Stylin' à La Fleur

not happy with Google right now

Why does Google have to be so mean? With the demise of Google Reader in a few months I have been looking into alternate options. So far The Old Reader and Bloglovin are the ones I like the best but I haven't made a decision of which one to go with. Many of my fellow costuming blogs seem to be going with Bloglin' though so I have registered my blog with them - you can follow my blog with Bloglovin here. For a good article on Google Reader alternatives check out Cratfy Cupboard. I found via Elegant Musings and found it really helpful!

patching & painting

I've been spending more time lately on Pinterest - what a great resource! I've been trying to limit myself to sewing and costuming (although I'm finding myself slipping into food and crafts too) but I'm been pleasantly surprised at how much good (cited and documented!) stuff there is. What has really surprised me is how many tutorials, how-tos and general info can be found there. And I thought it was just for inspiration boards and pretty pictures.

Through all this I just realized that my website is totally unfriendly to Pinterest. All those lovely thumbnails that are the foundation to my spiffy and fast-loading site? Un-pinable. So some revamping is needed to bring my site into the new age of linking and tutorial resource finding. I've already started on the précises, the dress diaries will be next then the study pages.

Maybe it's time to do a complete overhaul of the site, which as painful as it is for me to admit is a bit of a dinosaur. I've even considered switching it to a blogger or wordpress platform. 'Cause I have so much time on my hands right now. *rolls eyes* Perhaps I will just continue to patch thing and wait for the next big change in internet interaction to re-package my content.

*ponders*

What do you think - do you find my website un-wieldy or un-pleasant to troll through? Should my blog and site be more interlinked or is it okay the way it is? For those of you who have switched from a static website to blog format, do you like it, was it worth the effort? (I'm looking at you Jen and Sarah)

keeping myself busy

Thanks for all your support on my hiatus. I'm feeling much better about things and actually WANT to blog now - a sure sign it's time to come back! So what have I been up to while I was gone? Not much of interest, apart from getting a new look. I've been "Red" for a month now and I love it! I probably won't keep it forever (so much upkeep!) but for now I'm loving it.

Costume College officially starts today and I'm not with all my peeps this year, which is making me incredibly sad. This sucks!

Luckily there is a lot going on around here to keep me busy and I've set aside a big chunk of my weekend to do some actual sewing (something I haven't really been doing since the ETD in April). I have lots of projects to choose from, starting with some boring but neccesary mending and pending projects box clearing out, but I started yesterday by cleaning my room from top to bottom and re-arranging my bedroom/sewing room. I'm hoping my sewing muse would re-appear with the dusting and the moving of furniture, I have missed her!

a little hiatus

I'm going to be taking a little hiatus from this blog and costuming for a while. I'm okay, just feeling a bit overwhelmed with life in general and my online/sewing life in particular. So I need a break, some time to reflect, and get a better perspective on some things. Then I'll be back. See you on the flip side...

Wearing History Giveaway

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What is better than a lovely new Edwardian blouse pattern being available? Getting it for free!

Info on the giveaway can be found here, while more info about the pattern can be found here.

I love that Wearing History is branching out into the Edwardian period now; there just aren't enough good patterns from that era out!

back to normal & a funny

I'm just about done with the process of stitching over my website to the new host. It took so long due to operator errors, I kept forgetting steps in the set up - can you tell I haven't done this in a while?

Anyway all my emails are up and running once again, as is my website. I'm just now finishing up the site up-loading process (geez I have a lot of files on my site!). So my internet presence is pretty much back to normal - yay!

In lieu of an interesting post and actual costuming content (because real life continues to kick my butt so there is nothing to talk about) I offer a funny... it made me laugh anyway. :>

1914 - an excellent example of what not to wear or how important it is to dress for your body type. I couldn't help it I laughed out loud when I found this! Poor thing, she obviously thinks she is hot stuff.

bad blogger

*hangs head in shame*

Yes I know I have dreadfully neglected this blog lately but well life has not been horribly friendly lately and while I've been dealing with illness, poison oak and other dramas plus everyday life not much has been going on in the costuming department. And so nothing to blog about. *sigh*

I feel like I'm getting my feet back under me though and am finally getting back to some fun sewing. The break was nice in some ways but I really have missed it. Costuming is my happy place...

I do have a new toy for costuming events though - an SRL camera! I came home from Costume College determined to move on from a point and click - my little p&c is fine but very limiting and I found myself using the SRLs of my costuming buddies more than my own camera throughout the weekend. So I took the plunge into SRL land.

So far I'm really happy with it (it even takes video!) although at some point I'll need to get another lens for better low-lighting shots. I'm really excited to learn more and lucky for me one of my best friends is a professional photographer who wants to learn how to sew. So we are trading photography lessons for sewing lessons - bartering rocks! :>

blog FYI

I know this won't really rock your world but FYI - I decided to ditch Disqus as my comment widget - I just wasn’t happy with it.

I couldn't figure out how to export the comments to Blogger before I deleted it so those comments are off in the ether somewhere. There weren't too many and I have email copies of everything though so no big really. Ahh back to plain old Blogger-land now

maintenance work

In other news...

I've added a widget to this blog so commenting can be in "thread" form (provided by Disqus). I'm not sure how I like it yet, what do you think?

I've also finished updating my website - everything should be up to date now, including mention and links to this blog! I'm still working on consolidating and making consistent all my little corners of the 'net but that will have to wait until after the mad rush of CosCol prep... :>

the vast well of blogland

So LJ is down yet again today. As I scramble to the universal blogland for refuge, inspriation and updates from friends I can't help but wonder whom I'm missing on my blogroll.

The "follower" feature has helped me find some friendly faces but with so many blog providers and unconnected ways to view blogs (like my favorite Google Reader) it's easy to miss old friends and great blogs.

Friendly faces from LJ:
demode: Démodé
jenthompson: Festive Attyre
fancyfrocks: Wearing History
isabelladangelo
koshka_the_cat: The Fashionable Past
bauhausfrau: Loren's Closet
modehistorique
silkfrocks
padawansguide: Maggie's Costumes
madamemodiste
sarahlizzie
isiswardrobe: Isis Wardrobe
chloeandrudy: Time Traveling
lmcbeth
joysdaughter: Sister Suzi
stitcher baby
Katie Jacobs
idlewild_grey
quincy134
Costume Diva
bellamissella
ithilwyn

Who am I missing? I've found lots of other great blogs for my Google Reader but I can't help but wonder if I'm missing any great ones. What are you favorites, what other blogs should I be following?

Blogging vs Journaling

Lots of great new costuming blogs have been created today. Why? I think the timing is all about the online blogging discussion started at the Williamsburg Symposium and because Katherine did it. She is a pioneering rockstar after all. :> All the privacy issues with LJ last year and a large bailing to Dreamwith probably haven't helped either.

I'm most definitely not leaving LJ. However I firmly believe blogging is the wave of the future in the costuming world, just as forums were more or less replaced with online journals/dress diaries. I think LJ still has a place (it still provides the best format for commenting, discussion, conversation, networking and relationship building) But there are advantages to the blog format too. It especially good for keeping an online record of costumes, especially as people move away from time consuming static websites. I think there is room for both, at least that is my hope.

the wave of the future

Blogging - it's the wave of the future isn't it? Well at least in the costume community it seems. I love my little sandbox on Live Journal but I was starting to feel a little left out over there so here I am.

I'm still exploring how best to use this little slice of the blogging world. No fear though, my LJ isn't going away anytime soon (ever if I can help it!) nor is my website. I'm a firm believer in the free-flow of costuming information - I just need to figure out exactly how best to all these different tools...