on dressing for the blog

 

I've been blogging for a little over a year now. I've always wanted the blog to help me figure out my sense of style and how I want the pieces in my closet to come together, but I didn't want to change my style for the blog. Especially over the last year, I never put on outfits because I knew I was going to take pictures, but I took pictures because I (mostly) liked what I was wearing. Seeing my outfits every day has made me realize what I like, what I don't like, and what I think I want to look like. I don't buy trends just to be trendy, and I don't buy clothing just because it would be good for the blog. I buy something because I like it and because I believe it fits into my life and with the items in my closet. Some outfits make it on the here, some don't, and that's okay. Because I dress for my life and "for me", it makes it a lot easier to get dressed because there's no pressure.

Except yesterday. 

I was lucky to be asked by 2 Girls, 2 Cities to take part in their monthly challenge, which this month happens to be neon. Bri's Third Thursday Thread link up this month is also neon, and she even jokingly called me out and told me I had to take part in it. YOU GUYS. You know how I feel about neon, but it seems it's a trend that just won't quit and it seems to be coming from all angles. So yesterday I stood in front of my closet trying to figure out what to wear for both challenges and for a day in Chicago. I probably spent 45 minutes trying to figure out what to wear. I own very little "neon" - in quotes because I don't even really have anything true neon, just brighter than normal. I tried a brighter orange tee with my new black and white skirt. I tried my Old Navy striped top. I tried looking through my donate box of clothing to see if I couldn't dig something out to wear. It was so frustrating because I wasn't comfortable in anything I put on. I didn't want to look like a try-hard down in Chicago, I didn't want to be wear something I didn't like, and I didn't want to be super boring. Eventually I convinced myself that these shorts were relatively bright enough but then I didn't know what to wear with it. I didn't want to wear another tee because I didn't want it to appear on the blog like all I own is white or black t-shirts. I didn't want to wear my teal sandals because I just showed those on the blog in the previous post. I didn't know what kind of jewelry would look best in pictures.

on the blog. in pictures. on the internet. for other people.

And eventually I reminded myself that I dress for my life, and not for the blog. So I put on the outfit I felt the most comfortable in, drove down to Chicago, and had a great afternoon walking around Wicker Park getting a sun burn, thrift shopping, and enjoying an evening of guacamole making and tipsy gossiping. 

and it was wonderful and no one cared what I was wearing :)

Tee: Everlane

Shorts: J.Crew Factory [exact]

Shoes: Target [similar]

Watch: Target [similar]

Bracelet: c/o Apple of My Eye Jewelry [exact]

blog worthy?

Well I since I've been feeling chatty lately, I figured I might as well continue with that. 

In the past 5 days I've taken pictures of 3 different outfits and have not been happy enough with any of them to post them. They're all fine outfits, but really nothing that I feel deserves to be blogged. And that's how I feel now - that everything I wear now should be worthy of standing in the cold, taking pictures, editing, uploading, writing a post, tagging, and pushing publish. Truth is, sometimes pictures don't turn out the way I want (oh hey puppy butts in all of these pictures) or it's snowing too much, or I'm not really feeling the outfit, and so then I feel that I shouldn't put them on the internet for all of you to read since...it is not blog worthy.

But...that defeats what I want my blog to be. The outfits I wear on my blog are actual outfits I wear. I don't have someone to take my pictures during "the magic hour" - I take them myself with a tripod set up in the trunk of my car before I have to be at work by 7:30, and I don't have an endless supply of money to buy new things (or buy things, wear for the blog, and return). That's fine that that's how some people run their blogs/lives, but that sounds exhausting. Not everything (anything?) I wear is pinterest-worthy, but it is what a real girl wears in the real world and if nothing else, I learn something about myself and my closet every day, and that's what matters in the end.

So here are three of the outfits I felt weren't blog-worthy but will blog about anyway because like I've said, this is real life and not just dress up.

Outfit 1: 

Shirt: J. Crew Factory  [save | exact]

Sweater: Gap  [save]

Scarf: H&M

Jeans: Urban Outfitters  [exact]

Shoes: Tory Burch  [exact]

Watch: Fossil  [similar]

Bracelets: Tiffany & Co. [exact], J. Crew

Outfit 2:
Shirt: H&M  [save | splurge but on sale!]
Cardigan: Ann Taylor Outlet
Jeans: American Eagle  [exact]
Belt: Gap
Shoes: Tory Burch, thrifted by my mom!
Watch: Kate Spade  [exact]
Glasses: c/o Firmoo

Outfit 3:
Blazer: Christian Dior, thrifted  [save | splurge]
Jeans: Urban Outfitters  [exact]
Boots: Nicole via DSW  [exact]
Scarf: H&M
Watch: Target

Linking up with Mix and Match fashion!

not disqusing

Thank you everyone for your feedback about installing Disqus on my blog. You guys had a lot of interesting insight - many of you like the ability to receive notifications when someone responds to your comment, but many said that Disqus either spam-lists not spam comments, takes too long to load, or doesn't load at all (especially on iPads).

The majority has spoken so I'm not going to install Disqus. Although I like that you would receive an email for every replied comment, I don't want certain people not be able to comment. I do often want to reply directly to your comments though, so please make sure you aren't a no-reply commenter (it's really really easy to fix that - see instructions here). You won't receive a notification if I reply in line (on the actual blog post) but I can email you directly.

Thank you for taking the time to help me make this decision. You guys are the reason I keep up this silly hobby :)

on blogging etiquette

via

While blogging has been around for many years now, in most cases it is still a new arena of communication, journalism, and hobby. There aren't any hard and fast rules about what we put on our blogs, in our pictures, or in our links. Because there isn't anyone policing us and putting our blog posts into that website our professors in college used to make sure we weren't plagiarizing our midterm papers, it's up to us as a community to police ourselves.

The thing I truly love the most about blogging is all of the inspiration, advice, and suggestions I receive from fellow bloggers and readers. If it wasn't for Bri, I would never have learned the more layers, less frump trick and I would still be trying to figure out how to layer sweaters. If it wasn't for Kelly, I would have been stuck on what to wear for my third day of TOPIO. If it wasn't for Audrey, I wouldn't have my new favorite t-shirt. There are countless other instances where I was inspired by one of you and I never want to take credit for your creativity and claim it as my own. I always try to pin from the original source, and if I use your picture on my blog, I try my hardest to find the original source. If I see a cute outfit or item on your blog, and recreate or buy it, I always try to credit you. Why? Because that's the polite way to blog.

The majority of us all shop in the same sort of stores - mass produced clothing from the mall. Of course we throw in our thrift finds, our hand-me-downs, and our vintage items, but in general our clothes all are pretty similar. How does one find their own style when we are all presented with the same items? How can you even not be a copy cat when we all basically have the same things to pick from? There isn't an easy answer, but I do know that there is a very strong and hard line between the coincidence of having the same article of clothing as another, and continually and systematically hunting down pieces that another blogger has. The point of fashion blogging (I use the term fashion blog here loosely because most of us fall under personal style blogging) is to show yourself, your cute outfit, and your general point of view. Blogging is for working on yourself, on how you dress yourself, and how you present yourself to the world. The point is to show you, not the blogger down the internet street.

You may be asking yourself why I'm even blogging about this. Like I said, I think as a community we have to police ourselves. There isn't a professor here to flunk us when we are caught copying someone else's work. When one blogger copies another blogger for years and years, our community has to take a stand against it. I don't want to be a faceless voice on the internet gossiping about blatant plagiarism of a blogger who has put a lot of time and effort into their blog. I want to present you with what I would consider to be the worst part about our blogging community.

Be inspired by others, don't try to be them.