I Am DWJ | I Am DWJ

Shop Suey Society | The Dana Necklace

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:12 +0000

Allow me to introduce you to my namesake, the Dana necklace. The folks at Shop Suey Boutique are introducing color stories this month and for the color green in my honor they named this lovely necklace after me! I felt so special.

I love things that share your same name (remember when I found Dana nail polish?) and I really love this little piece. It’s a series of gold tone and green links strung together in a really creative way. I didn’t really how cool and unique it looked until I actually put it on.

I was thinking about what outfit to pair this necklace with and for my weekend I was really casual. Lots of cooking for the Super Bowl so I thought I’d really just highlight the necklace. It’s a nice little pop of color with just a long sleeve white scoop neck and jeans but I’ve also worn it with a great green and blue colorblocked outfit. I own lots of pieces with little subtle bits of green in them, so this necklace will really help bring that color out.

Unfortunately, the Dana has already sold out! But I also love the Suzy necklace too and it’s a very similar style but with more color!

Don’t forget, you get 20% off using the code ART20 at the Shop Suey Boutique and you can always follow them on Facebook and Twitter for giveaways!

Super Bowl Food Suggestions

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:30:46 +0000

The Super Bowl is on Sunday and my husband has already changed his mind about 3 times on what he wants me to make for him. He is from NY and he’s a Giants fan so I know he will be glued to the couch all day on Sunday. He’s already been yelling at the radio in the car when anyone says anything negative about the Giants. HA!

I thought I’d share links with you to what I’ll most likely be recreating for him, the best nachos in the world. And you might want my recipe for guacamole too. I figure if I’m going to eat a ton of stuff on Super Bowl Sunday, I might as well make it myself so I know there’s not a lot of added preservatives and sugar in what I’m cooking. And nothing beats this guacamole. Nothing. Have a wonderful weekend!

How to Accessorize | Miami Cool

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:22 +0000

Ahhhh…Miami. It is definitely one of my favorite cities but I hadn’t been back in years. Since we went down for the Miami Marathon we turned it into a family vacation and I was there from Thursday through Tuesday. The weather was a wonderful 75 degrees or a little higher and I was able to pull out summer sandals. Gosh my toes loved coming out.

For my trip I went with lots of color…although I feel like that’s what I do for every day dressing anyway. But I’ve been obsessed with neon pink lately and I wanted to wear stripes and lots of flowy shapes. I felt very Miami, I even pulled out my white jeans.

This was a top I picked up at Target randomly the other week and I got a lot of compliments on it. My husband loved how the sleeves looked when I would spin – because of course I couldn’t stop spinning.

And I don’t know if you’ve noticed my homemade accessory in the photos but I’ve made a super cut knit linked necklace. I found a super bright pink yarn and paired it with a very soft dove grey. I wore it almost every day and with so many different combinations. I’m now obsessed with knitting them and giving them away to friends.

Now that’s my wardrobe philosophy for Miami, what do you pack when going to a warmer climate?

Milestones

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:00:11 +0000

Saturday marked my 4th year in the blogosphere. YAY! I think it was only appropriate that I happened to be in Miami with my family on a day to celebrate. Why Miami? My husband was running in the ING Miami Marathon…the full marathon.

Out of 25,000 people who signed up for the marathon, only 4,000 were running the full. My husband started running about 2 years ago and he started with a 10k in 2010, moved on to a half marathon in 2011 and decided on a marathon in 2012. 26.2 miles is a long way to run and I was so proud of him. He also ran with a purpose and raised money for Pancreatic Cancer. I even helped him set up his very on site, Run, Kenny, Run! so he could collect donations and blog. He of course didn’t blog that much but he was still proud that he had his own site.

Watching the folks on the street running and feeling the energy was pretty awesome. My Dad and I were up at 4am to get my husband to the starting coral on time. We ran all over Miami taking pictures of him and giving him high fives to keep his energy up. We were both exhausted and sore by the end of the day but not nearly as tired as Kenny was. It was totally worth it.

I am not a runner but I can truly applaud all of the folks that trained for this marathon (full or half) and accomplished their goal. I saw people limping across the finish line, dripping in sweat and looking more exhausted than I’ve ever seen in my life. But the moment you saw them with their medal after crossing the finish line you knew it was totally worth it.

I’m so proud of you, Kenny!

Radio Silence

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:48:14 +0000

I apologize for the week long silence. I have been in Miami with my husband to support him running his first marathon. My Internet at the hotel has been spotty, but posts will come on Wednesday. Promise!

Photography & Me

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:00:58 +0000

I get asked a lot about taking pictures, my camera and some of the pictures I show on my blog so I thought I’d do a post about it and some of the questions I am asked. The first thing I always tell people is that I am not a professional photographer. You can call me a shutterbug if you’d like but I just call myself a woman who enjoys taking pictures. I’m also a really creative person who worked in design and layout for years, so I believe my eye is trained to see how an image would be cropped and how I would lay it all out before I even snap a single picture. But really, I’m just having fun.

With that out of the way I thought I’d answer a few of the questions I get emailed/tweeted a lot and hopefully it will help. I’ll also share some of my favorite photos that I’ve snapped.

What kind of camera do you own? Lenses? I have a Canon Rebel T1i DSLR that I bought in March 2010. I use a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III lens and the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS that came with it. I primarily use the 50mm lens, especially for the Gift Guide photos of people. It’s my favorite. I also rent lenses from BorrowLenses.com. I have always had a camera though. My father had an SLR camera that he always took pictures with when I was growing up. I remember always wanting to be the one to take the picture and he’d let me. When I was in middle school my mother gave me a Polaroid for a birthday present and kept me stocked in Costco packs of film. When I got to high school she bought me a film camera. In college she gave me the first Elph camera and then post-college she bought me my first digital camera. Since then I’ve progressively upped the kind of camera that I owned getting something nicer each time. I’m always looking at cameras.
Have you taken photography classes before?I took a photography class in 1995 in high school but I was always working on yearbook (high school and college) and then I worked for a publishing company and then did publication design for previous jobs. I’ve always loved publication layout and I take pictures like I would crop them. I think over time my photos have gotten better but I’m always looking for ways to improve.
Who takes the pictures of you on the blog? I do! I have an awesome new tripod my husband gave me for Christmas and a remote control that I use to set up shots. I even did the new pictures for this site and are used on my profile page.
What are your favorite types of photos/subjects you like to shoot? People and babies. I like capturing people when they’re not watching, more candid. I LOVE taking pictures of babies, love, love, love it. Their little faces change and morph so quickly, it’s fantastic. I also love taking pictures of food. I think since I love to cook and I like to explore photography more it’s a natural thing to do. I also love the book, Plate to Pixel. It’s an awesome food photography book but it gives wonderful tips on photography in general.
What do you use to edit your photos? I actually use a free tool a lot, PICASA! I also have Photoshop Elements but sometimes Picasa is quicker and easier for me to do what I want to do. I don’t do a lot of retouching on people (hence why I’m not a professional) but I will adjust the contrast and coloring a bit if I think it’s off.

And here are a few of my favorite pics I’ve taken in the last year.

I definitely love taking pictures and exploring more. If you have any questions you’d like for me to answer, feel free to leave them in the comments!

How to Accessorize | I’m Layering it up!

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:45:57 +0000

The weather is dreadful. We’re in full on winter and I hate it. Iciness, a little bit of snow and just bitter cold – so what do I do? I dress in lots and lots of layers. I do not really like to wear pants, I think I get that from my grandmother. In order to stay warm while still wearing a skirt or dress I tend to layer it up.

This morning I finally pulled this Loft dress my friend gave me for Christmas out of the closet. It’s a dark olive green, almost brown dress so for me it’s a blank canvas. It’s a basic that you can do a lot with depending on your mood. It fits me slightly oddly in the midsection so I decided I needed to replace the wrap belt it came with and use my snakeskin belt. And what goes with a snakeskin belt? A cream and gold striped cardigan of course.

I decided to keep my tights dark and neutral today (chocolate brown) and wear my slouchy olive suede boots even in the yucky weather. And for just a little bit of color I added my favorite bird’s nest necklace for fun. I haven’t worn this one in a while. I’m also playing around with places in my house to take pictures in the morning now. So I apologize for the single photo and it’s a bit too dark for my taste. I’ve been moving things around and with the new full tripod it’s hard to find a good space for pictures that’s not too cluttered looking. So what do you wear to keep warm?

Dress, Loft
Belt, NY & Co.
Tights, We Love Colors
Boots, Nine West
Cardigan, Ann Taylor
Necklace, Queen Bee Designs

Welcome!

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:22:44 +0000

Welcome! If you’ve typed in the Art of Accessories old web address you’ve already been directed here to the new site. I thought it would take me a few weeks but it didn’t, just a few days to import in all of my old posts.

At the top of the site you’ll notice there’s a link to take you to the Art of Accessories archive and the Crumbs and Creativity archive – I was able to import all of my posts and comments to the new site. Some of the images will be missing when I turn off the Art of Accessories completely but I’m working on updating that as well. Please keep your fingers crossed for me on that, with over 1,400 posts it’s a lot to update manually.The Tumblr posts should be fine though, so you’ll get all of my food goodness. I’ve also added new categories to the drop down menu and they start with an * so that you can get to them first.

I’m still working out all of the kinks and adding in plugins here but I kind of like it. It’s a fresh start. If you previously subscribed to the Art of Accessories via email and want to do so on this site you can subscribe via this link. If you’d like to update your RSS feed reader, you can do so via this link. If you’d like to send me an email to give me a suggestion, feedback or just to say hello you can email me now at dwj at iamdwj.com.

Again, thanks for your patience while I get this off the ground and everything all nice and tidy for you. Hopefully by next week I’ll be back to a semi-normal posting schedule.

Updates!

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:44:44 +0000

Well, I thought it would take me weeks but it only took me days. I’ve moved everything over to IamDWJ.com and it’s ready for you (with a few minor kinks I’m working out on the backend). There’s even a full archive of the Art of Accessories on the site if you want to see something from the past (I will lose a picture or too but it shouldn’t be too bad).

If you subscribed to the Art of Accessories via a daily email you can sign up for the I Am DWJ daily post email via this link.

If you subscribed to the Art of Accessories via RSS feed you can subscribe via this link.

And if you want to email me you can email me at dwj at iamdwj.com

I’ve already gotten a comment or two on my new site, YAY! And definitely let me know if you see things that are wrong or buggy. And I’ve already redirected theartofaccessories.com to go to the new site. Again, thank you so much for reading for the last 4 years and I hope you will enjoy the new site.

xoxo,
DWJ

A Change is Coming

dwj@theartofaccessories.com (Dana Williams-Johnson) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:19:06 +0000

This month the Art of Accessories turns 4, on January 28 to be exact. This blog and I have changed so much in the last four years and I’ve loved what I’ve created here but with age comes change.

In October when I was planning for the Gift Guide I was contemplating whether or not I wanted to continue the Art of Accessories in 2012. This blog and everything I’ve been able to do with it over the last 4 years has been such a huge part of my life but sometimes I feel like it’s just too much. So instead of stopping the blog, I’ve decided to make a change.

Over the next few weeks I will be merging all of the things I love and all of my other sites like the Art of Accessories and Crumbs and Creativity into one main site, IamDWJ.com. I’m looking into a way to archive all of this site onto my new site as well as bring in the posts I’ve done on Crumbs about food and photography. I also have another site that I’ve done freelance projects on and photography things that will all be merged into IamDWJ. Instead of just a singular focus on beauty and accessories, I’ll talk about everything I love and it will all be in one place that’s easier for me to manage. And hopefully you will still read what I write.

I don’t know what my new blogging schedule will be like but I don’t think I will go back to a daily blogging schedule like I did here for years, I just can’t. Between work, life and everything in between I’ve decided I need to give myself more time instead of always finding ways to give away my time. I’ve decided to keep blogging because I love the community that blogging has introduced me too and I love the interaction I’ve had over the years with all of you. I don’t want to disappear.

There will be a slow transition as I merge everything over and I also think I may remove the Facebook fan page because let’s be honest, I do not update it as frequently as I should. I will still be on Twitter as @theaofa and I am also on Instagram (theaofa) too. I just think after four years, I want and need a change and IamDWJ is the change that is going to happen. I’ll still be posting here and once the new site is up and everything is ready, there will be an automatic redirect to take you there – there will be minimal updates to what you do.

So that’s the plan, are you with me?