I can’t believe how quickly this month is passing.  Normally, I’m excited for Christmas to come and anxious for November to be over so we can get to the “good stuff”.  But this year, I wouldn’t mind a few extra days, just to catch up!  There never seems to be quite enough time to finish everything that I would like to get done.

And yes, the blog does suffer.  Perhaps it’s good that I didn’t do NaBloPoMo this year!

But I do have some things to bring to your attention.  First off, I have a couple of new reviews up over on my review blog.  I took part in a blog tour (yes, really!) for a wonderful, festive and romantic novel, “Lakeshore Christmas” by Susan Wiggs.  I suggest all book and Christmas fans go read the review and then go buy the book because I had such a good time reading that one.  You know it had to be good if I’ve actually READ a book these days!

I also have reviewed, yet again, the custom holiday cards over at Minted.com.  I was lucky enough to get to review them last year and to get to do it again this year?  Just awesome.  Rest assured, Minted will be the first place I look should I need custom cards in the future.  And their holiday card designs this year?  Awesome.  Definitely go check it out.

I know you hear about my knitting all the time and how busy it keeps me (REALLY REALLY BUSY).  Do you want to keep up with how it’s going on Facebook?  I have a page for that!  Become a fan and make my day.  Please?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my knitting.  I swear, I’m such a slavedriver!

So pretty much every year since I’ve been blogging, I’ve done NaBloPoMo.

Except this year.

You wanna hear my excuse?  It’s really good, I swear.

Ready?

Okay.  Here it is:

I forgot.

Seriously.

I totally forgot.  And because I’m an absentee internet-er on the weekend, I didn’t see other people’s NaBloPoMo posts until, oh, yesterday.  Afternoon.

*cough*

I’m kinda disappointed in myself here.  I mean, this is the confirmation that I have been sucking at this blogging this lately.  I forgot NaBloPoMo, for crying out loud.  I rocked that dang thing every single year (not that I won anything, oh ho no).  I could have rocked it this year too.  Or, you know, at least used it to get myself out of this stupid slump I’m in.

So yeah.  No NaBloPoMo here this year.  I have the shame.

Maybe I’ll try to post every day anyhow.  But since I’m not “official”, I can’t see that sticking too well.  Damnit!

Oh well, there’s always next year, right?

I’ve been a big time, grade A, first class blog flake lately.

Not exactly news for anyone who has been keeping track of my update schedule over here, to be sure.  But I’ve also been a flake in keeping up at my friends’ blogs.  Now THAT is pretty sad.  This knitting obsession of mine has taken over.  Any spare time is spent knitting.  And while I will often compose pithy and humorous blog posts in my mind while I’m knitting my bazillionth pair of baby pants, composing something in your mind isn’t quite the same as putting the knitting needles aside and typing it up on the laptop.  And Google Reader is literally starting to get cobwebs around the corners.  I used to do the bulk of my blog reading while I was nursing Evie, via my iPhone.  But lately I’ve been sucked into some stupid iPhone games and that is generally what I’m doing when I would normally be reading blogs.

What is my excuse?  I don’t have one.

And I feel bad, because I feel like I’ve missed out on some things with some of the bloggers I consider myself closest to.  What does it say that I just found out like two days ago that Brit’s blog was busted?  Something I could have helped her with, I’m sure, but I was a flake.  So I didn’t.

That’s not cool.

Shoot, I spend more time on Facebook, reading up on people’s statuses than I do reading their blogs.

This has to change.  I don’t want to be “that blogger”.  The one who is completely out of the loop and detached from the community.  I know notgoing to BlogHer this year has affected me this way.  Why bother to connect to the community when I’m not going to BlogHer?  What’s the point?  Of COURSE there is a point.  But when you’re a) lazy and b) occupied elsewhere, well… excuses come easy.

There’s no reason why I can’t keep up my blog and read my favorite blogs though I’m not going to BlogHer.  And there’s no reason I can’t do this while I continue knitting.  I just need to get my act together.

I hate being a slave to stats, but the stats don’t lie.  And they show a significant drop in the last six months.  Again… NOT COOL.  I’m letting people down.  I’ve become BORING.  GAH!

So I gotta knock that off.  Anyone have any helpful suggestions?  Wanna come over here and kick me in the pants?  Anyone? (Is anyone still here?)

WordPress wanted me to upgrade this morning.  And I’m not good at avoiding such “in-your-face” reminder tactics.  So I upgraded.  And then I found out one of the new features is a nifty new theme browser and you know I just HAD to try that out.

And plus, I was kind of needing to change the design of this blog anyhow.  I loved the old one and it worked very well for me.  But I don’t think it worked that well for everyone else.  And it was just plain TIME.

So here ya go!  There will be more fiddling here and there as I see fit.  But I’m looking at a huge yarn backlog (meaning tons of knitting), some blog posts on my other blogs that I’m behind on, several days with visiting family and various and sundry other things that are occupying my attention at hte moment.  So basically… don’t hold your breath.

Do you like it?  I think I do.  Looks a bit brighter and fresher.  It’s nice to clear out hte cobwebs after winter is over, yes?

In other news:  I hate caffeine headaches.  (Wait, that isn’t really news, is it?)

I’m sure you’ve all noticed that over the last several months, my blog has taken somewhat of a backseat in my life.  This has been about a year in the making, it seems.  Ever since Evie was born, I started cloth diapering and then knitting, well… my mind has been focused elsewhere.

I want to make something clear:  I am not quitting the blog.  I’ll probably always have a blog, at least for as long as it is feasible in my life.  Having this sort of outlet is essential to me, I think.

But at the same time, I’ve definitely taken a step back from the marketing of my blog.  I’ve decided that it’s really not for me.  Making a brand out of this blog or my name or whatever, just doesn’t interest me at this stage in the game.  Besides, I never was very good at it.  I don’t have a head for business matters like that.  And I’m not near aggressive enough to make it successful.

I’ve decided that, for now, I’m just happy with my blog as it is right now and if it makes me $50 a month or $0, that’s fine with me.  Anything above and beyond the pure satisfaction of writing my posts and putting them out there is just icing on the cake.

No pressure.  Pure joy.  That sounds like a nice place to be at, yes?