Category Archives: Blogging

Random Surge

17 Sunday Jan 2010

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According to my Dashboard, there was an unusual surge of traffic to my blog yesterday for no apparent reason. Usually there’s a particular incoming link or a popular google search word, but this time there is no clue. And it’s not just the WordPress Dashboard. The Sitemeter counter also showed a surge. I wonder what it could’ve been. Perhaps an especially aggressive hacking program trying to leave comments?

Speaking of blog traffic, does anyone else notice that the counter for the WordPress Dashboard and Sitemeter differs by a lot? I wonder why that is so.

Doodles

19 Saturday Sep 2009

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Nevermind. I did some more photoshopping and now I’m very happy with this one 😀

Ps. The little thing after the G is a teacup and not an “O”………..

*****

I’ve been doodling lately, and after spending a few hours on Photoshop with my doodles this morning, I came up with this. I wanted to keep it simple, but unfortunately my doodle only looks good in a square shape. So I had to add something on the side to make it rectangular to fit the layout.

I tried my Met picture from before, but that looked too foreboding with the girly script. Finally, I decided to add some pop to it with prints from the Marc by MJ SS10 runway. I am kind of happy with it, except I worry that it’s a bit too much. Thoughts?

TeawithBG v1.8

Where is HG?

02 Wednesday Sep 2009

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Has anyone tried clicking into Coffee with HG lately, only to be met with the same Alex Monroe Jewelry post again? I know that has happened to me a few times in the hopes for an update, even though she’s told me repeatedly that she was going to stop in August. I even personally asked her again when I was back in HK last week to reconfirm- just to be sure! And unfortunately my dear readers, it breaks my heart to say it but HG has really stopped blogging! Not because she’s tired of blogging, but because she has officially stepped into the corporate world, with all its corporate mandates about working on the side and all that. She asked me to let dear ex-I am Fashion readers who have followed us to our new blogs to know this. After all, it would be extremely rude and irresponsible to just disappear from the face of the blogsophere without a word- and we are ever the polite and responsible bloggers. Sigh, I suddenly feel so alone. Let’s hope that this is a temporary thing and she will some day come back to us!

Time for a Change

06 Thursday Aug 2009

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I’ve been getting tired of the purple and random yellow flower lately, and wanted something a bit more somber and dark for the layout. Unlike past layouts for I am Fashion, where HG and I labored over it for hours together until we were 100% happy with it every 6 months, this is something I whipped up  in the last half hour- so I may still make some tweaks to it until I get to 100%. Right now, I’ll say I’m 60% happy with this layout. I should probably change the color of the headings to a more somber purple shade to match the over all mood. Thoughts?

This is a random picture that HG and I took on our trip to NYC last month. Anyone guess where?

Merry go Round

16 Tuesday Jun 2009

Posted by in Blogging, Fashion

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Update: *sniff* I am so upset. I threw my shades into my bag the other day (usually nothing happens to it) and discovered a SCRATCH on the right lens the next day. It’s not a small scratch either, it is a significant scratch that actually blocks my vision because it’s smack in the middle!!!! *sniff* I wonder if the good people over at the optical shop can perform some kind of magic and somehow fix it….

*****

It’s amazing how inspiration and mood works. When I should be focused on studying/cramming, blogging inspiration comes flooding in. But when I have nothing better to do in the world but to watch mindless TV (not that there are any good shows left still showing) and escape into a good book, my mind draws blank. Clearly from my lack of posts recently, I’m going through one of those times.

Odd Shaped Shades- Chanel

I did come across another fun  article yesterday about round shades this summer though. It tries to investigate from where this trend had stemmed from, coming up with explanations from John Lennon to hippies. I thought the author tried a little bit too hard to explain the sometimes inexplicable, but there were some interesting thoughts (almost as interesting as the correlation between the economy and the hem line). The one big thing I took away from the article though was, “yay! my round Chanel shades from last year are still it!”

Blogged Out?

11 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by in Blogging, Random Musings

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Today I came across a sobering article in the NYTimes about the decline of blogs. It was actually quite refreshing since this is the first article I’ve read from this angle. Ever since I started blogging 5 years ago, the hype of blogging had just grown exponentially, but I guess like the economy, it grew out of proportion and now the blog bubble is deflating too. The article suggested that many people started blogs with lofty aspirations — to build an audience and leave their day job, to land a book deal, or simply to share their genius with the world, but then were eventually disappointed or lost interest and decided to stop. It cited examples of the regular mom, Mrs. Nichols, trying to make it without success, and successful bloggers like Cromulent/Salad Days, who temporarily quit from the lack of privacy and fashion blogger, Fashion Robot, who just had enough. My first reaction was to commiserate with Fashion Robot- I’m not alone! My second thought was that a decline sounds right. I don’t know about the rest of the blogosphere, but for me the fashion blogosphere grew so fast in the past few years that I’ve lost track a long time ago. I know that it should be the more the merrier, but a reader only has so much time in a day and they must use it wisely- the exponential growth was unsustainable.

The problem is that people started blogging for the wrong reasons. As with every job, only the fittest survive. You cannot expect to register for a blog, randomly write something and expect instant readership/revenue and an upcoming book deal. You must have something to offer to readers, network in the blogosphere and be consistent and constantly refreshing to build a readership. Trust me, it is no easy task. The most successful bloggers are those who are most passionate about what they write.If you get into blogging with the mindset to simply share your thoughts with other like-minded people rather than notoriety and cash, you’ll have a much better time of it.

Contrary to common belief…

23 Monday Mar 2009

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….HG and I did not get into a fight and decided to stop working together on I am Fashion and started our own blogs instead so we won’t have to work with each other. We still email each other daily about the intricate details of our lives and random thoughts we have, and feel extremely empty when the other is away and has no access to the internet. When I freak out, she is the first person I call and she is still my maid of honor when I fantasize about my wedding. Our reasons for closing down I am Fashion still stands, though I do think that my later rationalization of it in this blog is a better articulation of how we feel.

As for us continuing to blog even more regularly than before, I attribute it to the “newness” of our blogs. Starting a new blog is like starting a relationship. At the beginning everything is new and exciting as you get to know the other person and watch your relationship grow and mature. Every up and every down is a significant moment. Then the honeymoon phase eventually wears off and you reach a happy medium, where your relationship becomes a part of your daily life. With any luck, you will live happily ever after in this state with a few surprises here and there to spice up the norm. If not, your relationship will wane and you grow apart, eventually deciding that you are both better off parting ways.

Clearly I’m in the honeymoon phase. We are starting to explore new things together, trying to figure out what works best for the both of us. Every new post is an adventure. Every comment and email is exciting. I want to spend every moment of everyday with it, checking on its progress i.e. stalking the traffic, the incoming and outgoing links etc. It’s an exhilarating feeling that I’d almost forgotten about!

Analogy aside, it is heartwarming to know that the readers on this blog are either readers from I am Fashion who liked us enough to follow us to our new blogs, or new readers who likes what they see- not random Google searchers who just happened to click in. Thank you for your support, and I will try my best to live happily ever after with this blog. Wish us luck!

Let’s go have tea!

01 Sunday Feb 2009

Posted by in Blogging

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Tags

That’s what I usually say to my girl friends (and guy friends if they’re willing) when I want to get together and catch up. We get to sit in nice and peaceful environment, where we can actually hear each other without shouting. We have scones and little finger food for substanence and a constant supply of refreshments when we get thirsty. We can go on for hours and hours without disruption! It is the best time and place to really chat and bond with each other. That is how I envisualize Tea with BG to be. A place where I can share my thoughts about every interesting tidbit I encounter everyday with my friends both online and off.

You might ask why I’m starting a new blog when this is kind of what I was doing on I am Fashion already. I guess the biggest difference would be the structure, the range of topics,  and the tone. I am Fashion was a girly blog where we shared our fashion observations in a fun and light tone accompanied by lots of pictures. HG & I worked hard to make sure that it was regularly updated at least 5-6 times a week. After 4 years, that has become what I am Fashion is, and what we and our readers expect of it. But as much as I love fashion, I do have other interests I’d like to talk about as well. And as I step into the twenties and the real world, the demands on my time, my writing style and the way I view the world has also changed. I may not have as much time to surf the net, collect images and write a lot on a daily basis anymore. Indeed, my writing may not even warrant as many images as it used to. My tone may also not be as cheerful and lighthearted as it used to be (the real world does this to people). Nevertheless, I still enjoy blogging. So instead of trying to mold I am Fashion into something new (we love it too much to want to change it), we decided to let it go and start something new of our own, which we can shape to better fit who we are today.

So here I am at Tea with BG, and I hope that you will stop by from time to time to visit. I don’t promise to update daily, but I’ll try my best not to be remiss and disappear without a word for more than a week (maybe I should start an email chain for updates or a RSS feed- once I figure out how to?). I have written a few posts as a prelude to what will come. Obviously, there will still be fashion posts sprinkled in with some random musings. I’m still working on the banner. I love the tea set because it is so me and it fits with the theme, but my friends tell me that it looks a bit like a food blog. So I blended in a random image of NYC to give it a city feel, can you see the lights of the office building on top left and the sign of E 58th St on the right? I’m still not 100% happy with it, but it will have to do for now until a better inspiration comes to me.

I hope you like Tea with BG and I’d love to hear what you think and any suggestions you have either in the comments or by email at teawithbg AT gmail. Don’t be shy!

xoxo

BG