HALP

I’m doing an interview with this lil blog and Kelsey wants to know “Best question you have been asked on ESB?”

HOW DO I CHOOSE

It would be easier if she had asked me “What’s the best answer you’ve given on ESB?” (I’m partial to this one and this one and this one. My friend J is a big fan of this one.)

Anyhoo.... A virtual slice of pie will be yours if you submit your faves below.


(Pie box DIY via Emma Stefan via A Subtle Revelry)

oh look, it's monday again.

I suddenly find that my feed reader is empty.

Is no one blogging anymore? Where are all the good blogs??

Also:

Stream the new Beck album over here. It is super soundtrack-y and terrific.

Who binge-watched House of Cards this weekend? I had to give up halfway in. I so wanted it to be good but RAYMOND TUSK RAYMOND TUSK RAYMOND TUSK. Who gives a shit. (And the fucking lighting was driving me bananas.)

I found your wedding wrap. It comes in four colors !

I don’t know where this blog is going.

This morning I coded your basic standard “Dear ESB: Can I pull off these Jeffrey Campbell booties?”* and it filled me [with self-hatred] [with dread] [with... nothing]. It’s a new year, and I can’t bear to post the same old shit.

And yet.

I’m not ready to wipe myself off the face of the internet.

So. For 2014, I’m telling myself: Post whenever you feel like it, and don't feel guilty when you don't feel like it. Let the blog become something else, if it wants to. [Need one more sentence here to complete rule of threes.]



Louis Vuitton via Vaunte via Pennyweight
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*NOT WITH THAT DRESS, LADYPANTS

Hello, friends.

I feel like I owe you a real post.

Like, something more than yet another Dear ESB (though there are plenty of those coming... don't worry).

Should I fill you in on what I've been doing? Just finished a casting gig for that pretty cool fashion-related reality TV show. Pitching one film project, madly drafting a new draft of another.

Life is pretty good, you guys. Lately I've been feeling like an honest-to-god writer. (Though I'm breaking one of my own rules by talking about it here. Rule #10: Stop talking about writing and write.)

Weirdly, when things are going well in other realms, it makes me clam up on the interwebs. I'm always more inclined to blog when I'm avoiding doing something else.

But there's nothing to avoid at the moment. There's just me, tapping away on my laptop. Watching American Horror Story: Coven with my adorable husband. Making lentil soup. Going to yoga.

Whoops I just broke another rule: DON'T BE THAT ASSHOLE WHO TALKS ABOUT GOING TO YOGA




OMIGOD I'M AN ASSHOLE. I'M A BORING BORING ASSHOLE



























You are all unsubscribing right now, aren't you?? Shit.

Nancy Fouts via The Independent

BARNEYS STOLE MY FRIDAY

I just spent the entire day working up a guest post for the Barneys blog. (Not that I'm complaining or anything but PHEW! there's a lot of product to dig through.)

These items didn't quite make the cut, though now that I'm pasting them up I can't think why.

Now I'm second-guessing the whole thing. FML.

tgif?

Dresses (left to right): Lisa Perry, L'Agence, Narciso Rodriguez

Shoes (left to right): Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik

Fare thee well, Anonymous.

I really didn't want to do this. I've been avoiding this forevs.

But.

I just disabled anonymous comments.

This was the last straw.

Most of the offers for fake vagina, Loans for Bad Credit and 49rs jersey cheap just go straight through to my inbox and don't hit the blog.... But as Rob pointed out, if you subscribe to comments they go straight to your inbox too. And lately the ol spambots are getting way out of hand.

I really really love all you anons (no, really), but something had to give. Please just create a silly fake profile name for yourself and keep on keepin on, mkay?

♥


SKY FACE by LARISSA HAILY AGUADO

pin-o-RAMA

Every once in a while when I'm procrastinating, I do a little "market research" on pinterest.

If you type: http://pinterest.com/source/eastsidebride.com (but insert your own url at the end, obvs) you'll get a quick overview of what people are pinning.

There are two images from this here blog that keep coming up over and over: This adorbz pair of budget-ish sandals, and this seeeelammin turquoise ring.

Weird, right? 

I mean, not weird. But I guess I'm always hoping ppl will pin images like this. (They don't.)

Anyhoo.

Thought you should know the Jeffrey Campbell sandals are avail at Nordstrom in red and black.

(And they're on sale over at UO in white.)

You're on your own with the vintage turquoise. KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED. 

Or: Here are a few lovely modern options....

(Four Square Turquoise Ring from Mociun)

(Aili Tulum Ring from Catbird)

(Rad Turquoise Ring from Scosha)

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*All credit goes to Bri for the tip.

nerd alert

Did you know you can do a REVERSE Google Image search?

Ever since I read this post, I've tried to be extra diligent about crediting every photo I publish on the blog. (A link back to Pinterest is not an acceptable photo credit, ladies.)

But. It's much easier to find great images on the internet than it is to figure out who shot them.

Say you come upon an photo on Pinterest and the photographer isn't credited....

And when you click through you just hit the home page of a blog or (worse) a Tumblr page where THE PHOTOGRAPHER ISN'T CREDITED.

Drag the image straight off Pinterest or Tumblr or wherever you found it and drop it into Google Images.

This takes a little jiggering, but once you get the hang of it, it's very satisfying. Check out the results:

Not only did I find the name of the photographer and the original source, I found a bunch more images from the same shoot.

Woohoo!

Note: The above instructions are for Mac users. On a PC, I suspect you would need to first download the image, then upload it to Google Images by clicking the tiny camera icon

and choosing the "Upload an image" feature.

Will someone test this out for me?

Photo at top: Imogen Morris Clarke by Max Doyle for Vogue Australia March 2012 via Ginny Branch Stelling via Luisa Norbis via Zimbio

If you'll indulge me....

I used to share weird personal stuff on the blog.

You know, stuff about dirty dishes and my struggle with our finances and how sometimes my husband sleeps on the couch.

And then I went "pro" and readership went up and somewhere along the line I stopped sharing so much. I guess I worry that y'all are just here for the wedding snark and you have no interest in the rest of it.

But. I really liked the blog when I was putting myself out there. The posts that I am most afraid to publish always turn out to be the most gratifying.

And so, if you'll indulge me, I think I'll try to get a little more personal again.

Up next: An ode to eye cream

(You think I'm kidding??)

Photo: Vivienne Westwood by Juergen Teller

Bloggers

By Gabriela Herman

7 1/2 blog posts i should have posted

i've been cheating, you guys. (and also: cheating you guys.) not only have i put up a dear esb EVERY DAY for the last week,* i've put up all these other reader letters, which are rad, but sort of allow me to cop out and escape from actually writing anything.

here's a short list of posts i OUGHT TO HAVE written while in nyc:

1. When You Reach Your "Mid-Thirties" You Will Lose Your Tolerance For Alcohol

2. Everything I Do That Annoys My Husband, I Learned From My Mom

2a. My Mom Is Pretty Fucking Cool

3. I Think My Hasbeens Un-Broke Themselves In or The Quest For Granny Sandals

4. Driving a Cargo Van Through the West Village: More Fun Than You Might Think!

5. An Open Letter to My Five-Years-Ago-Self or You didn't have time to wash that pan before you packed it? REALLY?

6. My Month Without High-Speed Internet. Or Even Reliable Internet. (Say "Why didn't you go to Starbucks?" and you lose a testicle.)

7. WHERE THE EFF IS MY HUSBAND? AND WHY DID I THINK IT WAS COOL TO LEAVE HIM BEHIND FOR THIRTY-THREE WHOLE DAYS??

and now i will publish this post via the miraculous high-speed internet in the jetblue terminal, and board my plane for los angeles.

xoxo,
me

(Cacharel Spring 2011 via Sara Williams via seesaw via The cherry blossom girl)
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*How else can I stem the tide?

Guess who sourced that photo for me?

Kidchamp has superpowers. No, really. REVERSE IMAGE SEARCH may just change my life.

Also, I would like to have the shrug pictured above. Please.

(This entire shoot Mario Testino did for Vogue UK is amazeballs.)

omg, you guys

i am pooped.

this week i spent six 13-hour days working on a movie,* and i've got six more days to go. so i'm coding my little brains out trying to sched posts for you guys. (purely for selfish reasons, you understand. if i didn't have your comments to read throughout the day when i duck into the bathroom to pee, i'd go beezonkers.)

Photo by Cary Tijerina
______________________________

*i'm not directing this one -- i'm script supervising, which basically means it's my job to be the obsessive-compulsive on set.

check me out

I've got a guest column over on 100 Layer Cake today. Sounds fancy, right?

I have to admit I'm a little intimidated to be there. So far the readers are very.... quiet.

p.s. Did I mention it's about shoes?

(Photo by Max Wanger via, um, 100 Layer Cake)

You know your blog is taking over your life when:

You can't make any kind of major decision without writing yourself a Dear ESB in your head.

Dear East Side Bride,

What would I do?

love,
Me

(woolgathering & miscellany via geneticmutations)

So I'm on a film shoot yesterday up in the Angeles National Forest,* and I somehow find myself confessing to the makeup guy that I'm a fucking wedding blogger.  Not something I generally run around bragging about in meatspace.

Maybe I was going through withdrawal due to the lack of INTERNET ACCESS? I'm holding my iphone in my hand all day long, using the stopwatch and snapping continuity photos, but I can't even take a peek at twitter.

Anyhoo, beware makeup people. Even the badass tattooed ones who specialize in stab wounds and blood spatter. They're like therapist/hairdresser/snake charmers, the way they get you to confess all your secrets before you even know what's happening to you. 

*I was up there all week, and it is gorgeous, just fyi.

(Photo by Where's Will?)

I miss being anonymous. I mean really anonymous. I can't bitch about anything that's actually going on in my life because I never know who's gonna read the blog.

For example, H-town would probably get really pissed if I told you that he yelled at me for throwing away some really manky sliced turkey from Whole Foods because I've been trying to save money by doing most of the grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. WTF does one thing have to do with other? I should get food poisoning from some turkey that was manufacturing its own glue right there on the wax paper just because it happened to be overpriced when I bought it??

Anyhoo. From here on out you can find me at crymeariver.blogspot.com

Image courtesy of Yimmys Yayo

Spring Cleaning

You guys? I'm doing away with my crusty old blogroll.

It's been nagging at me for a while now. There are just too many blogs I dig for me to pick favorites, and ignoring the blogroll (I.E. never updating it) was not a solution.

PHEW. That felt good

Maybe I'll follow Chelsea's lead and start featuring the occasional blog of the week. Maybe.

p.s. Cevd is doing some actual spring cleaning. Anyone want a yudu?

(Another William Eggleston photo found here)

DEAR ESB: How do you get readers?

 
Now that I've started a blog, I'm realizing garnering a readership is not an easy task. I spend a lot of time and energy on the blog, but I don't want to turn out like this dude, if you catch my drift.

I'm not doing this to monetize, but blogging is a two-way conversation and right now I think I'm mostly talking to myself. Which leads to my questions: how long did it take you to get a readership going and how do you get readers? Do you have to go to find readers or is it more of a matter of having good content & readers will find you? If it's the latter, how do you know you're heading in the right/wrong direction if no one's commenting? How do you encourage people to share ideas, engage, and ask questions?

Ann

*****

I blogged for several months before I had any readers, and it was almost a year before I saw a significant spike. I dunno if that will make you feel better or worse.

Here's the best piece of advice I can give you: comment on other blogs. And say more than "Oooh! Pretty!" Have an opinion. If your comments are helpful or funny or even snarky, people will click through to your blog. Don't wait around for them to find you -- you need to give em a trail.

Don't try to force reader engagement. Just write good stuff. Write posts that you would like to read. And don't be afraid to have an opinion. (Did I say that already?)

Image via Yimmys Yayo. Where else do I get disco balls?

the zen of blogging

I've been banging my head against my google reader for the past two hours trying to formulate a post. Nada. I should know better than to force it.

And so I give you this pile of shoes. For no reason whatsoever.

Image courtesy of myvintagevogue, and thanks once again to Christa! (You know I love you even when I don't return your email... Right?)