Back From Outer Space {Hello to anyone still reading!}

It has been so long since I have written and published a blog post that I've almost forgotten how it works!  A couple of months ago I had the lightbulb moment I'd been waiting for; I woke up and I missed blogging, missed writing, missed photographing beautiful objects, and missed interacting with online friends who shared their own interests through their portions of the internet.  With this little ache settled in the pit of my belly the only thing to do was to start a fresh notebook (old habits) specifically for ways to revive my blog.  Out poured idea after idea, pages and pages of things I'd like to share.  Kettle boiled and bucket-sized mug of tea brewed, I then opened up my Macbook (I say mine . . . I may have purloined my Mums. Good thing she loves me) went straight to Bloglovin' and spent a couple of hours reading.  It became clear to me quickly that I had been out of the loop for a very, very long time.

Prior to this I hadn't posted since September 2013 and everything seemed to have moved on exponentially since then.  Seeking a little help to get back up to speed I scrolled through some of the recommended reads - quite a few of which seemed crammed with tips on how to blog - and came away feeling completely disillusioned.  The professional blog designs, analytics packages, migration to self hosting, brand collaborations, heavy posting schedule, and social media commitment deemed necessary by each 'how to' in order to blog intimidated the life out of me!  My tea had reached stone-cold status by the time I decided that this brave new blog-world was probably out of my reach; I didn't have time to post daily, the spare cash for a professional blog/web design or the know-how around promoting my blog on social media.  So I gulped my cold tea (grim!) and busied myself making a mess in the kitchen to put the entire thing out of my mind. 

Only I couldn't get the niggle to go away.  Deciding not to make the same mistake twice I skipped anything remotely 'how to blog' in title and instead revisited my old favourites.  Some pages, like mine, were now dormant but others were still going strong and it felt lovely to dip back into the worlds of their respective authors.  Many were still posting along similar lines and others had branched out into new areas and visiting each was so nice - I know 'nice' is such an overused word, and often means underwhelming, but in this case it really was . . . 'nice'.  Pleasant, amusing, heartwarming, inspirational.  I'm not sure how much of a community feel there still is in the blogging world currently, I suppose that is something I will only find out with time but I hope there is still a sense of amity and collaboration.  So now I guess I'm waving 'hello'!  How are you all?!  It has been quite a hiatus here on Beautiful Clutter, so much in life has changed over the past two years and with the coming months it is set to change more.  I've missed you!  I had thought about starting afresh with a completely new blog, but instead I've decided that perhaps I'll let Beautiful Clutter grow and change to reflect how my life has moved on.  So for the moment I'm afraid it's the same old layout, same old style of photography and a potentially sporadic posting schedule; I hope if you're still out there reading that you won't mind that too much!