As I’m sure you’ve all noticed, I’ve been a bit absent from the blog. While I’ve kept busy doing many things, I also became obsessed with the show The Inbetweeners and now I can’t stop talking like a British 16-year-old boy in my head. So bear with me.

I last posted on July 2nd, about my excitement over creating a recipe. Not that it was complicated or involved. And after that, I took a bit of a break (due to what I said above, the word “bit” will be popping up every now and then). It’s been a busy month; my family hosted a french boy from Dijon and we spent the past few weeks traveling around the Northeast, showing him the best that our region has to offer: New York City, Boston, Vermont, and Long Island. And when I’m home, I’ve been (yes, watching the Inbetweeners) busy selling all natural, fresh-squeezed, sweetened-only-with-organic-agave bar juice (cocktail mixers) in the region. And re-introducing myself to running. Hi, it’s nice to see you again. It’s been awhile.

There have been other things, however, that have kept me away these past few weeks. I’ve voiced my food frustrations several times in my blog, and while I was enjoying all the wonderful produce that the summer had to offer, I wasn’t practicing mindfulness as much. After discussing my frustrations with someone, we came to a conclusion. I am a very creative person, and I have always looked to an activity to channel my creativity. Painting, writing, drawing, knitting, sewing… and, most recently, cooking. I was treating cooking and baking as my platform for creativity. This got me into trouble, because unlike a painting, which you hang up and display proudly upon finishing, food is meant to be eaten. It’s not up for display, unless you’re an avid dinner party host. As a 21-year-old living at home for the summer, trust me, this isn’t the case. And so, I’ll use an example I used earlier this summer: what happens when you make black bean brownies in the middle of the day and no one else wants to eat them? Where do they go? Uh, obviously. My stomach.

So I realized that this newfound creative activity wasn’t my most healthy. I love to cook, definitely, and I love to be creative with my meals when I am making them to nourish myself– but making food when I am bored and not hungry in the middle of the afternoon is a different case entirely. That’s the issue I’m talking about.

Obviously, I ran into a dilemma. Who was I to have a food blog when I knew I had to focus on things other than preparing food? I found myself less motivated to write posts. I even noticed this when I was writing recipe posts– I didn’t feel that they allowed me the creativity that other more rambling posts allowed. Yes, like this one.

So I took some time off from the blog. I cleaned my room, so that now, when I’m bored, I go to my room to find an activity instead of slinking down to the kitchen in hopes of conjuring up something to put into my stomach. I’ve gotten back into knitting, and I have so many great art and craft supplies. Yes, I spent a good deal of money on yarn to make a sweater. For myself. I’ve been checking out crafting websites a lot; craftgawker, an extension of foodgawker, is my new favorite. Instead of ogling all the great vegan desserts and wondering what I’ll make that day, I now stare in amazement at all the awesome things people have made on their own– and there are a ton of great projects out there.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the blog. Do I want to continue it? Will I have a new focus? Do I need to change the title?

I feel that throughout this past year, I have developed my voice as a writer. Nowhere near the point of perfection, mind you, but I have become more aware of my interest in writing and the way in which I manifest my thoughts on the page (or computer screen).  And while I don’t immediately see any value in what I write, I’ve gotten great feedback that makes me reconsider my abilities. I do, very much, enjoy writing. And so I had a hard time thinking that giving up the blog was the right choice.

So what to do? No conclusion, yet. I don’t want to become a blog where I purely voice my thoughts every day. I need some more substance in there: meals I’ve made, exercises I’m into, yarns I bought, things I’ve created. Days I’ve lived. People I’ve enjoyed. Places I’ve gone. I think this will make things more interesting not only for me, but for you as well. And it takes off an immense pressure to feel like I need to cook something every day.

But a question for all of you, if any of you are still with me. Do you think upon starting this new direction with the blog that I should change the blog’s name to adapt to a more universal blog, instead of a food-specific blog? These are the things I want to know. This is the kind of help I want. Let me know!

And before I go, some inspiration that helped me to realize that a blog can be so much more than a cookbook:

• Eat, Live, Run. While Jenna loves to cook and bake, she shares so much more about her passion for life on her blog.
•  The Healthy Everythingtarian. Holly has such a wonderul way of sharing how she tries to maintain balance in her life, not only with food but with activities as well.

There are so many other bloggers (check out my inspiration page) who share so much more than recipes. This is what I am going to strive to do in the future.

In the meantime, let me know about the blog title. Should I change it to make it less about food, or does that not matter? 

Thank you all, as always, for listening so graciously to endless rants from an overanalyzer of life.