I Blog for Bliss

Thanks to Kari from Artsy Mama for inviting me to participate in today's Blogging for Bliss Book Release Party. Click here to be transported to Kari's blog, where down the righthand sidebar you'll find a list of other bloggers who are "partying" on their blogs today. This is all in celebration not only of Tara's new book, but of the blogging way of life.

Kari said, "Write a post about what blogging for bliss means to you." Tall order. Blogging has changed my life--and changed me--in so many ways that I wasn't sure where to begin. So I decided to do a Top 5 list: my top 5 favorite blog posts here on Lettres from THE BLISSFUL since its inception back on 20 December 2006. This was NOT easy, let me tell you. As I clicked back through two and a half years of photo-filled posts, I grew pretty nostalgic. The shop has come a long way since our beginnings--and so have my photography skills! I started jotting down the post titles and dates of my favorite posts and quickly had a list of 16! There were so many posts with glorious, sun-dappled photos and fetching commentary, but ultimately the posts that resonated most deeply with me were the ones that were a little quieter and a lot more personal.

So here they are, beginning with...

No. 5 "Bonjour! (and How We Came To Be)"...20 December 2006
This is the first blog post I ever wrote. All I can say is WOW! Little did I know where my new blogging life would lead me. Notice that this post is even on a different URL {our original blog digs}. It looks so funny to me to see my posts couched in this old Blogger template.

No. 4 "On Faith and Fearlessness, Parts I and II"...21 and 24 February 2007
I was surprised to rediscover these posts I'd written on entrepreneurship and going for your dream. While the heart of these posts would probably be much the same were I to write them now, I definitely would have a whole lot more wisdom to impart in the practical and financial sense! Also notice on Part I our old store sign. We were The Blissful Home back then.

No. 3 "I Love Chi-Town"...18 April 2007
It's not so much the writing or the photos in this post that I love but what it represents to me. This chronicles a trip I took to Chicago with my girlfriends Lindsay and Kate.

Linds and I at a great Mexican restaurant in Chicago. April 2007.

We met up with our friend Laura there, who had just given birth to her second child. On this trip, I stumbled into a great little shop in Wicker Park with the most amazing blue walls called Tatine. While the shop's doors are now closed, the owner has an amazing candle line which we stock at THE BLISSFUL. {Anthropologie likes it, too.} Two and a half years later, that candlemaker {Margo Breznik} is a dear friend of mine and one of the people who inspires me to keep pursuing my entrepreneurial dreams every day. What a great trip it was.

No. 2 "Café Love"...18 February 2008
It's the first two paragraphs of this post that get me: the longing for my life pre-boutique ownership {it's okay to do that every once in a while, right?}. As an English teacher with a satchel full of essays to grade and an aspiring poet and fiction writer, I lived out many solitary hours each week in cafés throughout the Columbus, Ohio area. I still get wistful for those days.

Photo above courtesy of Flickr.

And finally, my very favorite post of all. . .

No. 1 "Shopkeeping in the Vernacular"...21 October 2007
For me, this post marries my twin loves: my shop and my writing. The "vernacular" is the local language that real people commonly speak. In other words, it's not necessarily the "King's English." In this post, I compared THE BLISSFUL's retail point of view to the "language of the people." There's never been anything hoity-toity or exclusive about us and there never will be.

Thanks for taking this little jaunt with me. To all the bloggers out there, may this next year bring you great new discoveries about your life and about yourself from post to post. And to all the new and aspiring bloggers out there, do it from your heart as only YOU can do.

There are still TWO DAYS LEFT to enter our Blogging for Bliss Book Giveaway. Simply visit this post and answer the one-question questionnaire. Post your answer there {not here on this post} as a comment and you'll automatically be entered. Good luck to all!

*