10th blogoversary

Well, you read the title. This little blog is turning 10 today! I can't believe 10 years have gone by since that day I came up with the name Monster Crafts and created the blog. And, a full decade later, here I am, still standing. 

I still remember when I started collecting Monster High dolls. I spent quite a lot of time searching the Internet for information, and that's how I found out so many dedicated blogs. I'm one of those people that, when they like something and feel very passionate about it, they want to talk about it and spend time learning about it. So, what a better way to canalize all that energy and passion than creating my own blog, right?

I've already mentioned in past Blogoversary posts that, when I created this blog, I had the idea of building a wooden Monster High dollhouse, with rooms decorated with the theme for each character (or at least the ones I had at that point) and blog about it. Of course, that never happened, as I started working full time and college, which left me with 0 to no time to play with dolls. It's so funny to me to think that I wanted to make this big, bulky house, when now I try to figure out of ways I can have different scenes and dioramas taking as little space as possible. 

A lot of things have changed in these 10 years. One of those things is that I don't collect Monster High anymore. When the original line got cancelled, I lost my interest in the franchise, so I started focusing on Barbie. And with that, because of their more "realistic" looks, I also became more interested in making more realistic things for them, such as furniture and now doll clothes. Now that Monster High is back, I have realized that my time collecting Monster High has come to an end. I just don't feel the spark I felt with the original line that made me want to buy them all. At this point, I'm more into getting just a few dolls and build a world around them, being that making furniture, outfits or just photographing them in fictional situations.

The idea behind this blog has also shifted with the years. Like I said, I went from wanting to build this doll house, to doing doll reviews. Currently, I don't have one specific "theme" or area of expertise in this blog, but I tackle quite a lot of things doll-related: photography, crafts, doll clothes, reviews or just general doll chatter. As the saying goes, "Jack of all trades, master of none", so I'm really not an expert in any of these things, but I treat this as a way to share what I'm learning and discovering along the way. When I started collecting I had lots of questions about all of these things, and I couldn't find that many answers, or they required supplies and resources I didn't have access to at the time. So, this blog in a way is also what I think it could have been useful for me when I started. 

For the longest time I couldn't dedicate as much time to the blog as I wanted, or work on the projects that I wanted to (due to either lack of time or resources). It got frustrating at times, and I often got stuck trying to keep pushing old ideas that I hadn't time to execute, or I felt like I didn't get enough time to explore them. However, I feel like things started to change once I had the opportunity to just focus on my studies, as this would give me more spare time to work on the blog. Also, I was far less exhausted and in a better headspace. I'm not at the point where I would like to be, but I can definitely tell there's been some improvement compared to when I started. Here's a photo that I took back in 2013. I remember being so proud of this one, and now I just see how poor in quality it is. I love the idea behind it though, and I'm thinking of recreating this with other dolls. 

Over these years, I've published almost 200 posts. In fact, this is my 199th post, so the following one will be my 200th. Through the years, my posting hasn't been very consistent, as I've had long periods of absence due to school, and others in which I would post doll reviews back to back. Now I think I've found a balance and try to post as evenly as possible through the year. My goal is to post once a month, but, if I can, I try to post twice, maybe 3 times if I have a lot of content piling up. I feel like that way, my readers have more time to check out my blog between posts, without overwhelming them. It's also quite a reasonable goal for me, as I don't have all the time in the world, and some posts, like craft posts, take longer time to write. 

Other people who've celebrated their 10th blogoversary this year have also tackled this, but the blogosphere has significantly shrunk these past 10 years. Blogs don't seem to be as popular as they once were, and lots of the bloggers that I used to interact with are no longer active (I often think about Muff, from Hey it's Muff, one of my favorite blogs). During the pandemic there seemed to be a small resurgence of blogs, as people were spending more time at home, and I got some new readers. Some new people have joined the blogosphere, but many of them seem to have dropped the ball pretty quickly, specially those that came from social media. Blogs don't have the discoverability of social media, so you won't be getting 100 likes and followers overnight. They also take more work, not just to post, but also to build a community. 

Personally, I prefer the interaction I get with people over here, as I feel like I can share more, but also get to know people better. The doll community over here might be small, but I feel like for the most part, people genuinely support others and care about what they post about. When I've gone through rough times, I've received lots of support and encouragement from my readers, which I'm very grateful for. I haven't seen the same thing happen over social media, but that might just be my experience.

Even if I haven't always managed to dedicate as much time as I wanted to, or put out the content I would have loved to, I'm still very happy with this blog. I really look forward to posting here, and it keeps my mind busy trying to think of new ideas and content. I don't have plans to quit anytime soon, as I have plans and ideas I want to share here. Thank you to everyone who takes time to read my ramblings, even if you're a usual reader or just drop by from time to time. Your support and kind words really help me stay motivated to post and create.

On a little side note, I'm back to school. I didn't get time to do all the things I had planned during the break, but I did finish the swimwear I was working on. My plan is to post a photo compilation next month, and a sewing post in June. The school year finishes around the 20th of June, so until then I won't have much spare time. I would love to write another doll review, but I'm not sure if I'll find the time before the end of the school year.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long post. I hope you're all doing well, and I'll see you in May with a brand new post.

Monster Crafts

This post was first published on themonstercrafts.blogspot.com. If you see it published elsewhere, it's been plagiarized without my consent.