Austin’s Indiana

Indiana Adams, Adored Austin

      Fashion and decor aficionado Indiana Adams started her blog Adored Austin after relocating in Austin as a college grad from California.  Her line of work as an actress and writter  keeps her heavily invovled with trendy cloths and hip styles which feed her eager appetite for the newest and best fashion and decor in Austin.  With her certain dream of becoming a professional columnist, the  popular Adored Austin blog is already helping pave that road.  With almost 10 posts a week Indiana’s blog is the go to place for all the best fashion, style, decor and Austin event tips in the 512.  Enjoy her while you can Austin, she is on the fashion train to the top.

 

1) What inspired you to start your own blog?
I first started a personal blog way back in 1999 when I was beta testing Blogger in college. When I moved to Austin and started acting, I started a blog detailing my funny audition stories and tales from set. However, someone pointed out to me that this could be bad for business, so I killed it and started a silly blog with the intention to focus on Austin fashion and affordable style.

2) Many people blog for different reasons. What is your ultimate goal as a blogger?
I hope to use my blog as a catalyst for greater things. I’d love to marry my affinity for shopping with my love for performing and writing. My ultimate goals include parlaying Adored Austin into a fun, weekly news segment and a web series. I would be honored to become a staff contributor or columnist for a local or national publication.

3) How long did you think about it before you started blogging and what was the catalyst for your first post?
I started toying with the idea in the winter of 2008 but didn’t launch until the summer of 2009. There was no grand scheme to the first post. I had just had jaw surgery so I was on an acting hiatus and bored. Yes. I think boredom was the motivating factor for the inaugural post.  

4) What do you hope readers take away from reading your blogs?
My blog is not high journalism nor is it objective commentary. It’s simply one woman’s take on style in her city. I write exactly how I talk to my closest friends, and I don’t shy away from making fun of myself or fashion, in general. I hope that my readers get a true sense of who I really am and how wonderful and eclectic this city is.

5) What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of maintaining a blog? How do you choose to address it?
I currently average ten posts per week, all with original photos and/ or video which means I log an insane amount of hours working on Adored Austin. In the year that I’ve been doing this, I haven’t felt like I’ve run out of things to say, but I do sometimes feel like I don’t have enough hours in the week to get everything done that I want to get done. Luckily, I have an amazing, loyal, vocal group of readers who I truly consider to be friends. The connections I’ve made with people all over the country (and all over the world) truly motivates me to keep striving to make Adored Austin an enjoyable, easy read.

6) What other blogs do you enjoy reading and why?
I have over 200 personal style blogs in my Google reader. Bananas? Yes, but I really enjoy browsing them because I find that women who do these sort of blogs are far more inspiring than the models in fashion spreads in glossy magazines.

Other blogs I quite enjoy: Cute Overload- http://cuteoverload.com/ and Post Secret- http://postsecret.blogspot.com/. Lauren at Hipstercrite wins my vote for funniest, local, personal blog (http://hipstercrite.blogspot.com/). She is always a delight!

7) If you could narrow it down to one answer, what do you love the most about Austin? Why?
I love that Austin is a big city with lots to do but still has that small town mentality about it. I moved here on a Wednesday and had help finding a job by Friday. I can’t go to the grocery store or a restaurant without seeing someone I know. My neighbors and church friends loan me things and offer to help with home projects. The people truly make this a wonderful place to live.

How has blogging changed your life?
Doing Adored Austin has given me the amazing, humbling blessing of being able to have connections with people all over the world. I personally get over 300 emails every week, ranging from simple things like, “I saw this at the store and thought of you!” to “I’m thinking about moving to Austin, any advice?” I never would have imagined that doing a blog would allow me the opportunity to personally connect with so many people.

9) Are there other blogs/websites do you maintain?
I maintain IndianaAdams.com for my acting and writing work, but it remains static. Aside from my fashion blog Adored Austin, I have a pregnancy blog (that will eventually become a mom blog) as well as an online journal that addresses what I’m thinking through spiritually.

10) Has the city of Austin brought you any local advantages or disadvantages that affect your blog?
I get invited to a fair amount of fashion events which is sweet, and whenever I go out, I usually meet someone who’s like, “Hi! I read your blog!” This is usually a wonderful surprise, but one time I did meet someone that was like, “Hi! I read your blog, and um… didn’t you wear that yesterday?” Haha! Busted!

11)  Do you have a favorite post on your blog.
One thing that I like about my blog and what I think sets me apart from the other women who do what I do is the fact that from the get-go I have incorporated fun, short, video blogs. I’m quite proud (of most) of them: http://www.adoredaustin.com/search/label/videos

Two popular entries that I still get emails and comments about are my tirade against Nike shorts (http://www.adoredaustin.com/2010/01/no-nike-shorts-no-nike-shorts.html) and the post in which I make fun of the way some ridiculous fashion bloggers dress (http://www.adoredaustin.com/2010/06/am-i-getting-too-old-for-this.html).

12)  Have you had any interesting reactions from your blog (either on the internet or in real life)
Whenever I meet readers in the wild, they always say, “I promise I’m not a stalker, but I wanted to say hi. I read your blog.” I wonder why everyone thinks that by reading someone’s personal blog, that makes you stalker-esque? I promise that I will only think you’re a stalker if I catch you on my front porch at 2 a.m.

This is Lysse’s Life.

Austin Is Burning

How has blogging changed your life?

Team Chickster

Shelby, Cynthia, and Kelly, a dynamic Austin trio with a love for magazines and a passion for fun.  Having met through Buffy the Vampire Slayer conversations and drinking mimosas this match made in heaven trio ventured out on October 2009 to create their own magazine blog,  Chickster.   Dedicated to helping people all over Austin get the best out of this hip city by posting fun and sometimes free stuff going on around city.  Even though, this is only the first step in having a published magazine, the city of Austin is already benefiting from this charismatic team.  We will wait in anticipation for the certain success this team will achieve in the future.

 

1) What inspired you to start your own blog?

(Kelly Lindner): “I wanted a place where I could write about things I was interested in that often fell outside of the scope of what I’m expected to write for my day job or even sometimes my freelance work.” (Shelby O’Neill): As girls of a certain age and certain interests in Austin, we wanted a place to write and read about the kinds of things we were interested, from chick flicks to good happy hour deals to reviews of any kind. (Cynthia): I just like to write. 

2) Many people blog for different reasons. What is your ultimate goal as a blogger?

 (Kelly): “My goal as a blogger is to inform people about things they may be missing around town. Free things. Fun things. Possibly little-known-about things that aren’t always in the news. Possibly because there’s too many for the traditional media outlets to cover.” (Shelby): My ultimate dream would be to see Chickster become a magazine. We are all magazine geeks. (Cynthia): I really looked at blogging as both fun and good writing practice.

3) How long did you think about it before you started blogging and what was the catalyst for your first post?

(Shelby): We were all interested in magazines, but we thought this would be a good way to get into the market without any overhead. (Cynthia): I liked reading my friends blogs, but often they wouldn’t post for a while so I would lose track of them. A co-blog like ours always has new content, and even if nobody else is interested in reading our stuff, we like to read each others posts. So we had built-in demand and moral support. Once we had the idea to make it a blog, it didn’t take long at all. We got together to discuss our blog name and topics we would cover, then got started blogging within the month.

4) What do you hope readers take away from reading your blogs?

 (Shelby): Fun things to do for girls our age in Austin. (Cynthia): Hopefully, they are also entertained by the things we choose to write about and our writing styles. Plus we have a broader goal of creating a local community of like minded ladies. We invite our friends and readers to also contribute guest posts so their voices can be heard too.

5) What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of maintaining a blog? How do you choose to address it?

(Shelby): The most challenging aspect is finding the time to do it all. We all have full-time jobs, so it is hard not only to try to make the blog stand out in a sea of other blogs, but even just to find time to post. (Cynthia): Making sure we are doing all we can to help people surfing the net that might be interested in reading us to find us has also been challenging. We try to get ourselves listed in all the relevant online directories we can. 

6) What other blogs do you enjoy reading and why?

(Shelby): I love blogs about pop culture that make me laugh, like Go Fug Yourself, The Frisky and Pajiba. (Cynthia): I like eye-candy, so I most enjoy blogs that are picture-based, like Apartment Therapy, The Sartorialist, and Unhappy Hipsters (which is also funny). Plus I like design/craft blogs for inspiration, and local blogs like That Austin Girl and Austinist. 

7) If you could narrow it down to one answer, what do you love the most about Austin? Why?

(Kelly): “I like that Austin is a mess of contradictions. It’s a dense city but geographically it’s not that big. It has aspects of both a big city and a small town. Additionally, it’s also greener and weirder than other places.” (Shelby): If I had to put it in two words, I would say: Alamo Drafthouse. I feel like that place sums up everything I love about Austin. (Cynthia): Austin’s laid-back attitude appeals most to me and I like that a lot of people who live here are passionate about what they do, even if they don’t make a lot of money.

How has blogging changed your life?

(Kelly): “Knowing that I have some other reason besides my day job to get up in the morning has been life-changing for me.” (Shelby): With a journalism background, I’m used to taking myself out of the story, so blogging has been an interesting way to sort of rediscover my own voice as a writer. (Cynthia): I agree with Shelby, having written for both newspapers and magazines, it’s been a bit weird to be so present in my writing (hello first person narrative) but it’s also been a bit liberating to be able to have more personality in my writing.

9) Are there other blogs/websites you maintain?

(Shelby): doesmycollarmakemelookfat.blogspot.com, a blog about the office cat (now my cat) I started for a previous job. (Cynthia): I maintain two websites for work that also have blogs, as well as my own personal website. We have actually all gotten new jobs since we started Chickster, and that experience didn’t hurt in landing mine. I think for the other girls, it was also an empowering experience.

10) Has the city of Austin brought you any local advantages or disadvantages that affect your blog?

(Kelly): ”Austin is easy to write about because there’s always something going on and you never run out of new fun things to try. Austinites are inventive and they don’t shy away from strange concepts. In fact they tend to gravitate to them and in Austin it works.” (Shelby): I don’t think our blog could work in another city. Austin just makes it so easy to come up with posts, and we’ve received such a friendly response from other Austin bloggers. (Cynthia): I think Austin is a fostering community with a really entrepreneurial spirit, and without that, I don’t know if we would have been inspired to create Chickster.  

11)  Do you have a favorite post on your blog.

(Shelby): My favorite one that I’ve written is probably the Halloween costume one I did, because it was my first post. (Cynthia): I’m going to second that, my first post reviewing a local production of Evil Dead: The Musical is probably my favorite. I enjoyed having an excuse to see the show and getting to write about it in a tongue-and-cheek tone, in a style that would never fly anywhere else. Also, I like all our guest blog posts!

12)  Have you had any interesting reactions from your blog (either on the internet or in real life)?

 (Cynthia): We’ve been a little shocked (and thrilled!) at the Google Analytics reports that tell us how many people visit our site. We wish more people would comment so we could know their reactions better. So far, nobody we’ve met for the first time has ever said, “Wow, I read your blog!” but that would be kind of awesome if it happens someday.

Keeping Austin Stylish

With a passion for everything having to do with producing creative visual imagery, Joanna Wilkinson, started her Keep Austin Stylishblog in 2009.  It’s no surprise that with her long love for cloths, photography, and the city of Austin her blog has now grown to become the premiere source of Austin fashion.  Promoting local business and keeping the Austin attitude alive,  Joanna has grown to become Austin’s fashion guru.

1) What inspired you to start your own blog?

Delirium and boredom brought on by the swine flu combined with a
starvation for a creative outlet.

2) Many people blog for different reasons. What is your ultimate goal as a blogger?

Ultimately I just want people to be entertained and informed. I want
people to leave my blog feeling they have gotten a sense of what Austin
style is all about. I also provide a lot of information to people who
are looking for places to shop and events to go to.

3) How long did you think about it before you started blogging and what was the catalyst for your first post?

This goes back to the whole swine flu thing. I think it took about 5
minutes for my brain to come up with something productive to do while I
was trapped in bed with no TV. Being sick was the short term catalyst.
The long term explanation for me starting to blog is that my creativity
had been brewing for quite some time and was about to spew out in some
way or another. A fashion blog seemed like the perfect way for me to
utilize all my strengths: writing, photography, fashion, and design.

4) What do you hope readers take away from reading your blogs?
I like to promote shopping locally because it is important for the local
economy and is beneficial to the community. I have a page on my blog
that lists all the local boutiques along with a map which I think is
especially helpful to people who are visiting Austin and looking for
places to shop that have local style. I also do photo shoots where I do
all the styling. I think style posts are really helpful to look at when
you need inspiration for putting outfits together.

5) What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of maintaining a blog? How do you choose to address it?

The most challenging part is maintaining a steady frequency of posts
while still keeping every post interesting and worthy of posting.
Blogging has become a conscious habit in the same way that keeping my
house clean is something that I do on a regular basis. Blogging
obviously takes more thought and creativity than a household chore, but
that’s what keeps it fun.

6) What other blogs do you enjoy reading and why?

I have started keeping up with the other Austin fashion blogs because we
are kind of like our own little community. Everyone has a different
personal style and different take on fashion, so that’s really fun to
see. But my new favorite blog right now is hyperboleandahalf which I
love because it is actually makes me laugh.

7) If you could narrow it down to one answer, what do you love the most about Austin? Why?

I love how creative Austin is. Everyone here enjoys doing fun things
that are maybe out of the norm. There are always a million things going
on and it’s impossible to be bored.

How has blogging changed your life?

Blogging has definitely changed my life for the better. Before I
started blogging I was a lot more shy and would never think to go to
events by myself and talk to people I don’t know. Now I will go
anywhere and chat with anyone! I’m much more brave when it comes to
taking photos too. One of my favorite moments was at a fashion show
where I went up to this guy who was dressed very oddly and asked him if
I could take his photo. The official photographer for the show (who was
a rather large man with a camera much bigger than mine) said I had
bigger balls than he did.

9) Are there other blogs/websites do you maintain?

Not really. I tried to start a couple of other blogs but i gave up on
them because it’s hard enough just maintaining one blog. I would rather
have one solid blog than have several half-assed blogs.

10) Do you have a favorite post on your blog.

It changes from month to month. There is usually one or two posts in a
month that stand out to me. One of my recent favorites was a write up I
did on a fashion designer who showed her work at the Treasure City
Thrift fashion show. I also am really proud of the photo shoot post I
did called “Wouldn’t It Be Lovely” because I did all the styling,
modeling, and editing myself. I think that one came out really well and
looks professional.

11) Have you had any interesting reactions from your blog (either on the internet or in real life)

Nothing unusual really. Usually the people who comment on my blog are
girls who agree with what I post. Occasionally I’ll post one of my
Fashion FAILS that will strike up a little bit of controversy, but
nothing huge. Sometimes when I post a Fashion FAIL I might come off a
little mean and critical, but, a fashion blog would be boring if it
never had something negative to say about someone else’s style, right?

Matthew Stewart’s Texas Sized Adventure

I love to write and tell stories. Writing has always been a tough gig to get into for pay, or even just to get an audience. That has been made tougher with the poor economy. Without a body of work or any tangible experience, it’s virtually impossible to get a writing gig. But also, because of that, you can never get that body of work or tangible experience. So it’s a circle of exclusion and you either need to get lucky or find an alternative way into the room. Blogging is a great tool because it allows me to be a writer and a story teller and still maintain creative control over what I’m choosing to write. I’m able to hone my writing skills and build a body of work, while at the same time picking when and what I write about. I wanted to start my own blog because I felt like I had something fun and interesting to say, and I felt like my experiences might be worth sharing with people.

2) Many people blog for different reasons. What is your ultimate goal as a blogger?

I think the most important thing is that I enjoy what I’m doing as a blogger. Because I am doing this basically as a hobby (save for the little bits of ad revenue my site generates), it is mostly something that I think is fun. Aside from enjoyment, I think a similarly big goal is recognition. It’s always nice to see increases in traffic or to get to talk with new people about my site get a laugh out of it or  get some other kind of entertainment.  The great thing about the Internet as a communicative tool is that it is shared experience — so what we are doing here in blogging is essentially building a whole new, different kind of community. The more people that I reach with LoneStarters, the greater the shared experience and the more fun it is for me.

3) How long did you think about it before you started blogging and what was the catalyst for your first post?

Probably since I could first write words I’ve wanted to tell stories. I started blogging basically as long as blogs have existed in their present form and probably in some capacity before that. None of them have really been long-term projects until this one. I started LoneStarters in April, and it has achieved some modest success since. I had thought about starting it for a few months prior. The catalyst for my first post was the first day that we started packing boxes to move down here from Ohio. It is such a surreal but exciting experience to move cross country, and from then I felt like I really had a lot that I could talk about and share with other people.

4) What do you hope readers take away from reading your blogs?

A couple of things, I guess. First, I hope that people who are interested in moving to Austin in the future can take something from the blog that helps them along their journey. I hope that others can get some enjoyment out of it from the humor and are maybe inspired to try something new because of it. For me, LoneStarters wasn’t just about making a relocation blog, but also about taking a lighthearted look at our culture through a very different lens. Because so many things in Austin will be “firsts” for us, we can offer a unique perspective sometimes.

5) What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of maintaining a blog? How do you choose to address it?

I guess the toughest thing is consistency. When you have one or two *really* good ideas for posts, its easy to get them down onto a blog. But it’s maintaining that quality that really builds a readership and inspires people to visit regularly and participate. I try to address it by maintaining a balance. I try to write about serious and lighter things equally, and I try to write on both kinds of topics with the same quality. The best way for me to do this (I’m sure it varies for everybody) is to imagine I’m telling the story to a friend or my fiance. That helps me keep things generally concise but still interesting.

6) What other blogs do you enjoy reading and why?

There is a list of blogs on LoneStarters that indicate “What I’m Reading”. A few, for starters: Grits for Breakfast, Slackerwood, Shoestring Austin, Wonkette. The first three are Austin blogs, the latter is a D.C. political blog, by the way. I like blogs that make me want to write — either through the quality of their prose or what their content is in the first place. Good writing and interesting, original content are both very inspiring. Although blogs are different than other writing mediums, they still have that simple dynamic: If I want to write because of what I’m reading, I’ll surely want to read more. I also think developing a distinctive voice is important. No one is going to mistake Grits for Breakfast for Wonkette, but their stuff is both really enjoyable.

7) If you could narrow it down to one answer, what do you love the most about Austin? Why?

This is a tough one, because we really love a lot about the Austin area, but I suppose at the top of that list would be the culture. We have plenty of inexpensive (and some expensive) choices for entertainment, and while there is lots to do, Austin is still a pretty laid back place. In Austin we are able to live on a very modest income and still enjoy ourselves immensely. Having lots of sunny days helps that, because there is so much that is free or cheap to do outdoors. I don’t feel like I am a part of the “rat race” here, and to us, that is very important.

How has blogging changed your life?

Well, we bring cameras everywhere and take pictures of things we’d surely never take pictures of otherwise. I share amusing and sometimes embarrassing things with complete strangers via my blog. I guess I would consider us very private people, and this is sort of an unusually public window into our lives.

9) Are there other blogs/websites do you maintain?

I maintain a web-site for my work and I do other writing projects whenever I’m given the chance. There is nothing specific or major to mention, though.

10) Has the city of Austin brought you any local advantages or disadvantages that affect your blog?

Well, because there are lots of different, small activities to do in Austin, I almost always have new content to write about on the blog. That’s been a great help, because I always have something new to say. Austin also has a very localized creative culture. Lots of people here heavily emphasize the arts, and although there doesn’t seem to be a huge public art presence, what a lot of individuals are doing on their own is really awesome. The blogging community is Austin is small but effective. They are tremendously helpful and seemingly always willing to help out a newer guy such as myself!

The latest post is always my new favorite, because it’s closest in my memory!

12)  Have you had any interesting reactions from your blog (either on the Internet or in real life)

A few!
I’ve had a commenter suggest that my fiance and I were likely to be breaking up soon because Austin is a singles town. “If you think you can do better, you probably can,” he said. It was a bit quizzical because it had absolutely nothing to do with the post he was commenting on.
I also had a pretty angry e-mail because I said that the Austin Artisan’s Market was not a market.
That sort of stuff I just take lightly. Most of it is pretty funny to begin with.