Quick facts
Name...Lynette
Birthday...November 13
Where are you from...I was born in Germany. My father was in the army. so we moved around some while I was growing up, but I am primarily a Southern girl. We lived in Tennessee and Georgia when I was in elementary school, then back to Germany. My father retired from the military when I was ready to start sixth grade. We moved back to Tennessee, where my mother was from, and lived in the hills outside Nashville. It was a beautiful place to grow up, with hills, woods and streams – a place where deer would occasionally graze in our yard. I moved to the Midwest to go to graduate school, left briefly to teach at North Carolina State University, returned to get married and settled down in Illinois.
Three words that describe you...Cooperative yet stubborn. My family says I'm creative, quirky, kind, fun, funny and honest. I notice no one mentioned smart or beautiful or quick-witted. Hmmm. Sometimes I think the three words that describe me might be “hard to please.”
Occupation...Freelance editor and writer
Blog: Sweet Posy Dreams
When did you start your blog...I started my blog on August 26, 2011.
What inspired you to start a blog?A number of things changed in my life this past summer. First, I lost a long-time editing client. When I say long-time, I mean a 20-year-client. I had done proofreading and editing for this large consulting firm for many years, sticking with them through two company mergers/acquisitions. I managed a pool of freelancers for the company, assigning and distributing work, creating invoices – in general, working as an unofficial, on-demand employee. Then the company decided to switch to a purely automated editing software. Boom. Goodbye, nice to have known you.
Second, a member of my family was diagnosed with a very serious illness. This made me begin to take stock. What is really important? What are my goals?
Third, we sold a home that had belonged to my husband’s uncle, and his grandparents before that. A piece of family history was lost, but we gained a truckload of family heirlooms that we don’t have room to keep. Again, this has been a catalyst to think about what is important. How important are material possessions? What possessions have value and why? My husband and I have always been sentimental about family possessions. We have an attic full of items from parents, grandparents and our own things and our kids’ childhood possessions. We realized that possessions can become a burden. Culling is in order! This led me to open a vintage shop on Etsy.
What do you love the most about blogging? Does anything about it stress you out?
I felt like I need to explore who I am and where I’m going. I think the blog helps me with this, but mostly it gives me a creative outlet, and in a funny way, is a spur to try new things and to do things. This comes, in part, from reading other women’s blogs. There are so many creative ideas out there! These women are amazing, and their stories can be inspiring and heart-breaking and funny and sometimes just mundane. But even when posts are mundane, they take me outside my own little world to a nationwide, worldwide world. Reading blogs helps open my eyes. And blogging really can begin to feel like a community of supportive and very interesting friends.
If you had to describe your blog in one sentence, what would you say
Sweet Posy Dreams is about an ordinary life and a woman trying to make the ordinary fun.
What has blogging taught you?
Blogging has taught me to look for the wonder and joy in the everyday. Blogging and reading blogs has taught me that our everyday lives are unique, and there is much to learn from others and a little to teach to others.
What advice do you have for new bloggers? I don’t mean to sound like a Nike ad, but my advice to new bloggers is to just do it. Don’t worry about whether your blog looks “just right” or whether your photos are perfect. Read other blogs, learn from them, but just write and photograph what feels right to you. Enjoy your own blog, have fun with it and most likely others will enjoy it too.
Where do you see yourself and your blog in 5 years?
In five years, I hope I am still writing my blog and that it evolves as I grow and change. I hope in five years that I have a secure niche in the blogging world, and have increased my readership and the number of comments by readers.
What has surprised you the most about blogging?
I’ve been surprised by both how much fun blogging is and also by how difficult it sometimes is to think of something new to blog about!
Happy early birthday, Lynette!!! Here's to a great day!! :)
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