I was just about to say, “Happy Saturday!” but then I realized it’s Friday. Woo-hoo! Happy Friday everyone.
Today Dan and I went to Tyson’s (yes, again). I went back to Cusp because I had purchased two tops from them this previous Sunday and I needed a price adjustment because their sale got better than it was on Sunday. When I was there before I noticed that the Matt and Nat Sade Foldover Clutch was on a major sale. Originally it was $185 and it was marked down to $77.00 (more than half-off!). On Twitter, I won a $50 gift card from the Purse Blog for retweeting their contest (THANK YOU PURSE BLOG!). I was so excited and knew I had to buy a handbag! I decided on the Matt and Nat Kogan Exposed Zip Clutch in pewter. Here is a picture:
I was trying to find a fashionable bag that I could wear with anything. I’ve been buying so many “cute” dresses and tops recently and I needed something with an edge. However, I am still going back and forth about my purchase for one reason:
It’s an over-sized clutch. Is it going to bother me without having straps? How realistic is this?
Other than that, I love it. I’m not a “girly-girl” by any means and while I do love bags that are “pretty” I love the look of this clutch In addition to the look of the bag, it’s vegan leather! This just adds to how stylish the bag is as a whole and I feel good about wearing it. Also, the bag was made by using recycled plastic water bottles and I think this specific bag used about 14 bottles. As a huge anti-throwaway-water-bottles advocate I feel good about that fact. That, and my friend Brandi would be proud.
What do you guys think about the clutch? Should I keep or return it? I would love to hear your opinions!
xoxo,
Julie
*UPDATE* I’m totally keeping it. I’m sitting here in capri jeans, a cute black top. Simple outfit and the bag boosts it to total awesomeness. I am happy 
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TGIT (Thursday!) all!
What’s new? Right now I’m trying to finish laundry and hanging out with my roommates and Dan. Life is good. I don’t have to work tomorrow and this weekend we are having a 4th of July party. What are your plans?
Today’s featured blog is La Dolce Vita! Her blog is bright, fun, and represents her city St. Louis. She is also hilarious – her blog matches the brightness and fun of her beautiful design:
Here is what Dolce has to say about her design:
I love “fun” blog sites and really wanted one of my own. I dabble with Photoshop and Illustrator on occasion, but am far from being a professional, but I wanted to make my own blog design. I knew I wanted it to have a St. Louis theme and to be girly and sweet. -My blog title is La Dolce Vita…it had to be sticky sweet! I chose only bright colors so it would be eye catching and a design I thought was fun and reflective of my blog.
I just needed some inspiration.
I started paying more attention to the blogs I read and made mental notes of the sites I liked best. I already had an account at istockphoto.com (that’s where I got all of my images for the banner) and started searching for images I thought would go well together and weren’t already used on other sites. I must have downloaded 50 images and created 10 different blog designs before I finally settled on the current one. I’ve received compliments on it and some constructive criticism (”it’s a little coming of age”), but over all, I love it!
Thank you Dolce! I love that iStock website – it’s very helpful for inspiration. Everyone make sure to pay her a visit – you won’t be disappointed!
Folks, I have one more design to feature which I will do on Monday. That post will also include a pretty sweet giveaway! I may be blogging a little this weekend – not sure. If you don’t hear from me on my blog just follow me on Twitter. I’m sure I’ll be updating rather frequently. Have a GREAT 4th of July!
xoxo,
Julie
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Hello internet,
It’s time to take a break from Wearing Design week. More designs will be back soon – I promise! I’ve missed blogging and realized I’ve only been posting about designs this week. I should mix it up, yes? So, I’m going to tell you what’s going on in my world.
I started a two jobs this week. Well, one last Friday and one on Monday. They are both going well. One of the jobs I am working at my university as an office assistant doing work that a monkey could do easy work which is good because my brain still hurts from the spring semester. On Tuesdays and Fridays, I go to a school district to interpr*t for a de*f student while in summer school. It’s interesting to say the least. I am happy that I am finally making money. I am unhappy that I feel the urge to make up for lost time. I have been shopping way too much. The act of shopping, really. I haven’t been spending too much. Just some things here and there and I only buy stuff really cheap or on sale. Unemployment has taught me to save, save, save! I have always known this, but now it’s more engrained into my soul.
This week was also that time of the month a time when I’ve been a shitty mood. Let’s be clear here (sorry to male readers, but whatever) I feel like garbage once a month on a Tuesday. Granted my whole week is usually a living hell, but the Tuesday is always the worse and this Tuesday was no different. I felt fat, worthless, ugly, the whole nine yards. This is not a pity post so please don’t turn it into that. I sometimes just hate being a woman. During this week I have sucessfully had two breakdowns. One was tonight and Dan held me saying he loved me and how pretty I was. Ah, it’s good to have a boyfriend sometimes. However after his compliment I looked at him and said, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THIS FEELS LIKE!” Poor guy. They will never know. Sigh…
Okay back to shopping. Amidst my shopping obsession search, I came across some interesting finds which I want you all to know about because I love you.
- The Daily Candy sent an email relaying important information about a secret club called Beauty Fix. Well, I guess it’s not a secret anymore but I was never a cliquey girl in high school so I want to share. Basically you can join for around $50. With that $50, you receive free delux and most of the time, FULL SIZE samples of the most popular beauty products out there. $50 is a little high for me so I was pleased to read that they are offering Daily Candy readers a special for $19.99! Sweet! I joined. You should too.
- There are so many sales going on this weekend! I should know because I was at Tyson’s not only today but yesterday too. Ah, I’m crazy. My biggest find was at The Cusp. They are having a 4-day sale of 40% off already reduced prices. This left me in total shock today as I starred longingly at this Marc by Marc Jacobs wallet that I could have had for around $80:
- Nordstroms is having a huge sale soon! They are having special deals just for the occasion. I found out about this from Glimmer Gloss Glow and you can read about it here.
- Pretty much every other store is having a sale right now. Express, Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, you name it, they are putting it on sale!
- Special thanks to Nina for recommending this dress from Target. I went today (shocker) and picked up one in blue! I’ll be sporting that plus red nails and red flip flops for our forth of July party.
- Now to discuss what the title of this post is linked to: Oil of Olay Regenerist Microdermabrasion and Peel System. Holy crap you guys – this stuff is amazing! Also much cheaper (around $30) than other chemical peels out there. My skin loves it and my face really does feel like a baby’s bum.
Well folks, I think that’s all for now. I’m going to go read and then tuck myself into bed for a good nights sleep. I’m thrilled that Dan and I both don’t work on Friday. We have some fun outdoorsy stuff planned which I’ll report about later.
hugs,
Julie
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Hello love muffins!
Woah what a day it has been! I am pooped but I want to share with you another featured blog: Disgruntled Julie: A Ph.D. in Progress. I have always been drawn to her blog because she is in graduate school (like me!) and her name is Julie (again, like me!). Well, that’s not only why. Her design drew me in and her content kept me around. At first, I thought her design was created by a designer but nope, she did it herself:
It’s very impressive and the colors are very cute and very her! I love how everything flows together nicely. This girl will inspire you to take the design into your own hands! Here’s what she has to say about her design:
I did the design for my blog myself. I’ve had my blog since 2005, and over the course of 4 years, I’ve probably completely overhauled everything and started the design from scratch at least 12 times. With all the great new designs that have taken off over the past year or so, I considered hiring a designer… but everyone states that since the design was created by them, they have all ownership over the design, and you have to pay even for a simple color change. Knowing how much I like to change things up, it didn’t make sense for me to continually shell out money every time I wanted something a little different.
For the past two years or so, I’ve had some variation “myself” in my lab coat with a flask, since it started as a chronicle of my experiences as a science Ph.D. student. Over time, I’ve expanded to include cooking, photography, crafting, and life as a newlywed, but since so much of my life revolves around science, I wanted to stick with the scientist theme. I purchased a vector image off of istockvector.com and redrew parts of it in Illustrator, changing the face shape, eyes, and hair to look more like me, and adding the signature flask I had in previous header designs. As far as the circles.. well, circles just make me happy. I like to think of concentric circles as an ever-so-slightly more mature version of polka dots, and who doesn’t like polka dots?
My favorite colors are navy and lime green, and since they happen to work well together, I used them as the base for my colors. I wasn’t inspired by anything but rather just went with colors I like — after all, this is a blog about me, so it’s only appropriate that the colors are something I enjoy.
My biggest advice for designing a blog would be to pick a theme or illustration which represents you and your blog. While a pretty pattern is always attractive, it doesn’t say too much about who you are, or serve as an extremely memorable design for your blog. For me, I’ve been using my flask-holding scientist for years, because that’s who I am in reality and often what I write about. It visually connects my blog with my topic. Also, if you see a design you like, don’t hesitate to e-mail the blogger and ask for some advice — I’ve had many individuals email me for help setting up their own blog and asking how I added borders, a horizonal menu bar in Blogger, etc., and I’m always happy to help them set everything up — after all, it’s true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Julie actually helped me out recently with recommending a website with different website wallpapers (see my background?). She really is a true virtual friend and someone who I’ll have to meet soon (seriously!). I agree with what she said about having a “memorable design”. Readers want to know your blog and be comfortable coming back again and again. Thank you for participating Julie!
Have you missed a featured blog? Go to these links:
Speak On It
Chic Runner
That Night
The Design Girl
Make Mine a Mojito
Quarter Life Lady
Have a good Wednesday everyone! xoxo,
Julie
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by Julie on June 29, 2009
When I started considering a design and started researching different blogs for inspiration, I automatically fell in love with Speak On It. Both the blog and the design are tremendous and my go-to for inspiration. Sadly, Deutlich just wrote a post last night saying “good bye.” Please head over and read her last post. I hope she will be back!
Here is Deutlich answering some of the questions I posed:
Why did you choose those colors?
I love purple. I was going through a phase in which everything I designed myself was somehow incorporating purple, so I figured I’d run with it.
Why did you pick that design?
I used examples of other blog designs to sort’ve figure out that I like things to ‘pop’ but also be legible. Hence the white background over the purple back drop. I looooathe black backgrounds with light fonts because they are usually SO hard to read.
Did you use a blog designer or did you do it yourself? Why?
I used a blog designer because I’m an imbecile and had no idea how to actually work with the wordpress.org settings to write the CSS code. With blogspot it was REALLY easy. With wordpress.com I could only pick what they offered. So I went to .org to have more control, only to find out that learning CSS just to do it was driving me apeshit.
Do you have any advice for bloggers about their design?
Pick something that you will like for a long, long time. If you design things yourself, you can change it whenever you want. But if you’re paying for it? Be real careful that it’s not something you’ll hate in two weeks. And please, please, please do not use black or very dark backgrounds with light font. In web design 101, this is the biggest no-no. And readers do not want to go blind squinting at your content.
I completely agree about making the font easy to read for your readers. Afterall, they are there for your content – not your design. Thank you Deutlich and I hope you come back to blogging soon! You will be missed.
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