4 years of maipenquynh

maipenquynh on 14. October 2024

This year I'm really excited about the blog birthday post! I was knowing that the blog birthday was coming some time in advance. By now, I've put the blog birthday in my birthday calendar so that I don't forget it again (like in the 2nd year) höhö. This year I was inspired by other blog birthdays and thought about what I would like to include in the birthday post. Welcome to the blog birthday post!

When I think about the last year of blogging, there is a lot of gratitude. Grateful that I enjoy it so much. It comprises the whole package of running a blog: The very obvious thing - creating and publishing posts. Then, there's also reading other blogs and gaining insights into other interesting areas; commenting on their posts and replying to comments on my own blog - it's about talking to each other. Fortunately, I even had an offline meeting this year and got to know Miss Booleana in real life - that was wonderful! And eventually, it's also about developping the blog, when there's time and muse.
I found a lot of new blogs in the second half of the year and learnt once again that a post doesn't end at its end, but in the comments section. My feed reader has become a lot bigger and that is very enriching. I realise that, contrary to my question in my first post , the blogosphere is still very active!

I was torn between the question what my blog should or should not be on the last birthday, and this topic came up once again, and eventually there was a a dedicated post. For now, I've found peace with this question. My blog flow is mainly to work according to my mood. Plans are made for the moment in the first place and not so much to realise them. I'm fine with that.

A few figures

Somewhere in between I posted the 100th blog post ! I was aware of it, then the moment was gone and I didn't make a big thing out of it and didn't "celebrate it greatly". If I counted back correctly, the 100th blog post was Internet findings (1). Belated congratulations on the 100th post 🎉

In the 4th year of maipenquynh I posted 52 posts. A quick comparison: For the 3rd year, it was 22 posts. In total, 123 posts have been published in those 4 years of maipenquynh.

Retrospective in categories

Then let's have a look how the posts were distributed among the four blog categories.
Note: One post can be assigned to more than one category.

A little gift to myself: After going through my categories, I am still happy to say: I really like my categories and feel connected to them! ✨

I'll start with my biggest category Something with Photo.

I counted 42 posts. The format Fotokiosk/nur ein bild is a small format, nonetheless it's a much-loved format of mine. I show you nur ein bild (only one picture)- which shall be in the focus for one moment. Sometimes with more, sometimes with fewer words. In fact, preferably with fewer words.

Then there are photo posts where several photos are shown and where it's fun to me to add a text as a nice companion to the photos. This incluedes posts such as Botanical garden and the Ginkgo tree, Sicily in January or Coriander germling. My highlights were the posts A library tour through Dresden on two wheels and my photo series with 12 parts about Madeira (and Lisbon). The latter has quite pushed up the number of posts but I actually really like the series - both the photos and the texts.

There were also a few ‘behind the scenes’ texts: my photo fail and my conflict whether I want and am able to post photos 'up to date'.

The category Wundertüte (surprise bag) is on 2nd place with 31 posts. Many posts overlap with the photo posts. In this category, I want to emphasise my posts on the topic darning: My repair date, the patterned blouse and the almost-chameleon and that I am not an ambitious sustainability person and instead darning is just my hobby .

3rd place, purely in terms of the number of posts, is the category lautgedacht (thinking out loud) with 17 posts. I've been thinking out loud about the calendar motto 'The journey is the reward' and why I should be on the road at home . I'd love to think out loud more often. But thinking is so exhausting xD

And last but for sure not least: The category Mein Blog und ich (My blog and I) with 6 posts in place. I have installed plugins and tried to document more.

Posts from my heart

I thought about making a top 3 but it's difficult.

Generally, I recommend my tags Fotokiosk/nur ein bild and darning (although there are a few posts which are not that dedicated). But this is a bit too easy, isn't it? Therefore, my picks are:

  • A library tour through Dresden on two wheels: It was just so nice to write this post. Indulging in reminiscences and being at places. But also feeling the warm feelings in libraries and being thrown back to other moments of life - sigh.
  • on the road at homeA topic that has accompanied me for quite a while. To finally sort it and putting it into words felt so good. And it is a small philosophy of life that has accompanied me more consciously ever since.

Just a top 2. Good, too! 🙂

Wishes

There's only one wish and goal for the new blogging year: to continue blogging with full heart and joy. The way it is right now is really nice. I really feel like blogging, reading, commenting and being in contact these days. Every comment still causes feelings of happiness and every emoji is acknowledged.

This one is to you, to me and to us in this blogosphere! Grateful that we are here together 🎈

3 years of maipenquynh

maipenquynh on 14. October 2023

So my blog has reached kindergarten age – it’s turning 3!

3 years. Somehow not much, but somehow also something. By the way, I missed the 2nd birthday 😀

In the last two years I have published 38 posts, 16 of them in the second year and 22 in the third year. In comparison: In the first year alone there were 33 posts.

My topics

Not quite half of the posts in year 3 went for the monthly reviews. I have changed the structure of this category back and forth more than once. Sometimes including a review of my topics (photography, handcraft), sometimes excluding them.

On the one hand, these monthly reviews were a very good anchor for me to write, especially to write on a regular base. Besides, it’s a lot of fun to review the month at the end of the month. On the other hand, I miss writing stand-alone posts that revolve around a specific topic.

If it’s not a monthly review, then it’s usually about Something with photography or my photos that I want to present. Is the focus of the blog going towards photography slowly? I don’t know. I don’t plan to but if it’s the topic I want to write about the most, then that would be it. But honestly, I’m still hoping that other topics will also (re)emerge ^^

Time will tell.

My life as a blogger

I still don’t have a flow/routine in my daily life to create blogposts. Do I need one? No. But it would make things easier. There are steps I like and others I do not. And then I move the those I don’t like to a later timepoint but this also means that the go-live of the post has to wait until then. And then I huddle. Coordinating the different steps in a sensible way certainly makes it easier to create, that’s my opinion at least.

But I have a little bit of flow – I have a digital tool that helps me collecting notes and thoughts. In the meantime, I have changed my tool. It was Evernote before and currently I work mainly in OneNote. OneNote feels more intuitive and I really like working with it for the blog. In between, Notion was also a topic but I didn’t pursue that any further.

And every now and then the question arises again …

Why and for what purpose do I have a blog?

It still is a mix of self-expression, thinking out loud and being proud in public, and the desire for sharing is caring. A blog post helps me work things out. It helps me to take time to think about things in peace and quiet or to deal with the subject matter or to prepare things. Writing a blog also means creating at leisure.

Getting around in the blogosphere

This year I asked myself how I can network with others. How do I get to know other blogging people? How do I find them? The problem I have is actually time. The lack of time to browse and click through. And then to become active.

Vice versa, I also don’t know how many people read my blog. I do have a statistics plugin but it is very rudimentary (I can read the number of clicks and the pages clicked on, there is no info on the visitor). I’ve recently been thinking about lookng for a low-threshold „like“ tool because I know that writing comments is exhausting and sometimes you don’t have anything to say.

We’ll see what the new year has in store for me and for us!

At the end of this post, there is one small, fine and also very important thing I have to say: I am very happy that you are here and that you visit and read me. So a big and heartfelt thank you to you! 🙂

Here’s to another year of blogging!

maipenquynh wird eins

maipenquynh on 6. November 2021

Dieser Post fing als Draft mit den Worten „Es fühlt sich immer etwas weird an, auf dem Blog über das Bloggen zu schreiben.“ an und sollte mein erstes Rumjammern im Rahmen des Lernlogbuchs: Mein Blog und ich sein. Aber dann endete der Absatz so: „Wie auch immer, fangen wir mit einer gar nicht so kleinen Sache an:“ und es folgte – Anführungszeichen unten –

Blog-Geburtstag! maipenquynh ist 1 Jahr alt geworden

 

Auch ein Blog-Geburtstag will gefeiert werden! Und es ist natürlich eine gute Gelegenheit um auf ein Jahr zurückzublicken. Erst mal die harten Fakten:

Der allererste Post kam am 14.10.2020 online und bis zum 14.10.2021 waren es dann 33 Posts. Das ist eine Quote, auf die ich doch ganz stolz bin, wenn ich überlege, dass ich zwischendrin mindestens ein Blogtief hatte.

Wie erging es mir?

Wie ich in alten Notizen gelesen habe, war ein eigener Blog ein lang gehegter Wunsch von mir und die Erfüllung dessen hat lange auf sich warten lassen. Dass ich heute und hier noch diese Online-Präsenz habe, ist für mich ein Ding. Ein ziemlich krasses Ding sogar. Ich bin echt stolz auf mich, dass ich weiterhin schreibe und mich auslebe und das die meiste Zeit auch mit viel Spaß und Freude mache. Einige Monate lang hatte ich ein Tief und habe nichts gepostet und auch offline kaum geschrieben. Aber ich bin daran nicht verzagt und tippe tatsächlich drauf, dass das bei mir mit dem Alter bzw. „Reife“ zu tun hat. Mittlerweile kenne ich mich besser und weiß, weshalb ich Dinge mache und wenn ich etwas nicht fühle, dann lasse ich es. Dann kann ich nur hoffen, dass das „Ich fühl’s einfach“ wiederkommt. Bestimmt sagt sich das so leicht im Nachhinein, denn die Lust kam glücklicherweise wieder. Aber die paar Monate Abstinenz habe ich gut verkraftet.

Nachgedacht und die Entwicklung des Blogs

Es gab viele Punkte, die mich nachdenken ließen. Nachdenken über das, was ich zeige, nachdenken über das was der Blog für mich darstellt und was ich hier eigentlich sagen will. Ich zweifle viel, aber will das nicht immer zeigen, weil zweifeln „schwach“ wirkt. Und auch wenn ich weiß, dass das nicht stimmt und dachte, dass ich schon weiter wäre was diese Schlussfolgerung angeht, so merke ich am Blog sehr gut meine Grenzen und was doch noch in meinem Kopf manifestiert ist.

Es hat sich in der Zeit auch vieles entwickelt: Ich habe mir Konzepte zum Bloggen überlegt, Kategorien etabliert, Zeitpläne erstellt. Einiges ist geblieben, einiges wieder gegangen. Und jedes Mal, wenn ich etwas ziehen lassen musste, fühlte es sich schlecht an – wie scheitern eben. Aber da gehe ich durch, bleibt mir nichts anderes übrig. Danach verblogge ich das gerne, weil mich das ja beschäftigt (hat). Und gleichzeitig ploppt der Gedanke auf: „Interessiert das den:die Leser:in, auch wenn ich es immer wieder aufgreife?“ Auch wenn ich weiß, dass ich am besten blogge, wenn ich das verblogge, was mir gefällt und nicht primär das, was Leser:innen gefällt, so bleibt dieser Zweifel bestehen. Es hat sich ein gewisser Themenkreis auf maipenquynh gebildet und ich habe mehr das WAS erarbeiten können. Irgendwann möchte ich den Aufbau meines Blogs erläutern, es steckt bissi Hirnschmalz drin.

Danke

Und zu guter Letzt möchte ich noch ein dickes DANKE aussprechen an diejenigen, die es immer wieder hierher schaffen. Das ist eine unglaubliche Motivation, den Blog zu führen. Es ist sooo ein cooles Gefühl, wenn ich einen Kommentar – off- oder online – bekomme und merke, dass ich nicht nur gegen den Bildschirm schreibe, sondern dass in einem anderen Raum/an einem anderen Ort mein Text jemand anderem ins Gesicht sieht. Ich sehe meinen Text an und mein Text sieht dich an oder du siehst meinen Text an. Wie rum auch immer, wir sehen uns durch meinen Text und das ist eine schöne Vorstellung.

Wenn alles gut läuft, dann gibt es den Blog auch noch eine ganze Weile, sodass wir uns weiterhin über dem Bildschirm lesen werden 🙂

Es gibt sehr vieles an meinem Leben als Bloggerin, das mich ärgert. Aber das Jammern hebe ich mir für ein nächstes Mal auf. Ich fühle mich gerade ganz gut, daher belasse ich es bei diesem Gefühl.

– Anführungszeichen oben.

Quelle der benutzten Vektorgrafiken: Birthday vector created by freepik

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