three years of ruby slipper journey-ing

Well, Ruby Slipper Journeys turned 3 last week, and as always, it´s been interesting to look back. In fact, it´s interesting to read the last two years´ annual recaps and see the changes in how I choose to express myself. I began making personal style posts in 2010, and now the blog has developed to meld style with travel and lifestyle. Mostly I want to convey the excitement of living and travelling, from my perspective and place in the world.

This past year I´ve been less active in blogland, I suppose as a result of being more settled in my real life. I have a job I like, friends I like, and other hobbies (writing). I also made a conscious decision last year to diversify away from mostly doing outfit posts and focus on documenting moments in life. I still like clothes and dressing up, but I found that having it the main focus of my blog was making it disproportionately a main focus of my life. I think wearing the clothes we want allows us to see ourselves as the heroes and heroines of our own adventures, but I didn´t want the clothes to be the adventure itself.

It´s been a year of ups and downs, dizzying in their proportions, but I´m a lot more content with life than I was this time a year ago. I have a sense of having taken some kind of control, that things no longer simply happen to me. Which is a good way to feel… hopefully I´ll avoid the existential crisis that I was brewing up for my 30th birthday later this year.



To everyone who´s continued reading (especially in the patchy last few months of personal upheaval and computer comas) thank you so much as always, and see you for another year!

two years of ruby slipper journey-ing

A couple of days ago was the second anniversary of starting Ruby Slipper Journeys. Going through the past year's posts to try and put together some coherent retrospective was actually overwhelming. How should things go? Chronologically? Outfits or travel photos? Should I talk about all the places I've been?

In the end, I've left it a colourful jumble. The past year has felt crazy, surreal, and moving at lightning speed sometimes, and at other times entirely mundane. Since I don't blog the mundane so much, you get a retrospective of cherry blossoms, seasides, dresses and erm, alcohol.

I'm hoping for another year of all of those things!


summer style is my favourite!


Brussels, and my grandfather's home on a lake in the Ontario woods. This year I've lived in Barcelona, with multiple visits to Germany and Canada, and little weekend trips to France, the Netherlands, Belgium...


Barcelona and all its bars...


I tried to get into layering in the fall, then defaulted back to just wearing cool tights with my dresses. I've promised myself that I will stop buying summer dresses and work on developing my wardrobe for the other 9 months of the year.


I spent a week in Germany in the winter and drank at least one mulled wine per day. December was an especially wonderful month, as I stayed in two castles, and went home to Canada (where I made mulled wine for my family). ;)




I went to so many typical Catalan festivals with dragons and fire and suchlike and bored half of my readers by posting about them every chance I got. ; )


And then I went to Paradise.

Thank you so much for reading! It's been a pleasure to get to know so many of you, online and in real life. I'm looking forward to another year.

a year of ruby slipper journey-ing

Hard to believe that, as of Friday, I've had Ruby Slipper Journeys for a year. It's been, by all accounts, a crazy year. When I began, I was living in Mexico; within a couple of months I had moved to London to do a masters degree. Throughout that year I was frequently visiting my boyfriend in Barcelona (his hometown) and studying in England. Currently, I'm doing research in Barcelona and visiting my boyfriend in Germany quite a lot (a friend of mine jokes that we have "reverse magnetism"). But one definite constant in a year of changing climates, backdrops and responsibilities has been my blog, and the friends I've made through it all over the world. Life in the coming year is even more uncertain, if that's possible, but the blog will be coming along for the ride. Here are a few favourites from the past year.











From a year of personal style blogging I've learned about my own wardrobe strengths and weaknesses, I've experimented a bit with different personas (see the ballerina and Victorian orphan inspired looks below) and tried to hone and refine my tastes a bit... that's still a work very much in progress. I've learned a fair bit about photography, can judge all the different phases of "the golden hour" at a glance, and have become a bit more photogenic (apparently it only takes having your picture taken a few thousand times). I haven't learned as much about html as I'd like, though my photoshop skills, which were non-existent before, aren't too shabby. On the negative side, I have spent who know how many hours sifting through other blogs, not all of which were worth the effort, replied to more comments than were good for me and have struggled more than ever with consumerism, procrastination and prioritizing. Style blogging is a paradox, but it's one I'm determined to keep exploring!













Thank you so much to everyone who's read my blog in the past year; and especially to all those who've been in touch through comments or emails (or in person)! It's been fantastic knowing you all so far!

Photos variously by myself, Albert, my sister and the first one by my dad!