Simplifying My World

My life is busy.

I know we're all in the same boat, but I have made some decisions about my 'online world' that I need to change in order to simplify my world.

I love scrapbooking, I love owning my own scrapbooking store, I love blogging, I love sharing my layouts with like minded scrappy friends.  Anyone who knows me would know this is true, I am a big advocate of sharing the love and doing whatever I can to help people spend time doing the craft that we all love.  Running my own classes, online blind scrap sessions, cybercrops and the like are all testament to the fact that I love sharing the scrappy passion with everyone I possibly can.

However, I have encountered recent complications in my life that I can only describe as 'blurred  lines'.  I am guilty of giving TOO much at times, over involving myself in the lives of my scrappy friends, spending too much time reading and sharing their lives on Facebook and other avenues of social media.  I LOVE so many people in the scrapbooking world, and have put you all first to some degree for probably the last ten years of my life.  It started in online forums, moved to blogs and the Facebook....oh Facebook!  Facebook has a lot to answer for, the addiction of checking in to see what everyone is doing....every second minute of the day...has become an issue in my 'real world'.  Commenting and liking and being involved has become the normality for me.  It at numerous and multiple times taken my brain and attention away from my family, my home life, my children, my husband, my work...in a brain numbing, finger scrolling way, it just becomes habit to open the app on my phone and see what is happening.

For my REAL WORLD this often means that nothing is happening.  My housework is not being done, my work and business is not at the forefront of my mind, my children get forgotten, I'm not organised and running around at the last minute to get dinner done, or my exercise is forgotten....all because at any given moment I'm thinking about what someone else is doing, or posting, or commenting....or even what they're not doing....they aren't liking my posts or my photos, WHY aren't they chatting to me like they used to, why didn't they invite me to that get together....you get the drift. 

I've OVER THINKING and I totally understand that, but this unfortunately is my nature.  I am always trying to solve a problem, or help someone in need, or make someone feel better...when in reality by doing this I am hurting myself and everyone else around me.  Every.single.day.

I have had a long hard think about what I need to do to fix this issue in my life.  I have come to a solution.   

This solution may not be understood by all, and I do not at all intend to upset or offend anyone, but at the end of the day I need to simplify and separate my worlds.

I have set up a Facebook Page for my blog, in which I'll share anything on a PERSONAL scrapbooking level including challenges, layouts, ideas, blind scraps, anything that is specifically MY SCRAPBOOKING.  You will find my blog's Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/sarsscrapstory

I already have a business Facebook page for Scrapbook Savvy, in which I'll share business updates, class information, Design Team work, new arrivals and the like. You can find lots of Savvy information on the Scrapbook Savvy Website or the Scrapbook Savvy Blog, but on Facebook you'll find Scrapbook Savvy here - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scrapbook-Savvy/107429349349044

As for my personal page, it will become exactly that.  A PERSONAL PAGE.  I will be cutting down my friends list of over 800 people that I can't keep up with and solely be using it to share my personal thoughts, personal messages, personal life with the people who are a part of my REAL LIFE.  People I work with, see every day at dancing, friends that I communicate with on a regular basis, people that wouldn't ignore me in the street, and of course my family.  I no longer see the value in having to share my holidays, my love life, my family, my personal world, with people I don't really know.  Sure, some of my scrappy friends have become people that I can't go without communicating with but truth be known, there are lots of people on my Facebook page that I have never communicated with even once.  Its pointless.

This does not mean that if we run into eachother in the street, see eachother at a craft show, bump into one another at a class that I don't want to be friends and not talk to you...by all means, this is NOT my aim!

I will be contacting all of my regular customers personally via inbox to make sure they know where they can find me and Scrapbook Savvy.  I am always available via messages on the Scrapbook Savvy Facebook page if you can't inbox me personally on Facebook.

I want to reassure anyone that may be reading, that my love of scrapbooking and the scrapbooking world has not changed, I am still very passionate about this craft of ours....I'm simply separating my worlds so that I can manage them better....for me and for my family.  This is to make my life and my mental health easier to deal with day to day.

So stay tuned, my scrappy friends....you'll find all my updates right here on the Facebook page from now on.

I, in turn, will continue to follow you all on your blogs, Design Team positions, Facebook pages and in the scrappy magazines...as I've always done!

Happy Scrapping!

Cheers,
Sar