Next Steps

Whoa. Sometimes I'm a little shocked that I've consistently kept up with this blog for over 2.5 years. If my blog were a baby, I would be taking over your Facebook feed with status updates regarding Junior's toilet training... And just as metaphorical Junior is growing up, I can't help but think that it is time I let my blog grow up too.

You may have noticed that I have never really entered into the advertising and sponsorship side of blogging. This was a conscious decision on my part. It started out that I had 13 readers (not including my Mama, she didn't really start reading it until 6 months in...) and even thinking about advertising at that point was a little like putting the cart in front of the horse. Of course, that analogy falls apart now that we drive cars but regardless, advertising didn't even cross my mind when I first started out. Over time, the blog grew and I decided to keep my blog as purely a hobby. I distinctly remember having a conversation with Kyla and telling her I would never do advertising. You would think I would learn at some point to never say never... My decision not to monetize wasn't some reaction against advertising or consumerism, it was a decision to keep out distractions so I could find my own voice and style. Blog advertising and sponsorship is a complicated issue but mostly, I think I was afraid of waking up one day and not recognizing myself or my blog. It's a bit of an ego trip when a company wants to work with you and it can be easy to sit up and shake a paw at their demand. In hindsight, I could have had more faith in my own identity, I wouldn't have suddenly started to describe everything as 'lovely' or looked down and discovered that I was wearing ripped tights and Litas. I am glad though that I took the time to be sponsor free and to figure out where I wanted the blog to go.

For a long time I was pretty content with the way things were going and then, I wrote this post. And I realised that between organizing the content, setting up the pictures and writing the information in such a way that you didn't fall asleep after the first paragraph, I had spent a lot of time on one small post. Oprah would call this my 'aha' moment, I call it my 'wtf' moment. The next few weeks I went through some major blog burnout (doctor diagnosed obviously) and I thought deeply about the role blogging played in my life and about the massive amounts of time I spent on my 'hobby'. If I had used my time wisely, I would have watching all seasons of Mad Men and True Blood and every Twilight and Harry Potter movie just so I could be culturally relevant but to this day, I have watched none of those because I'm just too busy over analyzing my role in the world of fashion blogging. And at the end of all that thinking, I realised that if I wanted to keep my sanity, I needed to either quit my blog or get serious. I thought about quitting my blog and finding a new way to waste some time. I thought about cleaning my house, collecting beanie babies or knitting cat hair mittens but at the end of the day, I started a fashion blog because fashion is what I am most passionate about. Some people love cars, some people love music, some people love cheese and I love clothes (fine, and cheese too).

The truth is that the blog is no longer just a hobby, it has become an unpaid part time job. If I am going to continue doing this, I need to start allowing some opportunities to happen. It's a weird concept to grasp that as a fashion blogger, you are 'the product'. Merl blogs to support the jewels she creates and Megan blogs as a side project to her clothing line (and very well designed paper patterns...) but when I blog, it is essentially myself that I am promoting. You know what is humbling? Explaining the concept of fashion blogging to someone who has never even seen one before... 'I, um, put pictures of myself wearing clothes on the Internet...'. I just need to get over it... I'm a landscaper. I'm a fashion blogger. Crazier things have happened...

What does this mean for me now? It means I left my job last Friday. I poured mixed gasoline across the yard to write the words 'It's over!', lit it with my unfinished cigarette and posted the pictures on Instagram. I wish. If I were that dramatic, I would have a reality show not some fledgling blog. But I am easing up on my landscape contracts... a decision I actually made this spring, completely separate from the blog. I love landscaping but after almost a decade of outdoor work, my body is tired... especially the right side. Perhaps one day I will have to give up landscaping completely but I am not ready for that just yet. I would miss the dirt under my nails too much... But cutting down my landscape work load will give my body a break and give me time to work on other ventures. Yes, when I write ventures, it makes me feel very professional...

What does this mean for you? It means, that when I write 'I had a great weekend' I actually mean 'buy this sweater'... But mostly it just means that I hope to post more. I've been working hard these last few weeks on posting very consistently and I hope, that once time frees up, I can post a few more times a month. I'm most excited to talk more about thrifting... those are some of my favourite posts but they take so much time that it has always been hard to get them organized. I want to continue talking about other great girls who thrift, sharing thrift finds and giving tips on how to find the good stuff. And of course, I want to continue to post outfits and to talk about a whole lot of nothing.

Perhaps this is a self indulgent post. Really, a fashion blogger making the choice to monetize is about as newsworthy as an Olsen twin sighting in a Starbucks. But because I have always stayed away from that side of blogging, I felt an explanation was a good idea. I don't know exactly what the future holds for My Edit, but there is already a redesign in the works. Happy dance! I'm excited about this...
Finally, I would like to thank you for reading this post, on a weekend no less and for reading my blog in general. Thanks for reading and thanks for the thoughtful and often funny comments you leave. You guys make my day and keep me un-humble... I can't wait to keep sharing my fashion, thrifting and cat herding experiences with you!