why do I blog?

I have had a couple of tags recently, thank you Ruth, thank you Sada.
Sometimes tags have "conditions" attached
( its ok, I am not about to reveal my inner-most peculiarities and dislikes)
 These do, to be passed onto a small blog, less than 300 followers. Its nice to be tagged, to be thought of by someone else but I am never quite sure about them. These was a phase a while back of lots of tags and it became hard to pas them on. Its been a while since a tag has come along and its made me think about blogging a bit.
I will try to do not too much soul searching as I write this but be warned.
My first thoughts were that I didn't really think of myself as a small blog. Its not that I am offended that someone else tinks its small its just that I currently have 83 followers. that's huge to me...83 people who are interested in what I say!
I read/flick through a lot of blogs so I know that you 83 are not all hanging on every word, waiting for each post but still 83 of you want to know enough to follow my blog.
Lovely that it is to have 83 of you reading, I sort of write it thinking that its just you, me and the dog reading this ( I say dog, but its just a manner of speech, I don't even have a dog!)
A couple of my real world friends and some of my family know I write a blog but they don't really read it. They get to hear about it all anyway.
I don't sell through my blog,
I don't had ad's or sponsors to make money
so why do I blog?
I enjoy putting down my ideas, I love to record what I am making, I like to see how my ideas develop.
I have written this blog since September 09, 326 posts over 3 and 1/2 years (crikey, where did that go?)
My style has changed, my writing has changed, my interests have changed, the only thing that hasn't changed is the blog header!
I see it all as a journey.
I don't think I am unusual in lacking confidence in my creativity and artistic ability but the opportunities that have come about through the Internet and my blog have pushed me forward and made me think more about what I do/don't want to do. I now feel I can nearly say I am craft designer.  Or even artist.
When I started all this I was a mum who liked making things.
.....so do I blog for praise? for the self congratulatory atmosphere that can soemtimes cover these things, well maybe the answer is yes.
I do enjoy the comments but I also truly believe that if you didn't like what you saw you would move on and look at other things. The democracy of the Internet, if was all a big pile of poo you wouldn't hang around.
I write it to record the process, to make it real, to keep me making things.

So to my 83 followers I say a big thank you and don't leave now, I could have a serious crisis of confidence, stick around embroidery will return to normal soon.
( my camera is currently in Japan so its hard to show you what i am doing!)
Anyway time to pass these awards on
Monica at Red 2 White whose felting work constantly blows me away.
My good friend Angie at Letters form an artsy mum.
and Tara at Aquamarine whose writing always remind me to just keep making things.

There now, that wasn't too much soul searching now was it.
You can come out from behind the sofa, I dont think I was too scary!
Hello.. hello..... oh I see, I am talking to myself now.
Fair enough.