I have over-segmented myself on the internet. Blogs, message boards, social media profiles, domain names… somwhere along the way, while focusing on separating my public “fun” personas from my professional “serious” persona and trying to make things personal without oversharing, I lost myself.

My goal is simple with this new blog: to consolidate my scattered self. WTF, right? How is creating an additional internet presence going to work? Well, future self, and anyone else who joins me here, let me esplain to you my reasoning by creating a list. I love lists.

• Vetter. My real name is Yvette, which doesn’t lend itself to a lot of nicknames. That’s a good thing for the most part. In middle school volleyball, I became “Vetter the Setter” and though volleyball didn’t stick with me for more than a few years, “Vetter” did. My first email address (outside of my college-assigned .edu email) had Vetter in it.
• Vetters. In 2001, when I was a hotel front desk manager, my awesome boss pluralized me. She called me “Vetters” almost exclusively, and after a very short time that’s what the front desk, kitchen and wait staff all called me. When I started to become active in forums, I used Vetters as my handle. That was also my handle for my first blog on LiveJournal. (Though looking back, I’d call it more of a meme repository than blog.)
• Innergeek. In college, I made up a 100-question geek test with some friends to use as part of a geek party. It became a very serious venture in my life to update and maintain that test, and in 2003 I decided to put the geek test online. It went viral before “went viral” was a thing. I started Yvette’s Inner Geek Blog in 2005 to better manage the communication of updates about my site and the test, with the vague blogging goal of encouraging people to embrace their inner geek. It turned into a personal blog with a geeky slant. With my blog going strong when social media sites soared into town, I started using “innergeek” as my handle. It’s hard to believe that that was only 4-5 years ago. As time went on, though, I felt limited by my self-imposed responsibility to keep my social media and blogging topics geeky and upbeat. I wanted to blog about my life when it was crappy, but I’m still an inherently private person when it comes to sharing really personal stuff. At the same time, geeks were really starting to thrive in the mainstream world as acceptance of geekiness increased… I was feeling like the world needed my little blog and my site much less than it did in when I started it. I officially shut down my innergeek blog on December 31, 2011. For now, I’m maintaining my innergeek-related social media stuff with the intention of being more tightly focused on the Geek Test.
• Yvette Beaudoin. I have this annoying thing called a career. It requires me to use my real name and maintain a professional online presence, such as a website for my gigs as a freelance internet marketing consultant. (Why yes, I think I will drop in that little SEO-friendly anchor text right there, thank you very much.) Having a fairly unique name has pros and cons – the big con being that it’s hard to hide in an online crowd. I think about how my various internet activities might look to a potential client or employer and I worry. I don’t really have that much to worry about since I actually lead a pretty tame life (OH NO, what if they want someone EXCITING), but living in conservative Utah (where I feel like a rebel outcast for admitting that I occasionally have wine with dinner) has really warped my idea of what a tame life is. It’s been hard for me to find a balance.
• Dame Toadstool. In 2009, I started hanging around a group of crafty, modestly alternative lady friends. I became a more accomplished knitter, plus I learned how to cross-stitch, embroider, and crochet. Feeling inspired and empowered (thanks to my foray into subversive cross-stitch by way of my friend who would become The Cotton Floozy), I decided to start a collective blog for the small (or at least very quiet) group of sassy, more liberally-minded crafters in Utah County. But I felt that I couldn’t do so under my own name or any of my existing monikers. I didn’t feel that “Vetters” imbued a strong online personality, and the problem with “innergeek” is that it felt like more of a brand than a person. I wanted something fun like The Cotton Floozy, but struggled to come up with the right name. Floozy helped me brainstorm one day while I was driving us somewhere. She guided me to think about something that respected my geeky roots, which made me come up with a lot of things and, eventually, Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros. Feeling brainstormed out, I shared the fun trivia that the princess was originally called Princess Toadstool. Now that’s a great name, but I couldn’t use it, I said. I’m not a princess. I’m something older and less vulnerable to being stolen by Bowser. Not a queen… more like a sassy broad or a classy dame. Dame Toadstool! Ta-da. Happy Valley Crafters could finally get off the ground.

With a new name and a new website, I felt like a new woman. I wanted to blog about it, but my innergeek blog was already on its deathbed and I didn’t start Happy Valley Crafters to make it my personal blog. So, here I am with my own little corner to blog without concern for the theme, quantity, or frequency of content. It’s a delightful prospect to not be promising anything to anyone—even myself. For the most part, anyway. I still am who I am.

And that’s who I hope Dame Toadstool will become, too.