This article may contain affiliate links; if you click on a shopping link and make a purchase I may receive a commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
I still love fashion. I still find it terribly important to care about what you look like. I still feel that every woman can be stylish regardless of size, shape, age, budget or lifestyle. I still feel that more women who are my shape and are my income level should have style blogs.
But I am just busy… and I am uninspired.
When I started this blog, it was just for me – to make sure I didn’t wear the same suit when I saw a business client a second time, that I didn’t wear my pink J. Crew merino sweater two times in the same week. And then it caught on. And then MSNBC and other big sites found me and linked to me and for a while I had thousands of readers every single day.
Around that time was when I realized that I wasn’t all that special here at my blog. When I started in 2005 it was kind of a novel idea. I wasn’t famous, I wasn’t thin, I wasn’t a style icon. But now, well there are millions of us out there.
And I don’t have the time to keep up a cool looking blog template. I don’t have the time to set up my tripod and timer and take pictures of me twirling around on my back deck or throwing leaves over my head in the neighborhood park, or look forlornly at my vintage boots on a city street. I don’t have time to them Photoshop the hell out of said photos to make them look like wee little works of art, showing the detail in the lace of my thrift store frock, or the buttons on my designer coat.
I don’t have the time to contact companies and encourage them to send me swag so I can review it. I don’t have the time to take the swag that I do already receive and properly review it, posting about it and making plenty of little hyperlinks to give that company their much-deserved SEO. And honestly, I am not interested in a bunch of new makeup or hair products – I don’t have the time to play with products I can’t use easily and quickly on a daily basis. It’s clutter that fills my dressing table and bathroom and eventually a landfill.
There are two types of personal style blogs – the good ones and the crappy ones. And really, even if the person has great and real style and a gorgeous real body, if they have dark crappy photos and a cluttered dated template, I don’t like to go visit. And it sucks, because those who usually have the time to make their blogs all so purty… well they aren’t usually the type who have real bodies, real budgets, real lives. And a lot of personal style bloggers have become far too self-important. None of us are perfect. And really, any outfit can look utterly charming or chic with the right poses and lighting and crap.
So I will keep writing at this blog, but I won’t have my daily looks very often because I need my time for sleep, for work, for snuggling with my baby. For cleaning my house, cuddling with my husband, spending time in the real world with real people doing real things.
And if you want some inspiration from real women who do style blogs well (and actual style), I encourage you to visit, subscribe and comment at:
Already Pretty
Fashion for Nerds
Academichic
Fashion Hayley
Fab Finds Under $50
Oranges and Apples
Clothed Much
Work With What You’ve Got
Cuffington
Budgetnista
Frocks & Frou Frou
Euro Chic
Fashion After 40
Things a Boutique Owner Sees
Allie, you are truly a love. Thank you for the mention, I hope all is well with you and your family.
Completely understand where you’re coming from! Please promise to post photos of your cute family from time to time! 🙂
Alison,
I haven’t been reading many blogs lately due to work and kids, so I have just read this post. I am so on the same page as you are with this post. Even if I had not stopped blogging over a year ago, I would have stopped now. The style blogs now are so slick and I admire the women but they are so posed. I love the posts with 5 different pictures of the same outfit with the person posed in arty, emotional shots (“throwing leaves over their head” :)!!!). It seems that those people with the popular style blogs write little about their outfits and when they do the grammar and spelling is awful. There were just a few bloggers that wrote about style and how to put outfits together and they are being replaced by wannabe models.
Thanks for this post. You were and are an inspiration for women who live real lives. And I also love that you and your family always look so happy!
Leah
Allie,
As everyone has already said, we totally understand that you have a life outside of blogging that must take priority. That is why I love to read your blog, because you are real and don’t try to fancy everything up just to get “stuff.” You are one of my favorite blogs and every time I see a new post, I think “Yay, Allie posted!” No matter what you write, it is always helpful and informative and is really you. So write what you can, when you can and I’ll keep reading!
Thank you Allie for introducing your family and your life to us. Thank you for being open and real and welcoming. Your blog was the first one I found when I started looking and it’s been the only one I read daily. Your wisdom and down to earth lessons have inspired me to re-connect with my wardrobe. Thank you. I wish you and yours all the best.
I can totally understand the need to step away from blogging because you want to spend time with your family and are feeling uninspired, but I think it’d be a shame if you gave it up entirely, simply because there are other blogs out there with fancier photos and more polished templates. We need to hold onto the realness and accessibility of the blogging community, and not let it turn into another exclusive club that only the insiders can participate in. So of course your own needs and your family MUST come first, but I think you’ve got a great thing going here that (if you can) you should maintain.
And thank you for the mention; I’m truly honored!
Ditto, ditto, ditto.
Allie, you just seem like the kind of girl I’d hang out with on weekends. Borrow your boots. Babysit sometimes. Call you when I’ve had a crappy day at work. That kind of thing. You’re living our type of lives. Dogs running around, kids throwing up on us, deadlines, renovations…it’s the every day life that we totally get.
And I do understand that you have other priorities like that adorable baby and handsome husband. Enjoy, just know we’ll miss you, and can’t wait for you to come back.
xoxox
Sarah
Hi Allie!! I just discovered you a couple months ago and was missing your posts. I’m not trying to talk you out of your decision to cut back on posting (I know how precious time is!) but I did just want to say this:
The reason I love your blog is BECAUSE you don’t do any of those artsy-fartsy fashion-bloggy things!! Honestly, I see these frou-frou templates with difficult-to-read fonts and little poems accompanying pictures of girls wearing skinny jeans topped with three shirts, two cardigans, a jacket and four scarves and I’m just … whaaa? It’s interesting from an artistic perspective, and I know some people love it, but I can’t dress like that! I love the straightforward format of your blog, and am in awe of your ability to take just a few elements and make an eye-catching, sexy, attractive, AND wearable look. So thank you for all the inspiration and I’ll be enjoying the archives. 🙂
Allie I have always enjoyed your blog and I would hate and I hate for you to retire it. Just post when you can. If it’s once a week because of your schedule with your new family. I think your readers will definitely understand you pacing yourself because of the new, wonderful addition to your family! You are appreciated and so is your style. Forget the stupid tripod, just point and click in the mirror and call it a day, keep everything under 2 paragraphs to lessen your blogging time. I think if you let your readers know you will be posting once a week or heck once every 2 weeks and do it consistently, everybody will look forward to your next post. ) If you would like a new blog banner I will happy to send one over for you – thats what I do!!
I have to echo others – I like your blog over other fashion blogs and daily outfit blogs because you seem so real, and your issues with dressing for work, on a budget, reusing things, wearing things that are kid-friendly, and fitting into clothes post pregnancy really resonate with me.
I find your sense of fashion approachable for a working mother who still wants to look good, not break the bank, and doesn’t have a lot of time (and those are big challenges!).
So please post when you can, and know that many people enjoy your ideas and feel you are very inspired.
Also, I think your writing is very good, and you put a lot of thought into things and that comes across fancy blog header or not. Your content is great.
🙂
Good luck, and enjoy your baby! They grow up so quickly. Fashion can be found at any point in life, but a baby is young only once.
Please blog again, but only when you feel able to. Templates be damned. It’s YOU that makes this blog special. You have often inspired me with your honesty and stylishness.
Sure there are glossier blogs out there. That said, 1) different strokes for…and 2) it’s the personality of the blogger that matters, at the end of the day.
Ditto of what Ally said….you are real…just like us…
Like so many others, you were the first fashion blog I ever followed. I loved it for not being like all those other blogs and for the realness of it. When your pants were tight, you told us. When you thought something did or didn’t work, you told us. The good blogs of real women wearing real fashion are rare and I’ll miss you 🙂
Like so many others who have posted, I understand your decision but will definitely miss your posts! You’re very good at this blogging business, and the blogosphere will still be here when you feel the urge to plug back in. Do hope you’ll continue to post when you feel so moved; I’ll continue to check back every so often just in case! Jill
First of all thank you so much for the recommendation, you have made my day!
Yours was the first style blog that I ever found and read. Within 2 days I had read every post that you had written here.
You were my inspiration to start blogging myself. I like you do not take arty farty pictures of myself twirling etc, etc. I stand in front of a mirror and take a picture of what I have on.
Today I am 24 weeks and 4 days (those 4 days are so important) pregnant and I am starting to feel that I am loosing a bit of myself as the baby takes over.
I hope that I manage to share as much after my baby arrives as you have. I am going to miss your posts and seeing you and your lovely outfits. But I understand that this blog is just not the most important thing that you have going on right now!
Enjoy those baby snuggles and please come back…….
P.S. I will still be stopping by each day as that is my little routine I always start at your blog even if there is nothing new to read!
You will be missed but you are entitled to have time to prioritize and balance your time and life.
I totally understand where you are coming from and I dont even have children so I’m sure its 10 million more times difficult to find the time to put into the blog! While I used to love checking in and seeing what you wore everyday, i’m even more excited for future posts when you check in and write about your family and fab finds in clothing and makeup and whats going on with you!
I so enjoy reading your blog, regardless of what direction it takes. In fact, I’ve given you the Happy 101 award. You may check it out here:
http://wellgroomedhippie.blogspot.com/2010/01/happy-101-award.html
To the lovely, inspiring, self-effacing Allie;
I understand, but it doesn’t make me any less sad.
Just know you’ll be missed. For lots of reasons, by lots of people.
Knowing oneself is quite simply life’s greatest challenge; and you’ve already got that sorted. So enjoy, but know there will be clicking and sighing just a little, probably every day!
Erin from Down Under
Allie,
Even your proclaimed “uninspired” posts provide good points to consider. I’ve been following your writing for years (since FC days). “Eurochic’ has been another fav of mine, and I’ve recently subscribed to Sal’s “Already Pretty,” as they also possess integrity in their writing – as well as great fashion sense.
This is your blog. (If asked)I vote you write whenever you are moved to do so. I have always received good ideas from your creative viewpoint. Whatever you decide, please know how much you are appreciated and valued for your authenticity.
Jean
ps: Hug that little doll baby, Emerson for me!
Hi ALlie,
I am de-lurking.
I am from another country and I love coming to your blog E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y. After I had my child, I felt lost with my body changes and all, and I could not fit into ANY of the fabulous clothes or shoes I had before, and to make matters worse, couldnt find anythind that I liked anymore. It was a really horrible state, 3 years ago. Then I googled, how to get personal style and I happened on your other blog Wardrobe oxygen, I have been a faithful reader.
Enjoy this season of your life, with a precious daughter. Remember it is only a season that will end one day and transition to another. I hope that you continue to write when you can.
Much love to you 🙂
Good for you! To blog well takes a great amount of energy. For women–like you (and me!) who have full time jobs and a commitment to be present at home with their family–blogging has to take a back seat. It just has to.
I think it’s sad when people post that they are at home pretending to watch tv with their spouse/child as they are diligently typing away their next blog post.
I love your blog it was one of the first on fashion I found and to me is still one of the best. I remember what it is like to be a new working Mum and understand your choice. May I say though, that your recent writing here and on Wardrobe Oxygen has been excellent. You have a real gift with words, you inspire the real women out there and I will still check regularly for your posts.
Things change, that’s normal, however I will really miss your posts, one of the reasons I always read yours is that you’re a real person with real life, work, baby daughter, husband, home…
Well, my best wishes for you and your lovely family, I’ll always be pleased to read whenever you feel like posting, no matter if you don’t do it frecuently.
I was waiting for this. When you have a little one, your life changes. But you see, I still want to read, because I become attached to the people that write the blogs.I care about their lives. It has been great to read your stories, and share your joy with the birth of Emerson.
Don’t apologize. This is just what happens. I will still be reading…..
I, too, was bummed to read this but I understand. Your blog is the first fashion blog I ever followed and I look forward to checking your blog every time I get online. I am not really impressed by the majority of fashion bloggers out there, so many seem so self-obsessed and self-important, as if their blog is a huge vanity project. You are one of the only ones who is REAL to me. You are a lovely woman and a gifted writer. I don’t care if you post everyday or if your blog has fancy bells and whistles, I just like seeing YOU.
I think that you are a wonderful virtual role model to many women out there, and I hope you post every once-in-a-while. You have a lot of fans out there.
xoxo Coco
I will still continue to check your blog, I don’t care if you don’t post often….
Aww, so bummed to read this. I love your blog. And I think many, many people (like myself) read blogs in a reader, so people who spend a bunch of time prettying it up are wasting their time for me anyways!
Good Luck on whatever you decide to know, but know you have a group of people that will be waiting to read if you decide to toss a post up. 🙂
Hi Allie, love your blog. Keep posting here and there. Don’t worry about making your blog look a certain way. You know i never notice that stuff? and don’t worry about posting links. We all love your posts. I think what sets your blog aside from others is your writing. It’s your calling for sure! 🙂
Allie,
You have always been one of my very favorite bloggers. Your personality and style make you unique. I hope you know how much we all love you, and I hope you can find your inspiration! You are certainly an inspiration for all of us readers. You inspired me to start my blog, despite being a size 12 gal with limited funds.
Allie I live your blog BECAUSE you’re don’t do all of those things!! I too have a life, I work, I have tons of commitments. I don’t want winsome photos of collar details, because I’m mostly just happy when I don’t have toothpaste or any other substance on mine. I appreciate your straight-forward outfit and face photos. I don’t need to see you posing and looking pensive from every possible angle – it’s figure flattering pants and a blazer/sweater, skirt and blouse, or a dress. I’m smart enough to get that in one photo from the front! ;D
I would like to salute you for introducing me to wide calf boots available online, Nars Orgasm blush, snazzy dress and boots combos (all of which which I have appropriated… and often!) and for you rocking your real shape which is similar to my shape and often found wearing something I’d wear to work… but your outfit is usually better accessorized (which I totally steal, so there!).
So go spend some time enjoying your “non-cyber” life but please know that what you feel is uninspired is exactly what some of us are looking for so don’t forget to throw us a post now and then!
Take care!
Linda
Probably the best choice for you. Logging on to a blog that never gets an update is a drag.
Allie, I love your blog – and I think you write so brilliantly and are such a genuine person (not that I know you in person but here on your blog) and I had to laugh at the description of some of the other blogs because it is so true! They are sometimes fun to look at but more often than not they leave me feeling frustrated that I do not have that kind of money to spend on prada shoes, $500 purses every season and so on. I absolutely love reading your blog and will always check back to see if you’ve written anything. i have learned so much from all that you have shared about how to dress and respect yourself. Carry on when you can!
blessings!
I love your blog! It is one of the first that I started following and I love that you do interesting things in your life besides worry about what you wear… you just happen to look great while doing them!
Anything you feel so inspired to post is great by me!
🙂
I will admit that I read some other wardrobe blogs. I follow some of their advice, I have bought items that they have recommended, and I have enjoyed those crazy pictures where people hop and jump in beautiful pieces.
But I don’t think of any of those people as friends, and to be honest, after 4 years of reading this blog, I think of you that way. Even though we have never met, I have enjoyed not only your fashion but your life anecdotes so much that I feel happy when you seem happy. Which sounds vaguely stalkerish…but I don’t mean for it to.
I would encourage you though to keep loving fashion. I know you are feeling uninspired, but girl, you love clothes! I know how it is because I do too. Freaking love them. And yes, there are times when I feel totally uninspired but then I find something that really blows my dress up, that alone is enough to bring me out of my funk. You don’t have to take pictures of it everyday, but don’t forget just how fun clothes are. And make-up. And hair stuff. It’s all kinda awesome. And you’ve gotta show that beautiful little girl how fun it all is too!
I love your blog. It is a real blog by a real, imperfect human being.
I wrote to you to thank you for doing it because I was finally able to look past my lack of weight loss, my ever growing age and start paying attention to what I was putting on my body, because it had a part in how I felt about myself.
I know your life is different now, I hope that when you’ve had some time to adjust you will realize there is a niche for those of us who want someone we can relate to – a busy working mom, who has a real round body and is tired, sometimes over scheduled and still wants to know about that great bag (I have been on a hunt for a Sandhurst;-), that under eye concealer that does help the lack of sleep or allergy bags look less visible, etc.
Try and remember to keep some time for yourself. It is one of the things I found hardest to do when my family was first starting out and I was a stay at home mom with more (in theory) “free time”.
I will keep checking for those times you do post and hoping that you come back to it. Yes there are other blogs by other people, but that is just it they are other people without your unique voice.
Hugs and love to you and Emerson and your husband whose name is escaping me right now.
I think you were the first fashion blog I ever followed. What I loved most was that you were not a model, not rich, and you still look fabulous.
Often your posts answer questions about things I had been wondering about for awhile.
I think you;re right not to worry about taking pictures. I do hope we see once in awhile but not that you’re a mommy, life does change. You can be stylish as a mom and you are, but I think you’re realizing that taking pictures isn’t a priority. Life changes and blogs change; I just hope you’ll be here once in awhile to set us straight, recommend a truly great product or whatever else you want to blog about.
Christine
Hi Allie,
What I always loved about your blog is how real you are. And this is the reason why after my phase of obsessive makeup collection was over and I erased all the subscriptions to the beauty blogs from my bloglines, yours was the only one that remained. I loved following you during your pregnancy..and after childbirth. And of course you life is much more important than the virtual life of personal style blogging.
Keep on living. And if you do write, do it for yourself. Like you said, to have a record of who you are and how you are changing. Change is natural and beautiful. And if you post once a year it will appear on my bloglines, and I will read your post and be happy for you because you are happy. That’s all. 🙂
You are really an inspiration for me because taking care of yourself when life is crazy is not easy..but it is very important. So keep on doing what you love doing..and you don’t have to document every single moment of it. I know you still look great every day 🙂
-Lana
Well, I love your blog. It’s still one of my favorites, even though you’ve been busy. I like to read about your life and how you fit fashion into it! I’ll keep reading as long as your writing.
I feel the same way you do..uninspired. I started my blog only a year ago and started feeling that I wasn’t keeping up with so many other bloggers that I really enjoyed. I don’t have time to make my blog super fancy nor do I have the skill set to do that, so I just stopped blogging…I wanted to come back and plan to sometime, but it’s hard to feel up to snuff. Your life is very different from when you first started and that’s just to be expected that you don’t have the same inspiration and/or time to do stuff. I love your blog, regardless and have it on my reader so when you do post, I’ll receive it!
Wow, what a huge compliment to be recommended by you in this post. Thanks so much for that and for being one of the pioneers of daily style blogs.
Thank you for the honesty. I love that in a blogger.
And thank you SO MUCH for the mention. It brought tears to my eyes. To be respected by my peers…it means the world to me.
And snuggle that baby a t couple times for me.
I’m so sorry to hear that you are feeling uninspired. I have moments like that myself. Just know that your wardrobe blogging is what inspired me to track my wardrobe so that I could look at my own and see how I could get better at it.
I hope you can get your mojo back! And I know I am one of those people whose pictures could be a lot better (i just don’t have the time for whipping out my SLR and tripod) and I know nothing about template design. I made my own header, but that was it! So I totally know where you are coming from.
I’m not really blogging for the masses, though. I’m doing it for myself- so that I can try to keep myself from buying too many things and to reinvent what is already in my wardrobe.
I always look forward to your posts and thoughts, though and I hope you will come back soon with great commentary and great new looks!
I’ve always liked your blog because you seem like a real person and not some flighty, ditsy self-absorbed female who has tons of money to spend on clothes.
Also I don’t care about the way a blog looks aesthetically, I am more into what is in the content and your content has always been good & real. I like the days when you are feeling just like me, crappy and you say so. I can relate to that. And that, to me, is a quality blog. You’re a wife, mother, sister, etc., a real person I can relate to in one way or another. The other blogs are boring & I am turned off by them.
Hope eventually you’ll come back to post regularly when things are less hectic. In the meantime, hang in there.
Sad you feel this way Allie. I love coming to your blog. I check a handfull each day and yours has always been my favourite. It doesn’t matter about the template or photo quality. In fact, the type of blog you are referring to in this post ‘gets on my nerves’ haha. The first year or so after a new baby is fantastic but very rough. You have done very well considering. You will soon feel much more like your old self and hopefully become inspired again. You have a gift and we all have appreciated you sharing your life with us. I will still pop by to check your postings. Even if you don’t add a pic. It will still be my favourite. Take care Allie!
Kathleen
Allie, you were one of the first blogs I started reading and you also reminded me how great the ‘dress’ is and can be! When I first find your blog, I was in a fashion hole. I was at a point where I just didn’t care what I looked like. It had gotten so bad that in the mornings I was getting up, grabbing whatever was laying on the floor and then going to work! Then, I found your blog and as I stated, you reminded me how great the ‘dress’ is and I started adding dresses and skirts to my wardrobe. One of the smartest decisions I ever made. Now, I take the time to pick out outfits each morning and try hard to look my best, even if I’m not wearing makeup. Long story short Allie, your blog is great! Not only that, you handle all that life throws at you with grace and style!! I’ll still be here whenever you feel the need to post. Thanks for being you and and helping to make me a better dresser.
Regardless, you’re my favorite! You’re on my Blogspot feed reader, and I’m always thrilled to see a new post. After reading your blog for a few years – it doesn’t have to be the shiniest, fanciest blog – I just like who you are!
I totally understand but you will defintely be missed. Your blog was the first ever wardrobe blog I came across and followed faithfully. So much so that I started my own blog, with all of your advice might I add, so thank you very much for being an inspiration to me and countless others. I even remember when you posted that you were pregnant shortly after your Bonoroo trip and I felt like I was one of your firends that you had just spilled the beans to because I had followed your daily “life”. Hope to see you back and posting soon, but will def read all your musings on life.
Thanks again!
Lini
Working full time, new mother, recent renovations to the house…no wonder you need a break! You have a lot going on in your life and you need to take the time to enjoy your precious little spare time. Just be aware that it is your personality that comes through your writing that keeps me coming back. You have a gift for making us feel we know you and it has nothing to do with the presentation of the blog template! We’ll miss you, but totally understand…
Oh lady, I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling so uninspired … but your life is so different now than it was in 2005, I guess it makes sense that priorities would have shifted. Toward your lovely daughter, for instance!
Thanks for the shout-out, and I’ll definitely keep looking in on you here, whenever you feel like posting.