Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes and lives? Every month a group of six bloggers share their work-spaces, homes, towns, and more!

This month we’re talking about what our blogging inspirations and processes are.

By blog standards, I’ve been blogging A Pretty Long Time…starting back around 2006 when I started Once I Saw a Dragonfly, which was a “spin-off” of my ebay vintage clothing shop Dragonfly Vintage. Over the years it gradually morphed into just pretty pictures and thoughts and experiences as my photography blog. Which is what everything I do always seems to end up as. Then there were these others over the years:

365 Days in Islip, which was my final year living in my sweet lil house in Islip, before I headed to the wilds of Brooklyn back in 2009. It was just me driving around town and finding something pretty, interesting, unusual, or ugly to take a picture of every day. It got quite challenging because the town is only about 4 miles square. But it was a fun endeavor. When I lived a little over a year in Northport I had a similar Instagram account called Northport Every Day

I also did 365 Days in My House, which became A Year in a Brooklyn Apartment when I moved.

And when I moved from Islip, 365 Days in Islip turned into 365 Days in Brooklyn. Again, just me driving around looking for things to take pictures of.

That’s a perfect activity for me. I can do (and enjoy) it by myself. I can do it from the car. It’s free. I love driving around. I love finding things that other people may not have noticed or appreciated…and making them look…worthy of notice and appreciation.

In the meantime I had also started a Bettye Rainwater Photography Instagram, which eventually turned just into Bettye Rainwater…and then not that long ago I directed anyone who still wanted to follow me, to join me at my Fashion Schlub Instagram account.

https://www.instagram.com/bettyerainwater/

And when I was back on Long Island and starved for something interesting to blog about…and Katie moved 9,268,285 miles away from me…we started The Mother & The Girl, where we each shared a photo every day. It was amazing how often they would relate to one another – with no prior discussion.

That didn’t last too long…3-4 months…and then I was like…NOW WHAT? Where I was living was UG. LEE. And not in a good way. In a bland, uninteresting way. But the drive to take and share pictures was as strong as ever.

And that is when the idea of Fashion Schlub started to take hold. The inspiration for this blog was…trying to take myself from being a big ‘ol mess…to being NOT such a big ‘ol mess, ha ha. It was my journey of trying to learn what my personal style was…

In addition to the blog, Fashion Schlub has an Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/fashionschlub/

I’m a very visual person, so blogging is a great fit for me. Even when I have nothing to say (HA HA HA HA HA) I can always share pictures. So even if Fashion Schlub goes the way of all that went before her…I’ll still be here sharing SOMETHING.

So. Who inspires me these days?? I have like 6 go-to Instagram (and 1 TikTok) accounts that are very visually and vibey inspirational to me these days.

I mean, y’all know I’ve talked about Lizzy Hadfield at Shot from the Street a million times over the years. Her account is a still a favorite of mine. It is such a good blend of her personal style, her home, what she sees out in the world, what she’s eating, reading, drinking.

https://www.instagram.com/lizzyhadfield/

Another long-time follow…and fellow plus size blogger is Maddy Guttierez. She also has turned her “fashion only” account into more of a lifestyle look of her homes, cooking, children, etc. I like that she always feels very real and not “influencery.”

https://www.instagram.com/maddy_gutierrez_/

A newer follow is Micaela Meanders. She is an American living in South Korea, so there’s that. I first found her on a YouTube apartment hunt video and stayed for her gentle, peaceful photos and thoughts…her palette is lovely and soft and I just…feel peaceful when I scroll through her pictures.

https://www.instagram.com/micaelameanders/

Then there’s Jeff Junho. He comes across as this very gentle soul living a quiet life in his NYC apartment with his (brand) new wife. He does these reels of just…making coffee…sitting and doing work at his laptop…looking out the window (he has THE greatest view!) and it’s all so…zen.

https://www.instagram.com/itsjjk/

And last is Danny Hyu. I started following him for his simple style (he was one of my “dressing like a boy” inspirations), but he started doing these lovely reels of his day…eating out with friends, riding the train, watching tv, walking in his Brooklyn neighborhood. And now I’m addicted to not just his fashion style, but also his video style.

https://www.tiktok.com/@dannyhyu

It never really occurred to me before grouping these all together is the common theme they mostly have of peacefulness, gentleness, quietness. These are things I so crave in my life. All these accounts also visually inspire me greatly. I hope to someday have the time to actually do something with all that inspiration, ha!

Stay tuned!

Make sure to check out my friends blogs today, too:

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After <- Sadly not joining us today.
Sally at Within a World of My Own