Regarding Personal Style

July 7, 2011February 8, 2012 / Ally Bean / 6 Comments

I met a friend for dinner. She arrived rocking the 1970s style trend that’s so popular now. She looked perfectly at ease in that era’s clothes; but then I realized that she always looks perfectly at ease no matter what she’s wearing. So I asked her: “how do you always know what to wear to look good all the time?”

I figured that her answer would be about fashion magazines, long shopping trips to the mall and personal shoppers.

But instead, she seemed dumbfounded by my question. And her answer made me laugh. As she looked down to see what she had on, she told me that she had no idea what she was wearing. She said that she just bought whatever was in the stores when she walked in– or online when she got around to shopping for clothes and accessories.

No planning. No stress. No external manifestation of deeper inner meaning. Just whatever. “I’m too busy to keep up with fashion,” she told me. “Do I have a style?”

I assured her that she did, and explained it to her. She thought about what I’d said, agreed with me, and then asked me: “How do you know about all this? Where are you getting this from?”

My answer was easy: “I read blogs.” Blogs written by women with professional backgrounds in fashion who work as stylists. Woman who are active amateurs with a passion for fashion. Woman who dress well and like to share what they’ve figured out along the way. All sorts of women. All ages of women. All kinds of styles.

Naturally, she wanted to know specifically what I was reading, so I told her.

When I got home I realized that a list of personal style/fashion bloggers would make a good and useful addition to my “Wonderful Blogs To Read” tab. [Look up– white letters in the black line– kind of middle to right-ish– the one at the end. Yep, that’s it.] So I added a section to my blog roll that lets you, my gentle readers, know my current fav blogs.

~~Check it out, why don’t you? You know you want to look good. 🙂~~ [Please note: fashion blogs on my blogroll deleted 10.11. No longer interested in them. Learned enough, I guess.]

Red, Wet & Blue

July 5, 2011February 3, 2015 / Ally Bean / 3 Comments

Our Fourth of July weekend was rainy, damp, humid. No picnic in the park. No day at the zoo. No baseball game with fireworks afterward. Instead, we had a weekend that only a mold spore could love.

Not. Too. Exciting.

So having nothing festive and fun to do, Zen-Den and I decided to be very grown-up and act like serious homeowners. First, we super scrubbed the kitchen— oven, cabinet doors, pantry, freezer, granite counter tops. Granted the kitchen wasn’t particularly dirty to begin with, but I have to admit that it’s amazing how shiny it looks now. Clean and inviting. Quite the happy space.

Then Z-D painted the sitting room— aka the un-bedroom. After much debate about what color to put on the walls, we chose a very pale shade of gray that reads slightly blue. Combined with the room’s white trim, this shade of gray creates a relaxing and easy space. Rather like being inside a cloud. Airy. Filled with possibility.

And that, kids, was our weekend. Not the traditional sort of Fourth of July celebration that we all know and love– but a practical use of our time. Which, God willing the creek don’t rise, means that next weekend we can have some fun.

Let’s hope, shall we?

Blogging: Then And Now

June 29, 2011August 23, 2018 / Ally Bean / 10 Comments

Subtitled: In Which I Explain How I Came To Be A Blogger

Sub-Subtitled: Blame It On The Dirt

###

I read my first blog in the summer of 1997. I was searching online {pre-Google} for info on gardening in clay dirt when I stumbled across this unique website by a regional gardener/college prof. The website was called a weblog and I was amazed to discover that this weblog was updated on a weekly basis. I could return to the site every week and learn something new!

I was smitten: info, updates & a bit of personality. Yes! This was my kind of place.

###

But then my life got very busy and I forgot about weblogs. In the fall of 2002 I read an article in a newspaper that linked to these new things called blogs— which I instantly realized were more advanced versions of the gardening weblog that I’d loved years before. According to the newspaper article people were writing personal blogs that they filled like a diary or a scrapbook. Then they shared their blogs with the world– and encouraged their readers to leave comments.

Comments, I wondered? What might this be? So I followed the links in the newspaper and discovered that people were indeed now keeping daily blogs– and that readers were leaving their 2¢ on the blogs in a place called comments.

I was re-smitten: info, updates & a bit of personality combined with the ability to talk with people all over the world. What was not to love?

###

Soon thereafter I jumped into blogging. First, I commented and emailed with bloggers I found {mostly by spending hours surfing the pre-Blogher net}. Then, on the advice of a blogger friend, I started my own blog– which turned out to be a huge challenge to create and a great deal of fun to keep. However, after about four years of being a daily blogger, I was tired of keeping a blog so I let it go and walked away from the blogosphere.

###

Fast forward to the winter of 2011 when I decided that it was time for me to get back into blogging. Much had changed in my life– and in the blogosphere– so I decided to start this blog with the understanding that I’d not post on a daily basis and that I’d write about whatever interests me in the moment. Just because I could.

###

IMHO, the coolest thing about blogging is– and always has been– that with a bit of desire and gumption anyone can have a blog. That’s what hooked me on blogging in the first place. Personal expression + instant connection.

###

Blogging has changed along the way into something more polished and more organized than the early versions that I fell in love with. Having recently re-entered the blogosphere, I see four things about blogging that surprise me. Whether they are idiosyncratic to my experiences or the norm, I could not say; I’ll leave that for others to figure out. All I know is that things are not as they once were– and I’m cool with that.

Blogs all look very pretty now. In fact, in the process of setting up this blog I have not once used a piece of code. Amazing. I spent hours & hours & hours working on the code to get my first blog to look passible. Now, pretty is a given.
Blogs are all classified into niches. I’ve found very few generalists like myself. Instead, everyone who keeps a blog is [or wants to be] an authority on one specific subject. I see nothing wrong with this, but realize that connecting with other bloggers is more difficult because of it. Blogging is not as open and free-form as it once was.
Most blogs are monetized now. That was a new concept when I left the blogosphere, but today it is ubiquitous. I understand the reason why people are trying to make money off of their blogs. However, adverts and product placements put a different vibe into the blogging mix; one that wasn’t there years ago when people blogged just for the fun of it.
Many blogs do not seem to want commenters– as much as followers. I see a shift away from the comment section as a cocktail party {with everyone chatting it up & discussing all sides of an issue} to the comment section as standing in line at the coffee shop {with casual, polite encounters & indifferent shrugs}. It’s a different take on what it means to connect and communicate with others. I get it, but it has taken me awhile to adapt to this more reserved approach to commenting.

###

I feel fortunate that I discovered blogging early on and allowed myself to be vulnerable enough to give it a try. It has evolved so far from my first encounter with it in 1997– and I couldn’t be happier. Yet different as it is now, the basic concept remains the same: info, updates & a bit of personality.

Yep, I’m still-smitten… after all these years.