Grow Your Blog

I’m part of the 2015 Grow Your Blog Party, and hope some of you who have found me decide to stay around a while and are interested in what I’m talking about over here. I hope to also find even more people to follow on their blogs.

I’m Mindy, and I’ve been blogging off and on for quite a while. For several years, I had a blog where I talked about whatever came to mind, including my cross stitching. Then I discovered Facebook and other social media outlets and blogging was left behind. I had a few false starts on this blog, but now seem to be in the swing of things again — and have added crochet and needlepoint to my main hobbies. I also sometimes fiddle around with embroidery and crewel, and want to start crazy quilting on a small scale. I live just outside Philadelphia, where I’ve lived for nearly 20 years now. I grew up in the Finger Lakes Region of New York, and still have family there.

In my work world, I am a Communications Manager and write a lot about criminal justice issues. I’ve had similar jobs at other employers, writing human interest stories, articles about various programs that help people, and even about the dangers of mold and why bleach does not destroy it on porous substances. (That’s a blog post for another day, if you’re interested). I’ve created and maintained social media accounts for my past few employers and just enjoy writing about every day life, sharing what I know, and learning so much more than what I know.

Growing up, I wanted to be a teacher. However, by the time I got to college I knew I did not have the fortitude to put up with so much that today’s teachers deal with, so I majored in history — which I was planning to do anyway, but I didn’t add the teaching part. I still tend to read mostly nonfiction and enjoy learning about various types of history. I do love to tell stories (“Mindy Memories,” my old friends call them), and I like to teach people who want to learn. I taught needlepoint classes for a time in Philadelphia, until my main job changed and made it too difficult for me to continue teaching the weekly classes.

So, all that to say that I enjoy writing and talking about my interests, and have found many others who share them and I have so much to learn from them. I have discovered blogs from around the world, written by people I would never have had a chance to “meet,” otherwise.

As far as my crafts go, I’ve been cross-stitching for over 30 years after learning the skill in 4H when I was a child. That was my main hobby until about five or so years ago when I discovered a new needlepoint shop in Philadelphia. I quickly became addicted to it and cannot believe how many canvases and how many threads I’ve accumulated since then. About two years ago, I joined my church’s women’s circle. We crochet prayer shawls, prayer squares, scarves for the homeless, baby hats for hospitals, etc. My grandmother had taught me how to crochet granny squares when I was little, but that’s all I knew and I hadn’t done it for decades. Now, I’m crocheting all sorts of things and it’s hard for me to decide what hobby to work on when. That’s not a bad problem to have, but I do need to start finishing some of these projects I’ve started. 🙂

Posted by Mindy on January 24, 2015

https://mindysneedleworkmania.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/grow-your-blog/