featured in "In Her Shoes" at High Heeled Foot in the Door this week...

I was so flattered when Camilla at 'High Heeled Foot in The Door' asked me to be a part of her on going, 'In her shoes' series. When she first asked me back in May, the day that I chose to shoot {and every day is different for me} turned into a complete day of calamity.

Around noon, Nick, tore his Achilles tendon, jumping the fence to chase after our dog ~who had escaped. I was working with a client and had to abruptly leave after receiving a panicked phone call. In retrospect, this would have been a great day to document, lots of excitement, emergency surgery, casts, crutches and pain meds.

So, this time around I documented a rather mellow day. Nobody was hurt, full of sunshine and bike rides {and a bit of work}. Check in again as my partners at The Skirted Round Table will be submitting their own dalies as part of this charming feature Camilla's wondeful blog.

blog out loud sf>>

Rebecca and me, raring to get the party started...

This past Sunday, fellow blogger Rebecca Orlov {loving.living.small and Apartment Therapy L.A.} and I took our Blog Out Loud, blogging symposium to San Francisco. The venue,BellJar, was simply, stunning. If you haven't already been there, git on in there.

We had a completely stellar and generous panel {see below photos} filled with such great experiences and ideas to share. The audience, was as much a part of the evening as anything. Great input and questions. It was fun to meet, in person, readers and fellow bloggers~ who added to the night through their great dialogue.

We began the morning by having a get together at the de Young museum cafe {a little shout out to the staff there, who were incredibly helpful and cheerful}

In the fore ground, my two oldest friends, Allyson and Analisa represented the 'non-blogger' contingency and my personal support system. {thank you, you two!!}

Lynn Goldfinger- Abram, telling the group some great little story.

and then on to BellJar....

pre-event shopping takes place among the gorgeous little things.

our audio video guy, Matt, gettin' set.

Nick filled in as bar tender to the 3buck.

wow. we had some serious blog out loud booty for the first 20 guests. All of this talented work came from etsy/bloggers who donated their work: paper pastries, we collective, tiny pine press, ink and wit, erin vale design, ferm living {also a panel member}

thank you Fleurt design for you overly generous floral art.

old friend, SF landscape designer, blogger of garden rooms, Robyn Pope, contributed this beautiful, organic gathering {this was one of two!I know I keep saying this but, the generosity was unbelievable}

and so we begin...

Our talented group of bloggers from Left, Cassandra LaValle of coco+kelley, Christiana Coop of Ferm living/clever spaces, Lynn Goldfinger-Abram of Paris Hotel Boutique, Susannah Murdock of Petunia Faced Girl, Sasha Wingate of BellJar, Anne Sage of The City Sage

The incredibly talented designer, Christiana Coop of Ferm Living and blogger of Clever Spaces.

Petunia faced girl blogger, Susannah Murdock chats it up {the real petunia faced girl made a brief cameo}

doing our best to look like a sorority pledge day photo.

aaaaand......it's a wrap.

Thank you each and everyone who participated whether you were panel or audience. And for those of you unable to make it, we missed you and hope you can join us next time....

please check blogoutloudevent.com for the video content of this event, coming soon!

more birthday cheer!

It's the blogger birthday weekend extravaganza. Thank goodness for facebook perusing on a Sunday morning or I wouldn't have known! She's a humble one, she is. One of my partners in crime on the Skirted Round Table, and a renegade blogger from way back, is celebrating her birthday today. Happy, Happy day Linda. xoxo *M

Blog Out Loud heads to SF

As many of your remember {and joined}, last June marked our first Blog Out Loud event ~ held in Venice Beach at the beautiful Patio Culture. This time we're holding the creative blogging symposium at fabulously delicious, Bell Jar in San Francisco. For more info. please go to the official Blog Out Loud site.

Our panel of bloggers is fabulous as is our gift bag {available to the first 20 guests} which is loaded with etsy treasures.

A summer evening blogger social event

Last week my favorite spot for letter press stationary and great little last minute gifts- Urbanic in Venice Beach, hosted a beautiful summer evening's cocktail party along with bloggers, 100 layer cake and Oh Hello Friend.

I love meeting other bloggers and hearing their stories along with their approach to this whole crazy thing we do. I gotta say this is one chill group, overall.

photo::Audrey Woolen

photo::Audrey Woolen

The hostess, blogger of Parcel Post and owner of Urbanic, Audrey Woolen

When you see their blogs, you're sort of amazed at how effortless this is to them all. Their sites are some of the most well designed I've seen.

This particular genre of bloggers were for the most part, photographers, graphic artists, creative art directors and designers.....

photo::Audrey Woolen

.....as is evident by the beautifully art directed branding that went into the night. {by Rachelle from Wiley Valentine} These gift bags, were Chock a Block with incredible little treasures from Etsy vendors.

When I got home and went through it, I was batting off my daughters who wanted every little vintage hair pin, cookie, greeting card etc that tumbled out.

the food was DELISH, catered by the newly opened Lemonade in Venice {for whom I predict great success}

And to finish the evening off,
Vanilla Bake Shop , contributed over 100 miniature cupcakes to the evening, YUM!

Thank you Audrey, Amanda and Danni for a fun summer soiree, I look forward to more!

Anna Spiro of Absolutely Beautiful Things, joins us on The Skirted Round Table

Don't miss this week's installation as the multi talented Anna Spiro of Absolutely Beautiful Things, speaks to us {in the most lyrical, sparkly accent ever} about her cheerful, modern style that always makes one full of joy. Her love of family and life is the evidence behind her successful blog. Not to be missed.....

The influence of the design blogger

Today I had the honor of being invited to partake in the Decorati and Schumacher panel: The Influence of the Design Blogger.

Moderated by ceo and Decorati founder, Shane Reilly, the event took place at the Schumacher showroom in the PDC as a part of Westweek. My fellow panelists and bloggers as seen here, Mark Cutler {Mark Cutler design}, myself, Shane Reilly, Timothy Corrigan {Decorati guest blogger} and Andrew Puschel {Schumacher}. The discussion was lively with great dialogue between the audience and panelists.

Topics from the audience included:

whether it's worthwhile for publicist to send bloggers press releases on their clients newest product? I said, great, but if it's a form letter, I'll probably pass right by it. Sending a personal email makes all the difference and has even created a few friendships along the way.

There seemed to be a slight bit of angst as to how one actually creates a blog. Not necessarily the hosting part but, the art direction and the building part of the blog? That's the beauty of blogging! It's all you. A personal reflection of you and your thoughts. No rules. I always tell people, forget about your header, forget about that back ground color, grab a template that appeals to you and start writing. The writing is the most important part. Or posting if you're image heavy. The look of your blog evolves.

need photo of the group chatting afterward *here*

The hour sped by quickly and afterward I chatted with a few people whom I had only "known" as readers or from their own blogs. It's always fun to meet everyone in person.

I was especially excited to see fellow bloggers Vanessa de Vargas of Turquoise, Rebecca Orlov of Apartment Therapy and Christian Mays of Maison21 {whom I knew only from our facebook banter and now for 'real'} and thank you to my dear friend Coleen of Coleen & Company for dropping by too.

If you are unfamiliar with decorati, take a minute to jump over there now. This is the preeminent global resource for interior designers and design enthusiasts. Consumers are able to browse and purchase trade-only products via the web. What's not to love about that? Brilliant.

BIG, BIG thanks to Ronda Carman , Decorati and Schumacher for including me in this pertinent and informative seminar.

'what I saw today'

more illustrated journal envy.

Sort of like the, beloved, sartorialist,

only without the 12 assistants, making the shot work.

here