My Blogging Journey- 6th Anniversary Post

How it all started

Today is our 6^th birthday. I first posted on this blog on 16 February 2013.  It all started “Just For Fun” while I was still at college. I was always very crafty and would experiment with various arts and crafts. Back then, Internet was not so used by People in Kashmir as it is now. Facebook was other name for Internet, literally. Not many people knew that there is other side of this service other than the Facebook. For them internet meant Facebook! For many it still means the same. :D

I would look up for stuff on Google and immediately fell in love with the idea of blogging. I perceived it as a learning and teaching process. When I saw people around the world showing their crafts, I was motivated to do something like that too. I knew about blogs and stuff and came across the free blogger platform-Blogger by Google. After thinking a lot, I named my blog as Hobbies Inn – A little Inn for Hobby enthusiasts. And it still has the same name. Though I changed the domain from Hobbiesinn.blogspot.com to HobbiesInn.com.

To be honest I had no blog plan or I didn’t know about SEO and other things too. I would post occasionally about the crafts that I did. I was not aware how blogs work (Which I am now). But no matter what, as much as I enjoyed doing my crafts, I equally enjoyed posting about them.

Since I was a college student, my studies demanded much more from me. I was a top student and worked very hard on my subjects and hence I was not able to post that often. But Hobbies Inn survived, because, I am a very passionate crafter and arts and crafts is my first love and the blog stats was always positive and great.

I had a major dip in blogging In 2014, I posted only 7 posts, well we were drowned in devastating 2014 floods with hardly anything to eat. You cannot imagine a girl to craft in that situation and post about it! Also, we had no communication of any sort for almost 1.5 months as well! Moreover, my college projects and internship demanded so much from me. Tough time that was! We hadn’t seen such devastating floods in about 100 years. Whole city was submerged in water for more than 1 month. Read more about 2014 Kashmir Floodshere.

My blogging again saw a dip in 2016, for nearly 6 months, we had no internet or phone communication in whole state. We are habitual to frequent Internet/communication gags and that one was the lengthiest one I suppose. It was not the internet alone, we too were gaged inside our homes from June till November! That year I completed my college, had a bad case of chicken pox along with my sister, read almost 20 books in a month, tried my own weird hair styles, exercised a lot, procrastinated a lot too, had no idea about where my friends were, never wore anything else other than my pajamas, didn’t use phone (gaged), didn’t watch TV (It was gaged too), would listen to anything on radio though and that included vividh Bhariti… wow. And yes crafted a lot with everything that I had(I didn’t  photograph them or write about them, I couldn’t have even if I had wanted to. I just enjoyed doing them). When my supplies were over, I turned to gardening and that included pretty much watering the plants and de-weeding.

Never the less, we were depressed to the core. We were scared and sad, people were being blinded and killed. Many of us suffered psychological problems and the sufferings seemed unending. Read more about 2016 Kashmircrises here.

By the time all was over, I had lost motivation for everything, I had stayed too much Inside my home doing everything that I wanted to or didn’t want to that next few months of 2017 were spent in doing things that were none of them! It was very hard to again start studying and working on career goals.  

However, I managed to work on my blog a little. I created social media handles on Instagram and Facebook and also started a YouTube channel. I had a Facebook handle for my blog back in 2014 but I deleted it because it was getting burdensome at that time of my life. However, now I have a plan and a greater ambition for this little blog. I am posting more often and with more details. I am more focused and have certain goals to achieve. I have learned a lot not only in various crafts that I do but also in the profession of blogging. At this point, I am quiet motivated and have a plan.

Through all this thick and thin, my sister was my partner in crime, co-conspirator and full support system. When I say “I” it automatically includes my sister by my side. She critiques my projects and crafts and I make her proof read all that I write on this blog. Many of the projects here are outcome of both of our creative minds. She helps me in photographing the projects and reminds me of my unfinished ones as well. Crafting alone is good but crafting together is great.  

Now, the situation in Kashmir valley is different, more people are coming towards crafting and handmade business but Hobbies Inn stands as the only craft blog whose purpose is to learn and teach rather than sell. Our goal is to promote healthy habits and help people come towards creativity from their sedentary lifestyle. We try to expose people of Kashmir to more and more crafting and how can they achieve all that in terms of technique and where to get the supplies as well.

We try to change the meaning of “Internet” from “Social Media” to what it actually is. Kashmir is a beautiful place with beautifully talented people, our motive is to motivate them, kill the depression and anxiety and help them lead a creative and healthy lifestyle especially among women.

We post mainly about Crochet, Sewing, lifestyle, foods and other random crafts. We have also introduced our own stylized leather crafts and we hope to add more to these categories.

This is our Journey so far, hope you enjoyed reading it and hope to add many more great years to it. Keep reading, learning, loving and supporting. Your Support means a lot and keeps us going.

Thanks a lot.