It’s been 10 years!

fall outfits ideas

Twirling in September 2018

It’s been 10 years!!

OMG!!! Bay Area Fashionista has been online for ten years! Thank you so much for being on this ride with me for the past ten years. Whether you have been here since the beginning, or just found me today, thank you for being here! I love all of your comments, feedback, emails, DM’s, and more, over the past ten years. I love having conversations with you, and sharing my life and love of fashion with you. You have kept me going, and I am forever grateful!

My first fashion week with my friends Rita and Katie. I didn’t bring flats, I was such a rookie. Those heels killed my feet-I think you can see my pain in this photo!! Sept. 2013

(picture taken with my blackberry, don’t laugh!)

If you have been here awhile, you might remember I wrote more in a blogzine/editorial format in the early years. I was coming off freelance writing for magazines, and other types of publications, around the country, on the topics of fashion and beauty. I wrote in third person! It took me roughly two years to switch to first person; and that was a hard switch for me!! haha

Meeting the stars of “Silicon Valley” in October 2013 at the 7 for all Mankind store opening party at Valley Fair

(photo taken with an iPad mini! haha, don’t laugh too hard)

I also never put public photos of myself on the Internet. I don’t think you saw me until 2012; but I could be wrong. I’m a little introverted, so putting photos of myself on the Internet was a weird thing to think about, but I have to tell you, the industry started to evolve, and outfit photos started to be more interesting to people than trend reports.

It was hard putting myself on the Internet. I was fearful of looking narcissistic, and I was afraid of people making fun of me. I’m not the thinnest girl on the block, nor the prettiest, so I wasn’t sure what people would say.  It’s amazing how supportive the blogging community can be, as well as you the readers! Thank you for not ridiculing me, and thank you for supporting me as my blog evolved from a blogzine, to a style blog. You’re the best!!!

When it comes to working with brands, I learned over the years that less is more. I have scaled back on collaborations in the past two years, and I try to keep them down to one or two per month. My blog is very organic, and I don’t want to mess with that.

When I met Laura Adney from Have Need Want at fashion week, February 2015. (It was 3 degrees outside!)

It has been so much fun sharing my knowledge and love of fashion with you on my own platform; not for a magazine editor, a newspaper editor, or the like. It’s so much fun to write about what moves me, and what moves you! I love how you all share my passion for Chanel nail polish, and my quest for ultimate IT bag. I love how you enjoy incorporating trends, yet enjoy maintaining a timeless look. You’re my people, and I’m so excited we have found each other!

Let’s chat about how photography on blogs has changed over the years! My first photos on the blog were taken with my blackberry. haha, they were pretty bad. I bought a point-and-shoot camera in 2011, then in 2013, I upgraded to a DSLR. Now, I am back with a point-and-shoot, but it’s a fancy one which goes into manual mode and does everything a DSLR does. How’s that for technology taking me almost full circle?!

Dawn from Fashion Should Be Fun and I getting swarmed by photographers at fashion week February 2018

You can check out my first capsule wardrobe post here, although, I wasn’t using the word “capsule” yet. It wasn’t really a thing yet!

It’s amazing to think about how blogging has evolved over the past ten years. It started out with just a blog. The website was everything. Twitter and Facebook were there, but not as important as the website; and getting ranked in Google!

Fast forward ten years, so many bloggers have abandoned their websites for Instagram. To be frank, I prefer my website. So while I am on Instagram, my website is what I love to maintain, update, and keep building. I hope you love the website too. I have put hundreds of hours into it’s design and upkeep. If you have design feedback, or want to to see certain tweaks, feel free to let me know!

Kali from In-Spades Blog and I at fashion week in September 2019

Blogging has also enabled me to meet so many new friends over the years. Laura, Dawn, Kali, and Alison are all friends I have met through blogging, and it has been so nice adding them to my life, and our sharing our experiences. It’s hard to meet good people, but I found them in blogging! Love that!

Thank you for reading here all these years, and supporting me so this can be my work-at-home, full time job! It enables me to be there for my kids, and follow my fashion passion! Your support has grown my traffic, enabled me to attend the rewardStyle conference, get invitations to fashion week, and so much more! I cannot thank you enough for being here. I hope you stick around another ten years! I plan to!

As blogging evolves, so has my content. While I started out with talking about IT items and trends, my blog has evolved to include style, runway reports, and beauty reviews. As we move into the new decade, look for more style reports, beauty reviews, IT items, and capsule wardrobes. Less is more, and consumption is going down, so capsule wardrobes are much more “on trend” than fast fashion and replacing one’s wardrobe every season. Look for more sustainable ways to curate your closet as opposed to tossing out last season’s items and purchasing new.

Thank you so much for your support!

XOXO
Cathy

how to use the liketoknow.it app

Hanging out with Alison from Wardrobe Oxygen at the rewardStyle conference April 2017

Winter 2020 beauty bag

winter 2020 beauty bag

New in my winter 2020 beauty bag from top left: Glossier Moisturizing Moon Mask  / Garnier Water Rose gel / Glossier Generation G sheer matter lipstick (color shown is “Cake” I have previously purchased in “Like” love this lipstick!)/ Glossier Boy Brow / Glossier Lidstar / black face towel by Chanel / Glossier Futuredew / Glossier Super Bounce  / Glossier facial cleanser / Garnier water rose moisturizer cream /

New year, new beauty! As you know, I am a huge fan of Garnier’s products, so when they sent me a fw new products for the new year, I was excited! If you have been following, you may remember my daughter recently introduced me to Glossier. When they reached out to see if I would like to try a few new products for the new year, I jumped at the chance! And yes, my daughter keeps trying to steal my new Glossier products from my beauty bag! haha

In the fall season, I was wearing Glossier’s Generation G sheer matte lipstick in “Like” which I purchased when my daughter went on a Glossier shopping spree. For winter, I have added “Cake” to my beauty bag which is a little bit darker, but still in line with my love for lighter pink hues. This is a great color!

The winter season causes dry skin due to indoor heaters, and less humidity in the air outside. I love adding moisture with Garnier’s water rose cream.  I use this cream at night since I wear spf during the day. It adds the moisture I need in my skin which has been robbed by winter!

Sometimes moisture cream alone cannot repair dry skin; especially for those of us who are GenX, and are experiencing maturing skin. I love Glossier’s Superbounce which contains hyaluronic acid and reinvigorates my skin. I’m kind of addicted to it!!

You might be wondering why my new face towel is so chi-chi. haha, well, it goes on my face. So while my bath towels might be from more affordable brands, the towel I use to wash my face needs to be soft, luxurious, and something which does not contribute to wrinkles. So yes, it’s Chanel.

Shop what’s new in winter 2020 beauty bag:

Which products are new in your winter 2020 beauty bag?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy

spring 2020 lipstick

Wall art in Napa

wall art napa cia wall art oxbow public market sushinapa outfit ideas winter

wearing: blue and silver earrings / lipstick / black knit turtleneck / blue scarf / long coat (under $200!) / black belt / skinny jeans / nail polish / black satchel / charcoal boots /

First off, how did we do with nighttime photography? I never take photos at night. I love bright, daytime shade; which is easy lighting for pictures. We played with the settings on the camera, and while these aren’t the best photos we have ever taken, I feel like they came out pretty good. Maybe a little less crisp than I’d like. . .but they work. . .I think?? haha What do you think?

During our family road trip to Napa with the kids, we stopped into Oxbow Public Market for dinner. I had never been to a public market setting before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It was a bustling marketplace filled with specialty food shop, mall-style food counters, and ice cream! It was sensory overload as two of my kids settled for pizza since they could not decide what to eat. My husband, and middle child settled on sushi, which I chose too. Like a crowded day at the mall, one of us hovered in the seating area until a table opened up which could seat five, while the others went to purchase our food. It worked well! I snapped up a table, and my food was brought to me by my family. Love that!

The sushi was good, and my husband also picked up a beer at the brewery located inside Oxbow. After we all finished eating, we walked around the market to see what else was there. I found The Olive Presse which is an olive oil company located in Sonoma. I have had their olive oil before, and know it’s hard to find, so I purchased a ton of it! I highly recommend the mandarin orange olive oil; yum!

We also found ice cream, also made locally. I enjoyed an egg nog milkshake while my kids all delved into a sundae, or a scoop of their favorite flavor. The ice cream was really good, I highly recommend it! We had lost our seats while walking around, so we ended up sitting outside to eat our ice cream; despite the fact that it was about 40 degrees outside. Brrr! We had fun anyway!

As we were sitting outside, we noticed the wall art on the CIA at Copia which was situated across the parking lot from Oxbow Public Market. After we finished our ice cream, we decided to try our hand at nighttime photography and take pictures of each other in front of this wall, after all, we loved the colors!

We had to adjust the camera quite a bit, but it was fun, and we got fairly good shots! Unfortunately CIA Copia was closed, so we were not able to peek inside. We will save that tour for next time we are in Napa!

Shop my Napa dinner outfit:

Have you been to Oxbow Public Market, or any other public marketplace? Which ones, and what did you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO
Cathy

napa street style