What's going on with Lazy Lady

An old Project 365 photo.

I had a comic book post scheduled for today, but I didn't feel inspired to write it. So, I thought I'd just do a stream of conscious blog post about things I've been thinking about for Lazy Lady. I hope you will indulge me.

First, you may have noticed a lack of Project 365 posts here lately. That's because I am abandoning the project. I started out loving it and challenging myself, and then I grew to resent the fact that I "had" to do it. Then, I realized I don't have to do anything I don't want to; it's my blog and I make the rules. I don't want Lazy Lady to feel like a chore. I know it will, at times, feel that way. The whole point of this blog is to make myself not be so lazy, after all; but, if I find a series or aspect of the blog to bring me no joy, then I'm going to cut it.

Speaking of the reason for Lazy Lady, I've been thinking I need to get back to my roots. If you are a reader from my original WordPress blog, you might remember that it was more about the push to be productive. I really like the blog's series and posts these days, but I've been wondering if I should find a middle ground between the old and the new. Or maybe I need to rethink the "lazy" of blog? I'm not sure. As I've been planning out August's posts, I'm trying to work in more of the old school Lazy Lady into it. I feel like I need more focus for the blog.

Finally, I've been actually giving some thought as to what I want from this side project of mine. I'd love to make this blog my source of income, but it is not near that point yet. I'm not sure it will ever be. Heck, I'd love for it to just cover it's own costs (hosting fees, advertising on other blogs, boardgames, etc.). When I started the reboot, I made it a "for profit" blog, which means that I sell ad space on my blog and I joined affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are when you put links into your blog and if someone clicks on that link and then purchases something from that site, I get a (very tiny) commission. So far, in the 6 months since the relaunch, I've "made" less than $5 with affiliate links. I say "made" because you have to reach a base amount to even see that money in your pocket, and I haven't. I pride myself on never promoting businesses or products that I don't use myself or would buy myself. I've had affiliate offers from businesses that I would never use, so I turn them down. I really don't know how other bloggers make money, but I know it can be done. Maybe my content just isn't the right kind to use this kind of system.

These are things I'm constantly thinking about in the back of my head. However, money stuff aside, I still love reading comments from all of you. I love responding to them and checking out your blogs, if you share them. I love watching my readership grow and grow, which it does, ever month. That's what keeps me going. I may not be able to blog full time (a girl can dream, though), but just knowing that you are out there, reading this, and coming back for my posts, is enough for me.

New Orleans Blogger Brunch, round two!

Saturday was the second Blogger Brunch get together (you can read about the first here).

This time, Megan hosted our group and we had a couple of new faces this time around. Megan was an amazing host, with waffle and omelets stations set up for us. Once everyone made their food of choice, the champagne and conversations started flowing. It felt like everyone is working on new projects! 

Two of the new people at the brunch were just getting started in blogging, so they were very interested in asking about how to get started and for any tips the rest of us may have. This lead us down a road of WordPress vs. Squarespace debate, lol. It felt like the overall concensus was pro-Squarespace (heck yeah).

As the brunch went on, some people had to leave early to go to other projects or work. The rest of us sat around and had the idea of evolving these brunches into mini-seminars in which we could teach each other things that we are experts on. Such as design, SEO, social media, etc. We are a pretty diverse group of bloggers, so we all have something to contribute. I think this will be an amazing step forward with this group.

Everyone still seems to be really into this group and the connections made through it. I hope it keeps going strong in the future!

In attendance we had:

• Missy Wilkinson (Now Listen, Missy)
• Mallory Whitfield (Miss Malaprop)
• Juliet Meeks (Juliet Meeks Design Studio)
• Emilie Staat (Jill of All Genres)
• Lianna Patch (The English Maven)
• Megan Braden-Perry (MeganBradenPerry.com)
• Diana Gordon (Part Time Monster)
• Cali Traina (CaliTraina.com)
• Bryan Gottshall

The Gwynnie Bee Experiment

FROM GWYNNIEBEE.COM

I have been eyeing Gwynnie Bee for a while now. Like, over a year. Thinking about it, browsing the clothes that they have, wondering about how the whole thing worked in practice, not just on paper. Then I thought "I bet I'm not the only one out there wondering about this subscription service," and I decided to do a review for you all! (Not sponsored in any way).

First, let me tell you what Gwynnie Bee is, in case you don't know. Actually, I'm going to let Gwynnie Bee tell you what Gwynnie Bee is: 

"Gwynnie Bee is a monthly subscription clothing rental service for women sizes 10–32. It’s like having a department store as your personal closet—offering clothing for every occasion. Subscriptions include unlimited shipping and exchanges for a flat monthly fee. 
Gwynnie Bee caters to subscribers throughout the USA. Our inventory has more than 2,000 styles from over 150 brands (and growing!), with new arrivals every week. A Gwynnie Bee-infused wardrobe is a day-to-day opportunity to leave the house feeling like you’ve dressed the way you want people to see you. We help women discover, experience, and enjoy great clothes without limitations."

So, I signed up for the 30-day free trial to give Gwynnie Bee a try! The first thing you have to do is build a closet. As far as I could find, through the sites FAQs section, they won't even start shipping to you till you have the closet minimum (this varies, depending on which plan you get; for the trial, I am doing a 3-piece at a time plan, so my minimum is 8 pieces in my closet). This part is fun and frustrating. I was at work when I signed up, and so I had to just guess at my sizes since I am unfamiliar with a lot of the brands. I'm sure they are very nice brands, but I do the majority of my clothes shopping at Target, Old Navy and Trashy Diva (when there is a sale). I've never been much for brand names; just don't really care who I am wearing as long as I look and feel good (and my bank account feels good, too).

However frustrating it was to have to guess my size, it was still a lot of fun to go through the crazy amount of clothes to pick from on Gwynnie Bee. My closet is well over the minimum size, and I've been checking every week for new items.

This is my "closet" at the moment. I can't wait for my new package to arrive to see which items they shipped out!

Once you build your closet, they then select from the items in it and send you however many your subscription is for (you can subscribe for one item at a time or go all the way up to ten, the price goes up with the number of items). The shipping is usually about three days, for me anyway. My first box was full of my worst fear: nothing fit. I didn't do so hot on my size guessing. But everything was just a tad too small, so now I had a starting point to base my sizing on. 

i just returned these items, and, as you can see, i notified them immediately so i can get some new clothes!

One thing I really like is the "Return Notification." Once you return an item, another item is shipped out to you. You can expedite this process by letting them know you are returning something so they can get your next item out to you before the old stuff even makes it back! So when I had two dresses and a blouse that were one size too small, I hopped on the website and let them know that I was returning them (not before going through my closet and changing the sizes on EVERYTHING first). The next morning, I dropped the postage-paid return envelope off in the mail. Three days later, three new items arrived–all of them fit!

I'm using this experiment to also experiment with my fashion choices. I am not obligated to buy any of these clothes (although, if you fall in love with an item, you can totally buy it–a nice feature, I think), so why not see if I like rompers? Or let's see if I can pull off  a crazy print? I like that freedom of this subscription service.

To sum it all up, here are my Pros and Cons:
PROS: Great selection of clothes; awesome shipping and returns; if you want to buy an item, it is super discounted.
CONS: You don't get to pick which items from your closet you get shipped to you; the sizing can be confusing.
NEUTRAL: The pricing, for a subscription service, is a little out of my budget; however, if you look at it terms of what you get for the price then it is a great deal.

Do you want to try out Gwynnie Bee? Click here to give it a try!