Blog Transition - You Probably Noticed.

   I think I've lost a lot of my original readers. This blog used to be heavily craft-based with the odd personal post thrown in, and I think people enjoyed that - I certainly did - but then, when I made my new year's resolution in 2014, I started to blog about fitness and exercise a lot as a way of publicly committing to my change. I didn't necessarily enjoy exercise back then, but it was a good way to find new things to do, and it gradually grew into a passion (or obsession, Seeg would say, and I suppose I can't say he's wrong). But this meant that my mind turned to that more than to other things, and joined with running my little shop, preparing for my art exhibit this summer and writing my book, there wasn't much time left for crafting. Crafting was something I did in my free time, and it's not felt like there's been much of that for a while. When there is I try to use it constructively, and with my mind turning so often towards my passion for exercise and fitness, it's not turning so much towards crafts.

   I've been trying to bring crafting back to the blog, but I've never really had many ideas. I see great things on Pinterest, but I don't want to copy them because they're not my ideas. If I came up with it first but then see it somewhere else, I might go ahead and do it anyway because I may have had an alternative method, but if I see it somewhere else first then I won't. I don't mind people featuring my crafts, but copying them and claiming them as their own I just can't stand, so I won't do that to anyone else, either. And I'm the kind of person that uses things like crafting for recognition - yes, I admit it. If I can't get an "oh, wow, that's so clever!" from someone, I generally won't do it, so I never try my hand at casual crafting. If I can't put it on my blog as unique content or sell it in my little jewellery shop, I don't see the point. Gifts are about the only times that that stops being the case, but even then I try to come up with something original and half the time they end up going on my blog anyway.

   It does make me sad, but I don't believe that I should limit my passions to keep a cohesive blog. A Blackbird's Epiphany is my space, and all my old posts are still here, buried beneath my new content. I haven't deleted anything to make my blog seem like a fresh and new fitness-exclusive blog, because that's not how the blog has progressed, and it's not how I've progressed. It's likely that it will change again in the future to focus on some other unforseen passion - or perhaps a passion I already have but have little to say about it.

   I do still make crafting posts, and I do have a few projects in mind I want to try, it's just a case of finding the money for it. I love baking, too, so whether I'm obsessed with exercise or not doesn't mean I'm going to suddenly give that up. Yes, I bake much less often because I usually end up eating the cakes as soon as they come out of the oven, and that's not good any day of the week, but also because they would just be simple cakes, nothing special and nothing worth putting on the blog. I never bother at all anymore unless I have a good idea, only then do I make the cake. If, however, it's someone's birthday, I still try to come up with something clever to make it more special. The orchid cake I made for my mum's birthday wasn't made for the blog, it was made for her. The crafting post was an after-thought once I'd already started it and I went back and made a couple of extra orchids to get the first few progress pictures.

   What I'm saying is that while this blog has changed, and will continue to change, I do have the same passions I've always had. I've just got one more now, and it's one I feel I have a lot to say about. It doesn't mean it's my biggest passion, however. My absolute biggest passion is my writing, and you'll notice I rarely mention it - and I've never mentioned any titles, character names, plots or anything because I'm paranoid about theft. So my biggest passion is one that's rarely mentioned on here. Rather than talk about it I'd rather work on it, keep it a secret and hope I can get somewhere with it without someone else stealing my idea and getting there first. Being a successful fantasy author is still the only thing I truly want to do with my life, and while getting into a career in fitness has crossed my mind once in a while, I'm not at all convinced I could maintain the enthusiasm long enough for it to last.

   I suppose I've written this post as a sort of apology to my old readers who will never see this, and as a means of explaining the transition about 15 months too late. Still, I love my blog as it is and the only thing I'd change is the lack of crafting posts. I've already started working on bringing back my old Etsy Finds posts, and I do still have some ideas for crafts, it's just a matter of getting around to them. I feel like I've made a presence for myself with my fitness posts, though, and that's a great feeling. They've been featured in a number of places and I've worked with some amazing brands, too, and it's been a lot of fun so far.

   If you are still sticking with me, I truly appreciate your time, but if you're only here for the odd crafting post, you could always just follow my crafting pinterest board. As well as awesome crafts repinned from elsewhere, all of my own crafting tutorials are added there right away, so you won't miss them.

   But I still write. I still play games. I still live for fantasy. I still craft. I still eat cakes and chocolate. I still binge-watch Star Trek. I just like to lift some weights, throw out a few roundhouse kicks and twist myself into a Lord of the Fishes, too.