Thursday, May 9, 2013

A Little Favor

Good-Looking Strawberries

Hi, friends!  Happy strawberry season.  Have you been stuffing yourselves silly with strawberries?  I have, but only in raw form.  I just can’t bear to cook strawberries, so I eat them alone, or on top of my oatmeal, or lightly sweetened with ricotta cheese.  Nothing says, “Spring!” to me more than fresh strawberries.

Today I have an announcement and a favor to ask of you.  You may have noticed some changes around here in the sidebar, such as the page asking for green sponsors.  After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided to take this blog in a slightly more commercial direction, but one that’s in line with my values.  I’m now thinking of this blog as one that promotes thoughtful consumerism in the context of everyday living.  My real passion is green living, and that’s not limited to one genre like food or clothing or habits.  I think it’s important to take a holistic view of what it means to live sustainably, and I’m excited to explore that more on the blog and in my life.

This decision, of course, coincides with the end of my current job.  The reason is simple: the business side of blogging can take up a lot of time, and I now feel like I’ll have the time for writing posts and the business side of blogging.  I don’t want to sacrifice content for money, and as long as I had a full-time position, I wanted to devote my blogging time to writing posts.  Can you tell that it takes me more than a few minutes to write my posts?  Can you tell I put a lot of thought into what I share here?  I ask these questions not to be pedantic but because I’m not sure if it’s obvious.  This blog has been a labor of love for me for almost six years (six years!), and I’m excited to take it to the next level.

And now, here’s the favor.  I’m starting small by setting up a store with Amazon.  The idea is that if you buy items like cookbooks or ingredients through my Amazon store, I earn a small percentage of your purchase as a commission.  I’m carefully curating the store to include only things I love and use—in other words, things I spend my money on, too.  Buying things through my Amazon store is an easy way of supporting this blog.  If you’ve gotten anything of value from my posts, recipes, ideas, or comments, perhaps you’d consider visiting the Amazon store for any kitchen-related needs.  I would be so grateful for the help!  And to be really honest, your supporting this blog financially makes it easier for me to justify spending more time producing content.  I always have a big working list of post ideas; I just never seem to have enough time to write.  

Post Ideas_Image_JPEG_cropped

I plan to tell you more about the direction this blog is heading.  Truly, I’m going out on a limb here to pursue my passion project.  It’s scary and exciting, and I’m so happy to have you along for the ride!  Thanks for reading and for all the love.  My readers are the best, all 800+ of you.

Tree and Sky

4 comments:

Chrissy said...

I am SO EXCITED about this direction for your blog! It seems natural and I have no doubt that it will continue to be one of my favorites to read. I don't shop much (especially right now) but next time I need something, I'll definitely get it through your Amazon store. Good luck with this new venture, friend! I am sure you'll be successful. :)

Laurie said...

This is very excititng. I wonder how this works for your international readers? Good luck with your new project. Can't wait to read more.

Unknown said...

Very exciting! Love the post ideas you have, and always enjoy your writing <3

Rosiecat24 said...

Thank you all for your kind comments! And my apologies for not writing back to you sooner--I've been fighting a cold for the last few days. I am really excited to see where this blog goes. So many post ideas to share! I can't wait.

Laurie, I'm not sure how it works for international orders. I did some Googling but haven't found anything that seems definitive. I'll contact Amazon to ask.