Hello world! A little positivity to share
8/9/2026
10:49 am
Hello my fellow human beings!
It is so nice of you to take time to stop by and check out my blog.
The last few blog posts were pretty heavy topics about life for me but I wanted to take time and share the positives too!
A little background on why this blog exists.
Way back in 2015, I started therapy for my major depressive disorder. I was told to start a daily writing journal and I did. It was making me feel worse. I felt like I was reliving those traumatizing and negative moments all over again. My psychiatrist saw that it was not helping so we started a different approach.
It all started with a conversation when she asked me, “What brings you joy or happiness?”
I was really into my cake decorating and teaching at that time. I was also just beginning to enter and volunteer at a state cake decorating competition held at our annual state fair.
I talked for a few minutes about the cakes I made, my students, the things I learned, and all things cake decorating and sugar art related. That is when the psychiatrist changed tactics. She said, “Do you know how much your face lighted up when talking about that?” She said I seemed so much more relaxed and calmer.
She encouraged me to start a blog about cake decorating instead of journaling. I had run basic websites for my cake decorating classes and demos but never blogged in any of them.
So I did. I started this blog and if you go to the 2015 to 2016 archives there are posts about cake decorating and competitions. Hence this reason for this blog’s name being Love to Bake. I have had a few questions about that previously.
Then in April 2017, I made a post about my divorce and the death of my ex-husband. That changed the trajectory of this blog. I began to write more about divorce, kids, working, retirement, depression, and just life in general. I would occasionally throw in random posts about something creative but not very often.
Then this past week’s realization about my current life revealed how much has changed over the last 11 years. That there are more good things in my life and not so many bad anymore.
I decided to start adding more posts about the creativity and what I am learning or doing now. Yes, my life is not all doom and gloom.
First let me introduce you to my latest endeavor’s, social media.
I started this blog and also an Instagram account at the same time. The Instagram is mainly for talking with my kids, renewed friendships, and my online relationship plus sharing what I am working on or what I have found inspiring. At one point though, it became rather overwhelming when I hit 1500 followers so I took it down and waited about 6 months before starting over again. It is much better now and that account is only for my family and friends.
Then last year I started a few more Instagram accounts to share specific crafts that I have been working on. Then back in February, I started working on a YouTube account.
Here are the Instagram accounts and a brief snippet of what they contain.
Instagram Profile – 500nationz
This is a beadwork account and contains all the projects that I have been working on to eventually sell, one day. My goal is to make at minimum 100 projects before attempting to sell them. I have reached about half of that goal. I am still learning new techniques and finding inspiration from the other bead workers that I follow. It is slowly getting there but requires a lot rest in between projects due to my hand and fingers not wanting to cooperate some days.
Instagram Profile – Justscribbles71
This is a writing account and contains some of the blog posts from here. I follow a lot of poets, writers, and book reviewers. I repost most of what I find to my stories and sometimes post my own writing. I am looking for more online writing competitions and prompts for inspiration.
Instagram Profile – Luv2cake2
This account is all about cake, cake decorating, and sugar art. I started it last year but am still in the process of posting my previous work. I am trying to rebuild those skills due to the hand and arm limitations but it is slow moving. I follow all my favorite chefs, pastry chefs, cake decorators, and sugar artists here and repost their fabulous works of edible art to my stories. I also noticed some more online competitions have started and repost what I find.
Instagram Profile – Creativevibez4me
This account is about everything else that I work on as it pertains to arts and crafts. I initially posted about the diamond paintings I was working on and most of the followers and people I follow do the same. I have finally started adding artwork and coloring pages to my posts as well as reposting some of my YouTube content there also.
Next is the YouTube channel that I started, deactivated, and started again.
YouTube Channel – Creativevibez4me2
This channel was started to incorporate everything that I work on as it pertains to arts and crafts. Right now, I have lot of diamond painting posts, art work, coloring books, color swatches, use of different mediums, craft organization, and sharing what I find to be used in art projects. Eventually, I want add the bead work, cake decorating, sugar art, and maybe the sewing projects that I do on occasion. It is still a work in progress while I decide what direction that I want to take.
When I initially started the first account back in February, I had reached 30,000 views and gained 30 subscribers. I was doing much better than I thought I would from my perspective. Then a bad day, a bad decision, and an anxiety filled moment forced me to start over again.
Unfortunately, I found out on YouTube, once it’s deactivated and deleted, there is no coming back from that or starting it up again unlike the deactivated Instagram accounts. Some hard lessons were learned that day.
My current account, started again on June 8th, has reached 19,332 views and I have 15 subscribers so far. It is actually faring much better than the first one. I did not gain a single subscriber in that first 45 days on the previous account.
Most say social media and technology is the downfall of society in general. I see that platforms like YouTube and Instagram are starting to take those complaints seriously. I am no longer seeing so much negativity in the videos that come across my feed. Even though I focus on art, nature, music, architecture, and crafts, I was still seeing a lot of what is termed as “rage or click bait” videos. Those types of media are why I quit watching the news more than 10 years ago.
This type of exposure to negativity on a daily basis was making me feel more depressed and suffocated. I also saw that it was affecting how younger generations viewed their future and it needs to be turned around.
In interactions with my own grown adult children, they were starting to move into a negative head space and not seeing the possibilities of their futures. All they saw was bleakness and there was no point in trying to better themselves. Through constant positive motivation and reinforcement of the idea that they are in control of how they want to live, it has begun to slowly turn around. They seem a little less doom and gloom focusing on what they want. They are doing what makes them happy. Chasing the dreams they have always had. That is what I am doing too. Social media is just one tool to pursue it.
As I move forward and continue to create and bring my ideas to life, it is having a more positive affect on my moods. Now, I do still have major depressive disorder and anxiety so it is sometimes a hit or miss but as long I remember to take care of myself, rest when needed, and just try to not take things so seriously, I will be fine.
Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and support this blog.
Have a wonderful week !
Peace, love, happiness, and good vibes, always!
Suzanne
love to bake 