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Why I’m Stoked to be Having a Birthday

ByGnomeAngel

Birthday celebration and announcement - GnomeAngel.com

Tomorrow I have the distinct pleasure and honour of turning a spritely 38 years old. I’m really excited about it and I’m going to tell you why! (Aren’t you lucky!) Here it is in a nutshell, you ready?

Not everyone gets to do it.

It’s that simple and that complex all at once. Each birthday is a blessing and a gift. You’ve gotten to live a whole year. A year filled with possibilities and opportunities. A year of heartache and love. A year of ups and downs. A whole year that you got to do with as you pleased. That’s pretty magical.

Sure, your year might not have gone the way you wanted it to. You might have had more heartache then love, or you might have experienced some profound loss, but you got that year and it was all yours. No one else had a year like you did and no one else has the power and opportunities to make the next year as awe-inspiring as you do right now.

In the immortal words of the philosopher 50 Cent, “Hey Shorty, it’s your birthday. We’re gonna party like it’s your birthday.”

I used to think birthdays were about being showered with love and affection, and yeah that’s got it’s perks, but I’ve come to realise the real beauty of birthday’s lies in the passing of time. I am not the same person I was 365 days ago. On a biological level (I’ve not got all the cells that were with me this time last year!), on a physical level (my knees aren’t what they used to be), on an emotional level (I’m much calmer than I was then) and on a experience level (Dude, have you seen the stuff I’ve gotten to do in the past year???).

It’s amazing. If I take a moment to reflect on the changes between then and now I can see some big accomplishments and I can see the building of a foundation for some things even bigger. I can see areas where I’m still desperate for improvement and I can see the areas that I’ve started to improve where I thought I’d never be able to make headway.

At the risk of sounding naff, I’ve come to realise that life is in the living. It’s all about the things you do every day that build to give you the life you have and you know what, you can control that. You might not be able to control what happens to you (as the poster says, shit happens) but you can totally control how you react to it. Sure, you might not get that reaction right the first time but if you’re aware of the power you have you can improve on it. After all, it’s all about getting up and being that 1% better than you were the day before.

Birthday’s also contain the promise of a year to come, just like New Year. I love to just take a minute and wonder where I’ll be, what I’ll be doing and whether I’ll be lucky enough to see 39. All I know is that come this time next year I’ll be living the life I want to be or I’ll have died trying. (Gosh I hope this isn’t some how prophetic!)

I’ve been working hard the past year to take control over my approach to life and to start chasing down my dreams. It’s been such an exciting journey and while I’ve come a long way I still have a long way to go and a lot more left to do and that’s exciting.

One of the things that I’ve been dreaming of is creating an online resource for those that want to do what I’m attempting to do; blog about their creative passion.

I love to research. I love to learn and I love to share that knowledge. I’ve been blogging in some form or other since 2002 and over that time I’ve learned a lot, I’ve made more mistakes than I can poke a stick at and I’ve still got so (so so so) far to go to achieve what I want to do, but I’m not alone. There’s so many of us creatives out there that are doing what they love and wanting to share and connect with others that are doing it. We want to use our creative talents to support our family and provide for ourselves. We want to live our best creative lives and share that with others.

When I first started to look for resources to help me understand and improve my blogging I found a lot of stuff for business bloggers, food bloggers, fashion bloggers and mummy bloggers but I never really found a great resource for crafty bloggers.

An idea was born…

Over the past 6 months I’ve been working away in the background to bring together an online resource that would be a leading resource for makers and creators; Craft Your Blog.

Craft Your Blog - an online resource for those that want to know how to blog their craft.

My goal with Craft Your Blog is to provide information for beginners (don’t even have a blog yet!), those that have been doing it awhile and those that are ready to turn their blog into a business. I’m going to be sharing real life case studies, tutorials, resources and even my own analytics to help you and I build and grow our blogs together.

I’m going to be working with some of the world’s best bloggers to bring you insider information, tips and tricks and cautionary tales to help you on your blogging journey. I’m going to be sharing what I’m doing and showing you how I measure whether it’s worked or not. We’re going to be going on a blogging adventure together and it’s going to rock!

Craft Your Blog will be launched Thursday May 7!

It’s an exciting time and I’m so nervous, apprehensive, restless and just a little bit impatient to share Craft Your Blog with you and for us to go on this new adventure together. I have no idea what the next 12 months hold, but I can tell you this it’s going to be fun figuring it all out.

I can also tell you that none of this – none of it – would be possible without the love and support of my God, my Husband, my parents, my friends and the wonderfully fabulous and talented creative community that I’m proud to be a part of both online and offline. I would be no where – no where – without having this amazing foundation of belief, love, encouragement and good humour. So thank you. Thank you for being part of an amazing year. Thank you for letting me be a part of your amazing year and for helping me to see the good in the world and believe in miracles. Big love!

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39 Comments

  1. Happy belated birthday Angie.

    This post resonated deeply with me. Here’s the thing. 21 years ago today, my first husband died at the age of 36. He never did see 37 or 38 or 39….. We are so lucky (privileged really) to have the experiences we do, joyous or otherwise. I love that you are mindful of this and making the most of what you have been given.

    I am hugely excited about Craft Your Blog. As a new blogger, I am sure I will learn a great deal from you and I really appreciate the work you are putting into this.

    All the best in this next year!!

  3. Hi Angie love your work! Happy birthday hope you enjoy your day! Good luck on your new adventure!

  4. Happy birthday, I share the same philosophy as you, but I think it comes from the fact that I’m close to outliving both my parents already so I throw myself into everything since we don’t know how long we have on this Earth. In the words of the great philospher Chris Martin, “If you don’t try then you’ll never know.”

    1. Exactly! I might be a ray of positive sunshine every day, but the good days out weigh the bad. I hope you have an amazing day today!

    1. Oh awesome timing! Well if there’s anything you would like help with, questions answered or want a tutorial on something let me know. Would love to help you get back to it! 🙂

  8. I have a birthday coming up in May, and this is just the type of schmaltzy stuff I wanted to hear in anticipation of mine! (I mean that in a good way! haha) Craft Your Blog: Bring it on! I’d love to learn from whatever you and team have on offer!

    1. Happy Birthday!!! That’s fantastic! If there’s anything you’d like to know more about, a tutorial you’re searching for or you’d like to be one of focus cases, just let me know would love to help in any way I can.

  10. Happy Birthday Angie! I want to say thank you so much for all your help and support that you give to all of us in the blogging community. I have been working really hard – harder than I’ve ever worked – to improve my blog and achieve my goals and you are a huge inspiration in that journey. Can’t wait to see “Craft Your Blog”! I hope you have a fabulous birthday! Much deserved! 🙂

    1. Oh Anita, you spoil me too much! Thank you so much for your lovely words, continued support and for just being so inspiring. I’m loving seeing you blossom and I can’t wait to see what else you have in store for us all! I had a fabulous birthday, thank you!

  11. Happy Birthday! You may only be 38 years old (yes, I said only–I will be 64 this year), but you are wise beyond your years. Thank you for this blog post. It’s a great reminder for all of us to take it one day at a time and to count our blessings!

  12. Happy birthday Angie. I think I could end up a Craft Your Blog groupie as I keep thinking of going back to blogging.

    1. Thanks Tracee! Oh, exciting! Be sure to let me know if there’s anything you’d like to know more about, or if there’s a tutorial you need or you just have something you’re sticking on, would love to help you get back into blogging.

  13. Happy Birthday! and congratulations! I can’t wait to learn, and be a part of this exciting project!! I’ve been wanting to start a blog for so long, but have been intimidated but the awesome designs and complexity of the blogs out there! I can’t wait to start 🙂

    1. Thanks Caro! I hope I can help you get the courage up to take the plunge. If there’s something you’d like more information on, or a tutorial you need or you want some further inspiration just let me know – would love to help however I can!

  15. This is timely for me as my birthday was last week and I would always prefer to treat it as just another day. Looking forward to following this endeavour and try riding your slipstream to put some lift into my life.

    1. Happy Birthday! I hope you had a lovely day! Well if there’s anything I can do to help with that lift do let me know, would love to help in any way I can.

  16. Happy Birthday my fellow Taurus friend. . i just celebrated my 64th birthday on May 1st. I am now in my contentment years. I want to share a favorite quote from Robert Frost about age…”The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected!”

    1. Thanks Kathy – Happy Birthday to you too! I adore this quote, thank you so much for sharing. It rings so true with me at the moment. There are days I wish for my youth, but I wouldn’t change where I’m at now and really all I’m wishing for is a younger body. I hope you have a wonderful day!

  17. So looking forward to this on several levels. It’s been great fun to see all you have accomplished this year. And it’s inspiring to see you reach higher and higher. Congratulations on birthday, it is reason to celebrate each and every day.

  19. Girl, if anyone is qualified to do this, it’s YOU!! So excited and can’t wait to read everything!!

  20. I’m so excited for Craft Your Blog! Can’t wait to see it – I know it will be awesome! 🙂

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