A very late post on the Blog Awards!

I’m playing catch-up as usual. Have barely been near a computer in the past 2 weeks. I had 2 projects I wanted to finish before the mid-term. Both are now finished, and need blog posts of their own, but I thought I’d have to get this one out of the way first!

I’ve a busy mid-term ahead, and promised the child lots of attention, fun, games, walks, etc, etc. He deserves it, he really is a gem. (He recently watched Star Wars for the 1st time, and decided he was Obi-Wan Kenobi and I was Princess Leia. If that doesn’t deserve spoiling, then I don’t know what does...)

A very belated congrats to Molly Moo who walked away with not only Best Craft Blog, but with Best Designed Blog and Best Personal Blog! It was well deserved... It is great to see a craft blog appreciated for its merit, content and design.


 

I had no intention of going to the awards, with a price tag of €50 per ticket, the price of diesel and B&B, the costs were ridiculous. But when I got offered 2 freebie tickets from a friend that couldn’t go, I thought, feck it. It’ll be interesting to see the goings on behind the Irish blogger world.

The night itself was, well, interesting.  Here’s a very general overall impression of the night: The venue in Naas, nice but really, a strange location. Any B&B’s within walking distance weren’t cheap and frankly stuck in 70’s frame of mind (judging from where we stayed, and tweets by other). The awards ceremony themselves were prompt, between courses of what was an OK meal. Though if vegetarian you were left feeling a bit like an afterthought. I had stuffed myself on side orders of spuds and veg, before mine arrived. The band, very slow to start, so most people had fecked off home leaving a very small scattering of bloggers. The free goodie bags, was full of tat, ads from the sponsoring business, that really you could have done without. the best thing about it was the actually bag itself, a cooler bag from Glenisk, but I forgot it...

So what was good about the night? Well, I do like driving by myself, it gives me time to think. I got to meet up with the coz, who joined me for the night. The others at my table were really lovely. And it was nice to chat to them. Indeed, some of us took advantage of our complementary club ticket, and went dancing afterwards.  It’s been a long time since I danced in strobes and dry ice. The club was not pleasant but the company was fun.

What was very interesting, was who was there, and what they were doing. It was a Tweet orgy. With ‘live tweeting’ being projected onto a screen. I found it eerie. Everyone bar me and the coz with our non-tweeting phones were tweeting away. If that had been a room full of teenagers you would have killed them for the rudeness of it. After each sentence I felt like saying don’t tweet that... And did so, after a few sarcastic comments. I’ve been telling people for a while now, twitter is far better than Facebook, for building up contacts, and business. In fact, no one really mentioned Facebook at all on the night. A telling sign. But still, bloody hell, there’s no need for that kind of obsessive tweeting.

The age group of the attendees was also interesting. Very much middling, of which I will readily admit I am. I honestly expected a few younger heads there. Yes they have a Best Youth Blog category, but it was very much an older crowd. But it wasn’t really a blog event; it was a business blog event. The difference was very noticeable but it did feel a wee bit biased, towards the more well educated. There wasn’t much talk about blog designers, which  is fast becoming a speciality in itself. That was another big absence.

I can’t say I’d attend another one, (well, unless I get asked to one, and don’t have to pay for tickets and accommodation...). But I came away willing to admit I am a blogger, something I haven’t actually done before! Like say it out loud. We don’t have these blog/tweet-ups that seem to go on over on the East Coast. Maybe it’s something we should do. I did come away with the more enthusiasm for blogging than I’ve felt in a while and hopefully it’ll act as the kick up the behind I need to facelift my blogs.

People ask me has it brought more people to the blog, but I don’t think so. Not this one. The Woolly Way blog, which was shortlisted, has def had a few more hits, but I think that’s because a few weeks ago the Crafts Council of Ireland mistakenly put in their e-zine, that the Woolly Way had won...

Oops, this is a much longer post than I had intended! And probably a bit more ranty than I had intended. But you can blame the wonderful Creative Dynamic for that, she told me to be more ranty in my blog!! I finally got to meet her, in real life, after a good year or so of plotting to meet up.Worth the trip for that alone.

Autumn as usual is hectic, it always is. Its my favourite time of the year, with occasional beautiful sunny skies. Am almost glad the summer is over, so we can have blue skies again! I am trying to get out more, get back into walking and cycling, so the battle between computer time and walking time is on.  I’ll probably be still saying in 6 months, yea, the blog needs a facelift...