Gimme An A! Gimme An L! Gimme A T! Blogging, Babes, Frivolity & Photobooths At Alt Summit!
[ 23 January 2012, 12:51 ]
Alt Summit was a blast. If you haven’t heard of it before, sit back & get settled because I’m about to tell you! Basically, Alt Summit is the most fun blog conference I’ve ever attended.
Held in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah, Alt Summit runs over three days. The first two days are dedicated to panels, keynotes & roundtable discussions, & the last day is devoted to design camps & hands-on skill learning.
The panels & discussions cover all kinds of topics, from the importance of personal branding to taxes for bloggers. You’ll learn about what makes a creative collaboration successful & you’ll hear about some new ways to grow your readership. You’ll discover how to create your own ad network, how to get a book published & learn all about blogger etiquette. It’s pretty fabulous.
It’s hard to explain what makes Alt so much fun, but I really think it’s due to the great attitudes of the attendees. It’s a major estrogen-fest — the only men there seemed to be husbands of women speaking! — but even so, there’s not that usual spirit of competition & stupid girl oneupmanship that so often comes along with a big group of women. (It makes for such a nice change!)
I met so many fantastic girls in my few days in Salt Lake City. It made my heart soar to laugh & talk with all these amazing women! Some of my favourites: 
The Girls With Glasses — Summer & Brooke have personality for days, they are SO great! Modern Kiddo — Dottie & Alix are hilarious! Designlovefest — Bri is about as real as it gets, I adored her Jasmine Star — Probably the best speaker I saw, & we share a mutual friend in Kat! Can’t wait to see them both in Vegas next month! Making It Lovely — Nicole is such a sweet girl! Design For Mankind — Erin is the Queen of Alt Summit, she knows everybody! I Still Love You — Melissa is an ex-breakdancing calligraphy genius! (Says it all, right?!)
Business cards are spilling out of my bright pink suitcase, too. I’m looking forward to digging through them all & adding some new finds to my RSS reader!
My favourite part of the three days was the mini-parties on Friday night. Alt Summit had control of an entire floor of the Grand America Hotel, with differently-themed parties in every room! It was so much fun, compounded (of course) by the fact that almost every one had a photobooth inside! Bloggers love a photobooth… The parties were so much fun, & gave us all a tremendous opportunity to make new friends. Love!
Gala & Jess; Brooke & Summer; Bri & Gala // Bri & Gala again; party girls!
Tips for Alt newbies!
I love, love, LOVED Alt Summit & I think you will too. Even though it’s primarily a conference for “design blogs” & their ilk, it’s great to get out of your own industry as much as you can. Don’t worry if you’re not a design blogger — I’m not, & I still had a fantastic time! So, if you’re planning on going along next year, here are some things I would encourage…
Set a couple of goals or intentions before you get there. I decided that my main priority was to be outgoing, friendly & positive. Sometimes — believe it or not — I can be a little shy, but I made an effort to be as open as possible, & benefitted hugely.
Conventions can be overwhelming & hard to deal with for even the most social of us, but if you walk around looking like you’re hating life, you’re not going to be able to extract maximum value from your time there. (Don’t worry, you can grimace all you like when you get back to your room!)
Take a break whenever you need to. I skipped a keynote in favour of going back to the hotel room for a little solitude, & I know I wasn’t the only one! I actually spoke to a girl who told me she had spent about an hour in a bathroom stall with her phone, just to get some space. Being around that many people in such an action-packed environment can be exhausting for even the peppiest socialite, so don’t pressure yourself to go to every panel, every keynote, every party. Pace yourself!
Split away from the pack. As much fun as it is to spend all your time with your best friends, you’ll miss out on a lot of interactions because a group is pretty impenetrable! Strike out on your own & talk to some new people. Embrace the unknown! WOO!
...Having said that, having one buddy that you can continually meet up with throughout the Summit is a great thing. It’s even better to have a roommate. I split a room with Jess & it was wonderful because we were able to go over our notes, make plans & talk about what we had both individually gained from the experience. (Um, as well as order room service together, go to Starbucks, hit up every vintage store in a 5 mile radius, etc.!)
Don’t worry so much about what you’re going to wear. Practically everyone I spoke to had had some kind of suitcase or packing anxiety prior to leaving, & really, it doesn’t matter. Bring a bit of sparkle for the parties at night, but during the day, just be your cute self. Most people aren’t really looking!
Definitely give some thought to your business cards, though! Alt Summit is like the business card holy grail. There were more than a few moments where it all felt very Patrick Bateman! (“Oh my god, it even has a watermark.”) I was given cards in vellum envelopes filled with confetti, that came with bracelets, that were all kinds of shapes, sizes & colours. It’s pretty fab. Make your card so brilliant that when people get home, they can’t help but want to check out your site!
Go to Decades! Decades is the best best best vintage clothing store in Salt Lake City, & I want to live there! It’s so fabulous. It also happens to be just around the corner from the Grand America Hotel, where the Summit itself is being held, so there are no excuses! Get thee to Decades!
Sign up for the dinners & design camp classes as soon as you hear about them. I didn’t know you had to do that (oops!) which meant I couldn’t go. From what I saw on Twitter, though, they were super-fun & action-packed!
Drink lots of water. DAMN, Salt Lake City is dry!
How could Alt Summit improve?
Make no mistake: Alt Summit is great, but we all want to get better, right? Just in case any of the Alt Summit organisers are reading this, here are some suggestions that I think would improve the conference in the future…
I think ALL conferences should have three “streams” of learning: sessions for beginners, sessions for intermediates & sessions for advanced people. Honestly, after 5 years doing this & having attended countless blog conferences, there’s not much that I haven’t heard before. I think this could be remedied by created different levels of learning. It’s hard to cater to 500 people, ranging from people who are just about to start a blog all the way up to dinosaur veterans!
I’d love to see more hands-on stuff that is blogging-specific. How about a panel which pulled up 5 blogs on a big screen, & then the panelists went through & critiqued the design, layout & content? That would be immediately helpful for EVERYONE in the audience. It’s actionable, it’s real.
Let’s start talking openly about numbers. I know that maybe sometimes we’re embarrassed to say how much we’re being paid for this or that, or to talk about how many hits we’re getting, but if we don’t share this information, the industry can’t grow. If we’re not sharing what we know, other women can’t ask for what they’re really worth! We need to empower one another through honesty.
Blatant honesty time: I have mostly given up on expecting to learn anything new when I attend a blog conference. Instead, I go for the social aspect, & the excitement of being able to discuss blogging with other people who are as passionate about it as I am. But this doesn’t have to be the way! With some good planning, ALL blog conferences could be a huge learning experience. My suggestion would be to pick speakers who’ve been blogging a long time, & aren’t afraid to be honest & transparent. It’s really important!
Of course, I have to say a huge thank you to the organisers of Alt Summit for inviting me to speak! I had an absolutely incredible time, & I’m already looking forward to next year!
Kisses & crystals & scented candles,
If you enjoyed this, check out: My recap of Blog World Expo — which also happened to be the first time Nubby & I went to Vegas together!, a write-up of the first time I spoke at Independent Fashion Bloggers’ Evolving Influence, an excerpt from Fashion 2.0: Blogging Your Way To The Front Row (well, MY chapter at least!), how to start a blog, more blogging questions, & these very silly photos from when Molly & I were in Austin for SXSWi!
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gala
Happy New Year!
[ 1 January 2012, 14:27 ]
Happy New Year! I hope you had a fantastic evening, whatever way you decided to celebrate. New York City was amazingly, unseasonably warm last night, which was a very auspicious beginning to the year!
We celebrated with a bunch of friends in Soho, drinking champagne & chilled tequila. It was lovely. I wore a sparkly silver strapless dress with a huge pink sash & bow by Betsey Johnson, stockings by Anna Sui & Matiko boots. Oh, & mouse ears, of course! Mike wore a great custom vest with his wedding tie (BLESS!) & a bowler hat. Snappy!
We walked home around 3am, talking & laughing all the way, before curling up with the dogs & dreaming our way into 2012… I can’t wait to see what it brings!
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[ 28 December 2011, 09:53 ]
Instax photos on the Champs-Élysées; a mirror portrait; bed-jumping in Paris; backstage at Betsey Johnson; trapeze classes; sharing a shake at Swingers in Los Angeles & making faces in Union Square!
As the year draws to a close, one of my favourite things to do is look back on everything that happened. Perhaps it’s my obsessive need to document & write everything down, but if you ask me, December just isn’t December without a good year in review post! (In fact, if you’re interested, you can read 2010: The Year In Review!)
As Coach Calhoun in Grease would say, 2011 was “a banner year”. In addition to my career soaring to new heights, I travelled like mad, made heaps of new friends, & best of all, I married the love of my life in a simple but beautiful ceremony overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. You can’t ask for much more than that…
2011 kicked off on a high note. I was on the cover of Canvas magazine in New Zealand, & featured in New Zealand’s current affairs programme, Sunday. (You can click here to watch the segment!) I walked in Betsey Johnson’s show at New York Fashion Week on Valentine’s Day — the perfect gift! It was the experience of a lifetime, & I will never forget it.
Shortly thereafter, I flew to Paris with Nubby where we had an incredible time, eating plenty of croissants & drinking extremely strong coffee! After a few days in Iceland (& enjoying their famous Blue Lagoon), we parted ways & headed home to our respective cities. I took up trapeze classes, & suddenly, it was spring!
I started meeting with a group of amazing women for Magical Tuesdays, which brought so much meaning & love to my life, & then before I knew it, I was heading back to Los Angeles for a few fabulous days with my best girlfriends. I wasn’t back in NYC long before Mike & I got engaged, & bought a 1951 Chevy Bel-Air! (It was a big day!)
I was suddenly thrust into wedding planning mania, but in the meantime, my best best best friend from New Zealand, Jennie, came to stay. We ran all over the city eating vegan ice-cream & laughing our heads off.
A month after we got engaged, we were married, surrounded by our friends & family. It was perfect. Two days later (!!!), I hopped a plane to Miami to meet another of my best best best friends, Jess! While we weren’t terribly smitten with the city itself, we still had a great time, because when we’re together, we could make anything fun… I came back to New York & had barely unpacked my bags before I was zipping up my notorious pink suitcase yet again!
Next stop: Chicago! Chloe & I went together & had an action-packed two days. It was fantastic, what a great city! I really can’t wait to go back.
Angel came to visit us in NYC, & later that week, with the threat of a devastating hurricane bearing down on NYC, I ended up catching an early plane to Los Angeles. I was due to go to New Zealand for New Zealand Fashion Week & some sightseeing, thanks to Tourism NZ, & I was afraid that if I didn’t leave NYC early, I wouldn’t be able to leave at all! Thank god I did, because as my flight was hovering over LAX, a flight attendant told me all flights after ours had been grounded indefinitely…
Milkshakes & sunshine in Miami with Jess; the Bean & Chloe in Chicago; love times with Angel; avec mon homme at a motorcycle show; with Kat in Los Angeles; staying warm with Jennie & Helen; post-birthday photos with Nubby!
Los Angeles was a blast, as always. I saw Jazzi & Jake (visiting from Minneapolis), & even got to have dinner with Kat & Gareth from Rock N Roll Bride! After a few too many excursions to In-N-Out Burger & a whirlwind trip to Shareen Vintage, I was on my way to New Zealand for another adventure! I visited Auckland, Wellington, Nelson & Christchurch, fed lions & giraffes, & experienced the utter beauty of some of the country’s national parks. Also when I was in New Zealand, I spoke at two schools — St Margaret’s College in Christchurch & Samuel Marsden Collegiate (my old high school) — & discovered a brand new passion!
Photos from Wellington, including my father, my mother, Jennie & Helen
When I came back to NYC, it was my birthday! I was so lucky to have so many people in town for it — Nubby, Jazzi, Shae & Adam all happened to be there on that date! — & Nubby & I threw a rad, low-key party at a favourite bar. It was our favourite birthday party yet.
At the end of September, I got on another plane to Barcelona, to be part of an MNG for MANGO campaign. While I was only in Barcelona for about four days, I had a wonderful time & adored the city. It is so beautiful!
With Nubby again; Barcelona; chalk drawings in Brooklyn; with Ben at the Bowery Mission; Halloween; curled hair; with Molly; & celebrating my blog’s birthday!
Since then, Mike & I have been winding down & settling into the colder weather. We had a lovely low-key Christmas, complete with a pink tree, & my mind has been in overdrive, plotting & planning new fantastic things for 2012.
I’ve already started to fill my Filofax for next year, but with a caveat: I want to spend 2012 doing things that I truly think are important.
In 2012, I want to strike a fine balance between love & career & friends, between philanthropy & travel & education. I want to continue to pursue my dreams relentlessly & with passion. I want to see new cities & speak to more women about radical self love. I want to make time for my friends & go on adventures.
I can’t wait for the clock to tick over to 00:00 on January 1st. I plan to spend it kissing my love, with a sparkler in one hand & a fabulous cocktail in another!
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[ 16 December 2011, 23:56 ]
Five years ago, my boyfriend Simon & I were living on the 38th floor of the QV Building in Melbourne, Australia. We had just moved to the city from Auckland, New Zealand, & really didn’t know anyone, except for Simon’s friend Ralph, a professor at the university. I wanted to start a magazine, but I didn’t have any money, so I decided I would start a blog. I figured that it would an inexpensive test for the concept of the magazine.
I had no idea then what those small steps would put into motion. In the five years since my first article — Fashion Help For Recovering Goths — my life has changed in incredible, unimaginable ways…
2007: My birthday!
In 2008, I moved — almost accidentally — to New York City, & I feel like that’s when my “real world education” began! Living in the United States has changed my life, & the way I think about things, a lot. Australia & New Zealand are so isolated from the rest of the world, which can be wonderful in some ways, but at the same time, it’s hard to have a well-rounded view of the world when you haven’t done a lot of travelling. For better or for worse, I feel that living in NYC has certainly rounded out my view of life & of humanity!
2008: In Central Park, just before I moved here…
When I got my first sublet in the West Village, on the corner of Bleecker & Carmine Streets, I had to learn how to live alone all over again. I loved the energy of the city, especially on hot summer nights, but I had weird feelings of loneliness & emptiness sometimes, too. When I did, I bought myself flowers…
My writing started to change, too. Suddenly, my life felt very action-packed, & I tried to balance all the new things in my world with the kind of content I was used to posting. It was tricky, & sometimes it didn’t work! Ultimately, I came back to something Simon had told me ages ago: “People don’t come to your website to hear about you. They visit because they want something which helps THEM. Try to keep your ego out of it as much as possible.” This is a credo I still do my best to adhere to, though sometimes I slip up!
2008: Meeting Patricia Field was one of the highlights of my life (thanks, Gilda!).
Thankfully, when Simon & I did end things, we did so on positive terms. I know we’re both very happy that we still get along, & make time to hang out whenever we’re in the same city!
So I found myself alone in NYC without a boyfriend. I went on plenty of dates — dates being a weird, & very American-seeming, thing to do! For example… My friend, a raw foodist, took me to dinner at a drag show. A sweet boy with an afro sent me unicorn cupcakes. I ate dinner in a giant gold birdcage (see below) with a toy designer. I went out with a personal trainer who punched a taxi on our date (naturally, I hid behind a pillar when I saw him later in the year)! I had drinks with a guy who had once spilled LSD on his arm, hallucinated for three solid weeks & stolen a car. Let me tell you, NYC is full of characters!
I never took any of it very seriously, & after a year or so of pseudo-romantic silliness, I met Mike. We’ve been married now for almost five months.
2008: Pressed up against the front door of my first ever sublet, before going out for the night. I stayed in this apartment again a year or so later, & Mike & I had our first kiss right here!
I’ve met the most incredible women in the last five years, too. Before 2006 — the year I discovered EFT, changed my name & started my blog — I used to be one of those girls who didn’t have a lot of female friends. I think this is largely because I was so hyper-judgmental, but thankfully, once I started to sort my nonsense out, & become more accepting of myself, this changed! I’m so glad, too, because the girls I have in my life are so precious to me.
I think I met almost all of them through this website, too. I met Jess, my BFF from Melbourne (who I still see once a year!) because she emailed me asking if I’d like to try cupcakes from her brand spanking new bakery. Nubby & I knew each other from Livejournal, & our friendship deepened through our blogs & online correspondence. When we met in 2008, it was like discovering a kindred spirit. Even though she lives in Portland, OR, we still vacation together a couple of times a year! Molly Crabapple emailed me when she read on my site that I had relocated to NYC. She took me out to The Box, & introduced me to a tawdry & wonderful world!
It’s incredible to think that almost all of my friendships have been sparked through this blog. I am so grateful & thankful! I’m especially thankful that I get to go on fun, silly holidays like these…
Our first trip to Vegas!
Disneyland adventures with Nubby & Jazzi!
These aren’t the only things that have changed in the last five years. As I renamed the blog from iCiNG to simply galadarling.com, my focus began to shift too. The topics have moved from fashion to self-esteem & then onto radical self love, my major mission & raison d‘être.
More than that, I’ve started to recognise the incredible power of simply doing good things for other people. When you theoretically “have everything” — love, health, a great career, & a stable home — but still feel like something is missing, you know it’s time to act. My recent work with the Bowery Mission & New York Cares has shown me what was lacking: the simple act of making a selfless contribution. It has expanded & enriched my life in untold ways, & it’s something I’m really looking forward to continuing with in the coming years.
I suppose that’s just what happens: when you’re young, you are more frivolous & light-hearted. You think less about the consequences of your actions & you’re more impetuous & spontaneous. As you grow up, your perception of the world changes. We don’t all become curmudgeons, but it’s true that you have to step into your role as an adult, & make more thoughtful choices.
2007: I still own, & love, this Adidas jacket!
On the surface, this is the perfect job: I’ve been able to practice my writing skills every day, to meet incredible people & create my own opportunities. I’ve designed shoes, written e-books, walked for Betsey Johnson & been featured in major advertising campaigns. It can be glamorous, but it’s not all sequins all the time!
The truth of it is that putting yourself out there, repeatedly, comes with its own pitfalls. You attract a lot of attention: most of it positive, but a good dollop of negative, too. No matter what I do or say, there are still people who hate me, my style, my nose. (As if they think that their disapproval of me will somehow change anything!) There are people who try to stalk my husband & email my old classmates, as if they’re going to discover some huge secret. (There are no secrets! My name, before I changed it in 2006, was Amy Paape! OOOOH! SPOOKY!) There are conspiracy theories; some people think I’m a phony, a fraud, or a high-class prostitute! (As flattered as I am, who has the time?!) They claim I have a trust fund: a classic way of denigrating a woman. (“You couldn’t possibly have done it all by yourself!”) It’s bizarre, & I can’t pretend to understand it. But this is all part of the territory. It comes with living your life in public.
I stick with it regardless, because I know that no matter what you do in life, you will always encounter violent opposition. If you’re going to come up against it anyway, you might as well fight for something you REALLY care about — & for me, that thing is radical self love. Teaching girls & boys to love themselves thoroughly & fully is worth a good scrap. When you feel good about who you are, & when you feel proud of who you are, you’re capable of absolutely anything.
You know that you’re following your dreams, & that you’re on the right path, when things start to fall into place. When you experience magical synchronicity, & when serendipity is a regular part of your day, you know you’re onto something. When I’m focussed on radical self love & am truly pursuing that, not just on the blog, but in my everyday life too, my life ramps up its magical quotient by about 1000%.
It’s not enough just to write about it. We have to LIVE our truth, too, & none of us are totally there yet. I’m still judgmental sometimes. I still have days where I don’t like my body. I’m not perfect, but this isn’t a “woe is me” story. Just like you, I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got.
Sometimes I think, ‘After five years, what do I really have left to say?’ But then I realise that as long as I’m still living, learning & exploring, I still have things to pass on. The more I can work on myself — my self-esteem, my own radical self love journey — the more I can help you with your own adventure. When I’m able to see more of the world & educate myself, & when I’m able to take more risks, I’m able to inspire you in even greater ways. As Anaïs Nin once said, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
Even though it’s not always easy for any of us, it’s so important to maintain a positive attitude about our own lives. A few years ago, one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to live the fairytale, & I do my best with that every day.
Over the next year, I want to learn more skills, & read more books. I want to take — & teach! — more classes, & speak to more people. (More! More! More!) I want to create beautiful, tangible pieces of work for people to hold & adore. I want to continue demonstrating what it looks like to be a love letter to the universe, & to support you in your journey of self-adoration.
As my friend Christopher once said to me, to do wicked magic you have to love yourself from morning to night. It’s this attitude that I hope to carry with me for the rest of my days.
Here’s to five years of splendor, & many, many more!
Photos by Lydia Hudgens, Simon, Jesse, Juliane Berry, Nato Tuke & myself!
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galagaladarling.com Turns Five Next Month! Here's How We're Celebrating... !
[ 30 November 2011, 11:22 ]
will be five years old!
Can you believe it? FIVE YEARS! I can hardly wrap my brain around it! It has been an incredible ride, & as silly as it might sound to say that creating this blog changed my life, nothing could be more true. It is the best thing I’ve ever done.
You have been with me through so much. From the extremely humble beginnings in my apartment in Melbourne, to the bright lights big city vibe of New York City — & about a hundred other cities in-between! — you have kept me company, inspired me & made me smile. You’ve stuck with me through multiple boyfriends, oodles of apartments & plenty of ill-advised style moments! You celebrated with us when Mike & I got engaged & married, & you’ve fallen in love with Hank & Dolly like they’re your own!
You mean so much to me. Thank you for being part of my life. I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it. So I’m giving you…
Yes, it’s true! I’ve teamed up with some of my favourite people for I’m Dreaming Of A Pink Christmas! It’s part birthday celebration, & part whopper Christmas bonanza!
I’m going to be giving away plenty of incredible goodies; in fact, I’m going to give away a fantastic prize every day of December! & all of them could be won by YOU!
The goodies range from sparkling jewellery to fabulous handbags; high-end sex toys to big pieces of art for your bedroom; from custom-made denim to smart, mind-expanding books! Trust me when I say the line-up is truly MAGNIFIQUE! Everything comes from a company I absolutely adore. Do you know what’s even better? The contests are open to EVERYONE everywhere! No geographical limitations!
It’s just my little way of saying THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for sticking with me on this crazy journey! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you come here to spend time with me every day. I don’t know how else to say thank you for all your tweets, Facebook messages, emails, postcards & treasures in the mail! Meeting you all in person is always so humbling & wonderful. You’re an incredible group of people, & I feel so lucky & blessed to have attracted you into my life!
This is the least I could do, right?!
The excitement kicks off TOMORROW! Remember to check back EVERY DAY for your chance to win an amazing prize… & please know that I love you, eternally!
I can’t wait to get cracking! WOO-HA!
P.S. Today’s the last day to take advantage of the Love & Sequins Super-Special Sale! Don’t miss out, baby doll!
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