an aggregate of all things Johnson

Hello. I am back from the wild world of Alt Summit! It was an inspiring, informative, exciting experience… but if I am being 100% honest, it was also exhausting, intimidating, and overwhelming. A lot to absorb in a short amount of time. I am so glad to have gone, but also quite glad to be back home.

Alt Summit is about inspiration, design, and online business advice. I attended quite a few informative sessions, on topics like “The Business of Blogging,” “Growing Your Audience,” and “Blogging Ethics and Etiquette.” Since I’ve attended similar conferences in the past, some of the content felt repetitive to me, but it was a thrill to hear the big names (like Heather from Dooce, Maggie from Mighty Girl, Ben from Pinterest, and Kal from [i]LoveLife) speak about their experiences of growing their sites and businesses.

I LOVED the keynote talk from Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen is the author of The Happiness Project, which I now feel even more compelled to read. Her talk reminded me that to be happy, you have to be honest with yourself about your true interests and passions, and it can be painful to let go of the person that you wish you were.

A few of my favorite quotes from Gretchen Rubin:

• “You can only build a happy life on YOUR interests, YOUR nature, and YOUR values.”
• “Technology is a good servant, but a bad master.”
• “Preserve open space to think. (And don’t feel guilty about it!)”
• “The days are long, but the years are short.”

To put it simply, she gave me permission to do the things that I need to do for my own happiness without feeling guilty, because being happier will make me a more productive and helpful person in the world.

As a design conference, Alt offered lots of new ideas. The business cards that many of the attendees bring to exchange are like little works of art.

Some business card trends I observed: foil embossing, deep letterpress printing on very thick stock, DIY embellishments, like washi tape, and square formats.

My favorite business cards of the ones I collected:

Michelle Edgemont | You + Me Design | Making it lovely (one of my all-time fave blogs) | Ginny Branch | Deb Averett (an internet friend) | Fleurish Events | Elizabeth Giorgi | A Girl Who Makes (Laura is a high school friend who I ran into at Alt!) | The Salty Pineapple | Turquoise Ink | The Jealous Curator | Little Bird Soda Co. | Link with Love | I Still Love You (another of my fave blogs) | Armelle (with a QR code on a tiny pack of gum) | The Cuisinerd

Since Alt is a conference for people (mostly women) interested in the online worlds of style, photography, design, and fashion, you can probably imagine how fashionable the attendees are. The outfits at Alt really were impressive.

Some fashion trends I observed: nerdy glasses, big necklaces, long, straight bangs, top knot buns, color!, stripes, red jeans, red tights, leopard print shoes, neon belts, pattern on pattern, floor-length skirts, sequins, and scarves. For men: bowties.

I did not feel quite up to par fashion-wise, but I tried. Here are a few of my outfits:

Yes, I went with the silver dress for the all-white-attire Winter Wonderland party. Thank you all for voting in my poll! (The big, blue bag was a gift from one of the Alt Summit sponsors, Epiphanie Bags. I actually love it!)

My favorite parts of the conference were the mini parties on Friday night. Different sponsors took over suites in the Grand America hotel and put on parties based around fun themes. There was delicious food and drink, party favors, and lots of confetti. I even forced myself to be brave and tried out one of the many photo booths solo.

Although the Alt Summit was a good experience, my favorite part of the entire trip was just getting to explore Salt Lake City. Seeing the mountains and the snow and staying in the lovely Grand America hotel was all very refreshing. I ordered room service, had a bubble bath, read good fiction late into the evening, and basically enjoyed spending some time alone.

I am not going to recap it all in full now, but I loved traveling to Park City to check out the Sundance Film Festival scene. I even got to see one of the films, West of Memphis, which was an excellent, heartbreaking documentary that I highly recommend. Completely unknowingly, I ran into a crazy-cool Banksy mural and I stumbled upon one of my favorite authors, Margaret Atwood, signing books and I picked up The Blind Assassin. On Saturday night, I struck out on my own, in the snow, to go see the Mormon Temple Square. It was impressive and spooky and wonderful. I had a grand adventure in Utah!

For more links from the conference, check out my “link love” round-up on the Swap-bot blog.

For more inspiration, view the Alt Summit 2012 Flickr Stream or search #altsummit on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. My favorite links from BlogHer
2. getting ready for Alt…
3. thoughts on building communities

Picking my favorite Golden Globe fashions is something of an annual tradition of mine. (My picks from last year.) I didn’t even watch the full ceremony this year, but I managed to catch up on the fashion online. It is amazing how fast they get the photos up after the red carpet!

My very favorite was Claire Danes’ J. Mendel gown. It was a little weird and futuristic, but I thought it was a perfect, sophisticated choice for her third award win. I also liked the dresses worn by Heidi Klum, Helen Mirren, Amy Pohler, and Laura Dern.

The fact that I am choosing older women as my faves must say something about me… hmmmm… I really appreciate it when the women look fantastic without going the overtly sexy route. I think it is more difficult to pull off an elegant and unique look than it is to just show cleavage. (Michelle Williams also did it adorably.)

I usually love courageous and weird dress picks, but I didn’t love Angelina Jolie’s asymmetrical Atelier Versace dress. I think I may just not like red.

Who wore your favorite Golden Globes look?

Related posts:

1. best dressed
2. golden globe gowns
3. Golden Globe fashion picks

I work from home. I have been doing it full time for over two years. I know that many home workers recommend setting a strict schedule, waking up early, showering, and getting dressed and prepared the same as you would for an office job. I choose to do the opposite.

One of the luxuries of working for yourself is setting your own schedule, so I do. I wake up a little after Travis, do some house chores, then get right to the computer and start working. I don’t get dressed up in business clothes in order to sit at my computer all day alone. I am usually wearing workout clothes or jeans. Due to this very lenient dress code and my year-long marathon training adventure, the majority of my recent clothing budget has been spent at Lululemon.

I am fine with my casual wardrobe. It means I don’t have to do a lot of ironing or spend a bunch on dry cleaning. But this fall things may need to change a bit. I have a number of professional events coming up that will require some nicer outfits. Because I dress professionally so infrequently, it wouldn’t be smart to invest in trends. I need just a few quality, basic pieces that I can pack for conferences or wear to networking events.

One of my goals is to look like Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) from Covert Affairs. I’ve only seen two episode of the show, but she always looks professional, yet hip and pretty. Plus, as far as celebrities go, I think Perabo is a reasonable equivalent to my coloring and (goal) body shape.

These photos of her aren’t very impressive (they are all I could find online), but her outfits are always basic, but with just a tiny bit of style (like a colored blouse or belt, or cool jacket) and great shoes. Annie Walker was my inspiration for this set of J.Crew basics I wrote about for Ace recently:

Very plain, but slightly updated with the cropped trousers and silk blouse. I think I could pull off any of these pieces and mix and match them with what I already have in endless ways. Practical!

A huge trend for fall is leopard print. I am usually not an animal print girl, but I am trying to be open minded. I put together this collection of possible leopard accent items for a post on Ace:

So, as you can see, I have been doing my research, and last weekend, I put it to the test. Travis kindly accompanied me on a shopping trip with the goal of getting a few nice outfits that I could wear to the upcoming BlogHer Handmade conference. I focused most of my shopping energy on J.Crew and I found a few key pieces that I absolutely love!

The NY Times style section listed their five things you need for fall. Here are my suggestions:

• High-waisted skinny jean – These jeans sound like the most unflatterning thing ever — skinny & high wasted? sounds terrible — and I never would have bought them if I hadn’t tried them on and been blown away. My legs look nothing like the girl in this photo, but these jeans are amazingly flattering and comfortable! They look great with a tucked in shirt and heels. I am pretty sure I am going to be wearing them every day, plus they can be dressed up for casual business attire.
• Café capri in wool – These were the pants that I set out originally to get. I was not sure if they would be flattering on me, but I was thrilled when they looked great and I didn’t even have to go up a size! These pants end at the ankle, so they are great for showing off cute shoes.
• Blythe blouse in silk – Everywhere you look this season you’ll find silk blouses, and there is no way anyone could go wrong with a classic white one. I love this shirt. So pretty and it goes with everything. I love it tucked into the jeans, with a jacket, or under a sweater. I think I should have bought multiple, but I’m just not that smart.
• Pia calf hair pumps – I went a little out of my mind and bought these leopard pumps. They are way outside my comfort zone, style-wise, but they just look so fantastic! Great with jeans and skirts and trousers. Since my entire wardrobe is so basic, these pumps are my one item of flair!
• Skinny leather belt – Belting at the waist is still right on trend. Lady-like silhouettes are in for fall and a nipped in waist helps achieve the look. More adventurous dressers will go with a flashier style, but I am sticking to a basic brown belt with everything.

Such basic pieces, but I am a basic girl. I’ll add some flair with some jewelry or a jacket and pair the pants with tops I already own. Lady-like and refined is the goal.

What are your suggestions or top picks for your fall wardrobe?

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FYI: I know that I am a bore for sticking with J.Crew, but it is just so easy! If you visit the Soho store, ask for Caitlin. She is one of the personal shoppers there and she is amazing. She helped me with sizes and was the one who suggested the high wasted jeans. I never considered myself as someone who would utilize a personal shopper, but she was very helpful (and her services are free).

Related posts:

1. fall is here
2. new j.crew
3. Fall Wish-List 2005

Egads! I got Gwyneth Paltrow’s most recent GOOP newsletter today and it basically melted my brain. It was one of her fashion spreads and I can’t help but want everything she wears in it. Every $800 thing. Ugh. Most of all, I am going bonkers over this Isabel Marant jewelry.

…although, when I finally mustered up my courage to go into the Isabel Marant boutique in Soho, all that was waiting for me were fancy sweat pants, weird vests, and mesh tank tops, so I am not going to vouch for the entire brand…

Related posts:

1. fall is here
2. another thing i am eyeing…
3. obsess much?

A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away) when I first started this blog, I had wanted it to focus loosely on fashion. I wasn’t very successful at staying focused and this site has pretty much morphed into covering my wide range of interests and my daily personal life. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be 100% focused on a single topic, but I do still enjoy fashion… which is why I was really excited to attend Lucky Magazine’s Fashion and Beauty Blogging Conference yesterday.

I was nervous that I wouldn’t fit in with the super-stylish crowd and that the info at the conference might not help with my more general online endeavors, but the event was actually a lot of fun and very interesting.

Brandon Holley, the new editor in chief of Lucky, did an exceptional job hosting. She was funny and relaxed and even came up and chatted with me during breakfast. (wow!) The panels were each interesting (I liked hearing from Tory Burch and Joan Rivers the best. Sadly, I had to leave before Jenna Lyons, J.Crew’s Creative Director, spoke.) and they even served delicious ‘wichcraft for lunch! To top it off, we got to take home a generous gift bag! I will definitely be keeping my eye out for their next conference, which is supposed to happen in September.

Here is a list of some of the new sites and people I discovered at the conference:

• Stylish Year – Amy Allen creates and photographs a new outfit every single day for a year.
• What I Wore – Another daily outfit blog.
• The Man Repeller – A super-funny blog showcasing fashion that women love, but men hate.
• Mrs. O – All about Michelle Obama’s style.
• @OscarPRGirl – The Twitter account of the Erika Bearman, who is beautiful enough to be a model, but instead does PR for Oscar de la Renta. (She was wearing an extremely classy sweater with a fur trim collar at the conference.)
• Svpply.com – A community curated online store… sort of.
• Fashism.com – A social shopping site that helps you get fashion advice from other users.
• Style Trek -eCommerce site for emerging designers.
• The Budget Fashionista
• Blogdorf Goodman
• Sea of Shoes
• All the Pretty Birds
• Decade Diary

I am sure that I am missing some good links… but that is a start. What are some of your favorite fashion blogs and sites?

I didn’t take the best photos, but you can find them all in my Flickr set.

Related posts:

1. My favorite links from BlogHer
2. fashion & craft
3. Lucky Magazine – January 2010