New look for designed by Diana!

I had been toying with a new look for designed by Diana for a while now. I loved my previous logo, but I felt it was too much about the aprons. Though I still love my retro aprons, I feel that I've expanded to so many other things. I didn't want to be boxed in as the apron girl, when I'm also the baking girl, and the running girl.

Thankfully with FL Blog Con looming, it gave me the jump start I needed to get moving with a design overhaul for designed by Diana.

I know I wanted something clean and simple, just highlighting designed by Diana. I've been on a green kick lately, and I love me some grey, so I went out hunting.

Luckily Danielle over at Sometimes Sweet had recently redone her blog with one of the templates from 17th Avenue Designs. I visited their site after seeing Danielle's clean simple new layout and fell in love. This is exactly the kind of things I was looking for. And installing this template would be a LOT easier than trying to figure this all out myself, as I had in the past.

I went over to the site, found a great template and a few add-ons that I knew would make my site feel more me. I'm loving the result!

How do you like the new designed by Diana?

(NOTE: I was not compensated for this nor did I receive my template for free. I just really loved it.)

FL Blog Con 2014

It was my second year attending the FL Blog Con, and once again, I left full of information and totally inspired to get out there and make my blog work. This year's theme was "Gotta Get Blogging" and that's exactly what I wanted to do as soon as I left.

The keynote was from Ted Murphy of IZEA. I had seen some flyers and mention of IZEA at last year's blog con, but was so grateful to get a look at the start of the company, and how they are trying to help bloggers like us.

Then I was off to my first session, photography with Julie Deily of The Little Kitchen. I learned overall that lighting matters, sometimes you just don't like you pics, and above all, edit. And in the end practice, practice. practice, you can only get better.

Next I attended the writing workshop with Adam Avitable. Another great session, where we learned the importance of editing.

Unfortunately, it was a very rainy day in Orlando, but the gloominess only moved lunch and the after party inside. It was a little cramped, and took a little longer than usual to get food, but I did really like the Tijuana Flats for lunch. I was so happy to see them using a local company. And I love me some Mexican food.

Since the lunch time was all messed up and took longer than planned, I wasn't able to make it to any of the lunch sessions. But I did check out all of the great sponsors in the Florida Dairy Farmers lounge. (And I might have had some ice cream.)

After lunch, I got tons of business info from Heather Lopez about Turning from Hobby to Business. Then I went to the Monetizing Your Blog session, which was a great panel that included 3 different companies (Crystal from IZEA, Brandon from Affiliate Manager, and Matthew from Sonobi)  that help bloggers and social media influencers get with brands and get compensated. (I got too into this session, cause I didn't take any pics!)

One of the surprises sessions for me was the Instagram session. Nicole Siscaretti of Sparkly Ever After was great, fun, and so excited to share her Instagram knowledge. If you're not following my Instagram, do it now!

Then we learned all about Pecha Kucha in the closing keynote. It's so interesting and such a cool way to communicate.

We got a pecha kucha demo from Katy Widrick. Had to laugh along with her 10 Secrets Only Bloggers Really Know About Blogging.

I love going to this event. It leaves me inspired to share and do even more here on my little corner of the internet. And it's great being with like minded people. My bestie, Kris, is toying with the idea of starting a blog so this was a great place for her to get her feet wet with the whole thing. And see the type of crazy I'm involved in.

I even ended up meeting some South Florida peeps there. I'd love to have a blogger meetup here in the 305, so any Miami-Dade bloggers, hit me up, so we can meet up and chat.

Florida Blog Con

A few weeks ago I went to my first Blog Con. I attended FL Blog Con in Orlando. As soon as I saw tickets opened up I got one. And I was very glad I did.

The theme was "Aiming for Awesome" and if we didn't have our sights set on being awesome, they sure are there now.

I learned tons about making my blog work and making it even better. I heard talks from people all over the blog world from comedy to fashion, fitness to DIY.

Here are a few tidbits of what I learned at FL Blog Con:

• From Pat Williams (keynote speaker): "When your greatest talent intersects with your greatest passion, you've hit your sweet spot."
• From Katy Widrick: first impressions are important.
• From J's Everyday Fashion: It is possible to do it.
• From Julie of The Little Kitchen: Create a tribe. It's all about building relationships.
• From Adam Avitable: Don't be afraid to be yourself.
• From Katie of Katie's Cucina and Sew Woodsy: Charge what it's worth.
• From Pam of Marketing Nutz: You are the media!

I also got to meet some great Florida bloggers. It was nice to talk to people that actually "get" this whole blog thing. It was tons of info to take in, but it was all so worth it. I feel like I have so many awesome ideas now, I just need time to make them all happen.

FL Blog Con also had great sponsors and tons of goodies throughout the day. There was coffee from Barnies (though a little cafecito instead of just American coffee would have been great!) And thesr was also lunch from Bahama Breeze. After all the sessions ended there was also a great after party right in the Full Sail backlot. It was great to be able to listend to some cool music, have some food and drinks and best of all, yummy cupcakes.

I can't wait til next year, so I can learn even more and meet more cool bloggers. A big thanks goes out to Bess and the whole planning committee, for putting together such an amazing event!

8 weeks to a better me: Week One

I've become a sucker for joining these blog along things, but this one sounds like a good one. It's from one of my favorite blogs, Sometimes Sweet. Each week has a theme and then you set 3 small goals about that topics that you will complete this week. This week's theme is:


So here are this week's:
1. Blog at least 3 times this week.
2. Review/interview a local business.
3. Blog about the little moments.

Slacking off and an interview

I'm a slacker. This blogger has been slacking big time, but I do have a valid list of excuses.

1. I like to include pics in my posts and just haven't gotten around to taking pics these days.
2. I was getting ready for Odd Duck Bazaar this past weekend.
3. Managing Handmade Miami stuff is taking a bit longer than I thought.
4. Really, I'm just a slacker.

But now onto some fun stuff. In addition to being team captain for the Handmade Miami Etsy Team, I'm also a member of the Retro Handmade Etsy Team. They interviewed me last week for their blog. You can see my interview here at the Retro Handmade Team Blog!

And onto some great news, for only $7 at Radio Shack, I was able to replace the missing cable from my bias tape maker. So there were a few new Retro D Aprons to show off at Odd Duck this weekend.

I will have an Odd Duck post coming up tomorrow and I'll also be showing off some new goodies I have made for the shop. So check back soon, I vow to be a better blogger, I promise!

cool blogs to check out

Lately, I've gotten into the whole blog thing and have found some really great ones. So, here are the blogs I'm reading. They run the gamut from sewing and vintage to celebs to cooking...

These first blogs are about vintage style (and making the clothes yourself!). My first stop is usually Casey's Elegant Musings. Casey is all about wearing vintage. She has great links to other sites with info about vintage hair (one of my current obesessions), and I lover her flickr faves. I just found Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing, and I'm hooked. Gertie is trying to make all of the items in Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing, and some other things along the way too. The Sew Weekly is about a woman that is trying to make onw outfit for herself a week. These ladies are all a great inspiration, and I hope to be starting on making myself some clothes soon, though I'm sure it will pale in comparison to their wears!

Ok, so I love TV, but I'm not big on spoilers, so I tend to avoid the TV blogs, but one I do frequent has more to do with vintage fashion than the actual plot of the show. It's What Would Emma Pillsbury Wear? I'm a total Gleek and love Emma's vintage inspired style (I'm so getting a sweater guard one of these days! You can see all of Emma's clothes from each episode of Glee and also some look-alikes in case you want to look like Emma too!

Now onto the food. Great down home recipes with tons of pics can be found at The Pioneer Woman Cooks. This is a real pioneer woman out there with her family cooking for them an making it all look so delicious. I love seeing each step of her recipes photographed. And this one is pretty self explanatory, Food Porn Daily. As I explained to Mom recently, these are just delicious looking super closeups of yummy food. It always makes my mouth water.

As you saw in my last post, I love planning parties, and I found a blog that combines great parties with cool modern/retro style. Hostess with the Mostess has great ideas for showers, weddings, birthday parties, really any party you want to have. I pop over there to get the ideas I will eventually use for some party down the line.

And now the old standyby and the one that takes me the longest to read everyday, Oh No They Didn't! ONTD combines all of the celeb gossip from all the other sites, along with original content from users to give you all the hollywood info you could ever ask for. Think of it as your ET or Access Hollywood online, only juicier! If you read this blog, you'll def be in the know about what's going on in the world of entertainment.

So those are some of my favorite blogs. I'm always looking for new ones, so if anyone has any recommendations, just leave them in the comments. And I'm also trying to update this blog more often too. I hope you guys enjoy what I've been blogging!