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Gardening in High Heels

cultivate a beautiful life

May 5, 2015

Story Behind The Blog Name

May 5, 2015

Kids, let me tell you a story.  Today’s Blogger, May I prompt is the story behind my blog name.  Back when I had an AOL email address (hello 90s), I was enthralled by ‘zines.  They were basically just bulk emails that were sent out.  I wanted so badly to be one of the popular ones and have tons of replies when I wrote something.

Then there was DeadJournal and LiveJournal and Xanga.  I think the only thing I didn’t have was a GeoCities site!

The story behind the blog: Gardening In High Heels

I always loved writing and putting it out there for others to see it.  I remember my father asked me why I couldn’t just write in a journal.

Come on now.  If you didn’t publish your deepest thoughts for the internet to see, did you really think them?  I think I was the original (unintentional) hipster.

Fast forward quite a few years.  I saw Julie and Julia.  I loved it.  I wanted to do that, so I got the genius idea to do it with a quilt.  I was in Ohio with my mom and she bought me the most perfect Moda jellyroll I have ever seen.  I found a pattern and got to work.

Moda Fabrics Jelly Roll

Since I was using Moda fabrics, I named it Moda Vivendi (a play on modus vivendi, meaning agree to disagree; a way of life).  And I wrote maybe 2 posts.  My follow-through needed a little work.  The quilt got finished, though!

Quilt squares made with Moda Fabrics jellyrolls

I loved the name so I kept using it throughout college.  I mostly shared pictures of my nail polish and random thoughts that came up.  In 2013, I switched to SyntaxxErrorrr.  It’s what I used for all my social media accounts.  I would go to events and introduce myself as SytnaxxErrorrr because that’s how people knew me.  I had to use it for my blog’s name.

There are still photos tagged like that because I didn’t keep the PSD files and it’s a bitch to reupload everything but they’ll change some day.

What I failed to admit to myself is that “SyntaxxErrorrr” is hard to find online.  If you want to have a successful blog, you gotta make it easy for people to get to.

One day last June, I was in the garden watering my plants between jobs – I worked at Sharp Edge in the morning and interned with Yelp in the afternoon.  It’s terrible to admit, but I didn’t give a damn what I looked like for Sharp Edge; Rachel, my Yelp supervisor, always looked amazing in cute dresses and accessories, so I always tried to do it up on Yelp days.

So there I was tending to my garden wearing a flowy skirt, platform wedge sandals, and lots of jewelry while wielding a dirty garden hose trying not to get dirt smudged all over my legs.  I was rarely successful with that one.

And I said to myself, “Gardening In High Heels – now THAT would be a name for a blog.”  I was so excited, I told my mom right away.  Even she liked it (and she barely uses email).

I turned that idea over and over until I finally purchased the domain.  I just sat with it for a long time until I decided to let go of SyntaxxErrorrr earlier this year and made the leap to change my name for the third time.

Guys, I think this one is going to stick.  I really like it here.

Are you a blogger?  How did you come up with your name?

Need the prompts for the Blogger, May I challenge?  Gotcha covered.  Want to use your own prompts?  No problem!  Just grab a button to show that you’re linking up with myself, Katy, and Meghan.  Oh, and use #BloggerMayI on Twitter/Instagram to keep the fun going even after you hit Publish!

An InLinkz Link-up


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10 Comments · Labels: Blogger May I Tagged: blogger may i, blogging, moda vivendi, name, quilting, syntaxxerrorrr

  • Jaelan @ Making Mrs. M

    The name Gardening in Heels always makes me picture such a sweet scene. 🙂

    • Angelica @GardeningInHighHeels

      Aw thank you! 🙂

  • Anna Seay

    Such a cute story! I love hearing peoples’ histories in the blogosphere. You’ve been doing this for some time, it would seem! 🙂

    • Angelica @GardeningInHighHeels

      Thank you! I’ve certainly been through my fair share of identities 🙂

  • Katy McKinley

    I love that you were actually gardening in high heels. That’s adorable.

    • Angelica @GardeningInHighHeels

      Thank you! It was one of those genius lightbulb moments that I should have had ages before then.

  • Meghan Hayes

    You made a quilt?! Wth you do everything. Including gardening in high heels. I can’t believe you’ve been blogging for so long. After you said it, I realized I had a Xanga too and now I’m like “omg what if someone finds that stupid thing I had when I was 13.”

    • Angelica @GardeningInHighHeels

      Well to be fair, I sewed the top, my mom put it all together and quilted it. I think because she was sick of seeing it laying around and me not doing anything with it. Part of me wants to go back and read those old things and another part is like nope, nope, nope.

  • Jess @ inpursuitofsimple.com

    I love the new blog name. It’s so charming! And I love hearing the story behind it. Mine isn’t so exciting.

    In 2014, I realised that I was saying yes to everything. I was running Levo, doing freelance, working a full-time job, trying to date. It was exhausting and overwhelming, and I started to think, “I don’t even need happiness right now, I just need things to be more simple!” Thus, In Pursuit of Simple was born.

    • Angelica @GardeningInHighHeels

      Thank you! That’s a great story of yours, too. I remember it from when you started your new blog – it’s perfect!

Who’s Angelica?

Life Un-styled Blogger, Gardener, Shoe Lover..among other things

I'm here to encourage and empower you to grow where you're planted and embrace the weeds that sometimes pop up. I'll share inspiration, products I like (and you may too), and stories from the garden.

Gardening In High Heels is for badass babes who aren’t afraid to get a little messy. Want to learn more? Start here.
           

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