Receiving and sharing the Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Right around the time that this site came into existence (April 2009), blog awards and tags were going through a zenith of sorts. I was touched as can be to receive many blog awards from fellow bloggers during the first few months of Chronically Vintage's life back then, and have continued to enjoy the others that have come my way in the years since.

Sometimes it hasn't been possible for me to devote a post to an award that I've received, and in other cases, if I've already blogged about a certain award because I previously received it from someone else, I might not do a second "repeat" post about it. However, I truly have enjoyed and appreciated all of the blog awards that have been extended to me.

In more recent years, as there seem to be fewer of these floating around in general, I've tried to post about those that I've received, when it's been feasible to do so. It might take me a while to get a chance to write about said awards, but I keep a tiny running list of those that I still need to blog about, and aim to get to as many as I can.

On that note, the wee hours of this pleasantly warm morning seemed like a great time to sit down and devote a post to the Very Inspiring Blogger award, which I received for the second time this past January from the wonderfully lovely Mrs. Williams from the blog Vibrant Vintage, then a third time in March from very sweet Chelsea of A Sartorial Statement.

Now, the first time around when I received this award, it was in the thick of the aforementioned zenith, and though I acknowledged it in this post back in 2009, I don't recall ever specifically dedicating a post to this exact award. So now seems like a great time to do just that.




I was tickled pink when both of these gals gave me Very Inspiring Blogger Award, and am so happy that I get a chance today to share seven random facts about myself, as per the guidelines for this award, and also to extend it to a handful of the many (many!) other bloggers out there who constantly inspire me with their own stellar sites. 

♥ Seven totally random facts about me ♥

1. Ever since I can recall, I have absolutely loved sleeping outside during the warmer months. Be it a quick afternoon nap in a hammock or an evening spent under the stars in a cozy sleeping bag, few things lull me to sleep as easily, or wonderfully, as being out in the fresh air.





2. I love cardigans, which is scarcely an unknown fact about myself, however did you know that my collection is now nearing thirty in total? Wow! And to think there are still numerous colours (pale yellow, I'm looking at you!) and assorted styles of cardis out there I'd love to add to my closet (it will always be a collection in progress).





3. Though I wouldn't describe myself as being an athlete per se (I was a willing participant who gave it their best shot, but I am so, so not a competitor, I just enjoyed playing for the sake of having fun), during my childhood (long before I became chronically ill), at one time or another, I played the following sports a team level: soccer, basketball, badminton (my fave!), and track and field. I also took gymnastics, swimming, figure skating, tennis, and dance lessons (and was on my high school dance team).





4. Very often when I'm stressed and/or worried, I clean or organize with great determination. This harkens back to my childhood, when I found that doing so could sometimes give me a temporary sense of inner peace and control over various uncertain, stressful elements in my life (all the while keeping my environment clean, which is something I love no matter my state of mind). Now I just find it relaxes me when I'm stressed, and like to joke that you can tell how worried I am about a situation based on how tidy my house is. :)





5. More than anywhere else in Canada that I've yet to visit, I want to travel to the Yukon, specifically to Dawson City, as I have family ties stretching back to the Klondike gold rush there (my great-grandfather, Charles Burkhard, was amongst the mass wave of prospectors and adventure seekers who came north after gold was discovered in the Klondike, however unlike most, he remained there long after the rush had died down) and have felt an unmatched pull towards the arctic ever since I was knee high to a gold pan.






6. In much the way as some musicians can hear a song once and then play it perfectly without being given the sheet music for it, I've always been able to eat dish for first time and then, very often, replicate it pretty much spot on identically from scratch (without a recipe or list of exact ingredients). This cool skill really comes in handy if I fall in love with a dish at a restaurant that I know the chef is not likely to fork over their recipe for to the public anytime soon.

7. I am immensely grateful for the years of my youth that I spent in the Girl Guides of Canada. I feel like I learned a tremendous amount from my time in Guiding, far beyond knot tying and orienteering. I grew more confident (a huge plus for an incredibly shy, quiet child like myself), forged wonderful friends, became more independent, and acquired scores of real world skills which I still apply to this day (plus I can make a mean campfire banana boat! :) ).

{To learn more a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

♥ ♥ ♥

This isn't the first "x number of random facts" post I've done before over the years (for example, here's one from nearly four years ago that specified recipients share "ten honest facts" about themselves), and I highly doubt it will be the last. I enjoy these posts a lot as they allow me to share some neat little snippets of information about myself with all of you, which you might not have previously know about me.

As I adore getting to my readers and fellow bloggers better, too, I'd love to extend the Very Inspiring Blogger Award to the following ten people (as well as to absolutely any of my other readers who would like to receive it, too), all of whose blogs I adore visiting and being inspired by.

1. Bunny from Bunny's Victory

2. Emileigh from Flashback Summer

3. Frances from Polka Polish

4. Holly from Veronica Vintage

5. Jamie from Chatter Blossom

6. Joanna from Dividing Vintage Moments

7. La Toya from Mid Century Pink

8. Mariela from A Girl of Many Interests

9. Monika from Crazy Vintage Cat Lady

10. Sean from The Fictionista

♥ ♥ ♥

If you've already received this award before and/or, don't feel like blogging about it, please don't worry in the slightest. These awards are meant to be lighthearted and fun, not to feel like an obligation of any sort.

Should you like to take part and continue passing this award along however, all you have to do is write a post akin to this one with seven assorted facts about yourself and then continuing passing the Very Inspiring Blogger Award on to whomever your heart desires.

Thank you very much, Mrs. Williams and Chelsea, for the lovely blog award. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness and love that I finally, at long last, got the chance to blog about receiving the Very Inspiring Blogger Award and to pass it along to some of the wonderful blogging ladies out there who inspire me as well.

Just doing a little fall cleaning

Of the electronic version that is.

While by no means obsessive to an unhealthy point, I'm something of a compulsive cleaner. I detest mess and disorder and as a result don't mind housework and actually look forward to certain chores and seasonal cleanings. This week however, no elbow grease was involved, as what I've been tidying up is the pages upon pages that I keep in (neatly categorized) Word documents on my computer to links (sources) of online images and topics that I may want to post about in the future.

From day one back in 2009 when I began this blog, I started putting together such inspiration lists, as well as lists of ideas for future posts (other than deleting those ideas I've already written about, that list rarely gets touched and is a vital element, I find, to successful blogging). As a result, some of the entries are now well over three years old. Not all that aged if we were talking about a real world item perhaps, but in the realm of the interwebs, a lot can happen in that time.

About once a year or so, I like to take a few days and weed out certain links that I suspect or already know are no longer applicable or which are now long gone (e.g., etsy listings that have sold).

Sometimes Flickr users shut down their accounts and thus images there that I'd once hoped to use disappear as well. Other times people change their Flickr settings and cease to allow their images to be used by others, and again that potential image source dries up. The less of these kinds of links one has to hand, the speedier (and more enjoyable) it is to quickly find the type of image you're after for a given post.

While Pinterest has certainly opened up the image playing field - and is a marvelous place to store images that you may use in future posts - I still like the quick ease of use that comes from having these kinds of lists, where a simple "search and find" in Word will pull up the links I'm after, based on the descriptions and/or keywords I partnered them with.




{There’s nothing like a little housekeeping – be it on your computer or in the kitchen to make things feel fresh and tidy again. Image via fidgetrainbowtree}



Much as I literally get antsy if I know something is messy in my house, so too do I like to try and keep my archive of links and vintage inspiration neat and tidy, no matter how lengthy it has become after years of blogging.

Thus, throughout this lovely mid-October week, when not celebrating family birthdays (three in a two day period!) and our wedding anniversary, I've been devoting some of my time to (proverbially) sweeping, dusting, and sorting through my achieves documents and, while it's sad in a way to see any link cease to be useful or available, I'm happy about knowing that I'll now be able to head into the wildly hectic fall and winter holiday season with considerably fewer unusable entries kicking around.

If you keep similar lists (and/or use an online bookmarking service, which I do too, but only a minute fraction as much as I use my Word documents), I highly suggest you do an annual cleanup up, too. You can work at it here and there, when time permits, or intentionally devote a weekend or few days to sorting the "keep" from the "toss”, as they used to say on the TV show Clean Sweep.

One of the perks to this kind of tidying up spree is that it reminds you of some of things you found previously and thought were noteworthy/cute/cool/useful, but which in the ensuing months (or years), you forgot about.

Don't be surprised, as I often find is the case, if you go on a post writing spree in the aftermath of this type of housekeeping, especially if you're still left with oodles of great, totally useable sources of inspiration and images.

Cleaning, I find, is good for the mind, body and spirit, no matter what you're tidying up. There's a sense of satisfaction that comes when you wrap up and admire what you've just done and the order you've brought to the world around you.

So why not join me this month (feel free to don your favourite vintage apron just for fun while doing so) and engage in a little bit of autumn inspiration file straightening up -  it sure makes spring cleaning your house seem like a massive breeze by comparison!

My annual Boxing Day blogroll cleanup tradition

✯ Day 360 of Vintage 365 ✯

Stuffed to the gills with immensely delicious food, giddy from the past day’s merriment, and relaxed by the fact that for many of us today means a day free from our jobs, it might seem a tad odd that I have a Boxing Day tradition that pertains to cleaning.

Lest you think I'm getting an especially early jump on my spring cleaning, allow me to explain. You see, once a year I like to go through the blog roll here on Chronically Vintage and tidy things up, removing any sites that no longer exist (shut down by their authors), which have switched to "by invite only" status, or that are no longer good matches for this site.

Having been awake for hours already, I've completed the blog tidying process for this year. It's always deeply interesting to see which blogs are still going strong and which, for whatever reason, have decided to shut down or have become abandoned (by which I mean their owners suddenly stopped blogging and did not create a post saying that they were planning to do such).

{Nothing as arduous as scrubbing the stove for me today, just doing a little light online housekeeping this fine, frosty Boxing Day. Vintage Kleenoff Jelly ad via alsis35 on Flickr.}

In the case of the later, I generally have a one year rule, by which I mean if a given blog has not seen any new activity for a year or longer, I'm more inclined to remove it from my blog roll. However, even there one encounters exceptions, because (given the historically geared nature of the topics many vintage loving bloggers cover) the content on such sites may still be of great interest to fellow vintage fans and I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on a great site simply because it's no longer going strong.

Though I do not count the precise number of links that I remove each year, I'd ballpark things and say that this time around my blog roll was shortened by about 20%. As I add new links to it throughout the year however, there's a very decent chance that come Boxing Day 2012, it will once again be much the same size as it was prior to this morning.

In fact, in briefly visiting every single blog on listing in my sidebar today, I discovered (through posts on various sites) three or four new (to me) vintage blogs, which of course I added to the roster.

One might wonder why I opted to assign Boxing Day to this yearly task and the I believe that the first time around it was something that just came about originally. Back then, in December 2009, Chronically Vintage had been online for the better part of a year and I figured it was time I pruned by blog roll (as described above) to make sure it was in peak shape for my wonderful blog visitors to enjoy.

As way of ensuring this job was carried out annual, it made sense from there on out to stick with the same day each year, and thus my annual Boxing Day tradition of tidying up my blogroll was born.

That, however, is just about the only "job" I'll be doing today. There's too many scrumptious Christmas leftovers to eat, vintage holiday songs to enjoy, and new presents to delight in to devote this marvelous day of relaxation to anything more arduous than that.

Wishing you all a terrifically fun Boxing Day, however you opt to spend it, sweet dears!

Because tonight I'm cleaning out my feed reader

Granted it's not every day I use an Eminem song lyric as the inspiration for one of my vintage blog posts, but as they say, when the shoe fits... :)

On to the point of this post, and that is the fact that even if we're still contending with the tail end of winter, I've already been bitten by the spring cleaning bug and the first thing that I decided to invest a little elbow grease in was tidying up my feed burner.

You see, I'm something of a collector. I'm the perpetual Girl Guide who always has so many links (to blogs and sites I find interesting) in the wings that I'm prepared to find instant inspiration for just about any subject.

My eclectic passion for everything from vintage dresses to bento lunches, scrapbooking to photography means that after three years of using the same reader, I'd subscribed to a staggering 3,500+ feeds. Of course, I don't read or actively follow all of the sites that those feeds belong to (doing so would take considerably more hours than there are in the day - heck, perhaps in the whole year!), but there is a select handful that I love - and do try to follow as best I can.

The problem is, the plethora of other links (cool as they are - and/or were when I first discovered them and felt their feed worthy of following) are getting in the way of my ability to focus on those sites that I actually have a vested interest in. Equally distracting is that fact that for some time now my (desktop) feed reader has been crashing nine times out of ten when I try to update it, as it just doesn't seem to be able to cope with the volume of new feeds it's being asked to handle.

It's unlikely that this problem was going to remedy itself, which means it was time for me to step in and take action. I've been wanting to whittle down my feed list for quite a while now, and since there's no time like the present, I decided that tonight it was high time I rolled up my sleeves and set to work. The new streamlined list of feeds (which ideally I'd like to keep well below the 500 blog/website mark) will, I very much hope, allow me to better follow my favourite sites - those blogs and corners of the interwebs that continually inspire me, make me smile, add an extra dose of zingy colour to my world, and many of which which belong souls I consider to be online friends.

Naturally, the nucleus of my significantly lighted feed load will be comprised of vintage related blogs. Those are the sites that I cannot get enough of, which I delight at reading, and absolutely adore following. It's important to me to stay abreast of what's going on with my fellow vintage bloggers, and I couldn't imagine not devoting the bulk of my new list of blog feeds that follow to sites that are delightfully centered around old school topics.

I generally quite like cleaning and organizing, and as I work my way through the process of tidying up my feeds tonight, I feel a familiar sense of lightness that is so redolent of the sense I often get after giving the house a good once over or tackling a organizational task that really needed to be done.

{Cheerful vintage homemaker photo via Pure Style Home.}

It can be all too easy to let your the list of blog feeds that you follow spiral out of control, and before you know it you've got hundreds or thousands of feeds and no possible way to keep an eye on all of them. As time passes one's interests can change, which - paired with the fact that naturally enough some sites will always cease to operate each year - means that a blog that caught your eye two years ago may no longer be relevant to your tastes or passions now.

There's unequivocally nothing wrong with streamlining your feed list, and honestly it's something we should all do from time to time (if only to prune out any dead links). If you haven't tided your feed reader (be it desktop or online based) lately, I highly recommend joining me in doing so.

I love knowing that by this time tomorrow, I'll have an easy-to-sort-through, concise, wonderful list of sites that really matter to me to follow and use as major source of vintage and creative inspiration throughout the rest of 2011 and well beyond.