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Can everyone feel that dull rumble beneath their feet? Yeah, It’s the riots starting to break out amongst the blogosphere from the earth shattering news that the uber quirky and ridiculously adorable LC from Fops and Dandies is quitting her blog. I know. She’s a selfish cow right? This is just how I felt when Style Bytes left me. I am plotting ways to find LC in the Midwest and stalk her until she comes to her senses and realises that I can’t live without her funky little posts and New York culture on my reader every morning. Soy chai tea will never be the same with out her.

I am kidding of course. I do feel like she has ripped my still-beating heart from my chest and is nonchalantly tossing it in between her Jackson Pollock bracelet-ed hands, but seriously. She has a life and the pressures of blogging can be extreme. I really do wish her all the best and although I know how upset a lot of her readers will be (me included) I hope everyone is not too harsh on her.

All of this business is making me think… are we all a little obsessed with blogs? Be it our own or those belonging to others?

I’m not at all complaining about blogging. I obviously love it because I do it nearly everyday. I won’t lie though, it’s a hell of a lot of work. I’ll spend an entire weekend reading The Babysitter’s Club books to bring you posts about Claudia Kishi. Or I’ll pull everything out of my wardrobe and spend hours taking photos to give you all a gander at my wardrobe basics. And don’t even start with me and how much time I spent scrolling through Facehunter to bring you How to Wear a Scarf Part 1, How to Wear a Scarf Part 2 and How to Wear a Scarf – For Men. Most of the time I really relish this and I take a lot of pride in producing (hopefully) interesting posts. Although I do sometimes feel pressure to blog on days when I’m feeling less than creative. It’s because I know there are people out there who save my blog for their lunch break or who read my posts over their morning coffee. It’s so inspiring knowing there are people out there who are waiting for my daily outfit shot and most days I’m hanging out to get home from work so I can post. I also have days where I feel like my blog is a big fat annoying burden and I wish it would just disappear so I could wear tracksuit pants and drink gin instead of trying to squeeze something interesting out of my dried up brain. Thankfully these days don’t happen often. Even more thankfully I’m very lucky in that my readers are lovely (as in seriously gorgeous and divine) and don’t ever pressure me in a mean way. I’m the luckiest blogger in the world because I’ve never had a really awful comment slung at me and my regular readers are courteous, respectful and intelligent people who I love dearly.

The thing that really annoys me are the readers at other people blogs. I’m not cool enough to have people hate me but there are some rockin’ bloggers out there who cop some serious shit from the douche-bags of the Internet Underworld. I was having a cruise through the comments on Childhood Flames and there are so many ‘anonymous’ commenters on her site that give her beef about not posting enough, how boring her outfits are and how she never answers their questions. Um… exsqueeze me? Baking powder? Since when did she become a slave to their pety little requests? For the record Camille is a lovely, young and stylish lass who very kindly shares her daily outfits with us. So why is she the subject of so much abuse? Bloggers give up so much of their free time and sanity for the sake of their readers and should be thanked for it. Not pelted with cowardly gripes.

I’m a blogger as well as a reader and I must admit that I’m prone to getting a little shirty with my favourite bloggers if they haven’t posted in while but I never comment about this. Because it’s a loser thing to do and to be honest, my world will not explode with out Kingdom of Style and Fashion Toast. I read so many wonderful sites daily that sometimes I do forget that I survived for twenty years without fashion blogs and I had a pretty damn good time doing it. I’ve become quite attached and very Charlton Heston about my blog – ‘From my cold dead hands!’  but I’m not about to lose my job or my sanity over it. I know where my priorities are.

 What do you think bloggers? Where do you draw the line with your blog? What do you give up to make sure you keep it going? Does your blog invade your personal life more than it should?

What do you think readers? Are your work days consumed by Google reader and what your favourite blogger did on the weekend? Do you spend more time reading about other people’s lives than living your own life?

Just something to think about…

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx