one year

A year ago right now I was in the midst of a head-spinning day.  It truly is a shame that a wedding day goes by so quickly, I wish I could have another wedding just to have time to spend with all the friends and loved ones who were there.  But I suppose thats how weddings are, despite our best efforts and intentions to slow time down and enjoy every moment, all of a sudden you're driving away with cans clanking behind you and a wave of exhaustion hitting your body.  But all of the whirlwind of the day aside, I always have thought of a wedding as relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things.  It's one day, and what matters is every single day that follows.  I heard once that marriage is a decision you make every day, not just something you do on your wedding day, and I'm so thankful to be with someone who lives like that.   PS, if you're new around here and want to see photos from the wedding, click here! photo by Arrow and Apple

ruche giveaway

Hi everyone!  Happy Monday!  Today I'm partnering with Ruche to giveaway a $50 gift card!  Their newest lookbook launches today, too, so make sure to head over and check it out!  Ruche seriously always has the most gorgeous lookbooks, and I look forward to seeing each one they come out with.  And, obviously the clothes are to die for as well.  The cape I wore a couple days ago was from Ruche, and I'm pretty sure it's my new favorite thing.  Plus, it's only $52.99, so you could easily get it with the gift card (if you wanted!).  Okay, now on to the fine print!

To enter:
I'm testing out a new giveaway system so hopefully it'll make it a lot easier to enter!  And you've got three chances to win!

1. Head over to Ruche and check out what they've got, and then let me know what you'd get with the gift card! (this entry is manditory)

for bonus entries:
2. like Ruche on Facebook
3. follow Ruche on Twitter

That's it!  The giveaway will be open until 11/10 at 12:01 AM EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

life lately

The past couple weeks have been good.  I've been enjoying warming our chilly home by cooking hot food, taking walks in the rain, and trying my best to be productive even though lately it's usually been a losing battle.  Overall, though, I'm happy and am excited for this month.  November is a good one.
Anticipating... Election season finally being over.  Everyone is just so emotional and salty and frustrated and I think it's been seeping into my life because I've been eye-rolling about everything lately.  I filled out my ballot and mailed it in, though, so at least I've done the deed!  Have you (American) guys sent in your ballots yet?  I've never done a mail-in ballot before!  Back home we just went to the local school and walked into the booth things, which I always thought was so cool.  I would feel so grown up and official walking out and getting my "I Voted" sticker!
Thinking About... How our 1 year anniversary is tomorrow.  So crazy to think that one year ago I was crammed in my tiny house with four other girls, trying to figure out how to do rag curls (hair experiments are a fun thing to do for your wedding!), and being oh so excited for the next day's activities.  I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by.  The next year seems so full of promise, I can't wait!
Reading... This past week I found this article via a musician friend.  I was struck by how similar the problems with the music industry are to that of the clothing industry.  People these days expect to pay next to nothing for both music and clothing, but they should be expensive. If they were produced and distributed ethically, clothes and music would cost much more than what the average person now considers an acceptable price, simply because sites like spotify and companies like forever 21 can give them quickly produced, inexpensive clothes, in quantities that would've been unthinkable just a few decades ago.  Instead of buying things that are high quality that we care for and, in the case of clothing, mend when they start to show wear, we just go out and buy more low quality clothing because it's cheaper than repairing the original item.  Stores like Forever 21, Target, and H&M can pump out truckloads of trendy new clothes constantly, which fuels our desire to have more clothes.  Plus, independent musicians and clothing designers/producers are getting screwed because people now consider their prices to be "outrageously high", when really that's just what their product should cost, when produced & distributed ethically. Do you guys have any thoughts on this issue? I realize that many of us are poor college students/20-somethings, but I'm increasingly seeing that as a bad excuse for rationalizing this unethical practice.  I'd really like to get a copy of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion.  I read the excerpt they had on Amazon and was really interested in this issue, especially as a personal style blogger.
Working on... Insanity!  I just started about a week and a half ago and so far I'm really liking it.  It is indeed quite insane, but in a good way.  I've been trying to work out consistently the past couple months, and before Insanity I was doing this video (which I love) by Erin O'Brien on a regular basis.  Most work out videos kind of annoy me, especially if the leader is too peppy and bubbly, which is why I prefer Erin and Insanity.  Erin's video is shot in her living room, which I particularly love, because that's probably where anyone who's working out to a video will be doing it, including myself.  I'll go back to doing her video after I'm done with Insanity and I'm looking forward to seeing if I have more stamina when doing her workout after completing Insanity.  I mean, I almost definitely will (right?), but it'll be cool to actually feel more fit.
Looking forward to... My parents are supposed to be in town this week, so I'm pretty excited to see them, if only for a little bit.  I think they're going to be off doing other things, so I probably won't have a bunch of time with them, but it's always nice to catch a meal or just hang out for a bit.  I'm so glad SeaTac is so close (relatively speaking) to Anchorage.  Just one flight away, no frustrating and time-consuming layovers.  
Obsessing over... Whether or not to cut my bangs.  I'm trying to grow them out, mostly because they're already down to below my nose, and I haven't been sans fringe in many years, so it'd be interesting to see if I like it.  But I have to get past the point of having the obnoxiously-too-long bangs before I can really determine if I like having no fringe or want to cut them in again.  A silly debate, but they're at that stage where they seriously can drive me completely bonkers.  Too short to tuck behind my ears, too long to style, and I'm not a fan of how I look with them pinned back.  I need to hide all the scissors in the house.  One of these days I'll just pop up on the blog with red hair and bangs, you never know!!
Missing... Ice skating at home!  Every once in a while the lake will freeze over completely before a big snowfall comes, so you can skate down the whole entire lake!  Once it snows, people will plow their own personal ice rinks, but this is the only time you can skate the whole lake from one end to the other.  It's pretty magical.  Here is my Mom being too cute for words in her puffy coat, skating with my Dad.

 
 
 
 
 
fall walks with my love // fall staples: herringbone, tights, boots // faux updo made with a wig professor dan on halloween // chai and writing // avocado toasts, an essential fancy early anniversary dinner at Asado // The Physics concert downtown! // breakfast date apple, blackberry, peach smoothie // rainy outfit shoot essentials
Here are some fun links from around the web that I've enjoyed lately:
Ellen DeGeneres on why you don't ask a feminist to hawk your sexist product.  HI-larious.
One of my favorite film clips/songs of all time.
Speaking of that song, this mix has been playing all the time in our house lately.  Killing it.
I love this lady's outlook on life.  So positive!
This just makes my mouth water.
I feel like this applies to pretty much anything in life.
Enjoying this pretty, new-to-me blog.
Oh!  And you can still get 20% off INDIE for one more day by using the code IM-NEW, and/or get 50% off the second month when you buy a 2 Month Small Ad using the code NOVEMBER.  Both expire tomorrow!

caped crusader

Dan and I both signed up for Nanowrimo.  And we're both already way behind.  I used to love writing poems and short stories, especially back in high school before I was swamped with writing papers in college.  And now all my time spent writing is pretty much blog related, so I don't get any creative writing in anymore.  I feel so incredibly rusty and uninspired, but you've gotta start somewhere, right?  I feel like I'm super out of shape and I'm trying to kick my butt into gear again.  It's like Insanity, but for creative writing.  Even if I don't end up meeting the Nanowrimo goal of 50,000 words, at least I'll have written something creative.  Have you guys ever written a novel or something longer than a short story?  I think the longest thing I've ever written is one of my papers in college.  Probably my senior thesis.  But in terms of creative writing, I've probably only ever written short stories, no longer than a few pages.  For someone who enjoys tedium when creating visual art, it would make sense for me to like writing longer pieces, but I've never attempted anything longer than a short story.

cape/courtesy of ruche :: top/urban outfitters :: blazer/courtesy of modcloth :: pants/thrifted boots/courtesy of blowfish :: bag/courtesy of handbag heaven :: photos of me by dan
I'm pretty stoked that capes are "back." I styled a cape back in 2010 that was a swap item from the Delightful Dozen, so despite the fact that it was totally awesome, I had to sent it back to its owner.  Elsie designed a cape for her ModCloth collection that's also quite cute, but I love the longer length of this one.  Especially here in rainy Washington, it's nice to have coats that cover more square footage, to prevent getting soaked as much as possible. I feel a little mysterious and magical when I wear this cape, especially with the hood up.  I hope the cape trend continues, because I'd love to get another one! Sometimes I grab some sneaky pics of Dan while we're out doing outfit photos.  I'll occasionally snap some photos of him while we're scouting photo locations so I can see how the photo looks with a person standing there, and the one I took during this shoot I liked so much I'm sharing it.  And because he was looking oh so stylish in his new thrifted hat and jacket.  We recently went on a thrifting mission for some cold weather clothes: coats, jackets, warm leggings etc.  I got the leggings I'm wearing in this post, as well as a couple warm coats, and Dan got the awesome corduroy jacket he's wearing in the bottom photo.  I found this incredible full length vintage red leather jacket that fit like a dream, and I felt super bomb wearing it, but I knew it wasn't practical and I probably wouldn't wear it enough to make it worth buying.  But damn if I didn't feel like one of Charlie's Angels wearing it, and not the new version, the original series.  Pretty fly.
(pretty sure everything dan's wearing is thrifted... in case you wanted his outfit deets)

tips for starting a blog

I frequently get emails or messages asking me for tips on how to start a blog, and lately the number of messages with this question has increased significantly, so instead of writing the same thing over and over in emails, I thought it'd be more useful to have a post to refer people to here on the blog!

What people really mean when they ask for tips on starting a blog is, "how do I start a successful blog?" because really, just starting a blog is pretty straightforward:  sign up for a blogging service and just do it.  What happens after that is what determines whether or not your blog is "successful."  I put that in quotations because success is such a relative term.  It means different things to different people, especially when applied to blogging.  Some might consider their blog a success if they get 100 followers, some might not feel successful until they're partnering with huge companies or publishing books.  I think a lot of people have a misconception that as soon as they start blogging, tons of followers will instantly find their blog and think it's amazing and the blog will take off right away.  For me, I never experienced this and have only heard of a few cases where this happened.  In my understanding, gaining followers and presence online is a slow process.  So don't be super bummed out if you don't have hundreds of followers in the first few months.

Start with a great layout design.

I think most people skip this step because they want to get to the part where they start blogging, which is great- content is king, as they say.  But in a world where visual communication is becoming more and more paramount, the way your blog looks upon a reader loading your page will really speak more to them about whether or not they want to stick around.  If a blog is visually jarring or unpleasant, I will click away about 99% of the time.  Going to a blog kind of feels like entering someone's house, and if the house is unwelcoming and unkempt, then readers are unlikely to want to stick around.  Having a nice design also shows that you care about your blog.  You believe your content deserves a beautiful place to house it.  This alone will make readers believe the same, even if your content isn't as awesome as the content on an ugly looking blog.  Respect your content by giving it a nice house to live in.  The very first thing I did when I got my blog is customize the look of it to reflect my personality.  I know a lot of new bloggers don't have any knowledge in HTML, but there are lots of free online resources where you can find free blog templates that are better than the basic layout that comes with your blog when you first sign up.

Produce good content, frequently.

if you want people to come to your blog and stay, you have to give them something to stay for.  This is where the content of your blog comes in.  The design of your blog is the hook, but if you don't have great content, even the best blog design won't turn first time readers into subscribers.  And not only should you produce good content, do it frequently.  This doesn't mean you have to post every day, but consistently enough that your readers look forward to reading.  Plus, it's kind of annoying when the only thing a blogger does is post apologies for not having blogged in so long.

If you have pictures, make them good.

I think I would almost rather have no pictures on a blog, than pictures that are tiny and/or super poor quality.  This doesn't mean you need to have a fancy DSLR with a $400 lens.  Phones these days can take perfectly nice photos!  Obviously a nice DSLR will give you a higher quality photograph, but a good photographer can take a great photo with any camera.  A nice camera does not a photographer make, so don't use the lack of a fancy camera as an excuse for your bad photos.  Also, if you're a personal style blogger who doesn't have a boyfriend/husband to take your photos, don't use that as an excuse either.  There are plenty of personal style bloggers who are very successful who use a tripod and self timer set up.  No boyfriend necessary.  Again, caring about your images shows that you believe your content is worth reading.
And when it comes to placing your photos in your posts, make sure they are large enough and that they all have the same widths, regardless of whether they're horizontally/vertically oriented.  If your pictures are too small, it doesn't matter how great they are, no one can see them.  And in terms of standardizing your photo widths, that's mostly just my own personal preference as it bugs my eyes to have to keep jumping back and forth between wide and skinny photos.  Photos on my blog are all 600px wide so that when you scroll down, the width of the text and photos is consistent.

Join social networks.

If you want people to know about your blog, you have to actually go let people know about it.  If your blog is a personal style blog, you can join sites like Chictopia or Lookbook where you can post a look and then if people like it they'll probably want to see more over at your blog.  Connect with readers via facebook and twitter, too, since pretty much everyone is on those social networks.

Interact with fellow bloggers.

Start a clothing swap group or some other blogging group.  Go to local blogger meet ups.  Get to know other bloggers with a similar sized readership who have a similar blog to yours and maybe do guest posts on each other's blog.  Chances are, the other blog has readers who aren't yet reading your blog, and since you guys have a similar vibe and content, their readers will quite likely want to start reading your blog!  Or do a feature/interview of a blogger you like, then if they tell their readers about the interview, they might find that they like your blog too.  If you contact a blogger with a much larger readership and they aren't interested in doing a guest post or being involved with your project, don't be too sad or start thinking that they're cliquey for only interacting with other "big" bloggers.  Often, the appearance of a clique is usually just the result of what I was talking about earlier... bloggers interacting with other blogs of similar sized readerships with similar content.  They probably started interacting and sharing in projects when their blogs were much smaller, but because they've shared readers, their subscribers have grown together.  I found that this article discussed this quite well, and is a great read!

Be yourself.

A lot of bloggers who are just starting out often think that they have to do things how other bloggers do them, or make their blog just like this other successful blogger they know.  While it's probably true that a successful blogger has figured out ways of growing readership/creating great content, how they do things isn't always going to make your blog great.  You might end up losing some of your own personality in the efforts to make your blog a success, just like so-and-so's blog.  The best thing that you bring to the blogosphere (which is enormous), is YOU.  Your unique perspective and experiences.  You can bring something to the blogosphere that no one else can, simply by being you.  It seems so obvious when you think about it.  And don't let this make you feel bad about yourself if you don't get a ton of readers.  Some people are just way more accessible or are interested in things that are popular right now, but that doesn't mean they're better than you.  If you don't like vintage clothes and mason jars, then don't pretend you like them just because it's the hip thing to do in the blogosphere right now. Maybe your blog doesn't have mass appeal, but it will have appeal to the people who find it and love it.   Not everyone wants the same thing in a blog, which is why your unique voice is important!

If you're interested in some more in-depth information about blogging, you can sign up for INDIE!  INDIE is an e-course focused on blogging with an emphasis on personal style blogging, which features seminars including Blogging 101, Photography, Blog Design, HTML, Community and Monetizing. You'll get videos, how-to tutorials, links to other resources, plus bonus content about organizing your wardrobe and other style blogging tips!  Click here to find out more, and if you want a discount, use the code IM-NEW at checkout to get 20% off of INDIE! (valid through 11/5/12)