Thrifted blouse | Forever 21 denim shorts | Vintage cowboy boots | H&M lucite bracelets | vintage bracelets & rings | random scarf in my hair | H&M sunnies

Something ’bout boots and boys
They bring me so much joy
I gotta say it, I wear ‘em both so pretty as I walk in the city

-Boots and Boys/Kesha (favorite song currently)

My life is slowly setting into place back at home but I miss New York like I miss childhood. There is something so special about New York that can’t top anything going on here in San Francisco. If all goes well, I’ll be heading out in November. I’m crossing my fingers in hopes of this new chapter.

I love the epaulets on this blouse. I’ve probably worn this bad boy for a couple dozen times since I got it for $3.99 at Thrift Town. It’s by far one of my favorites, if not my all-time favorite blouse. My cowboy boots have been around since last year but I’m learning new ways to rock them. They are very heavy, quite the authentic “Hecho en Mexico” cowboy boots.

Anyone notice that my hair is completely DARK? Ya, I’m still getting used to it. BUHH. But happily, my fall hair is back; buns and bangs. This is one of all-time favorite hair styles I’ve done since junior high. I can’t wait for this Indian Summer to be over so I won’t have to worry about sweaty bangs. That’s the nastiest.

I also wanted to address something that I’ve had a lot of people asking me. Back in July, I made an announcement that I was purchasing the current store I managed and was going to re-launch in August. Unfortunately, due to a lack of communication and commitment, I couldn’t go through with it. It was definitely not my choice. It has and will always be my dream to own my own store but that dream has been put on hold. The way I see it, if I had my store, I would of never been able to go to New York and make all the connections I’ve made. I’m blessed with the sense to move on and move forward. Thank you to all of your continuous support on my journey. It’s great to know I have such a supportive and emotional involved group of readers. Thank you all so much.

There will be a few more New York posts-just going through the rest and editing.

Photos by my mama

The blogging phenomenon has hit hard this year, giving us more opportunities to launch a career from our blogs and/or because of our blogs. Unfortunately, there is no guide, no rulebook and no order in what we should do as bloggers.

It’s been almost a year since I started Profresh Style, on October 26th, and I’ve decided to take my blog to the next step and start affiliating. If you’ve been following my blog since the beginning, you know that I never took my blog seriously in the sense that I wanted to make money or have a particular focus. Yet, after meeting amazing bloggers with such drive and focus in New York, it really hit home for me that taking my blog seriously is not only a service to myself but for other bloggers. Vanessa, of The Haute Pursuit, gave a great quote on her Facebook a while back saying:

“when you allow someone to low-ball you, you are effectively getting ALL OF US low-balled. it just makes something simple an up-hill battle.”

and she’s right. So, I decided to take action now that I feel comfortable with my stats. I’m not only dishing out some tips but I’m giving you a look at what I’m doing to take my blog to the next level.

• Find a focus. I feel this gives you a one-up on a strong following. People will know to go to your blog for the certain things you blog about. My focus for my blog is my personal journey. I dropped out of college a long, long time ago because I never felt you can teach someone style and fashion unless you’re becoming a designer. That’s a whole separate ballgame. I hope people follow my blog to keep up with my journey. My style is ever-evolving and my ventures get more and more intense. My new focus is my drive to connect.
• Improve the quality of your work. My blog started out with photos from my point-and-shoot with a self-timer. When my ex and I moved in together, he became my photographer. However, I was never satisfied with the quality of the shots or the way the images were framed and shot. To blame was my camera and also, my amateur photographers (myself and my ex). Not only were my photos not to my liking, but I blabbered on with no organized text format. Now, I’ve been using my mom’s DSLR and shooting with more of a focus and purpose-not just an assortment of shots collaborated that make a post. I’m in hopes to get my own DSLR and FlipCam soon so that my content can be consistent of high quality for you all.
• Choose a host and server that gives you the freedom to edit. I couldn’t do the actions in the CSS coding that I’d of liked to on Typepad. Since the beginning of this month, I’m now being hosted by DreamHost and served by WordPress.org. It’s a dream. I have all the access and control I want to create a layout that’s clean and appealing to me and hopefully, to my readers. I’ll also be purchasing the Thesis theme to up the ante of the control. Thesis is one of the best themes you could invest in-giving you control without having to create custom CSS. Great blogs like Post.Fashionism and The Coveted use this theme.

• Take the time to create eye-catching business cards. I use Moo.com. I love the way the cards come out. I use the mini-moos and it’s just the right size to put all my information on there. Many people do it differently. Kristina from Pretty, Shiny, Sparkly did a pretty good run-down of the Moo cards.

Unfortunately when I moved servers, Typepad owned my images so I can only show you the post, sans images. The information I find important to put on the card, as well as a clean, minimalist layout are:

• • Name (to reference who you are)
  • Title (I find this very important because they can understand why you worth contacting. I have Style Blogger & Consultant.)
  • Web address (to know why they even have your business card in the first place)
  • Your BEST contact (I originally had both phone # & email but my # changes constantly so I’ve edited them to just say my email to my blog.
    • On a side note, I am a strong believer in having your business email as your domain name. For example, christina@profreshstyle.com vs profreshstyle@gmail.com. I feel that it shows a more professional and business-like aspect to have your domain name as the email url. This is just one of my OCD trips. Don’t mind me.
  • Optional: I know some people put their twitter or their alternative email. However, I feel that too many lines on a business card can be too wordy. It reads like an excerpt of your blog, not a “to the point, straight shooter” card.
• The biggie-making money. I haven’t made money from my blog but am going to start with advertising at the beginning of October. I had a great conversation with Erin of CaliVintage, as I feel she’s really taken the business of blogging by the balls; paving the way for up and coming bloggers. Her tips were wise and taken well. What I’m working on is a simple breakdown of the advertising options, my stats via Google Analytics and the simple reasons as to why advertising with Profresh Style could be worth the dollar. As of October 1st, I’ll be looking for advertisers that will fit the aesthetic of Profresh Style-I really want to work with independents on the up-and-coming for advertising. I don’t think that it’s wrong to have advertisers as I used to think before. Now, I believe there is a tasteful way to have bloggers work with companies to advertise for them, making everyone happy including the readers.

Some options for a partnership with companies include guest blog posts, creating blogs for companies, heading up their social media, the obvious ad space on your blog, etc. There are, if you are creative, so many ways to create a revenue.

• Social media is your friend. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, FriendFeed, Youtube, 4Sq-all these are your friends in networking. The bigger you make your network, the more places to share your blog. I find that Twitter, Facebook & Youtube really contribute to the success of my blog. I believe in the force of networking. I also believe that the strongest form of networking is in person. I would recommend taking advantage of any party, any event, anything where taking about your blog is appropriate, do so. Don’t be shy-it could only lead to more exposure.

Here are other great posts on the business of blogging:

• Heart IFB
• Grit & Glamour
• B of F (Great blog for business in blogging in general)
• Pretty Shiny Sparkly
• Business Blogging

If you’ve got a great post on business of blogging, please comment so I can post your story!

I do hope these tips help in your business of blogging. I’m on my way there and am really eager to share results. Speaking of which, I’ve got a great post coming on sharing. Stay tuned for that.

Subscribe to Profresh Style by Email

Subscribe in a reader

Top image by Weheartit

xx,

Christina

Lincoln Center was studded with many industry folks including some of our favorite editors, stylists, models & bloggers. Yes, I included bloggers as insiders because, guess what, we are! I hung out with Jess of Bits of Banter and her friend, Nando, before we all had to depart to head to shows. Nando really helped me out as far as gathering photos for this post for both AMEX/IFB and my blog.

We ran into so many people-it was great. Anyone you’ve ever wanted to meet in the industry, walked past you in a nanosecond and then some. Most were sweet and posed for pictures…most.

The above photo is of the lovely bloggers from all over:

Lucrecia of Fashion is Poison • Taghrid of Taghrid • Nadia of Frou Frouu • Aimee of Song of Style

The gorgeous and serious-faced Editor-in-Chief of French Vogue, Carine Roitfeld. She was quite the hilarious one when she strolled through the hall in Lincoln Center. She had this struck where she threw her back backwards and her arms kind of flared about. It was by far one of the most awkward walks I’ve seen. But really, come on, She’s CARINE ROITFELD. You can’t diss this queen.

Keisha Whitiker (isn’t she about to be a porn star?! Or am I completely wrong on that) and Philip Bloch. Have you seen his site though? Seriously, so hilarious. I’m not sure if it’s intentional or not.

The sexy yet EXTREMELY short Omarion. Really, this fool had to of been 5’3″.

I swear, I know this hot mess of a man but I can not for the life of me remember his name. I digged his color concept but not so much the flooding yet baggy yet pressed khakis.

Not sure who he is but really, the beard? I couldn’t get enough. It was quite the look and he pulled it off well.

The VP of Visual Merchandising for Bergdorf Goodman Linda Fargo. She rocked the kitten heel well but I doubt I’ll ever be able to pull them off…again. Yes, I rocked them way back when in high school. God, it gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

I’m sure you all recognize this stylist and her husband. For all that don’t (and shall be slapped in the face for such lack of exposure to American culture), they are Rachel Zoe & her husband Roger. She actually looked nice in person-I had doubts from seeing her photos and watching The Rachel Zoe Project. Her hair was perfectly coiffed and looked “normal”.

For all my blogging buddies, I’m sure you all recognize these pairings. If not, and you aren’t to blame, we have Colin & Rumi from Fashion Toast, the man in the 1990′s ski sweater is recognizable-I just can’t put my figure on it, and of course, BryanBoy. I believe they had just come out of the Rebecca Minkoff show because Rumi’s hair looked exactly the same as in the show. The poor gal, she looked so exhausted. Geezus, give this girl a break in the Bahamas somewhere.

This adorable young thing is Keiko Lynn. Her blog is quite adorable and her style is even more. Before I met her, her and I were in contact for the IFB conference for help via email. I wasn’t sure what she’d be like. You know how you put something in your mind of how something will act like, talk like, etc. before you meet them-well, that’s what I was doing. She’s very sweet and not shy which I thought would be the case. Her attitude and demeanor made me really want to be a true follower her blog.

These boys are Italian, no? I recognize their faces but unfortunately I couldn’t find a thing on them on Style.com or anywhere else. Bummed because these two quite possibly could be among my favorites of NYFW.

This “lovely” woman is Vogue writer, Stephanie La Cava. Did you know she had a lookbook.nu page? I’m quite sure she didn’t create one herself but I do find it rather interesting. She’s coming out with a book “soon”…hmph. We’ll see. Everyone is a writer/blogger/stylist these days huh? Geezus.

haha. Don’t mind the circle over the poor girl’s face. I just thought since it’s not about her, why show it? Anyhow, look at the lovely Fashion Director for Elle, Nina Garcia. Pregnant and glowing she was.

Please meet Nadia of Frou Frouu. This gorgeously tall woman is a blogger from overseas cultivating quite a look that drew people from all over taking photos at Lincoln Center. I met her at the IFB Conference and she was quite lovely as well as her brother Hassan.

Sexy she is, meet Aimee of Song of Style. This lovely lady worked this look. We both had the sheer look going on. (Spy me in the background? :) I couldn’t find any photos of me wearing this look. Anyone have some I could post and credit you? )

My NYFW posts aren’t done yet. A few left to go. I hope you all are enjoying the coverage!

Photo Credit: Nando Alvarez & Jessica Conatser

The lovely ladies from SF and I came together to enjoy a blogger meetup from this post and we ended up meeting in Times Square and luckily, got photos together. It was great to have us come together from a place of familiarity to what I felt was very unknown. These girls are amazing and if you haven’t checked them out (which I’m sure you already have), do so now.

(l to r: Liz of Late Afternoon, Jennie of Going West, Aimee of Song of Style, myself, Christina of It’s Christina Ly)

Thanks to Aimee taking all the group photos and to Tony Wang for my solo!

better pictures of what I wore coming soon in a huge post!

Meet my icon, Shelly Bromfield. The first time I heard of her was on Stylelikeu.com and watching her interview was sensational (see video below). Shelly was and is still a vibrant and amazing woman to be around. I was so nervous to approach her at the Harpers Bazaar Accessories Event at Lincoln Center…but I did it. I’m so happy I did-she was receptive and inviting. We talked for a few and she was adorable. She talked to me about this man she met the night before (pictured below, who’s quite handsome I might add) and we talked about what I do. That got us going so we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses as well as snapping pictures on her iPhone and my camera (thx to Jennie for that!)

There are big plans in the making. I’ll be sure to let you all know!

Why is she my icon you might ask? Well, her simplicity in clothing and her extravagance with her jewelry. Jewelry is my thing. If I could design my own line, I would. Not only does she know how to seamlessly pile on jewelry but her aesthetic is always the same which I can admire. She only wears black, leopard, muslin with tons and tons of jewelry. I could imagine listening to days and days of the stories on her jewelry.

What I wore that day:

H&M lace shorts | vintage blazer turned blouse | DIY leopard braided necklace | the usual vintage jewelry | my best Lex’s bag | Pierre Hardy for Gap bow wedges

(I realize now I didn’t take ANY outfit shots. So, I’m compiling shots people have sent me from taking photos for a huge blog post on what I wore)

We were in deep conversation and I must say that she is quite the hilarious woman. Seriously, I could listen to her forever.

Her gorgeous man candy of course.

Have you ever met your icon-the person that embodies who you’d like to be? Tell me your experience.