all things girls can tell

blog about this.

when i mention i have a blog, people often say "oh, what is your blog about?" and i'm usually hard pressed to give a succinct answer. probably the best way to describe what i blog about is really to cite my inspirations, sources and what makes me want to write.

here's a little cheat sheet of the things i look to when i'm looking to write a post. (you know, when i'm not riding my bike / screenprinting / enjoying the weather / working on running this little screenprinting business i have...)

1. magazines - obviously you're not going to want to copy whole article verbatim, that would be pointless and silly. sometimes i like to pretend someone's given me the task of taking the topic of an article and writing my own version of it. magazines work day in, day out to come up with fresh, interesting, somewhat original things to write about - they're a great source of post topics. of course, you probably want to make sure the topic is something somewhat relevant to your blog and something your readers can potentially relate to.

2. the ever awesome google reader - similar to the magazine idea, other bloggers are obviously always on the lookout and creating topics to post on. usually in browsing through my google reader, something will spark my creative writing juices, and i'll post some kind of reaction to something someone else posted. it's nice how blogs are like that, no?

3. my email inbox - if it merits more than a few emails back and forth, it's usually something worthy of noting publicly (there are, of course, many exceptions to this one). basically, ongoing projects almost always eventually get covered in my blog. my inbox is a wealth of information.

4. a how to - a tutorial is great original content. there really are no better posts than a post you learn from. if i have a happy accident and figure out a new or better way to do something, i'll post it. if i get the same question about a part of my process over and over, i'll write up a little something about it. if there's some aspect of my shop or what i'm doing that's garnering a nice amount of compliments, i usually run with it and post some tips on how others can achieve the same success. these types of posts are not only fun to write (if you like writing tutorials, which i do) but they're really wonderful gifts for your readers and often get the most readership and feedback.

5. something exceptional from the past week - on the rare occasion i  read / visit / purchase / create something really phenomenal, it's fun to share. if you live a completely fabulous and interesting life, i suppose you can really just blog only about this. my life is not so interesting (well, it is to me, but i doubt my day to day-ness makes for very riveting reading. let's just say reality show producers aren't exactly knocking down my door to document my every waking hour...), so i don't do this as often as the other points. if you can swing it, this is a great type of post. just make sure it's *really interesting* - to put it bluntly, few people have time to read about your average day.

free. (or: top ten things not to blog about.)

this week's @weeklyblogpost topic is free. if you post on your blog anything related to this weeks' topic, let weeklyblogpost know through twitter, and/or feel free to leave a link here in my comments!

the topic "free" threw me a bit for a loop this week, i'll confess. my first thought was "free... like free shipping!" and then i thought of how each week, i offer free shipping on that week's newest diagram in my little etsy shop. and, of course, then i thought to myself, what a gimmicky cheeseball blog post that would make. blogging about "free shipping" as a concept is silly. it's not a concept. it's a blatant promotion. no one wants to just read promotions all the time. that would be a waste of a post.

promotions are not something one thinks about for any length of time. they typically don't inspire much thought. which got me to thinking about the fact that you have to have some ground rules for your blog if you want it to be interesting. (and if the intent of your blog isn't to be interesting in some way, it does call to question why you're blogging at all).

in no particular order, here are some topics that are generally not interesting blog posts:

• a restaurant you went to. (unless you're a food blogger.)
• new living room curtains. (unless you're an interior design blogger.)
• things you bought. (unless you have an amazing budget, exquisite taste or you're a shopping blogger.)
• daily chores or other monotonous things. we all do them. no one cares. (i was going to say "unless you're... ", but on second thought, i still don't care, no matter who you are).
• things you just blogged about earlier in the week.
• things you blogged about last year (i'm looking at you, unclutterer.)
• cute things your pet did. (i have a pet. and i think it's cuter than yours.)
• advertisements. (there are no exceptions here.)

so, i know that's not exactly 10 things (oh no!), but you get the idea.

while your blog is, of course, yours to do with what you will. however, there are certain types of post that will really satisfy or maintain an audience's interest (ie, keep people coming back). giving people something to take away immediately - be it an idea to consider, a pattern, a useful how to guide, a truly entertaining tale, stunning images, tips or other information - is the best way to get a group of readers engaged. basically, blogs you want to come back to are all about giving bits away for free (and i don't mean in the cheesy, free shipping sense), and perhaps leave you wanting more. that's what makes them great.

looking for something (interesting) to blog about?

the thing about blogs is, they're only awesome if they're refreshed often. i've said it before, but it's worth repeating: if you haven't updated you blog in a month, you may as well delete it.

for some people, finding interesting, somewhat relevant, readable things to blog about everyday (or every few days, or each week, etc) is challenging, as inspiration just doesn't strike upon command. unless you follow @weeklyblogpost. as its name would imply, @weeklyblogpost suggests a topic for bloggers to take on and bring their own thoughts to each week. it's the totally awesome brainchild of stellargirl, and this week's topic, which really struck a chord with me, is "dream job".

when i was in about fourth grade, i decided i wanted to be an architect. so 8 years later, i went architecture school. i was convinced architecture was my dream job. then i began working in architecture: it wasn't as amazing as i had hoped, and i wasn't happy.

in late 2005, i stumbled across etsy, and was convinced i had found a new dream job... working for etsy itself became my "dream job". after being a member for about a year, i somehow managed to convince them to hire me. i thought i had my dream job, and i was psyched.

long story short, about a year and a half later, after so much stress and more tearful train rides home from brooklyn than i care to remember, i came to the sad realization that maybe there was no such thing as a perfect job - no dream job will live up to its expectation. i decided that the next best thing to do was give working for myself a try.

much to my pleasant surprise, holy shit, girlscantell is my ultimate dream job. it feels exactly like what i've always wanted. sure, it can be stressful. and sometimes i wish i had a coworker to make stupid jokes or take long lunches with. i firmly believe each job i've had has been a valuable learning experience (well, maybe except that one job as a waitress at that shitty mexican chain. that may have been useless), but i really wish i'd taken the plunge and tried to make girlscantell work years ago. actually having your dream job just seems to make everything fall superawesome.