365daygirl

Kennebunkport Dress for $62.99 at Modcloth

One of my new Twitter friends @Dinalisafraioli just introduced me to this lovely and stylish company @modcloth.

I fell instantly in love! You will too OMG! Here’s why:

Not only is their site a breeze to navigate but it gives you the same delightful pleasure of window shopping through fashionable city boulevard! What’s also the #awesomesauce about this online boutique is the innovative way their social media is managed: a quintet of lovely ladies called the “Social Butterflies” who all happily blog and tweet about the gorgeous goods they love.

They have sassy shoes that I’ve not seen anywhere else including a pair called Unicorn Princess. The dresses are to die for, including the one I’m drooling over at the top of the post. And what’s really awesome is how wonderfully affordable EVERYTHING they carry is!

Check them out!

And make sure to follow me on Twitter for more fashion goodness and tweet me your favorite fashion finds!

Keeping It REALLY real online and off :)

photo credit: Adam Foster | Codefor

Fashion, my dears is not just about wearing clothes. It’s a whole lot more.

Everyday you get dressed you are affecting how well you get stuff done in the world, what you are saying about yourself, and showing others how much of a truly interesting person you are. Let me explain:

1) The Function of The Fabric
Of course clothing first has it’s function: Swimming suits for swimming, windbreakers for keeping out the chill, and hats to keep the sun out of your face on a bright day. Since the human animal gave up most of it’s protective furriness a long time ago it needed to layer itself in the skins of the critters it hunted instead. Eons later we’re still gallivanting across the world doing a number of things in a number of climates and environments if not so much hunting. However it’s not all about covering our bits from the elements. The clothing we choose to wear day to day must not only protect us but also enhance our movements, activities, and even the roles we perform right? Ballerina’s don’t leap elegantly in jeans. Eskimo’s don’t hunt in their skivvies. Navy seals aren’t stealth in orange tulle.

Same goes for you whether you are a receptionist, stripper, or housewife. The first order of the day when you get dressed is – “will I be able to [chase after a two year old in these shoes?] [walk down to the file room in this skirt?] [grip that pole with this feather boa on?]“. Usually this is all automatic and subconscious, which brings me to the next point:

2) Communicating Your Message
Your clothing is talking about you. Are you doing a good job of putting words in it’s mouth? Or are you just letting your outfit babble on about you to everyone who lays eyes on you?

When you are a single girl and on the market you want to show some leg, a little (or a lot) of cleavage, and accentuate as much of your bodacious feminine bits as possible. You don’t dress in a suite and tie and you don’t wear a ring on your left hand. Why? Because it’s sooooo much easier to let your clothes speak for you instead of shouting out to the streets “ATTENTION MEN! I’M A HOT, SINGLE WOMAN! COME TALK TO ME!”. You also know that men are visual creatures and are looking for the female in her most feminine form.

Conversely when you return to the office the next morning your best professional bet is to tuck that man magnetizing cleavage away and lengthen that skirt for decidedly less leg. Otherwise instead of seriously discussing that business deal with you your male co-workers brains will be scrambled with sexy static as they stare at your halter top.

What you wear is going to say things about you even when you just want to stay mum and get your work done. So get the message right. Then you may ask: “What do I want my clothes to say about ME anyway?”. Well how awesome you are for a start, which leads us to the final point:

3) Expressing Yourself!
This is where you can leave the obsession to follow trends behind – You don’t have to keep up with the mad dash of who’s-wearing-what-now. Why not? Because YOU are your own person! YOU have your own style. I like to call it “signature style” since it’s how you stylishly leave your mark on the world. Sometimes people won’t remember your name, or what you said, but their vision of your style and charm will be emblazoned on their memory if you are genuinely dressing for yourself.

You get to be you and expressing that with fashion is genuinely fun and satisfying way to show the world. What this means is wearing your favorite colors, shapes, patterns, where you want and when you want in a stylish way. Cause you know your body and what makes it look great. It’s you showing off your sexy arms in tank tops while your best friend accentuates her long legs in shorts. Looking and feeling blithely fabulous in high heels when the IT shoe is ballet flats. Or vice versa! Whatever YOUR style happens to be.

So, what are you wearing today?
Why?
What does today’s outfit say about you?

Leave your fashionable comment!

Also feel free to follow me on Twitter (@365daygirl) for more fashion fun! :)

-Apryl keepin it really Real :)

photo credit: dollie_mixtures

Today I am on a roll!

You want to instantly plug in awesome photos like this one? Check out Photo Dropper!. This fantastic wordpress plugin lets you grab Creative Commons photos right from your dashboard and sizes it and puts all the lovely code in for you.

Ah…blogging hacks…so wonderful.

Shop Style is a really fun site for fashion and beauty. This is a look I created after browsing through real world magazine Marie Claire based on the early spring trend of mixing structured military styles with whimsically feminine tulle and sheers.

If you love the idea of this look you can check out online retailers through shopstyle. Or you can check out your local vintage boutiques ;) Look for:

• a fitted military jacket
• a midlength to short tulle or mesh skirt
• in light spring neutrals and pastels: beiges, cream, sage, dusty pink

Then dress yourself up for a look that is sweet and tough!

Where would you wear this? It’s a great daytime look that would be just lovely for a date on the weekend, but would definitely hold it’s own at the office. Just be conscious of skirt length.

Happy Fashion Friday!

Like the buttons? Aren’t they cute? And they are all in one lovely little bunch. I picked them up at buttonshut.com so go on over there and grab some for yourself. There is a lovely selection to choose from.

Btw, this is random but I just added a few words to the Urban Dictionary – you might get a kick out of the definitions. I was inspired after I UD’d my own name…turns out I’m lovely, hot, AND possibly an evil genius! Nice!

Anyway, I just spent about an hour and 1/2 modifying my page – adding shtuff, gettin rid of shtuff. I may change my theme again in the future cause this one is already startin to feel old but that will have to come at a time when…you know…I have “some”. That is “time” that isn’t already assigned for work and shit.

The modifications were to make my website more of a hub – where you can find all the goodies that involve 365daygirl. Well not all of it…they don’t make nearly enough buttons for ALL the stuff I do. But I can always add links right?

Okay, so with this page, and my web presence reasonably situated I will probably be focusing my content on more real stuff and genuinely sharing my story about why I’m doing this all in the first place. It’s been an interesting, almost sobering couple of weeks. The challenge of putting up all manner of content led me to a point of exhaustion. So now I’m trying to re-focus and re-build my energies.

In other news, I finally “get” Twitter! It isn’t the total waste of time I thought it was! lol.

Okay, back to work.

I have a sinus infection…again! But thanks to facebook one of my very informed and well meaning friends just told me about a product I can use to kick this infection to the curb. Here’s the process:

1. I tweet about my misery via my facebook and twitter account
2. Friends leave well wishing comments and condolences
3. One friend in particular recommends a product she’s had awesome experience
4. I jump on Google to find the product, read ingredients, instructions, other customer reviews, and get a price.
5. I search engine where to find it in the REAL world.

while I was checking out all the specs for this amazing nasal flushing product I read one of the best reviews ever. I mean, this guy was fantastic! Funny, lyrical, illustrative…just a joy to read. He even wrote a haiku about an instant brownie mix! Freakin awesome.

God I love the Internet.

So, this hot guy is Curtis. Curtis Mock, Guru in the Business of Fitness (Summer, bookmark his site! You’re hot personal trainer boyfriend could learn a LOT from this guy). I am using him, or rather the “brand” of him as an example of awesome social media “practice”. It is an art form and a science, one of which every business owner and professional today is wise to put into habit. Get that? TODAY. Not yesterday, like your good ole dad’s day of cold calling.

Apart from his rockstar “personal brand” Curtis is real and genuine about interacting with his audience, his fellow business colleagues, and I’m sure his clients. Do you notice how his authentic concern for YOUR success effortlessly comes through? You just want to eat this guy up don’t you? He’s informative, takes time to explain something, and he’s damn funny to watch and listen to. He shares his realness, his story, and his desire to help YOU be awesome. You WANT to leave a comment because he wants to read it! He wants you to share YOUR story. You WANT to ask him a question – cause you see him answer others questions. He is actually taking the time and interest to “interface” with you via the media at all our fingertips.

I don’t know how many times I’ve been on a blog and wanted to be part of the discussion, be heard and answered and then get nothin. Or even a youtube video. The “I don’t have time to respond” is not an excuse if you want to build a business or be a personality on the web. In fact it’s total bullshit. Social media is there to facilitate conversation and hopefully start the foundation of a relationship, be it friend or business partner (actually it’s usually both!). The beauty of it is you can use it to reach customers, business partners, and real friends, across miles and miles of land.

Curtis does not live anywhere near me, which could have been considered unfortunate a little while ago (and perhaps a little now since I can’t like pat his butt or anything physically flirty *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*). But thanks to the internet I get the pleasure of both receiving his awesomeness as well as sharing my own in the form of actual real communication. This is both because we are awesome at employing these tools and networks.

He is a perfect example of why it pays to jump into this whole social media ocean. In in we will either sink or swim. For those who have said there are not real connections to be made in this day and age, in business or personal, I say you are letting yourself sink. For the rest of us, we are happily learning how to dog paddle ;)

Exhibit A: amusing spam comment this very blog! Click on the photo for the full size.

Click play on the video below to “lemme esplain”:

Meanwhile in other social media adventures….
my facebook and unused @catthegirlguru twitter profile was gettin spammed by my auto news tweets. *sigh* I turned them sh*ts off for now… They were putting like stock quotes on my facebook…*sigh* that’s not very friendly.

I am really enjoying twitter now! Thanks in part to this chick and @silran666 aka “The Magical Mexican”. We are going to have a pow wow at her lovely little cookie shop next week! I’m so excited!

-Happy real life and web-ness!
Aprylcat

Numbers…data…numbers…letters…comments…posts…tags…spam…tweets…email…letters…numbers…Oh. My. God! There’s that fried brain feeling again :P

So I’ve been learning a ton about social media, personal branding, even tweeting! It’s fantastic! But…still a lot of work.

My flickr account has fallen by the wayside recently as I answer emails and make comments, upload my videos on youtube for 5 hours, record videos for my dragon boss and my “working projects”, and sleep.

And then today, I check my blog and lo and behold I’ve got 83 new comments! 90% of which are total gibberish. Into the trash with you! Perhaps there is a better spam filter out there but I don’t know where to find it. Recommendations?

It’s been AWESOME talking with REAL people on the web. Especially women on the web. Right here in town too! Such as Summer and Stacy and @Ghennipher and Tami. As well as getting questions about my 365daygirl adventures from real folks in interent biz.

Meanwhile the Magical Mexican and the Russian Photo Babe are still super fans and keep poking me to see if I am okay and still producing content for them to ingest ;) Love you guys!

I’m curious, how do ya’ll keep up with all this stuff? I’d love to hear your blogging/posting/tweeting/vlogging/facebooking strategies and how you keep it all in check with your real work!

-Aprylcat

“I heard someone once say that we’re only as sick as our secrets.” -Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking

I have begun reading about Carrie Fisher’s crazy up and down life with delighted interest. After watching all the youtube videos of her I could find starting with the one below, and then reading a slew of articles and interviews I boogied on over to the library for a copy of her totally candid live-and-in-wacky-first-person autobiography Wishful Drinking.

My mother, whom I currently chaperon asks innocently “do you think you are bipolar?” then,
“all the people I’ve heard about being bipolar are really hard to live with.”

She’s so wonderful and seems blithely forgetful of the often emotionally torturous years her and my father have survived in raising me. That or she took a good measure of peace in her office miles away while I raged home alone with my brother. No matter, she has always taken my intensity in stride…as best she can anyway.

Alright…gotta get back to the book. Here’s that vid I was talkin about an excerpt from the amazing documentary hosted by Stephen Fry “The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive”:

By the way, did you notice how I totally posted this out of sequence? Yeah, it’s been a weird…project.