The OG Blog Crew

October 25, 2024 | Leave a Reply

I distinctly remember when I was introduced to the idea of a blog. Around 2007, My friend Johanne had started a fashion blog, and I was fascinated. I loved that she wrote about fashion, and I could get my daily or weekly fashion fix from her. When we met up one day in Toronto, I asked her a gazillion questions about blogging, and she encouraged me to be a guest writer on her blog.

So I did.

It was so fun for me. I was able to learn about fashion. And I was able to practice writing. Up until then, I really only focused on academic writing, so blog writing was a new area for me to explore. She was a great writing coach. Not only that, but we had a lot of fun together: going to Toronto fashion week, getting lots of beauty product samples, and working with brands.

At the time, my blogging life was also a secret life. Can you imagine? I was pursuing one academic degree after another, and being a fashion blogger was just so out of the ordinary among my peers, that I didn’t talk about it.

I then started teaching writing at the university under the direction of Therese. She was crazy about fashion – and writing – and she encouraged me to spread the news. So I did. I introduced many people to blogging, and I was so excited to talk about my regular fashion column.

After a couple of years of fashion blogging, I remember driving home one day and deciding that I wanted to start my own blog about design – all in white! I compiled a list of about a dozen blog names, and then I just went for it.

Signed up for a free WordPress account.

Chose a blog template.

Wrote a blog post.

Pressed publish.

I loved writing about design – and then art, fashion, travel, and everything else – all in white. At the time, I was still on my academic journey, so writing about design in a blog format was freeing.

The great thing about blogging around the 2010s was that it was still so new, and my fellow bloggers and I were able to learn from one another and create an amazing blogging community in the Toronto area. Over the years, I developed friendships that moved from the online world to IRL (in real life).

Now when I tell people that I met Tim and Jen through blogging more than a decade ago, I often get a puzzled reaction. If you weren’t there in the 2010s blogging era, I guess it’s kind of hard to imagine.

The OG Bloggers, someone recently called us. Has a nice ring to it, I think!

A Question For You

January 11, 2017 | 2 Commentaries

I’m curious – what are your blog reading routines? How do you read your faves? When do you read them?

I read my blogs every morning during breakfast. And I love this routine.

In general, I read blogs by clicking on my blogroll rather than via email or blog reader (old fashioned way, I guess, but it works for me).

I know some bloggers have reduced the weekly frequency of posting, but I’m still of the belief that daily blogging is the way to go. Blogging takes a lot of time, effort, thought, and creativity, yes, so I can definitely see why bloggers scale back and publish just a few times a week, but as a reader, I much prefer seeing new content every day (even if it’s not an in-depth thought-provoking essay about life) than clicking on a blog and seeing a weeks-old post. I’ve actually stopped clicking on many of my once-favourite blogs because I don’t want to be disappointed by landing on an old post.

Maybe if I went the blog reader route, then I would not have to pay so much attention to individual blogger’s posting schedules or get click happy only to be disappointed with weeks-old content.

But I don’t. I click on posts. And I like to see something new each day. Am I asking too much? Are my expectations for the 2017 blogging world too high?

What do you think?

via Homey Oh My

I’m now looking to expand my blogroll and learn about new-to-me bloggers. This is where you come in.

What are your daily/weekly must-read blogs?

What blogs do you love? Why should I love them, too?

I would be so thrilled if you shared your blog recommendations in the comments, so we can all benefit!

Thanks!

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The Friday Five: #HappiMess with Delta Faucet Canada

December 12, 2014 | Leave a Reply

My life this fall has been slightly chaotic. Sometimes I do wonder why I decide to take on so much work and extracurricular and blogging activities. Why, oh why, do I do this to myself? Then I realize that I have so much fun doing what it is that I do that I have no reason to complain about my sometimes-overly-packed days. A couple of weeks ago, for example, I headed to Toronto to join the very colourful Tiffany Pratt and about 20 other bloggers and influencers to create a #HappiMess sponsored by Delta Faucet Canada. Here’s my recap in five points…

1. Delta Faucet Canada welcomed us into a very white event space at Andrew Richard Designs. The long white table was all set with artsy materials.

2. Tiffany encouraged us to create and paint and sparkle up a unique clutch. I was totally frozen when I saw the palette of colourful paints. Luckily, the Tiffany and the PR crew had a spare tube of black paint, and I put it to very good use. I definitely felt more at ease once the black paint made an appearance! (Thanks, team!)

That’s my clutch! (It sparkles more in real life!)

4. We mingled and laughed and played with paint. And then washed our hands…obviously. Here I am washing up (and pretending to be a hand model):

great faucet, right?

3. We nibbled on delicious eats by the Food Dudes and talked about Delta’s collection.

5. In addition to the painting, the clutches, the food, the drinks, and the Skittles, we filled our Instagram and Twitter feeds with photos of lovely flowers from Blush and Bloom.

It was a very fun evening, and completely different from my day-to-day university life. Kudos to Tiffany and Delta for bringing out our creative sides (and for showing us how magical sparkles can be!).

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Do let me know if you make a #HappiMess over the next couple of days!

Photo credit: Koko Photography

Blogging: So, you want to be a blogger?

April 9, 2014 | Leave a Reply

While blogging is not my full-time job, I am very committed to it, take it seriously (but not too seriously because that wouldn’t be so fun, right?), and approach my blog work as professionally as I can. I have learned so much from many bloggers I have met online and offline, and I really try to give back to the community when I can. I had the opportunity to give a presentation at BlogPodium 2013 (loved it!) and I hope to do so again in 2014. In the meantime, I had the pleasure of writing a guest post for the BlogPodium blog. It’s a great read (if I do say so myself) for people who are new to blogging or who are just about to start their blogging journeys. If you’re interested in reading my post, click here. Let me know if you have any questions!

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