Dear Mia,

Recently I’ve been thinking of making Delayed Missives a little bit more editorial, although literally every person I mentioned it to at IFB (except Shenneth, who’s thinking along the same lines) has said how much people love personal style blogs. I can’t disagree with that because my favorite fashion blogs are all personal style. However… you know that I’m in the middle of the fashion blogger version of the existential crisis. Lately I’ve been thinking of focusing more on my writing as well.

And perhaps I’ve become somewhat camera shy. I did take photos of my dress, but I hated them all. I photograph other people much better with this 50mm lens than I do myself. I’m thinking of taking the 35mm to Bloggers Night Out, and am even contemplating starting a fund for the 28mm. Not that I don’t love my 50, but it has major focusing problems.


(This is Nnenna if you don’t know her. A face seen frequently on the blog.)

I’m not sure if it’s just me or I got a bad lens. I’m starting to think the 50 is only good when I’m behind the camera and that the remote focus just doesn’t work with it. None of the photos in this post were taken with the remote and I’d say they’re all pretty sharp (wide open at ƒ1.4 for the portraits, too). I can never get photos like this by myself with the remote, although Lydia’s seem to come out all the time. I pretty much can’t believe that my crappy (I mean, as far as SLR lenses go) 35mm generally performs better than my 50mm.

So basically, I just wanted to tell you that this post is going nowhere (ha) and I don’t know what I’m doing. But I will be figuring it out. Promise.
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Yesterday I attended the IFB Conference at Milk Studios. I was looking forward to hearing what the panelists had to say after hearing about how great IFB was in September. The conference was excellent for new bloggers just starting out, but as someone who’s been blogging on Tumblr since March 2008 and who even had a Xanga (yes, I’ll admit it), I found the amount of useful information limited.

So instead of a panel-by-panel recap, I put together fifteen quotes that I personally thought were the best of the day.

Hilarious photo of Shenneth and me. This was apparently our best of six– the early morning must have been getting to us.

On brand partnerships:

Brands are looking for bloggers with credibility, flexibility, and scalability. Blogging is the next marketing medium. – Lauren Tesar, Lifebooker

Have a media kit ready when you start to reach out. – Jessie Thorpe, Denimology

Glamour looks for level of engagement when considering new contributors. Blogging and bloggers have changed the meaning of brand. Influence. – Susan Cernek, Glamour

Think about a lifestyle mindset because a lot of brands are becoming lifestyle brands. Check in on GetGlue. Share where you eat, where you go. – Macala Wright, FashionablyMarketing.Me

New friends Jaimie and Shari.

On content:

Don’t be afraid to be too different. – Karen Moon, Style Musée

Be transparent, honest, have good voice. You can’t be everywhere [on every social media platform] focus on a few and do them well. – Aliza Licht, DKNY

Your point of view is so important. Pay attention, even to your layout. Stay consistent. Keep the same look and feel no matter what platform you’re using. – Erica Domesek, P.S.- I made this…

Make sure quality is not sacrificed. Post at a speed you’re comfortable with. Your readers appreciate consistency. – Connie Wang, Refinery29

Don’t post for the sake of posting. Take the time to edit yourself. Good high quality content is more important. -Nicolette Mason, Nicolette Mason

I also met Jill and Nicole (also known as Glamamom and MomTrends)!

On community:

It’s important to value your audience and respect their time. Always disclose sponsored posts. – Kat Griffin, Corporette

Find out how you can add value to the current community. – Wendy Ngyugen, Wendy’s Lookbook

Create a community you can give back to. – Erica Domesek, P.S.- I made this…

It’s important to keep your blog and presence organic. Dont follow in anyone else’s footsteps. – Bryan Grey Yambao, Bryanboy

You never know where great relationships will take you. – Grace Atwood, Bauble Bar

And what Bryanboy does in the dressing room at Barneys (wouldn’t you?): hide and take a picture of this and tweet.

Dear Lydia,

A loose shirt with extremely long sleeves and wedge booties are totally casual… right? At least that was what I was thinking on Sunday morning. If I’m rather tired looking it’s because I was eating Papaya Dog at 1am and ordering Jason Wu for Target at 3am. The link hunt was kind of annoying and things I wanted sold out (sigh, no poplin dress), so it took me forever to finally checkout. Hopefully I like the canvas bag and skirt I ordered, but if not I’ll be thankful for easy returns to a Target store.

Sunday afternoon (after sleep), I took a bit of a walk… Continue reading →

Lately there’s been a handful of beautiful days scattered among the grey and rainy ones. It feels nice to get out and about without a heavy coat, although it’s somewhat baffling for what’s supposed to be the dead of winter.

Not sure why, but I’m looking down in every single photo. Just one of those camera shy days. Either that or the appearance of the sun has nearly blinded me.

I’m wearing my Simply Vera Vera Wang jacket, Francesca’s Collections cardigan, Laugh Cry Repeat (just featured on Of a Kind!) shirt, J Brand jeans, Stuart Weitzman heels, and ken + dana necklace and ring. This is my Dana Buchman/Kohl’s bag again and my favorite old Anthropologie scarf.

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Lens flare, an outfit preview and the week in sunsets. Hope you all have a beautiful first weekend of February!

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