Posted on 11 Comments

I’m not going to write TWiP posts anymore

Nine years and three months ago, I wrote the first This Week in Pictures (otherwise known as TWiP). My kids were still young-ish and in school. I was a work-at-home mom, taking care of the family and working on my crafty business. There was a lot of good fodder for posts, and it was easy for me to sit down on a Friday night and put together a round-up of my week.

Things are different now. The kids are adults and are off doing their own things. I’m spending nine hours a day at a desk, getting paid to write about software for other people.

I have begun giving up things that I once loved that are no longer working for me. The first of these was Project 365, which I had been doing for more than a decade. Having a daily photo project was so good for me at first. My photography improved by leaps and bounds. And more importantly, I really noticed the little things in my everyday life. The habit of stopping to take a photo has kept so many wonderful little details from being lost to the fogginess of time. But my lifestyle now doesn’t lend itself as much to the photo-a-day thing. How many images of my coffee cup next to a computer keyboard are really necessary, or at all compelling?

So I transformed Project 365 into a new project that worked better for me. Essentially, I told myself, “you don’t have to take a picture every day, just try to take a few nice ones every week, and keep paying attention.” It’s been nearly two years of that, and I think it’s been working well.

Buoyed by that success, I have decided to give up my weekly TWiP posts. Here’s why:

  • I am routinely late posting them. It’s often hard to force myself to sit at the desk I’ve already spent a full day at, to process photos and post a weekly post.
  • It zaps my energy for other types of blog content. Remember when I used to post tutorials, shows-and-tells, or just my random thoughts about artsy crafty things? I’d love to still be doing that. I have several unfinished posts in my blog admin that can attest. But by the time I get a TWiP post written, I’m done. No energy left for other stuff!

Those are the biggest reasons. I’ve also noticed lately the captions of my Instagram posts have been getting longer and longer. They’re almost like short blog posts sometimes. So why am I doing that? Why am I directing my energy towards a platform that I am increasingly disillusioned by, when I could be publishing those things here instead? Duh.

So, TWiP is going away. But I plan to share more short blog posts here. And there will be more tutorials. And more shows-and-tells. You may not hear from me every week, but then again, you may hear from me twice some weeks. Three times, if I’m feeling prolific. I’m committed to keeping this blog active. I’m just finally accepting that a weekly TWiP post is no longer the best way for me to do that.

See you back here soon, I hope. I have a new polymer clay workspace I want to show you, and I’ve got my latest knit to talk about, among other things!

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Posted on 11 Comments

11 thoughts on “I’m not going to write TWiP posts anymore

  1. Good for you making the decision to change things around so they work for you, rather than making you work for them! I say that with all sincerity as I find it’s not an easy thing to do =)

    1. You’re right, it’s not. I’ve thought about stopping for a few years, but I kept going because I thought “future me” would miss looking back on the updates. But I finally have come around to the idea that “present me” would be a lot happier if I relaxed my self-imposed rules, and that’s important, too 🙂 Thanks for the encouragement!

  2. Sounds like it has been time for a change for quite a while. So, go for it!

  3. I will miss the TWiP posts, but I completely get it – I’m taking fewer photos too, and finding it hard to keep even my IG alive! Good for you to put present you first, and I look forward to your future posts, whatever they may be! 😊

    1. Thanks, Bekah! Honestly, I have often felt like I was just talking to myself with TWiP these last few years, so it’s nice to hear that you were enjoying them 😊

  4. I love your TWIP posts but I understand completely! Onward and upward! Adjusting to the new empty nest years has been a slow process for me, and I’m also looking to jettison things that aren’t working so there’s room for new things.

    1. Yeah. My kids haven’t left yet, but when they’re here they’re not exactly hanging out with me most of the time, you know? So the dynamic is different than it was. It’s all good, just different. And I do think a TWiP-less blog will be better in the long run. Important-to-me things I wanted to talk about kind of got lost within TWiP posts, and I never knew if anybody actually saw them. But now, I should have the time and blogging energy to give things like that their own space.

  5. Looking forward to seeing the new stuff!

    1. I’m looking forward to producing it 😀

  6. […] know, when I gave up writing TWiP posts, it was a big relief to no longer be on a schedule. But what I hadn’t considered is […]

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