Third Blogiversary!

Today, August 25th, 2012 is my third blogiversary! WOOT! (Click the following link to see previous blogiversary posts.)

Table of Contents

• Statistics
• Top 5 Posts
• Year in Summary
• Stylistically Speaking
• What Have I Sewn?
• The Coming Year
• Celebratory Giveaway

Statistics

Here we are at the end of year #3 of blogging, with a simultaneous return to sewing. I am still not bored, even a tiny bit. In fact, things continue to get more interesting. First up, the statistics. (And you know, I love me some statistics.)

End of Year	Number of Posts	Number of Followers	Number of Subscribers (via Google Reader)
1	125	130	Was Google Reader in use?
2	107	341	482
3	107	505	739

Note: This year I deleted a dozen really old, icky posts, so I am not tracking totals. Don't worry, it's nothing you would care about - these posts contained images that were wincingly bad.

Top 5 Posts

Top 5 Posts of the Year:

• Self Drafted TableCloth Skirt (with Tutorial)
• FBAs in Knits - Advice for the Uber Busty
• Interview with Marcy Tilton
• What the Heck, Vogue?
• Interview with Diane Ericson

Top 5 Posts of the All Time:

• Self Drafted Anthropologie Skirt - this post is my most popular by orders of magnitude. It has received 37,589 page views to date and is my most popular pin on Pinterest.
• Self Drafted TableCloth Skirt (with Tutorial)
• Vogue 1213 - Koos van den Akker Linen Coat
• Lagenlook
• FBAs in Knits - Advice for the Uber Busty

Stylistically Speaking

Hair:

Last year I started dying my hair red (well, I had the good students at the hair school do it for me). But this year I started wearing it shorter and I've amped up the shade of red. For years and years I desperately wanted long hair, and though it was always an abysmal failure, I continued to try growing it long. I also avoided bangs (fringe) like the plague, having been forced to wear bangs my entire childhood. I've finally accepted that short hair is best for me: a bob with bangs is what I wore at age 11, and is what I'm wearing now. Me and Anna Wintour. Bring it on!

Hats:

This year I have acquired several hats! I never was a hat person before, but they are really calling to me now. I have acquired a grey fedora, a burgundy cloche, a red jaunty number made by my friend Sue (not sure what the style is called) and worn at the Cañada meetup, a chartreuse Oska beannie, and a black and white animal-print, angora beret. mrowrrr And I wear them! (This has been a particularly cold San Francisco summer, so my hats have come in very handy.)

Clothing:

I continue to refine my clothing style. I still love lagenlook, but have accepted that the boxy, large tops do me and my bust no favors. I prefer knit tops (my woven tops don't get near as much wear) and I prefer funky pants, though I now have a lot of fitted, close-to-the-body pants, mostly thanks to Style Arc patterns. I continue to wear my skirts on the long side. I am not ready to wear a shorter skirt, so we'll see if that changes in the coming year. I also do not wear vests, except very rarely.

Footwear:

Thanks to the influence of Margy and others, I have really embraced funky footwear, such as Trippens, and Arche. My previous favorite funky footwear were Fluevogs, and I still have some fun Fluevogs that haven't been worn much this year. Sad Fluevogs.

Underpinnings:

New bras! Enough said. :)

Year in Summary

A highlight for me, this year, were my interviews with Marcy and Diane. And, of course, preparation for my upcoming trip to Design Outside the Lines in Taos, NM.

I also enjoyed meeting more bloggers/internet sewing pals, such as Margy, Luz Clara, ReAnn, and BadMomGoodMom. I was surprised to see that I met them this year as I thought I'd known them longer! There were also several blogger meetups where I met more bloggers and blog readers, such as the recent event at Cañada College, the Gaultier Exhibit, and the meetup in honor of Karen of Did You Make That? And, of course, there was the epic visit with Margy.

This was the year I introduced the Tablecloth Skirt, the L Flounce, and several posts on fitting for the uber busty. I was asked to write my first guest post, for Rhonda's blog.

I won the jeans contest on Pattern Review! (And thanks again for your support.)

I've also dipped my toe into e-commerce, but only just.

What Have I Sewn?

For me, summarizing what I've sewn is the least interesting part of the blogiversary post. But when I look over my 107 posts from last year, I see a lot of Style Arc, Vogue (especially the Tilton sisters), and Sewing Workshop patterns, with one or two Au Bonheur, Burda, Butterick and McCalls mixed in. As much as I like statistics, I don't track how many items I've sewn or how much yardage I've used.

I made my first visit to FabMo this year and took two very fun classes. As a result, I've been making more items using home dec fabrics, culminating in my Koos bag. I have been really enjoying this process!

The Coming Year

This year I'm curious to see how attending DOL will inform my work. I also want to try some downloadable Burda patterns from the BurdaStyle site. I have been eyeing a couple designs, but they will require grading up for my size, which is a little de-motivating. I hope to attend the upcoming PR weekend in San Francisco and meet some great people I have come to know through Pattern Review. Other than that I have no concrete plans. I like to keep things fast and loose.

Celebratory Giveaway

I have some extra good giveaways this year. In fact, I bought something, at full price, as one of my giveaway items. That's how much I love you guys. My next post will include the details.