contrast, I kind of wanted it as a justification for my shopping (admittedly, a total shopaholic here!) I used to DJ once a week and had a good excuse for a new dress all the time. Now that I wasn't going out as much, having new fancy dresses seemed kind of pointless. If I was photographing them for a blog, at least they would be getting some mileage.

2. Have you had any past online presence?

I have accounts on just about every platform there is! Of course, the usual suspects like Facebook and Pinterest but I used to have a pretty lengthy journal that I wrote daily on a FitDay account when I was 16-18 years old and another daily journal written on MySpace when I was 20-21.

3. When did you become serious about your blog?

I tried to take it seriously from the beginning. I paid for blog design after the first week (after about 3 entries) and read tons of other blogs to see what I could learn from them. I tried to treat it like a job, although it's nice because when I lose my motivation, I can take breaks or days off whenever I please.

4. What was your first blog post?

It was a very, very short blog post just explaining where the name of the blog came from. I wrote a Factoid Friday post shortly after but deleted it because it was absolutely terrible, mostly because there were too many downer facts about death and spiders.

5. What have been your biggest challenges blogging?

Getting out to take pictures! I wake up really late (total night owl here) and by the time I get up, it's dark out. On days I do get up early enough, it's often too cold. Canada is not the greatest place for blogging.

6. What is the most rewarding thing about blogging?

I love the networking and socializing aspect. I love when I comment on people's blogs and they comment back (although I'm admittedly bad at doing that, oops!) But I also love when I'm not sure how to do something (usually certain HTML type things) and I google it and then follow it step by step. And it works. I know it's laid out for me, plain and simple but seeing it work and doing it for myself just feels magical.

7. What is the most discouraging thing about blogging?

Most people I know don't take it seriously. They think it's no work at all. I try to emphasize that it's a lot of work, hours and hours a day, but they just think I laze around. It's hard to change people's opinions of me, but c'est la vie.

8. What is your lasting inspiration or motivation?

I take motivation from so many people! The blogs I find most inspirational are Scathingly Brilliant, mermaidens, Ahoy Miss,  Keiko Lynn and The Clothes Horse. I take a little bit of inspiration from all the blogs on my blog roll though. They all have such great fashion, photography, writing and blog layouts.

9. What is your blogging dirty secret?

I don't really have blogging dirty secrets! I'm still learning from everybody else. However, if you are into Etsy and have Etsy weekly or monthly favourite picks, whenever you come across an Etsy store that a blogger owns, look at their items, plus their favourites (items and stores.) Seeing picks from other fashionable ladies is a good way to add to your own favourites. I do this all the time and my "likes" on Etsy have grown substantially!

10. What is your current goal as a blogger?

I'm kind of vague on the goals right now. I'd like to reach 100 posts to show that I can commit to something (I'm really bad to sticking to anything.) I also would like to reach 1000 monthly views through banner swaps and advertising on social media.

11. Have you learned or become passionate about anything through blogging that caught you by surprise?

I'm interested in HTML and want to learn it for real. Also surprisingly have become interested in stationery (must be all that browsing on Etsy!)

I'm tagging

Camille of The Corner Sweetheart
Pamada of just.pandippo
Christine and Jenna of 2 Girls 1 Outfit
Elana of Room 334

That's all for me! Talk soon!

Meh - Bits of Minorly Bizarre Facts

I've been feeling meh about everything. Maybe worse than meh. To be honest, I'm sooo not excited about writing this entry right now, but I try not to leave the blog for more than a week, no matter how I'm feeling. It's gray outside, I feel run down and sick and everyone around me is cranky too. I'm also in full hibernation mode. The other day, I slept all night, then took a "nap" at 2pm. That lasted 11 hours. It was legit a nap too, because I went back to bed "for real" a few hours later. It's 7pm right now and I just woke up. I slept all last night too! It wasn't even like I suffered from insomnia last night. I just really like to be all snuggled in bed and not doing anything. Plus, this might be emotional, bi-polar Suzy, but I keep crying at the drop of a hat. I cried in the mall food court the other day and on the bus. I look really pulled together! Woot!

But let's focus on the positive. I finally went out and took some pics at the thrift shop for Treasure Tuesday (well not so much AT the shop - it was swarming with employees and customers for the holidays, but at least I got out, bought some things and have some material for upcoming Tuesdays) so I can cross that off my list! Also, Modcloth has been going crazy with the sales. I don't know if that makes me happy or sad. They had a "find Winston" promotion, where a coupon code was your reward, Stylish Surprises and an early Black Friday sale! In the course of just over a week! Having no money personally, I had to have my parents sponsor me for early Christmas gifts (also purchased my mom's Christmas gift in the Black Friday sale) and I'm really hoping they don't mind too much! I'm hoping the next sale can wait to drop after I get paid.

The book I'm pulling my facts from this week is called "100 People Who Made History - Meet the People Who Shaped the Modern World" by Ben Gilliland (with Philip Parker as a consultant.) I got it from the library and I'm almost certain it's a children's book, but I learned quite a bit from it and it's perfect for pulling random facts.

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The book is really cute and has a lot of pictures (so it makes for a quick read.) It is also really good to put a face to people you might have only heard about. Look at these lovely page lay-outs!

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Things I Learned From This Book

Nelson Mandela's great grandfather, Ngubengcuka ruled as king of the South African tribe called the Thembu people.
LEGO were not the first block toys. Wood block toys were invented in 1840. Interlocking blocks came next in the 1860s. In 1882, Friedrich Richter invented his wooden Anchor Blocks and in 1908, BRIO launched their line of interconnecting wooden trains. LEGO the company was founded in 1934, but the toy as we know it today came along in 1958.

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Thomas Edison was almost completely deaf by the time he was 12.
The Greek philosopher Democritus (460-370 BCE) suggested that everything was made up of atoms which means "indivisible" in Greek.
Suffragette colors were purple (for dignity), white (for purity) and green (for hope.)

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Charles Darwin wanted to be a doctor, but hated the sight of blood. He instead decided to study Natural Theology, which is the study of how God designed life on Earth. But we know how that turned out for him.
Queen Victoria's 42 grandchildren occupied the thrones of most of Europe, earning her the title, "the grandmother of Europe."

 

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*Note - several of these facts were pulled verbatim from the book, as it was already written as a "factoid," and didn't give much information to re-write it. Of course, I could have wiki'd, things to get more information, but I already alluded to how lazy I am today. Also, I wouldn't have exactly been learning these facts from the book. So credit goes to Ben Gilliland for some of these facts.

It Happened Today

In 1963, US president John F. Kennedy is assassinated.

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In 1718, famous pirate, Blackbeard is killed in battle.

In keeping with the morbid subject, some other famous deaths today are of the literary sort - both C.S. Lewis and Jack London died today.

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In 1954, the American Humane Society is founded.

In 1858, Denver Colorado is founded.

In 1995, Toy Story is released and is the first movie made using entirely computer animation.

Today is Jamie Lee Curtis, Mark Ruffalo, David Pelletier (any figure skating fans here???) Scarlett Johansson and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' birthday. I shall leave you with one of my favourite Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs as a send off. Talk soon!