We have a treat for you today: a co-authored post! We have a few things to announce and thought it would be best to do so together!
First off, we love this blog.
We have put many hours, thoughts, project time, meeting time, writing time, and our blood, sweat, and tears into this blog for the last 2-ish years. At times we're sure you have noticed that we aren't as "on top of it" with our posts as we would like to be. Even though we generally have a reason for those lapses, and we usually apologize, the truth of the matter is that this is life! It's messy and schedules don't always work like you hope they do. We have had illness strike, new jobs, children, schooling, loved ones pass, vacations, day-to-day stuff, and anything else come up without warning. Quite often these things are more important than anything else in our lives right then and those are our priorities. We are totally ok with that though, because this blog is our hobby. We don't have any sponsors to answer to,and we don't make money off of this. We simply run this blog because we enjoy it. But lately, we haven't been enjoying it like we used to. We feel kinda like GCT Level 3 Burned Toast.
Writing a post most days for the last two years has become too much for us as of lately. In many ways we feel burnt out and that the quality of our posts has lowered. After
So, we've come up with some ideas that will hopefully help rejuvenate the blog and help us scrape off the burned layer of toast and get down to the good again.
What are our ideas? Glad you asked, because we are excited to tell you!
1. The New Schedule.
We will no longer be posting daily. Don't panic though!! We will still be blogging and trying out projects (especially trying out the projects from the awesome submissions you all send us), and then reporting back to you. Now each week though you will get Rachel's Sunday Surprise post, a Pinstrosity Hump Day post on Wednesday, and a Show and Tell Saturday once a month (more on that in a minute). We're sure sometimes we may have a post we just can't wait to share that we might post on the odd Friday or Monday, but for now Wednesday's and Sunday's will be our main post days. We're going for quality over quantity here. You guys are great, and you deserve some awesome posts.
2. Monthly Challenges.
Don't worry, we will not be asking you to dump a bucket of ice water on you head. What will we be asking you to do? Well, we love seeing your projects, and we love to hear about the things you were inspired to do by something you saw on Pinterest. We know that sometimes all it takes is just a small nudge to get working on things you have pinned on Pinterest. So we are instituting Pinstrosity Challenges. Once a month we'll have a new theme. One time it might be a color. Another time it may be a holiday. Sometimes it might be related to a specific room in a typical house. Whatever it is though, we invite all of you to find some inspiration off of Pinterest and do a project that relates to the themes. It can be food, clothing, a DIY craft project, a party, anything. Here's how it will work. We will post up new challenges on the first day of each month at 8 AM (MST). You will have all month long to complete a project that fits the theme and email us a with the results (Pin Win or Pinstrosity). The cut off time for getting projects in is 11:59 PM (again, MST) on the last day of the month. The following Monday or Saturday (whichever is closer depending on where the last day of the month falls) we'll do a Show and Tell Saturday post with the pictures you send in of your challenge projects. Clear as congealed Mod Podge? I hope that made sense. We'll give out more details with this first challenge on October 1st.
The point of this? To get you all testing pins and letting go of your Pinterest fear, and to add some interaction with all of us! Are you with us?
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3. Future Posts
We have a good list going of posts, and series of posts, that we want to do. They range from tutorials, to videos of us testing out iffy pins, to holiday related shenanigans. We want this to be fun for you and for us. As said above, we've gotten a little burned out, so we figure it's time to shake things up!
We're excited about shaking things up, scraping off the burned edges, and getting fully back into this awesome community and project we truly do love. We hope you all continue to read along and submit your Pinstrosities to us and share in the fun of Pinterest.
Sounds like some great ideas :)
ReplyDeleteHope to follow along.
Sounds good! It's easy to get burned out, even when doing something you enjoy. Everyone needs a break now and then. The new schedule and challenges sound fun!
ReplyDeleteI like your new ideas. You shouldn't have to think of the blog as a chore. Some of my favourite blogs post about once a week. I try to post at least twice a month. I think anything more than once a month is enough to remind readers that you're still alive :)
ReplyDeleteI definitely would prefer quality over quantity. I don't mind if a blog only posts twice a month as long as those posts are the kind that got me to read that blog in the first place. For me, my favorite posts that you guys do are when you test out Pinterest pins for yourselves and take a lot of pictures and show us the results and give us the details of what worked and what didn't. Guest posts are nice but they usually don't go into the level of detail that you guys do. I know these are the posts that take the most work to do but I rather read one post like this a month than daily posts that are not as interesting.
ReplyDeleteSounds Like a good plan. Just keep on doing what you love to do and do as much or as little as what keeps you happy. As long as your posts keep on coming from a joyful place they will continue to make your readers (including me!) smile! xx
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of Pinstrosity challenges!
ReplyDeleteThe burnout thing is something bloggers go through. Good for you for making a plan (unlike some of my old favorites that just petered out).
I used to blog every day and did so for a few years. You get burned out after awhile and need a break, as well as life itself needing to come first and foremost.
ReplyDeleteTake care of yourselves and your families, the blog can wait, your readers, like me, will still be here.}:)
I love this blog, and will love it no matter what changes you make!
ReplyDeleteAnd quite excited about the challenges: I have so many pins that I've done nothing with!
You all are fantastic. Thank you for your sweet comments. It gives us motivation to keep going with the blog knowing we have such awesome Pinstrosity friends like you guys. Thanks for giving us the oomph to keep going!
ReplyDeleteGood ideas! Life happiness should be a factor in anything you do! I'm probably like most readers. I can't read your blog every day! So i read when I can. You write when you can. See how that works - synchronicity! LOL
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