new & improved! plus, thoughts on my september blogging break.

sigh. autumn scenes are my favorite.

Hello out there! And Happy October! I'm so excited to be back here in this space, sharing with all of you. In September, I took a month off of blogging, to get everything under control with school, without the distraction of blogging hanging over my head.

So, yeah, let's talk about that. 

I think that taking September off of blogging, especially after the nonsense that was Blaugust, was just the kind of mental cleanse that I needed in order to get excited about blogging again. It also gave me the chance to step back, re-evaluate what I want out of my blog, & then plan for changes & adjustments that will make those goals possible. 

However, when examining my thoughts on taking blogging out of the equation in order to eliminate any stress that may arise because of it, I have a bit of a different view than I started off with. I went into my blogging sabbatical thinking that a lot of the stress I was feeling at the beginning of the fall semester was due to the pressure I felt to keep up with my blog. And yes, of course, when you add a project [blogging] to a schedule that is already heaping over with things to do, there could be an added stress factor. The beauty of blogging, though, is that you don't have to do it [well, at least not in my case, since blogging has been kept at the 'hobby' stage around here]. So, any stress you may feel from blogging as a hobby is purely self-imposed. And what does that mean? Well, it means you have free rein to eliminate that stress, by realizing you can blog when you have the time.

In addition, I was reminded, more than ever, by my September cleanse, that blogging is like therapy for me. It is my creative outlet. And when you take two big stress-relieving hobbies [in my case, blogging & reading for pleasure] out of the equation, it doesn't cut down on stress, like you envisioned, but it may even add to stress. I know, duh, right? Cut out something that relieves stress, & your stress levels will raise. It's elementary. But it took a blogging sabbatical for me to realize it.

So, in conclusion, I've decided that, just like I'll never commit to blogging every single day again, I'll also never commit to not-blogging every single day again. Bottom line: I will blog to my little heart's content, when I feel inspired, when I have the time, & when I am happy with the content I am putting out. Not a day sooner, not a day later. And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what I gleaned from my little break.

Now, on to the fun stuff! You may have realized that things look a little different around here. As mentioned above, my brain was craving the creative release of blogging throughout the month of September. And, well, I channeled that creative energy into redesigning this space, as well as adding three additional blogs AND firing up my YouTube channel.

Wait, so now you have four blogs? Why?

Yes, now I have four blogs. This one, siddathornton, is the main hub of what I'll now be referring to as the siddathornton network. [I know, sounds fancy, right?] This blog will house all of my main content: The Sunday Currently, blurbs about what's going on in my life, Around Here Lately posts, monthly Love Lists, organizational posts… the list goes on & on. But I created three other blogs to help channel my thoughts & organize my ideas. Sidda Writes* will house writing of all kinds. Sidda Wears* will contain posts centering around nail polish, OOTDs, & FOTDs, as well as links to many of my YouTube videos. And Sidda Snaps* will center around photography & my exploration thereof. And then, there's the YouTube channel, which I'm hoping to upload a new video to each week. There you will find seasonal empties videos [I uploaded my Summer 2013 Empties video last week, in fact], monthly favorites [which will coordinate with my Love Lists posts here on siddathornton], tag videos, get-ready-with-me videos, & the occasional travel vlog. 

I know this may sound a little nutso. In fact, I went back & forth over whether to take my blog in this direction for quite some time, before deciding it was the way to go. The way I see it, it's not really creating more work, though it may appear that way on the surface. What it really does is create different avenues for me to share my ideas, without cluttering one space [siddathornton] up in a big way. In the past, I've often had ideas for posts, become overwhelmed with attempting to schedule them all out while still keeping them relevant, then ultimately decided on just giving up on them. These multiple avenues allow me to get all of my ideas out there in a timely fashion, while not cluttering up the main hub, siddathornton. 

I hope this had shed sufficient light on the direction I'm taking things from here on out. As far as posting schedules, as I touched on in my recap of the blogging sabbatical, I plan to update here on siddathornton regularly, as I have in the past, with posts such as The Sunday Currently [which will still go up every single Sunday], Friday's Fancies posts when I feel compelled to virtually pull together an outfit, musings, big life events, & Around Here Lately posts [which basically translates to a sharing of Instagram photos]. So, not much is going to change in the content that's shared here, or the rhythm to which it is shared. 

Differences will include that when I share photos from a trip, the trip recap will appear on siddathornton, accompanied by one or two images, with a link to Sidda Snaps, where the trip's snapshot [or large quantity of photos] will be found. Make sense? I'm basically just trying to cut down on clutter here on siddathornton, while still clinging to all the things I want to talk about.

I'm going to stop the explanation here, because I feel like I could talk all day about why I've decided to do this [but I don't think that will prove for very interesting reading! ha]. But if you have any questions surrounding this shift, please do just ask! 

I'll see you back here on Thursday, with my September 2013 Love List - I've accumulated a list of beauty products, as well as other, every-day, non-beauty-products, that I'm excited to share with you. I will also be uploading an accompanying video on my YouTube channel, so be sure to check that out as well if you feel so inclined. It's always fun to put a voice to a blogger, don't you think?

I've said it one hundred times in my Sunday Currently posts, & now a couple of times in this post, but I'm so very excited to be back here. Let's continue sharing our lives, our ideas, & our selves with one another. It makes the journey of life that much more enriching.

LSC

photos:

fall scene, the pumpkin patch | taken on saturday | find it on instagram

siddathornton's new design | screen shot 

* If you find things like, "Wait... what's with all this 'Sidda' stuff? Isn't your name Lauren?" bouncing around in your head, go read this post. I think you'll find it all makes sense. Thornton is Sidda's home, & siddathornton is the main hub - the home - of my now network of four blogs. So, that's the story.