Seven of the best gifts that blogging can give you

In just two days time, on Sunday April 17th, this blog will turn seven years old. Can you believe that? Sometimes it boggles even my mind, and I've been the one powering the ship, if you will, that whole time!

I was in my mid-twenties when Chronically Vintage kicked off, now I'm less than three months away from my 32nd birthday.

Time tends to move more quickly the older you get. I can remember adults, especially those in their mid to later years telling me that when I was little, and though I readily believed them, it wasn't until I started to experience such myself, that I fully understood just what they meant and how incredibly precious each and every day that we're given on this planet is.

In last year's blogiversary post, I feel like I said a lot of what I had to say until in terms of looking back on CV's life and every word that I wrote then still applies, so I don't feel pulled to pen a similar entry here today.
 
Actually, for a long time (months) in advance, I wasn't sure what I was going to write in order to mark this exciting blogging milestone. I knew that I didn't want to rush into a topic or simply say "It's my blog's birthday! Yay!" (though I do very much feel excited + happy like in that way).

I pondered a lot of possible topics and even wrestled with some deep emotions regarding certain things that I debated writing about, but when this week approached and I meditated on the topic one more time, my mind kept returning to what a blessing blogging can be in our lives and how very, very much this continual act has enriched and enhanced my world over the last seven years.

I know that I am by no means alone in benefitting and feeling bettered by the act of blogging, especially after a person has been plugging away at it for several years. Blogging, though common in the sense that countless people do it, is a unique experience.

More intimate than many (traditional) websites, yet perhaps less "in your face" than social media can be, blogging deserves its rightful slice of the web and though I know many have moved on from it in recent years, the longer some of us remain here, the more devoted than ever I sense that a lot of people are to their sites and being active members in the blogging community as a whole.

There is no shortage to the number of positive things that can arise from blogging and the handful presented here today are just the tip of the iceberg. These seven things are ones that I have personally experienced, often on a daily basis, throughout my blog's life, and which I'm sure many of you will be able to instantly relate to as well.

Seven of the best gifts that

blogging can give you 

1. Blogging helps you to get to know and understand yourself better: I am often astounded by how much this point rings true for me in my own life. I've always been an extremely introspective person who is open to growth, change and self-realization, but it isn't wasn't until I started presenting elements of my life, my work, my passions, and my own past online, that I hit upon many important discoveries about who I am - while also becoming more self-confident through the act of sharing more about myself with all of you.


2. Blogging gives you the chance to help others, as well as to benefit greatly from your peers: This is, hands down, one of my favourite elements of blogging. Whether it's presenting my own knowledge in a post, replying to questions, running the Vintage Secret Santa gift exchange come the holiday season, brainstorming ideas with an online friend, or learning from others, blogging instantly gives you a built-in community and a vital support system that, arguably, is even more important for those of us who are the sole (or very nearly so) vintage enthusiast in our own town.

There is no limit to the ways that you can give and help others when you blog, and in turn that you can benefit from the interactions that you have with your fellow blogging community members.


3. Blogging helps you to filter and grow your thoughts in a really positive way: If I had a dollar for every "ah-ha" or light bulb moment I've had thanks to blogging, I could whittle down my vintage wishlist mighty quickly. I've said it before, but I'll say it again because it really does ring so true for me: creativity - including blog post writing - begets creativity and the far from running out of post ideas, the longer I keep writing, the more seem to come my way. As you hone your attention on a given topic (be it vintage or otherwise), you often become more driven and focused both in terms of how you blog, as well as how you carry out other areas of your life.


4. Blogging makes you a better, more focused writer: Just as blogging can help give us incredible new thoughts and to filter out others that may not have to do with our online work, so too does it help us to hone our abilities and talents as a writer.

I've always loved writing and can't fathom not doing it in one form or another, and I’m sincerely grateful for the ways in which this digital art has helped me to grow as a writer (no matter what context I'm creating in). I don't just mean, of course, that we might make less typos, but rather that it - like practising anything often enough - we become more skilled and confident, which so often translates into posts that are more positively received and a higher quality blog over all.


5. Blogging can help you create incredible friendships: It's true. In this day and age, when so many of our interactions are via things like Facebook and FaceTime, not actually face-to-face in person, the innate need to bond with others that we can relate to is stronger than ever before, and while there will always be difference between online and offline friendships, there are a great many similarities between the two as well.

Blogging can lead to a wide array of friendships, some of which may, ultimately result in bonds that last for the rest of your life. As well, for those who may be highly shy, introverted, deal with anxiety and/or depression, chronic illness, or a myriad of other things that can cause real world social interaction to be a challenge (at least some of the time), blogging is a beautiful way to form the connections with others that we crave, and genuinely need, while still being comfort in our own homes.


6. Blogging teaches you better time management skills: I had a revelation of sorts last year when I decided to dedicate days both to just replying to emails as well as to miscellaneous "this and that tasks. Both have proved to be hugely beneficial and successful in terms of helping me to management my time, just as having a blog schedule had already done for years.

Blogging, when carried out with any degree of regularity, can take up a huge amount of time and whether your site is a hobby, your career, or anywhere in between, we can all benefit from from the constructive ways in which blogging helps us to map out and plan how we're going to spend our time - both on and off-line.


7. Blogging is always there for you: Granted, it might not snuggle up in your lap like a beloved pet or ask you how your day was when you get home like a family member or roommate may, but because our sites are digital worlds that we've created for ourselves, they are there for us 24/7 and are, in many respects, a constant companion.

Just stop and ponder, for example, how much time you've spent thinking about your blog? I promise you that there are many people in your life, even some that you love and care about dearly, that you've not devoted anywhere near as much time to over the years.

The relationship that that we have with our blog is, likewise, often akin to those with a human being or pet, too. There are highs and lows, points of frustration, great joys, new experiences, new challenges, and the need to continually (if only subconsciously) recommit ourselves to being a part of that union day in and day out.



{The act of blogging itself can be a gift that keeps on giving and one that I feel especially lucky, on the eve of my site's birthday, to have been able to learn from, teach others about, and be inspired by for so many wonderful years now. Vintage photo source.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Seven is a number that I like a great deal. I was born in the seventh month of the year and my first name has seven letters, so those two points alone help me to feel a kinship with this digit. Much as I have felt since the get-go that 2016 will be, when all is said and done, a positive year, so too do I sense that Chronically Vintage's next year of life will also be a great one – and all the more so because this will be its seventh.

I like to look ahead, to imagine where this blog will go (and sometimes, even, just for the sake of it, to picture what my life would be like if I didn't blog here any longer), but at the same time, the older I get, the more I try to live in the moment as much as possible, too.

For time is, as those grownups told me all those years ago, fleeting and life far, far too short. I feel called, if you will, to embrace the here and now (in so much as it relates to a life lived amongst the pages of the past through my passion for history and vintage) and to never lose sight of the blessings, like those detailed here today, that blogging has given me.

On the cusp of this site's seventh birthday, I ask you, my dear friends, how has blogging enriched your own life and what gifts would you add to this list?

Looking back to move forward on the eve of Chronically Vintage's sixth birthday

Do you ever stop and think about when your blog was brand new? When you were a novice blogger and everything felt exciting and challenging and like you couldn't soak up knowledge fast enough? There was joy and trepidation, rocky starts and times when you felt as though you’d hit the ground running so quickly you could have broken the sound barrier.

Your blog might have been your first adventure in online writing (Chronically Vintage wasn't mine; I'd been running various websites since 2004, a full five years before this site sprang to life), but chances are it quickly became one of your very favourites and a place where, understandably, you devoted a substantial amount of your time, attention, drive, and perhaps even resources.

Though I don't view them through (vintage) rose coloured glasses, I often look back on the early days of this site with great fondness and appreciation for the plethora of lessons it taught me (very much including the 10 harsh truths that will make you a better blogger). The blogging landscape was a vastly different place at the time in many ways (for example, social media didn't have quite the massive foot hold in this world that it does today and the notion of microblogging though sites like Facebook, Tumblr and Instragram was scarcely a concept yet). Though I do get nostalgic and yearn for those "simpler times" some days, I also very much enjoy seeing how the web continues to expand, grow and change.

Tomorrow Chronically Vintage will turn six years old. I have run and drawn joy from this website for a full 1/5th of my life now. That is not a small amount of time by any measure and as my blog jumps into its sixth year of life, I find myself thinking about those early days a lot. There was a different sort of joy and wide-eyed wonder back then. It was a honeymoon period of sorts, of course, or like the flush and rush that come from a great new relationship, where everything thing seems new, colours are more vibrant, the littlest things take on deeper meaning, and all we want to do is share about our newfound love with anyone who will listen.

I haven't grown jaded about blogging or vintage over the years, but naturally that initial thrill and awe has rubbed off a bit. I'm more realistic and the longer I stay at 'er, the more I realize that returning to my blogging roots, simplifying things (we don't all need to devote ourselves like slaves to social media day in and day out in order to succeed online, for example), and remembering to adhere to a piece of advice I've been slinging here since day one - to only blog if doing so has both a purpose and brings you joy - rings all the more true for me as another blogging anniversary rolls around.

{Image via a sold listing from Amelia Bedelia Vintage}

The past six years have been unlike any other I've know. I never dreamed when I began Chronically Vintage that it would grow into the popular site and (more recently) accompanying Etsy shop, that it is today. I didn't know it would turn into my full-time career, bring some of the best friends I've ever had into my life, give me the opportunity to work with some of the top companies in our field, open up many doors for me, land me in the pages of numerous magazines, and perhaps most poignantly, help me to grow and develop as a person on countless levels.

That has been the greatest gift of blogging and one that, along with my online friendships and desire to share my knowledge and life with all of you, keeps me blogging even when things get rough. I'm a billion miles away from being super human. I have days when the last thing on earth I want to do is even think about blogging, when my energy levels are so nonexistent that I can't even pick up the computer, and spans when my health is so poor, I think that I should stop blogging and spare myself the work, stress, and even physical challenges that it (and my Etsy shop) bring into my life.

But so far at least, I haven't. That day may come, one never know what life holds in store, but I shudder to think of it and have learned along this long blogging road that usually the answer - as with so much in life - doesn't come from throwing in the proverbial towel, but from getting back to your roots, remembering why you started blogging in the first place, enjoying the experience, doing more (or less, as the case may be) of those things that truly matter, and cutting yourself some serious slack if your plans don't always go as you'd hoped they might.

None of us is perfect and neither are our blogs, but for many who have been blogging for any real amount of time now, we deserve a massive pat on the back and to be reminded of just how awesome we're doing. Success has many faces and takes on many forms, and chances are, you've reached more of those than you realize.

I cherish you, my dear readers and online friends, and want you to know that you help ensure I keep on keeping on, as the old saying goes. When things get tough, when they're fabulous, when I'm uncertain, when I have a crystal clear vision, when I'm especially sick, on my rare good days, when tomorrow seems like a question mark, and when I have it mapped out down to the last detail, you've been there and have helped to spur me on in my life as a blogger in so many, many ways.

With all my heart, thank you for that and the countless other positives you've brought into my life. So here, sweet dears, is to the prospect of Chronically Vintage's sixth year of life and all the good, grand, exciting and, yes, even (hopefully momentary) stressful things it will bring my way. Blogging, like life itself, is never perfect, but it sure can be fun and worth every second of the ride.

Reflecting on four wonderful years of blogging

In precisely one week's time, Chronically Vintage will turn four years old. If this blog were a child, it would already be in preschool, talking up a storm, and (I like to imagine) starting to fall in love with vintage fashion, just like it's dear old mom.



{This was the very first image that appeared in my inaugural post here on Chronically Vintage. Almost four years later, it seems more than fitting that it should appear once more. Image source.}


It's fair to say that, while of course a blog is wildly different from a living, breathing child in many ways, both do share some parallels such as that they often require a good amount of our time, focus, thought, and (of course) love.

In the time since beginning this blog on a nippy March day back in 2009, more than 880 blog posts have appeared here. That's a rather hefty number when you stop and think about it, and I'm the first to admit, I'm already eager to crack into the four figure range (with I predict will happen at some point around the end of this year or start of the next, if my current posting rate continues along much the same path it's been on since early 2012).

Through Chronically Vintage was not my first blog (nor is it the only one I run these days, though it is by far the one which I devote the most time and attention to), I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that it is the blog that I have poured the greatest degree of time and effort into. Though there have been times over the years, when for various reasons (chiefly my health), blogging proved to be something of a challenge for me, there was never a moment in all that time when, in my heart of hearts, I didn't want to blog, to write, to share my unending passion for the past with all of you.

Nor have I ever encountered writer's block, never completely lost my mojo (anytime I felt it waning, I called on the seven tips in this article to help bolster it again), and never run out of ideas to write about here.

The longer I've blogged, the easier and more enjoyable it has become. Long gone are the days of being the new kid on the block, newbie jitters and uncertainties, or of the process of finding my vintage blogging voice. I believe in change and evolution and try never to let this blog fall into a pattern of too much routine (there's a reason the "same old, same old" is called as such!), but I can safely say that, four years on, I've developed a set of techniques, habits, and topics that I turn to time and time again to help ensure that this blog is both what I want it to be, and what I believe my readers will enjoy.

I have zero qualms with admitting that I blog, first and foremost for myself. This site isn't my whole livelihood (though it certainly is a part), but that doesn't mean I don't treat it as though it were, nor that I ever slack off on the job. Whether I'm doing research for a post, writing, replying to comments, visiting and commenting on other blogs, connecting with Chronically Vintage fans through social media, or discussing vintage blogging with someone in person, my site and the general subject of history are always at the forefront of my mind.

Whatever I experience, see, purchase, learn about, or create becomes potential inspiration for a blog post. I love my blog and I adore blogging. If I didn't, I don't imagine that I'd be here writing this post today. You have to love something with all your heart to devote countless hours to it each year, to think about it often as you're drifting off to sleep and when you awake refreshed in the morning.

The longer you blog, the more your blog takes on a life and personality of your own. It becomes a tome of your writing and/or photographs, an autobiography of (at least parts of) your existence, a way to connect with like minded individuals, and outlet for your thoughts and emotions, a trusted friend, and a defining part of who you are.

When I started this blog I settled on the name (Chronically Vintage) that I did because for years already at that point I'd been battling a series of severe chronic illnesses and often felt as though they (my health problems) were defining who I was and taking over my life. I wanted, if only for an hour a day, to take back part of my life and instead define myself on my own terms, by something which had always been near and dear to my heart.

I didn't set out with definitive goals when I began blogging, I just knew that I needed, a very basal level to write about something that brought me unending joy and which I simply could not get enough of: vintage.

Four years on, I'm delighted to say that, right from the get-go, this blog more than lived up my hope that it would provide me a creative outlet that was (for the most part) a million miles away from my health issues.

Over the past four years scores upon scores of other terrific benefits, opportunities, challenges, accomplishments, and new friendships have arise from blogging as well. I've grown as a writer, a photographer, vintage lover, and an overall person. I'm not who I was when this blog began and I adore that fact. When I look back at the five, seven, ten (and so on, I sincerely hope!) year mark, I won't be quite the same then, and that fact makes me happy. Just as I always want to ensure that my site grows and evolves, so too do I hope that these things ring true for me on a personal level.

Without a doubt, one of the most important and meaningful elements of this blog's existence has, from day one, been all of my readers and online friends. To say that I adore you more than Fred Astaire loved his tap shoes would be a serious understatement. Always there to share in the good, the bad, and everything in between, to encourage and inspire, and to motivate me when my spirit was down, you have been - and will always be - and integral part of this blog's universe.

Thank you one and all four four incredible years of sharing in the history, fashion, and lifestyle of the past. I cannot wait to see what the future holds in store here, and wholeheartedly look forward to enjoying every last awesome moment of it with all of you!

Celebrating Chronically Vintage's 3rd birthday with Colorvision Pink Swirl Cake

Time flies. It also runs, hops, dances, and parades through the ever expanding volume that is human history. Every second of every day, it marches onward leading to great days and ordinary ones, memorable events and others that are forgotten before they're even done. As I've gotten older, one thing I've noticed is that we - as a species - tend to recall the highs and the lowest the best, our minds filtering out some of the rest to make room for those exciting and important times that are waiting on the horizon still for us.

Filled squarely under the "good day" heading, is today's date, April 18th. For it was on this day precisely three years ago, that I decided to launch Chronically Vintage (for musings on the events that lead to that transpiring, check out my first and second blogiversary posts).

To celebrate this auspicious milestone (CV's third birthday), I thought it would be fun to share one of the girliest, delightfully fun 1950s cake recipes you could ever hope to encounter.

Sporting the instantly loveable name of Colorvision Pink Swirl Cake, this recipe from 1951 is created by adding  your favourite fruit gelatine (Jell-o) to a Betty Crocker marble cake that you whip up from scratch.

Here the the recipe is done up in pink, which since it just happens to be my all-time favourite hue, is what I'd be inclined to go with for a birthday or anniversary celebration like today, but you could certainly opt for any other colour you desired.

{Get your mid-century baking grove on with this thoroughly enjoyable 1950s pink marble cake recipe. It's just the ticket for all kinds of holidays, celebrations, and day-to-day desserts alike. Image via vintage.kitten on Flickr.}

Come Halloween you could use orange Jell-o for an autumnal hit, lime gelatine for Christmas or St. Patrick's Day, blue raspberry for the 4th of July, grape for Mardi Gras, the list goes on and on. Aside from just looking fantastic, fruit flavoured marble cakes taste delicious and the gelatine involved here helps ensure your finished cake stays wonderfully moist.

The frosting, too, can be tinted any colour you wish, and there's certainly nothing to say that you have to match the frosting hue to that of the marble cake. Just think of how fun red frosting would be with a green marble cake (or vice versa) for Christmas.

The name of this cake hails from the fact that coloured TV programming was starting to become more widespread at the start of the 50s, and like many fads of the era, it was easy to get people's attention if you incorporated words associated with them into other areas of life.

If such a thing were possible, I would bake a humungous Colorvision Pink Swirl Cake and invite you all over for a shindig to join in my merriment today. Over the past three years, I've shared some the best and roughest moments of my life with all of you. You've listened, supported, encouraged, and blessed my life with your friendship and avid readership.

In turn your own sites have provided me with volumes of inspiration, knowledge, and the sense of being part of a community of kindred spirits. I treasure each of you very much and am nothing short of elated to jump into the next year of vintage blogging with all of you.

Thank you everyone for being so much a part of the reason why this site is going strong and feeling so optimistic after three years. Join me, sweet friends, in raising a proverbial glass to the future of Chronically Vintage and all of the adventures and every day moments alike that are just waiting to be experienced and blogged about.

Here's to the beauty, wonder, and intrigue of the future and what it holds in store for this site - as well as to each and every one of you!!!

Chronically Vintage turns two years old!

It was a Saturday like so many before it, and yet singularly different, for it was the day I decided to create a blog devoted to my lifelong love of all things vintage. The date in question was April 18, 2009, precisely two years ago today, and on it Chronically Vintage was born.

In the wee hours of the morning (perpetual night owl that I am, I often write pieces for this blog while most off the world is fast asleep - and CV's first post was no exception), consumed by a desire to corral the massive bounty of vintage items, images, and fellow old school loving souls I was encountering online, I launched this site.

Two years - a period that at once seems like the blink of an eye and yet also as though it stretched on for eons, as time so often has a way of doing - have passed since that night, and much has transpired in my life since. There have been times when, due to my health, I didn't know if it would be possible for me to keep Chronically Vintage alive and kicking, and yet (aided immeasurably by the support and friendship of many of my readers), here we sit today still going strong.

Over this pair of years CV has introduced (and in some cases gracefully retired) various reoccurring posts, covered a wonderfully diverse range of topics (I'm far too eclectic a soul to tie my posts down to just a few subjects, preferring instead to write about topics spanning a hefty slice of the vintage spectrum), held fun giveaways, talked about the lightest of subjects, some incredibly personal issues, and a great many things in between.

This blog has proven to be a cathartic creative outlet that I didn't even know I was lacking in my life prior to its conception, and yet now can scarcely imagine what these past two years would have been like without it. Amongst the image filled entries in this blog, I've gathered and shared many vintage topics that impacted me on some level for a multitude of different reasons.

Sometimes posts have centred on such light-hearted subjects as vintage dresses that captured my eye, other times they've delved into impactful historical events, scrumptious yesteryear recipes, people whose work spoke to me, or items that I felt would be of interest to my fellow vintage loving souls.

I'd venture to guess that the total word count of all my posts at this stage would equate to that of a (perhaps modest sized) book, which is a fascinating thought, as one of the key ways in which I've viewed Chronically Vintage from the very get-go is as an online scrapbook of the plethora of vintage topics that inspire and continue to fuel my unceasing love of the past.

Without the slightest shadow of a doubt, this blog would not be where - or what - it is today, if not for all of you, my terrific readers and online friends who have supported CV and shared in my adoration of vintage topics throughout every day of the last two years. The words "thank you" seem insufficient when it comes to expressing my gratitude for the relationship and trove of memories we've shared.

Lacking a crystal ball, I cannot say what the future holds in store for this blog, where Chronically Vintage will be at in 2013, two years from now. What I do know though is that no matter what paths CV may follow, what topics are covered, what images are posted, which events we experience together, I will never stop loving the golden years of the mid-twentieth century and sharing that passion for as long as I possibly can with all of you.

{Heartwarmingly adorably vintage second birthday party photo via sarahblascovich on Flickr.}

Happiest 2nd birthday, Chronically Vintage! Let us all raise our glasses - and birthday cake filled forks - in wishing you many more stellar years to come!

Happy 1st birthday Chronically Vintage!

On a day quite like many before it, something deep inside my soul stirred, a longing to put pen to paper (or in this case waltz my fingers across a keyboard) and share my lifelong adoration of all things vintage with the world.

While I’d like to regale you with an eventful tale of how Chronically Vintage came to be, its birth was really was rather on the quiet and unassuming side. Like a gentle breeze across the springtime landscape, this blog spun into existence softly, but with immense passion fuelling its creation onward.

Perhaps not all that surprisingly, I’ve always enjoyed reminiscing about the past – even when that past is, in this particular situation, only twelve months old. It’s fascinating to mark one’s life by the years created between various dates. As with most stretches of time, the span between this April and the last has been filled with its share of ups and downs, rough days and moments of unbridled joy. It’s created a year in which I feel I’ve found myself more at home with who I am – which I’m sure comes in part from getting old, but also from the comfort and courage that accompanies time spent amongst others who understand, care about and encourage you.

This blog would, unequivocally, not be what it is today without my amazing readers. There are scarcely words to thank all of visitors and blogging friends, not only for your comments, support, understanding and camaraderie, but for “getting” me. As many of you can no doubt relate to, it can be strange to be the only (or one of the only) vintage lovers in your family/social group/town!, and as such it means even more when through the powers of the internet you suddenly find yourself a new home brimming with fellow vintage fans.

Through your own sublime blogs I’ve learned enough in the last year to fill a small library! Your pages have given me a lifetime of inspiration and twelve months of splendid happiness. The thoughts you’ve written down, the images you’ve discovered, the outfits you’ve sported, the history you’ve preserved, all of these things have propelled my own thoughts in fantastically diverse and creative directions. You’ve influenced my wardrobe, make-up and hairstyles, my home decor, my collection of vintage items, and perhaps most of all, my blog writing.



{Adorable vintage birthday card via Vintage-Mouse’s Flickr stream.}

Thank you, everyone, for supporting Chronically Vintage both directly with your comments and behind the scenes with the inspiration I garner from your own marvellous posts. It’s been nothing short of a fabulous year on the blogging front, and one that I honestly cannot imagine having never taken place.

This blog came to be at a time when I really needed a creative outlet to get my mind off of countless pressing, uninspiring, downright heavy issues, and it has been a cathartic, artistic outpost of felicity for the past twelve months – just as I’m certain it will continue to be in the future.

To say I’m looking forward to Chronically Vintage’s second year of life would be a serious understatement! I’m positively bursting with excitement over what my second year of being a vintage blogger has in store, and can hardly wait to share each and every moment with you all!

Happy 1st birthday, Chronically Vintage, I love you!