So, this evening the Sydney Nuffnang Christmas Party 2010 is upon us, and twittering to Janice of Chaigyaru last night, I realised that sooooo much has changed for me blog-wise in the past year since the last one! Here is a pic of me with Janice taken last year when we first met.

Me with Janice

 I’d only been blogging less than 2 months at the last Christmas party, so natch, I hadn’t had any comments or regular readers.

* Now I have both regular readers and comments!! (Well, you’d hope so after a year, LOL)   Can I just say thank you to my lovely readers – there are times when I might not continue on without your support 🙂

What else has changed?

* I got a colourful header for my blog, with a photo taken at Tokyo Decadance Halloween in Shinjuku last year. Which leads me to…

* I’d only been to Tokyo twice – whereas now I”ve been 5 times! Regular readers know I often write and post pics on Tokyo fashions especially gothic, punk, dolly kei and occasionally gal style. I also blog about Tokyo punk, psychobilly and deathrock bands, and goth and alternative clubs, pubs and nightlife. So keeping up is a must for me.  I’ll probably next be there in March/April for sakura, which is usually when I go and spend 2.5 to 3  weeks there.

* I also changed from Blogger to WordPress – once I’d got to 100 readers.  I also got my own domain, so the blog url became www.thefashionatetraveller.com. I’ve been assured by so many good bloggers that WP is just better in so many ways, not least of which is SEO. Although, as I was warned, it has taken a while to get the google juice back up to where it was (& it’s still not quite there). There ARE so many more things you can do with categories and pages and plug-ins and widgets…sometimes it’s bewildering, but the possibilities are endless.

* I can haz business cards!! I remember the 2009 Nuffnang Xmas party and established bloggers were whipping out their business cards and I felt a little left out. Well, I got some printed up just before my last Tokyo trip, so now I can hand one out whenever I take a pic of someone that I’ll use on the blog, or just want to stay in touch.

* I have a DSLR! Blame Billy (from A Table for Two for this one). He had his big one out (oo, er) at the Bavarian Beer Cafe where we went for dinner after last year’s Nuffnang party, and I was marvelling at the good pics of crispy pork belly crackling he got (Billy’s Bavarian Beer Cafe post is here).  See my blurry version, left. I was sitting next to him and could only marvel at his professionalism. He took the time to talk a bit of photography with me, and assured me that it was well worth it to make the investment in a good camera. So while I still use my Sony Cybershot when I want quick snaps or at events where you can’t take prof cameras in, I now have a gorgeous new Nikon D5000.  (OK, so I still use the auto function mostly, but my photos are definitely better – and I WILL take a photography course soon to learn the rest!)

* I’ve met soooo many fabulous people who are bloggers, and now some are my bestest buddies and sometimes partners in blogging crime – Violet Lebeaux, Valerie of  Tokyo Fashion & Art Factory and now photographer for Japanese Streets,  Candice of Superkawaiimama, Carmen of La Carmina, Janice of Chaigyaru, and many others here and overseas. It’s such a great community 🙂 In the course of my blogging research, I’ve also met lot of cool non-bloggers too.

*I’ve been to some fashion industry events that I may not ordinarily have gone to, where I met and hung out with Emily of Little Black Book, Darren of Boy Moments, and Margaret of Shine By Three, and others.  I’m in the slightly difficult no-man’s-land of straddling both mainstream/indie fashion and goth/alt fashion in my blog, which can be hard niche-wise. You never know where I’ll turn up next, but there’s always amazing people in both scenes, so it’s always fun.

* Last Christmas party I knew NO-ONE – this time I’m helping to host it! During the year I’ve met “Nuffies” David, Sarah and Vanessa, and while I still haven’t ventured into sponsoring territory, hopefully I’ll grow the blog in the next year to the point where I’ll have more to do with Nuffnang in a professional capacity.

* We should talk about the outfit, shouldn’t we? It was a SWELTERING hot day last year and the theme was blue, so I threw on the bluest things I could find…but looked bedraggled due to my frizzy hair. Now, I should mention that I know it was a bit of a dog’s breakfast and I wouldn’t normally wear all of these things together, but I wanted to stand out and WIN. And I DID win – so yay!! (I still have yet to spend my Red Balloon voucher though – must.do.soon)

Steph from Absolutely Fuzzy and me

This year the theme is Blue Hawaii, and while I did take a wee peep at some Newtown op-shops to look for hawaiian shirts, there were none, so I think I’ll probably wear this humungously bright blue floaty dress I bought recently in Malaysia…possibly with the silver turban I made when I studied Millinery? Or maybe just a scarf.

I no longer have blue hair either, so may wear a blue wig…or just go with my bright red/purple hair. We shall see….

Anyway, it’s time to get up from the blogging desk and get onto the day at hand, before heading out this afternoon to the Blue Hawaii Nuffnang Christmas Party. There will definitely be a post on it coming up!