{"id":33342,"date":"2016-07-23T00:05:55","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T04:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=33342"},"modified":"2016-07-23T14:16:42","modified_gmt":"2016-07-23T18:16:42","slug":"ninth-blogversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/ninth-blogversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninth Blogversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2007, they all told me not to do it. Luxury-goods consultants. The former fashion director of a major department store. My own publicist. Random-ass acquaintances. &#8220;Don&#8217;t do a blog,&#8221; they said. &#8220;It will ruin your brand.&#8221; &#8220;You&#8217;re too accessible,&#8221; they said. &#8220;Luxury is about exclusivity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, I didn&#8217;t heed their warnings because today this blog turns nine years old. It&#8217;s my ninth blogversary!<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"giphy-embed\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/g7dshGteVYias\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/sesame-street-nine-the-count-g7dshGteVYias\">via GIPHY<\/a><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>In that time, I&#8217;ve published over 3,200 posts and have an alarming 300+ unpublished drafts (it might be time to clear some of those out). WordPress claims I&#8217;ve approved about 60,000 comments, which seems crazy to me, but I&#8217;m not going to attempt to double-check that. And I have no regrets! Thanks to everyone who has purchased jewelry because of this blog; commented on or shared posts; or just read it on the down-low.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/throwback-thursday-eight-years-of-blogging\/\" target=\"_blank\">In last year&#8217;s post about my eighth blogversary<\/a>, I included links to all the other blogversary content. Re-reading that reminded me that I celebrated my <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/fifth-blogversary\/\" target=\"_blank\">fifth blogversary<\/a> by changing the motto of my blog from &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/category\/wear-what-you-want\/\" target=\"_blank\">Wear What You Want<\/a>&#8221; to &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/category\/never-is-the-next-new-thing\/\" target=\"_blank\">Never Is the Next New Thing<\/a>\u2122.&#8221; I started my blog in the heyday of fashion blogs and even though I was promoting my jewelry, all my blog friends were fashion bloggers. I was kind of a fashion blogger by association and &#8220;Wear What You Want&#8221; was (and is still) my only consistent fashion rule, so a fashion-related motto suited me.<\/p>\n<p>People who wear what they want occasionally wear something so fashion-forward that observers exclaim, &#8220;Never! Never will I wear that!&#8221;  I realized that kind of extreme reaction against any new style can be an indicator that a major trend is about to develop. In fashion, I saw it everywhere from <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/currentelliott-rolled-up-jeans\/\" target=\"_blank\">boyfriend jeans<\/a> (yes, they were controversial) to <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/never-is-the-next-new-thing%e2%84%a2-highlow-hems-aka-mullet-dresses\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;mullet&#8221; hemlines<\/a> to my jewelry designs. An example of the latter: In 2008, I couldn&#8217;t interest retailers in my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/store\/products.php?product=Swear-Rings\" target=\"_blank\">swear rings<\/a> because they were deemed too risque. Four years later, <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/thank-you-to-the-peeps-at-patricia-field\/\" target=\"_blank\">knockoffs that imitated the font I created started popping up in retailers<\/a>. A new blog motto came out of that: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/category\/never-is-the-next-new-thing\/\" target=\"_blank\">Never Is the Next New Thing\u2122.<\/a>&#8221; It doesn&#8217;t apply to fashion only. Go ahead: Test it out on technology, sports, <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/never-is-the-next-new-thing-my-bio-and-columbia-spectator\/\" target=\"_blank\">whatever<\/a>! I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll find examples.<\/p>\n<p>The blog motto was handled, but I was still searching for a four- or five-word tagline for my eclectic jewelry designs. I tried a lot of different phrases but I wasn&#8217;t happy with any of them. If I focused on the pieces inspired by powerful women, I left out my funny social media designs. If I emphasized the social media aspect, I left out the queens and other royal ladies who are near and dear to my heart. When I tried combining the themes in one sentence, it was too long and complicated. Finally, this spring, it hit me that all of my work &#8212; whether elaborate or simple, inspired by history or pop culture &#8212; is meant for people who appreciate a little humor in their jewelry. Voil\u00e0! (Or &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=wallah&amp;defid=5824197\" target=\"_blank\">wallah!<\/a>&#8221; as people on Twitter sometimes write.) I had my new company tagline: Fine Jewelry for Witty People.<\/p>\n<p>I recently made that the motto for my blog as well. As I wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/recommended-readinglistening\/\" target=\"_blank\">earlier this month<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;This blog was started because of a business and it still primarily serves a business purpose, but, at the same time, that business is me and I am that business.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>At the time, I was explaining why I would continue to write about current events, or any non-jewelry-related topic, as much as I felt like doing so. Now I feel like the new motto manages to encompass the jewelry business and hint that there&#8217;s more going on here than just jewelry. As a bonus, I&#8217;m still amused at the reaction I got from a couple of people when I tested out the new motto on them before plastering it on business cards and pens and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=Teh%20Interwebz\" target=\"_blank\">teh Interwebz<\/a>. &#8220;But what about the people who aren&#8217;t witty? Won&#8217;t they feel left out?&#8221; worried MrB. I was like, &#8220;Dude! What kind of person is going to raise his or her hand and say, &#8216;I&#8217;m not witty&#8217;?!?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, not only are my readers and customers witty, they&#8217;re all fucking gorgeous too. Thanks for sticking with me all these years &#8212; or joining me more recently &#8212; you clever and attractive people!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2007, they all told me not to do it. Luxury-goods consultants. The former fashion director of a major department store. My own publicist. Random-ass acquaintances. &#8220;Don&#8217;t do a blog,&#8221; they said. &#8220;It will ruin your brand.&#8221; &#8220;You&#8217;re too accessible,&#8221; they said. &#8220;Luxury is about exclusivity.&#8221; Clearly, I didn&#8217;t heed their warnings because today this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/ninth-blogversary\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[656],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blogversary","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33342"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33501,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33342\/revisions\/33501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}