Entry #1 (Eng 102) - Battle of the Blogs, Round 2!

Three, two, one... FIGHT!

Okay, so admittedly it isn't really a battle of blogs per se.  They aren't really competing for anything except perhaps my attention and desire to read them.  In that regard, two I've found quite interesting and the third (while in search of another one I liked) I have found particularly 'meh'.  That's a technical term in case no one knew.  So, allow me to get right down to it.  I've found three blogs that I want to talk about.

Fashion!  ...maybe
 

 The concept of 'fashion' is something that's difficult for me to understand.  I understand some aspects like matching my shoes to some part of my clothing if at all possible (I don't own that many pairs of shoes) and I often wonder if it's actually okay to wear white after Labor Day.  Or is it before Labor Day?  There are so many 'rules' that it's hard to keep it all straight.  Even beyond that, however, is the fact of what some people call fashion.  Honestly, some clothes that I see that are considered 'fashion' I think I could come up with on my own by basically finding the most ill-fitting, random, nonsensical pieces of clothing, throwing them on together and calling it fashion.  Apparently, the blogger of the first fashion blog I'm going to talk about seems to think that's perfectly acceptable.  Clearly I'm missing something as her style and sense of fashion have been well received and are really popular.  I just don't understand why.  However, I digress.  First up we have: Double3xposure. 




Okay, the fact that I apparently just don't understand fashion isn't why I didn't like this blog.  I was curious and interested when I clicked on it, wanting to see something - anything - that might help me understand something more about fashion.  Unfortunately, the layout, to me, left much to be desired.  I'm a big fan of visual media to help support what people are doing.  Hello - memes much?  Still, there is such a thing as resizing and the pictures on this blog were in desperate need of it.  I have a full-sized laptop screen and had to scroll down over every picture just to be able to see both the top and bottom.  Which is to say, I couldn't see the top AND the bottom at the same time because the pictures were HUGE.  Given her apparent enjoyment of oversized, 'frumpy' (by her own admission) looking clothing, maybe she just likes oversized things which carried over to oversized pictures.  I don't honestly know.  But I was not impressed.  Newp.  Case in point, let me actually share the image of the outfit which I'm referring to as the blogger's self-professed 'frumpy' outfit, which apparently the frumpiness of it made her love it. 

I really just don't understand it.  At all.  Beyond that and speaking to the blog itself, aside from the oversized pictures that made my head spin trying to scroll past them all, it felt like the little bit of actually writing that she does (that I've gotten to thus far) has little to do with fashion.  If I'm going to follow a fashion blog I want to actually see and learn something, give me tips, direct me, MOLD ME or some other sort of thing that you do for non-fashion-inclined people such as myself.  Anyway, I digress, let's move on to the next blog!


Say Cheese!

To start, I found a really amazing photography blog that's run by Joe McNally that's named directly: Joe McNalley's Blog.  Honestly I'm kind of in love with this blog now.  I hadn't really expected to enjoy it as much as I did.  The layout is easy to navigate, the pictures are breathtaking and I really like his posts and how the content really makes him seem very approachable.  I've actually saved this blog into my bookmarks so I can follow it more closely, which is saying something as it's the first blog I've ever bookmarked beyond my own.  (Admittedly I only saved my own as a bookmark for ease of access to make further posts.)



One of the first posts I clicked on was about a photo shoot in the air.  I was stunned.  Captivated.  It's breathtaking.  Here's the best part though - the post about the photo shoot weren't in super high-tech terms.  It was something I could follow, something I could understand and appreciate all the more for how it was explained.  All the posts (the ones I've read thus far at least) are like that.  I can understand the amazing skill and preparation and thought process that went into capturing each incredible photograph.  Somehow, being able to understand it just makes it that much more amazing.  If you've ever been the slightest bit interested in photography, I'd give Joe McNally's blog a look.  I don't think you'll regret it.

Onward we move!  Let me continue on to the next blog, otherwise I could spend entirely too long writing about the previous blog.



I'm Sexy and I Know It!

Please don't judge me, but the third and final blog I'm going to be discussing here is another fashion blog.  This is one that I feel I can actually get behind.  Ok so it likely has a lot to do with the impression that 'fashion' equates to 'skinny as a rail', which I am not.  But then there are blogs like this one, a blog about fashion that speaks to a great number of women in the country (and around the world).  The Girl with Curves Blog has a wonderful mission statement, so to speak: "Style, Beauty, and Inspiration for the modern Girl With Curves."  How awesome is that? 

This is something that really does need to be more clearly stated for the average woman in America.  Many of us have curves.  They don't define us, they don't make us good or bad people, make us worth more or less, they are just a part of who we are like having freckles.  Sometimes, and this is difficult for some to grasp, it's possible to be 'fat' and still 'healthy'.  I know, shocking right?  Being fat, being curvy, doesn't mean that those of us who are sit around stuffing our faces and doing nothing.

I really love this blog, which is shocking for me to say because, as I stated the review of the first blog - I don't like fashion.  This doesn't so much feel like fashion though.  I love the way the blog is designed, it's a collection of posts from topics about motherhood, suggesting fun family movies, to information about trends for different seasons.  This blog makes 'fashion' easy.  Even better?  It even has an easy access link to shopping for larger sizes of fashionable clothing.  Which, if you're a curvier woman, you know is no easy feat.  Apparently most clothing designers seem to think that if you're big, you have no desire to look nice or wear nice clothing that's flattering and not going to make you look like a granny.  Take this post for instance.  What great tips to offer for how to tone 'up' your wardrobe in a simple way without having to buy super specific clothing to make it happen.

 So that's it for me.  I know I kind of did an about-face with starting with a fashion blog I really didn't like and ending with one that surprised me by being wonderful and generally awesome as all get out but such is how these things happen.  I'd be curious to know what others think about the topics of the blogs that I chose to write about  Are any of you out there interested in fashion?  Maybe you know more on the subject than I do.  Do you have some photography blogs that you just love?  Toss them up in the comments and share so I can check some more out!  And with that, I bring this massively long post to an end and bid you adieu with an adorable kitten.