On the existence of the blog

Well,well, here it is--the new blog. One wouldn't know it, but I've put this off for a year. My new years resolution last year was to keep a daily blog, supposedly because it was en vogue. My new year's resolution this year (this past year) was to take up scrapbooking, due largely in part to the fact my more organized and successful friends all do it. Of course I'm starting 2010 scrapbookless, and my friends are all probably blogging about their fabulous scrapbooks as we speak. Go figure.So this time around, I've decided I'm going to finally commit to something for new years and start a blog to maintain the whole year through.

I'll blog about my interests (fairytales, fashion,Wagnerian opera, metal, and art history amongst other bizarre and unrelated things), activities, hobbies, inspiration, whatever. It might be a picture, a song or even a story--but it will probably be something terribly anachronistic and romantic. I'm not a realist, and I don't particularly care to regurgitate and debate news stories and politics when I could talk about flowers. It's not that I don't care about politics (I'm actually very opinionated), it's just that life is so unpleasant as it is that all I want to do at this point is surround myself with pleasant things for a little while. Be an unrealist, one might say. I recently found an old diary from when I was a little girl and was amazed at how carefree and imaginative I was. Despite many childhood hardships, that little girl still dreamed about beautiful things and little magic worlds all her own. It may sound stupid and cliche, but I want to take a little piece of the me that dreamed back before I have to enter a world of graduate schools and business networking. Fly with Pan to Neverland as it were.

Smoldering Rose is the forum for my wild escapism, and for anyone with similar interests who cares to share the experience. The process for the name was relatively simple: 1. Punch in majority of name ideas from my English-Art History double majoring mind into Blogger and realize most are unavailable, 2. Ask a friend. My friend suggesting "smoldering swan" after hearing I liked the element fire and swans as far as creatures, but since "smoldering swan" sounded a little too much like bad holiday dinner, I opted for "smoldering rose." Not a practical name, but then again, I'm not a practical person. I like it though, reminds me of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale and the valkyrie Brünnhilde since it hints at fire and thorns (and I'm kind of obsessed with all variants of her story). Plus, what could be more over-the-top and romantic than burning up some roses? Anywho, I like the name so it's sticking. See you all around, tata!