on sponsorship (and semi dried tomatoes)

You probably have an opinion about sponsorship on blogs. I do.

Actually I’ve found my opinion evolving each year as the blogging landscape changes. These days I’m much more tolerant of its appearance in my reader. I always respect the decision of individual bloggers as I know that there will have been much soul searching in the choice. In a way I’m grateful for the emergence of sponsorship in the evolution of blogs as I know it has kept some of my favourite bloggers in the craft, and strengthened the commitment of others, let them keep doing this thing they love. I’m always bereft when a favourite blogger shuts up shop or fades quietly away so I’m happy to accept the trade off.

Blogs are a lot of work, a labour of love in most cases whether sponsored or not.

And giveaways, blog hops, book reviews, blogging awards, sponsored posts, banner ads and featured sellers are all just different shades of promotion. Even bloggers who ostensibly don’t advertise often derive income from their blog through advertising their own projects be they courses, workshops, books, products, ebooks, gift guides, product ambassadorship, commissioned or guest posts.

Just recently I have added banner ads. You many not have even noticed if you look at my blog in a reader.*

It feels like the right time. After six years and 736 posts (!) I’ve decided to take on a bit more sponsorship, in a few different forms. Not too much I hope, but I wanted to give you a heads up. I felt I had to share this next step with all of you as you are such an important part of my blog. I was so touched by all the lovely comments left on my sixth birthday post. Thank you x

I feel good about it. It won’t change the personal nature of my blog, but I hope it will bring a new commitment to blogging for me and a new energy. It will mean I can justify the time I spend here, one of my favourite places. I hope it even means more time to produce detailed tutorials and content. (In fact I have a crafty tutorial in the works now!)

Thank you for your understanding.

p.s. I couldn't write a post without photos so this is my recent making of semi-dried tomatoes from homegrown cherry tomatoes. The recipe and tute comes from my clever friend Kate over here. I was going to use them on a pizza but when i looked in the fridge they had disappeared. Funny about that. Might have to make another batch!

* If you are interested in advertising I've put some information on my new sponsor page and I'm hoping to add some smaller rotating spots for smaller businesses soon.

green

After many dry weeks Sydney finally got rain last week, lots of it! It didn't take us long to start complaining about the drenching though, but I saw one suburb got 150mls in 24 hours so it was a lot! And there was lightning, thunder, wind and hail in some places to add dramatic affect.

This week the sun came out and the sea breezes blew onshore. It is perfect Sydney spring weather, one of our finest accomplishments, days that are so beautiful it puts a spring in your step.

I can hear the garden growing today. The plants are taking that drenching, mixing it with the bright sun and warm soil and reaching for the sky.

So it seems apt that all my recent photos seem to be green!

The garden is full of happy discoveries, I'm very excited that the Thompson seedless grape which I planted along the fence five years ago is finally happy and covered in grapes! The new fig in a pot has little figlets too and the lime which has been stingy with its harvest since we planted it is covered with a mass of baby limes. Add to that a new lemon tree and ripening blueberry crops and it almost counts as a mini urban food forest.

Down the side hydrangea cuttings gleaned from friends' gardens are heavy with fat blooms in beautiful pastel colours. I love this old garden plant and from the reaction on instagram when I posted this photo, I'm not alone. A couple more favourites of mine are the echinacea and zinnia plants I grew from seed, the unflowered echinacea plant which is two years old has the most wonderful architectural buds.

Yesterday I went to pick up more pots and glaze the last bisque fired pieces from my course. I have also booked in to do a nine week course next year at a closer venue. It seems ceramics is more than a fling and I'm really looking forward to learning some more.

I took the chance of being at the Uni to have lunch with my sister who works there now, it is a real luxury having her in Sydney now and not thousands of miles away in Vietnam.

This week too I have finally accepted that Christmas is round the corner and its time to get organised, I'm thinking about my shopping list, about a destash, and also about some handmade Christmas. I saw this wonderful simple idea for homemade celery salt over on Jo's blog the other day and couldn't help trying it when I found myself with a new head of celery. It's delicious. Whether it lasts long enough to be gifted I couldn't say, but in the meantime it does suit the smallest of my new handmade bowls perfectly. Not sure I can gift that either!

For another homemade gift - for the people I'm not meant to give too - I'm also eyeing off this bread and butter cucumbers recipe I saw on Louise's Garden Glut blog. Sounds like the perfect thing.

six years!

Its hard to believe but today is the sixth anniversary of my blog!

In fact my boys were in kindergarten when I started this diary and they are in Year 6 now, and about to leave primary school to start their new adventure at High School. (Cue tears!)

Each year on this anniversary I am surprised anew to find myself a blogger and still hanging out in this little patch of cyberspace!

In some ways I've changed a lot since 2007, but in most ways, well, I just have to read that first month's posts to see how exactly the same I am. Back then I was printing my designs, growing rose seeds, marvelling over the beauty of a nest, making a jack o'lantern, taking photos of flowers and visiting Sculpture by the Sea.

This month I'm printing new designs, trying to grow lettuce seeds, making soap and paneer, taking photos of flowers for Instagram and visiting Sculpture by the Sea! I am still as inspired as ever to celebrate art and nature and make my own - be it soap, or bread, or roses - as I was six years ago.

I love that this place is such a great record of my creative journey. Truth is I come here to look for instructions and recipes, or remember when I planted something, or to read my own instructions for making!

Its funny I look back now and remember feeling like a newbie and outsider when I first started blogging, not sure if I should be here. I sensed there were established friendship groups that might be hard to break into, everyone else seemed to know each other.

I shouldn't have worried, I found that bloggers are exceptional people who are invariably kind and generous with ideas, information and support. As in any part of life you are drawn to friendships with likeminded people, its just these friendships defy geographical boundaries. That said I am always delighted to find online peeps every bit as wonderful in the flesh as they are behind a keyboard when we meet at last in person.

These last years I find blogging changing. Instagram took some of the immediacy and visual impact away from blogs. They suffered in comparison. Instagram posts were up and interacting literally in minutes while those well thought out blog posts with proper camera photos often took hours to format. In our time poor days sometimes the impulse passed once the instagram pic was posted.

I found it didn't stop me reading my favourite blogs though. In many cases after seeing an image on Instagram I wanted to see larger, clearer photos and more of them, I wanted to read the tutorial, or follow the links. But most of all I wanted the story behind them, the voice of a favourite blogger telling me how it felt, what it meant, what they learnt.

We need to support our favourite blogs. We need to leave a comment every so often to tell the person we're there. That might be my new blog year resolution. And we need to keep shopping handmade and support bloggers' businesses this Christmas and beyond. They are a wonderful independent and honest voice we benefit from having in our lives.

Like many I've wavered in my commitment to blogging recently, found myself with less to say and less motivation to say it. But I think the blogging muscle is one that is strengthened by use and I have been trying to get back to a routine. To think in blog posts again.

I think that my outlook on life benefits hugely from this blog and others, in some ways it functions as a gratitude diary and helps me find and see the beauty in my everyday. I'm all for that.

Thank you readers for being here to share it with me.