Travel Tips – The Essential Toiletry List

I recently went on a 10 day vacation and, as usual, agonized over packing. I always struggle with packing enough but not too much, not to mention packing it efficiently. While on this trip, I developed a little list of the essential toiletries one needs to pack for a few nights away. Naturally, what you need to take with you all depends on where you're going. My list has the things least likely to be in your hotel room and that you most likely have personal preferences about. It's a jumping off point that works well for me. If you're venturing into the woods or sailing around the world, your list might be quite different. :)

So long Google Reader, Hello Bloglovin

I'm sure by now you've heard that Google Reader will be stopping service on July 1. If you're still looking for a new blog reader, I recommend giving bloglovin' a try. I've been using bloglovin' for over a year now and I couldn't be happier with it, both as a blogger and blog reader. Years and years ago I tried to use delicious to bookmark blogs I liked but it never really worked for me for obvious reasons. What I really like about bloglovin is that I can organize all the blogs I follow into categories. So, if I feel like reading food blogs, I can go right to that category. Or if I need to catch up on fashion or sewing, I can go to those categories. I really love the clean interface and that I can easily track my own follower stats.

Go here for a tutorial on transferring your google rss feed to bloglovin. It's really easy. I did it myself. You can follow me on bloglovin' here. Thank you!! I love all my followers. :) :) :)

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Spring Wardrobe Planning Part 2

How to plan a Spring Wardrobe Part 2 is all about decision making. In Part 1 you came up with some great ideas and now it's time to put it into action. Truth be told, this part was not easy for me. There's so much I want to make but I want this collection of things to all go together, so I had to pare down my ideas quite a bit. Take that stack of fabric up there for instance. I'm only going to use four or five of those fabrics. The others are ones I love but will just save for later. Let's get started.

Spring Wardrobe Planning Part 1

Last week I shared some inspiration for my new spring wardrobe. I have some ideas of the style I want and some of the items. Now it's time to get to work and start planning. It's one thing to make a single garment but it's an entirely different endeavor to plan a group of garments that you'll want to mix and match with each other and with the rest of your wardrobe. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to show you the steps involved in planning a new wardrobe and give you some insight into the design decisions that go into the creation process. Let's get started!

13 Tips for How to Use Pinterest and Gain Followers

I started on Pinterest about 2 years ago when it was still in beta form. I immediately connected with the visual quality of the site because after all, I'm a visual designer. It's totally my thing. Since then, the popularity of Pinterest has exploded. The combination of unending eye candy and organization seems to be addictive for everyone.

Over time I've learned a few things about Pinterest. So here are my tips for getting started, building your account and gaining followers.