The OG Blog Crew

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!

Event: Announcing BlogPodium 2013

BlogPodium-Logo

Okay so – yeah – I have pretty exciting news to share. Ready? Here it is – I will be presenting at this fall’s BlogPodium! (Did the above logo give it away?) BlogPodium is Canada’s conference for design and lifestyle bloggers and I couldn’t be more happy and proud to be involved in this wonderful event.

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Me and Giulia are co-presenting a session about work-life balance. Our session will be full of great tips and tools that we use to organize our blogging lives and to expand our knowledge of this creative field. You can view the full schedule here. As you’ll see, Sarah Richardson – The Sarah Richardson – will be the keynote speaker!

Past BlogPodium events have left me energized, engaged, motivated, and excited and I have no doubt that I will, once again, be amazed by the people I meet and the things I learn. Bloggers of any stage of their blogging careers will surely enjoy the full day event. I encourage you to attend and if you do, please be sure to say hello!

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Photos of BlogPodium 2012 via Mango Studios.