I'm back

Dear Blog,

I'm back. Although my break turned up to be longer than I had initially planned, it seems it's exactly what I needed. When I decided to take a break, I could no longer decide if I was blogging because I enjoyed it or because I felt I had to. I didn't know if I was doing it for myself, or for others. It stopped being fun, and it was only stressful. If you remember, my word of the year was meaningful and when blogging stopped being meaningful, I knew I had to stop.

But now I'm ready to come back, to write again, to keep on exploring myself and my journey through this public diary. To keep on collecting inspiration, experiences and wise words from others. To keep on learning. 

So what did I do while I wasn't blogging?

I participated in a beautiful project on the Wishstudio.  The necklace I'm wearing in this photo is a clue...

I went to see She and Him live! Their music is so much better live and Zooey is cuter and Mr Ward more charming than you can imagine. It was a really fun night and the fact that it was on a Monday made us feel all young again!

We sent our wedding invitations. Only three and half months to go now... They deserve a post of their own but here's a sneak peek: 

I thought a lot about marriage, marrying the family, marriage for life, creating your own rules for marriage. As it so often happens when you are thinking about something, everywhere I turned, marriage wasa hot topic, even SATC 2 (great fun!) turned out to be about marriage more than anything else!

We went on long walks and I took my camera out again...

I even played with the Diana + ( a Christmas present!). But...

I enjoyed the good weather (Yes, we had good weather in Oxford for two whole days!!)

But I also worked too much and started staying late in the office almost every day. 

I read, and read and read.... Once I let go of the pressure to read all the posts in my feeder and to follow every link on Twitter, I found I had more time than I thought to read. For the first time in ages, I actually had time to read all my library books before it was time to take them back and still....

I missed my blogging friends, and I missed commenting on Flickr photos and interesting posts. And so...

I thought about balance, about routine, about taking care of myself, about how to find time to do everything, about priorities.

And now, here I am. Trying again. Looking forward to reconnecting with my blog and yours. To rediscover the magic of blogging, the power of the written word, the beauty of supporting comments, to being inspired. To everything that blogging brings. 

A holiday...

If you look at my browser right now, you'll see around 39 tabs. This is mostly your fault. You who post about interesting links that I just have to check out, you who write a brilliant post that I read in Google Reader but that I then have to open in another tab to comment on, you who suggest that book or that movie that I need to go and read about. I also have interesting articles or ideas that I think may the basis for a good post here, my Flickr page, where I've been planning to add some photos for weeks... I think you get the idea.
For the most part, I love it, all these interesting ideas, things to read, things to watch, things to think about. I love the stimulation and the creativity. But at the moment, it's all becoming too much, there is too much going on, I can't focus and it's distracting me from other important things in my life.
So I've decided to take a break from it all. Blogging, Flickr, Google Reader... For the most part of April, I'll be on an Internet holiday. I wasn't going to have much time for it, anyway, as I have a busy week of work ahead of me, 10 days of holiday back in Spain (aka wedding planning madness!), and a lot to catch up on afterwards. I'm not making any rules, I may pop up from time to time, but I'm giving myself permission not to.
I'm not leaving by any means, I'll definitely be back in May. If everything else fails,  I'm planning a nice day with a friend at the beginning of May full of writing and photography that will surely get my blogging juices going. So I'll see you back here in May! Enjoy the beginning of Spring!

Simple things

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Robert Breault

iPhone Photo by boyfriend

Christina has invited us to celebrate the simple things in life that make us happy.

These are some of mine...

* Breakfast in bed

* Arriving home right before it starts raining

* Listening to an old song on the radio and be instantly transported to that summer 

* Painting your nails pink and feeling instantly fabulous

* Reading a blog post and realized that someone has put your exact same thoughts in writing for you to understand

* Chocolate.

* An unexpected call from a friend

What simple things are making you happy? 

For a first round of my simple things, go here. See if you can spot the one that I've mentioned again today!