I recently started blogging again after a long hiatus and I really have begun thinking about my brand and what I’m about and what I wanted  to say that was truly ME.  For those creatives out there, you might totally feel me. I personally don’t like being defined in my interests and I’m constantly moving onto the next thing.  There are; however, some pretty constant running themes that I’m noticing, especially sharing more lately on Snapchat. They are as follows.

CATS
I’m a self-professed crazy cat lady.  There’s not a cat video I do not like.  I talk about cats a lot, especially my kitty Dexter as seen above.  I own another cat, Pixie, but she’s old and skiddish and truthfully has pretty much been banished to the den cause she can’t control her bowels.  I know, TMI, right?  It’s gross, but the poor girl just can’t help it.  At least I get to cuddle and pet her during feedings.  Anyway, I love cats…getting cat merchandise, seeing other peoples’ cats, and taking pics of them.  It is a constant.  We will see if this changes if I ever have a “kitten” of my own (meaning real baby), but I’m pretty sure this will be an ongoing PASSION of mine.

CRAFTS
You may or may not know, but I pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe crafts. Not only do I work at a craft company by day (iLoveToCreate, the makers of puffy paints, tacky glue, and tie dye), but I often come home from work and do crafts in my off time.  Like I said above, my tastes are random.  Sometimes I like to dive into jewelrymaking, and other times you’ll find me decorating pumpkins and ornaments.  I would say my style is definitely bright, colorful, typographic, and bold.  Even though I haven’t been crafting on this blog as of late, I haven’t stopped crafting in other spaces in social meia land.  I hustled hard a couple years ago on my Vine account and have over 500 videos on there, many of which are focused on DIY. I have grown that account to over 165,000 followers, an achievement I’m both humbled and totally surprised about.  My fans there are awesome and a lot of them younger (11-15).  I think I’ve done so well on there in part because I love making simple and cool projects that are attainable and my audience gravitates there too. I also think it helps that I’m a 13 year-old in a 37 year-old body. LOL.

SOCIAL MEDIA
I have a passion for social media and how to use it to get results.  I’m always hacking, tweaking, creating, and trying out new ways to use it.  I currently have an affinity for Snapchat (follow me: Swelldesigner), but I love Vine, Instagram, and Facebook too all for different reasons.  I think social media appeals to me because it combines a lot of my personal skill sets…graphic design, photography, videography,humor with connecting with people.  I am always looking to find the right message to meet people where they are.  It’s a FUN challenge for me to figure out and since the social media landscape is always evolving, it’s always something new and exciting.

OTHER RANDOM STUFF
So, I share with you my three passions.  There’s a lot more things I love too.  In a nutshell?  I LOVE photography, Starbucks, pop culture, kitsch, desserts, and can’t forget PUNS and silly humor. If you hang around me enough, you will learn that I have puns of steel and I love to dance and not take myself seriously.  Just ask my husband William, he calls this “showboating”.  Haha!

Why am I telling you all this stuff?  I think I just had to get this out there.  For the longest time I really used this blog as a calculated space, meaning, I used it to craft DIYs that I thought viral magic -or- share things I though people wanted to see (roundups, for example).  Now I feel a new freedom with this space to just be me and share an occasional craft, social media tips, creative insight and more. And while I do love cats, I promise to pepper that in sparingly. I don’t want this to turn into the crazy cat lady show.

Stay tuned Swellions, more wild and crazy fun ahead!

Alexa