Welcome! And if you were a reader when I wrote mainly about beauty, thank you for following me in this blog transition.
Like many lawyers, I am a frustrated writer — I think of things to write, I scribble, but I never get enough written. In April 2007, I started writing about beauty products. At the time I reasoned that I would be writing about what I know, but not have too large a scope, and since I love beauty products, something I could easily write about often.
It sort of worked out — I loved blogging, but I went from a frustrated writer to a frustrated blogger — turns out that writing about beauty products is very fun, but then I wanted to write about my opinions on their marketing and their distribution. And I also wanted to write about a whole bunch of other things — like the peculiarities of city living, cooking, restaurants, farmer’s markets, the Food Network (and how I think it’s not going the direction it should), being a woman in a professional environment full of men, what that means about my thoughts on fashion, why I love indie products and coffeeshops, but still go to Starbucks.
You get the idea. I tried refocusing my beauty blog, but then decided I just needed something new.
I thought a lot about the title of the blog – City Girl Lifestyle seemed obvious, but then I was thinking of calling City Girl Journal, but that was taken – and Diary of a City Girl was just too SATC, and A Neurotic City Girl’s Guide to Happiness and Balance was just too sitcom meets yoga.
Anyways … what do I want to do with City Girl Lifestyle:
First, it’s somewhere I can write (and am accountable to write — both to myself and to you) and I can write to my heart’s content about all my interests. How cool is that? And I can be really opinionated, which is something I didn’t find as easy on beauty products. If a product sucked, I just ignored it and did not review it. And it it was really good, well, I was opinionated about that but really, how opinionated can you be.
Second, I wanted to start examining something that I think about a lot — finding balance, finding beauty in the everyday, and finding creativity in a life that, well, is not really geared for that. I am an overachiever, I love my job, long hours included, and I love city life, bizarre problems and city grime included. I don’t ever want to trade my life in for something different. But, let’s face it, I hardly live a life where balance is obvious or even encouraged. I don’t just mean work-life balance (and I have a whole set of opinions on that, for another day) — I mean balance as in mindfulness, balance as kindness to self and others, and balance as being present.
Third, still continuing on the theme of finding balance, but on a more macro level. I know so many overachiever professional women who are dissatisfied with their lives, despite living in some of the world’s most beautiful and vibrant cities. Is the answer for them to leave it all behind? Believe me, I know how long hours can get to you, but I really believe that there is a happy medium, and hope to continue the dialogue on this.
Fourth, if this blog turns into something bigger — even better. There is so much written about all the topics I am interested in, but sometimes I think that different subsets are missed. For example, there’s always an assumption that if you have a job with long hours, you will be dissatisfied until you change that. But what if you love your field, don’t mind the intensity, but want more balance with the long hours? That’s exactly my life, and I never see any writing addressing that.
I remember when the Amateur Gourmet started his blog, he entitled his first post “The Birth of an Icon” and said he wanted to become an internet phenomenon. Four years later he does have his own internet show on. For now I would be ok with lots of readership, but who knows in the future. I thought my beauty blogging would lead me to more writing about beauty products, but instead it led me to want to start a lifestyle blog.
As for the damask print — it’s just a pattern I like and associate with creativity. Eventually i will incorporate it on this template, but I wanted to give you a little taste for the time being.
Picture from a lovely website called The Inspiration Gallery.
General Disclosures & Disclaimers
