Thank You!

06 May 2013 4 Comments

by daisiesandbruises in Blog Maintenance Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

zineordersIn my last blog post I wrote about being desperately broke yet needing money to renew our domain name, remove ads from the site, and then pay off my zine photocopy expenses. I spoke of saving up for a laptop with any extra money so that I can write blog posts on the go.

I was so shocked by your support and generosity that I cried. I made enough money in 24 hours to pay for our website expenses and pay off the money I put on my Visa card for the zine copies. Some of you ordered zines and pins and some of you just gave me straight donations, the highest being $200 US.

In light of everything I’ve been going through lately, your response to my needs is no small thing. I feel flattered and honoured. I can only hope to continue to move you with my words in such a way that you feel valued in return.

I don’t write to make money, though I would like to make my living as a writer. Writing is much more valuable to me than money. I write to make life more bearable for both me and my readers. I write to share my experiences with mental illness so that you can feel some comfort and encouragement on your similar path to wellness.

So I’m not going to blog frequently about needing money because that need is constant in my life and in yours. But I am someone who keeps her word, so each and every dollar you help out with through purchasing items in my Etsy shop or through donation (my PayPal address is the_torn_skirt@hotmail.com) will go towards buying a laptop, so I can write more for you in turn. I’ll let you know when I have new zines in my Etsy shop and keep you updated on my “work life” of being a writer.

I just wanted to write a quick post to say THANK YOU! *HUGS*

Back to our mental health postings later this week!

♥ Erin

Thank You! Zine Pre-Orders Open

05 Mar 2013 3 Comments

by daisiesandbruises in Blog Maintenance Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

zinepreorderI woke up from a nightmare this morning to feel the sun on my face. Without even opening my eyes I recognized its warmth, and with a stretch that cracked several bones in my body, I reached out my foot while opening my eyes and pulled the blind down enough with my toes so that it rolled up toward the ceiling (yeah, I’m talented). Digby and I were instantly bathed in sunlight. When I finally did get up, I stumbled to the fridge to get an apple and then went back to my patch of sunlight on the bed. I fed Digby little bites as we soaked in the sun. It felt wonderful.

It’s been a dark winter, hasn’t it? Even at -8 degrees Celcius this morning, I could feel spring reaching out to me. Daylight saving time begins on Sunday, whether or not the ice on the ground remains. We’ve almost made it!

Part of surviving depression is recognizing the good in your life. Yes, I need a vacation in the Caribbean, but I’ll take a patch of sunlight on my bed and make the most of it.

Another patch of sunlight in my life involved the responses I received from my last post. Comments from you, emails in my inbox, even AMANDA FUCKING PALMER retweeted the link to my post:

amandapalmertweet

It was a small gesture from Amanda, but it was a genuine THANK YOU kind of moment for me, where she looked me in the eyes and saw little me, who feels invisible most days. Her fans followed suit, giving daisiesandbruises.com a new record high of 541 views in a single day. My Etsy shop sales spiked, too, with some buyers even commenting saying that they’d found me through Amanda’s tweet.

If you haven’t yet, I insist you watch Amanda Palmer’s TED talk . Then come back to comment here to tell me how awesome you feel afterward!

As a gesture of thanks and of wanting to share my excitement with you, this morning I listed a Daisies and Bruises – Issue 5 pre-order in my Etsy shop. The zine isn’t even completed yet but will be by Thursday when I spend the day making copies. It is launching this Saturday, at the annual Indie Media Fair here in London, Ontario.

Pre-orders of my zine will ensure you get a copy hot off the press, plus a bunch of other little goodies in the mail that I’m throwing in out of pure excitement and gratitude.

I love all of you guys, every single one of you. Thank you for helping me feel safe enough to share my stories. You are the courage behind these little fingers typing away. THANK YOU. ♥

Writer’s Regret

26 Jul 2012 11 Comments

by daisiesandbruises in Blog Maintenance Tags: , , , ,

In writing this blog, I go through cycles of being proud to being unsure to being downright confused. Today I’m confused about my responsibility as both a writer and a human being.

My last post was a giant warning to my readers to avoid a faux documentary called A Necessary Death. I received two comments from readers, one on WordPress and another through email, and both commenters said they were interested in watching the movie. One even said she was going to seek it out. The thought just makes me sick to my stomach because the movie is really disturbing. In trying to warn people against the movie, I’ve enticed readers to watch the movie instead. My instincts are telling me to remove the post all together.

Yet, as a writer, I can only control so much. I can control the words I choose and their arrangement, but after I hit publish, I am no longer in control of how readers react to my writing.

Any artist must both be in tune and detached from the impression their work makes on its audience, yet any artist is full to the brim with their own feelings. It’s a very complex problem and I don’t know how to deal with it.

In the world of mental health, it is especially important to not trigger people because the consequences can be devastating.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts about all or any of this.
♥ Erin

Happy Birthday!

16 Jun 2012 8 Comments

by daisiesandbruises in Blog Maintenance Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Birthday to us!! To Daisiesandbruises.com. Woo! One year old.

And as promised, my blog layout is updated with many new features including an updated photo, a sidebar that’s much more fun, and a drop down menu at the top of the page. I’m actually going to be tinkering with things for a bit still, so it’s not written in stone, but that’s the internet for you. Some of the new features:

My Art, hosting pages on my visual art and my poetry.

Inspirations, featuring a list of books and a page of quotes that will be updated frequently.

In the past year I was invited to speak at a few events after readers came across my blog, so there’s now a Hire Me page to answer some of the questions surrounding that stuff. On the same page, if you scroll down, you’ll find testimonials from my awesome readers, a list I visit frequently since behind the scenes I get cold feet and worry that my words have no impact. You have convinced me of my worth.

In the next week or so I will be adding some advertising banners for you to put on your own site if you feel inclined, as well as that “ask me” box that I’ve mentioned wanting to do before. I want readers to be able to ask me questions anonymously to feel safe and secure and heard all at once.

And we now have a Facebook page! Follow along there to be notified of posts, snag some freebies and further inspiration.

So, here’s to sharing more of myself with you, risking stalkers and spammers and the like. If I can’t always share myself face-to-face in this world, the least I can do is have a presence online. Baby steps.

Anyway, I’m super excited to share this with you. Can you tell?! You know I’m not usually this happy. I only have you to thank!!

Cheers to entering the second year of daisiesandbruses.com. We’re in this together.

Blog Under Construction!

08 Jun 2012 Leave a Comment

by daisiesandbruises in Blog Maintenance

In just over one week, Daisies and Bruises will turn one year old! I am so excited about this!

Over the next week I’ll be adding tons of goodies to the site to make Daisies and Bruises a healing destination full of inspiration! So, until then, the site is under construction. If you visit the blog it will most likely look wonky or imperfect and doing so will spoil the surprise unraveled on the 16th!

So, hold on to your hats until next Saturday and if you want a reminder, be sure to subscribe to the blog (if you haven’t already) via email or RSS. The next post will be full of confetti and fun! See you then!

Love Erin

100 Feelings

14 May 2012 7 Comments

by daisiesandbruises in Blog Maintenance Tags: , ,

On the 100th day of school in Grade One we had to bring in 100 items of our choosing. I brought 100 pieces of popcorn. I don’t know if I ate the popcorn after, but probably not because everyone touched it while counting.

This is my 100th post. Yay! I would never  have guessed that I’d written that many but WordPress counts these things.

I’m trying to make a habit of relishing the good things because there aren’t nearly enough of them in life. So 100 posts is pretty cool. And in just under a month’s time, Daisies and Bruises is going to reach its first year anniversary.

I have about 100 feelings right now. Pride, excitement, joy, anticipation, and satisfaction. Then I have my normal feelings of anxiety and depression, caution and fear.

I feel a bit wiser than when I started this blog, too.  I’ve noticed some patterns in my writing habits, like how I tend to stop writing for a bit after I write a post I’m proud of writing. At first I tell myself that I want to make sure everyone reads that post before I continue, but then I start telling myself that I can’t write another post as good as the one before. Then I tell myself that post wasn’t that good to begin with. Then I start beating myself up for writing a new post. Then I just avoid writing, period. It can be fucking exhausting, being me.

Anyway, the countdown is on to the first-year-anniversary of Daisies and Bruises on June 16th. I’m super excited because this blog is going to grow in some exciting ways. Stay tuned!

Housekeeping & Snail Self-Talk

29 Apr 2012 16 Comments

by daisiesandbruises in Blog Maintenance Tags: , , ,

Isn’t that a rad typewriter? It’s my sister’s, even though I’ve tried to get her to sell it to me a zillion times. I thought it was fitting for this post because those little yellow snails on the top are my various negative-self-talk voices.

“You suck!” – snail on the far right

“This is way too depressing to post.” – snail 2nd to the right

“No one wants to read about this.” – next snail

“Why are you writing a blog post on a typewriter?! WTF!?” – snail on the far left

Okay, that last snail does have a point.

Needless to say, I’ve had a bit of anxiety about posting here lately. I’ve written probably seven posts in the past five days and every one of them isn’t “good enough.” I need some new editors, preferably ones that don’t leave slime trails across my pages and monitor.

Moving on!  There are some maintenance questions about this blog that I’ve been meaning to ask you. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

1. For those of you who comment, do you get my replies? Either through email or checking back on the post later? Do replies matter to you?

2. What are your ideas around an “ask” box? I want to put something on the sidebar to let readers anonymously ask questions for me to answer, however I haven’t found the right widget to do so. Any recommendations?

3. Can anyone recommend a good web designer, artist, or website that could work with me to create a 100% unique WordPress layout? This one is too common and generic.

4.  What are your favourite post topics?

5. What would you like to see more of here?

This is my 98th post! If WordPress didn’t count these things for me I’d probably guess I’d written fifty or so. This blog is almost a year old. The feedback I’ve received so far from all of you has boosted my confidence so so much. Thank you! As you can see from those questions, I’m thinking about expanding and making this blog even better. I feel my passion for writing and art coming together into a movement. I’m pretty excited to continue on this journey. :)

It’s Moving Week

22 Sep 2011 7 Comments

by daisiesandbruises in Blog Maintenance, Fun

Whoa, quiet on the blog front! What’s up with that?

Nataliedee.com!
(Thanks, Natalie Dee!)

That’s right, this week is my big move week! I’m moving to a new apartment! So, it’s gonna be uncharacteristically quiet until probably Monday or Tuesday of next week, but get ready for some goodies coming your way then in surprising forms. Until then, if you’re still wanting something entertaining, click more for my RATED R moving pic. No, sorry, it’s not me naked…wait, I’m not sorry about that. It’s just awesome, okay?

by the awesome Natalie Dee!

(Click the image to see more moving week art by Natalie Dee, as well as her general awesomeness!)

Ttys!

<3 Erin

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