Tuesday, June 29, 2010

inspiration or inadequacy?

I came across this article on design sponge today: The New Decornographers: Bloggers With Perfect, Beautiful, Craftsy Lives

Summary: all these crafty, idealistic blogs in the world make people feel bad about their less than idealistic lives. Incredibly interesting.

Do you guys actually want to hear about failures and mess-ups? or would you rather just look at pretty pictures and think up new projects to tackle?

3 comments:

lyndsey @ the stationery place said...

i start to feel overloaded sometimes after reading a bunch of blogs, like i need to be WAY more crafty and creative to be cool enough :) i do love all the ideas and inspiration out there, but i definitely need to remind myself not to compare. the double-edged sword of blogging :)

Naomi said...

Oh this is like therapy! I have contemplated this on so many occasions. I always remind myself (to keep from falling into utter despair) that probably all these "perfect" women feel the same way as I do at times (don't they? please??). It's quite the exhale to read my own thoughts uttered by some of the very people who "make me" feel bad about myself.

Here's my take: I could read the same article on two different days and have completely different reactions. One day I might walk away feeling so inspired that I pick up a new project (or hopefully go finish one I've already started and abandoned – not as likely). On a different afternoon I will sink into a spiral of self-hate, and probably masochistically click from article to article finding new ways that I should be more productive/creative/steadfast/talented/fresh/ingenious...

That tells me that it's my mood, not anything inherent in either me or the rest of the world, and maybe it's a good time to take the dog for a walk and forget the blogosphere ever existed. Because dogs and walks and sunshine and grass all came long before design*sponge and poppytalk and styleswoon and brooklyn bride (god love em), and will be around much longer too.

Oatmeal and Cinnamon said...

I've been ignoring you all too long…

Now that I've had a month to think on this article. Here's what I say. Do anything and everything that makes you happy. And if it doesn't, don't do it.

In general, I think it's a good philosophy. But, there are times when it doesn't apply. Like, uhm, paying bills. But, when it comes to trivial things like reading blogs. It works.