la dolce vita Archives - McKenzie Interior Design

Sure, we like having our own blog for steve mckenzie’s. But, what we like even more is being a part of the blogger community and keeping up with some of our favorite blogger friends (many of whom we’re lucky enough to be IRL (in real life) friends with too).

Because we’re always reading fabulous posts and discovering wonderful new blogs to follow, we thought we’d share some of our favorites here with you.

The topics of our most-loved blogs ranges greatly – from art and lifestyle to interior design, cooking and fashion, there’s truly something out there for everyone. And if we help you to find a new favorite blog read, then that’s what it’s all about… Connecting our friends to other bloggers out there!

We’d love to be as cool as Swedish fashionista Caroline Blomst one day. But, for now, we’ll do for being inspired on a daily basis, thanks to her Stockholm Streetstyle Blog on Carolines Mode.
Paloma Contreras has an amazing sartorial eye and brings us beautiful spaces that always inspire with her blog, La Dolce Vita. Her Fabulous Room Friday posts are always our favorites, and provide great takeaways!

Freunde von Freunden is a Berlin, Germany based blog that explores current creative living globally. We especially like the tours of creative’s living and workspaces and how they use them. They also do fabulous dj mixes you can download that are about an hour long and someones take on music that inspires them.

Don’t let the title deter you, Blood & Champagne is a beautiful blog based solely on photos as they explore design, architecture, designers, furniture, etc.. I can scan it quickly and always find a beautifully inspiring shot.
Jill’s love of quilting doesn’t end when she puts down the needles. She loves being inspired by Crimson Tate, a fantastic modern quilting blog!

Cassandra Lavalle’s take on interiors and fashion on her blog, Coco + Kelley, informs me about color and form through her perspective. I especially like the moodboards she creates.
Dezeen’s reporting on current contemporary architecture and products keeps us up to date.

The Gluten-Free Goddess blog provides Jill and Steve with fantastic recipes, that make cooking for those of us with gluten allergies not only easy, but also delicious and totally enjoyable.

These two ladies behind Cloth & Kind have a nose for what is now and beautiful. Their love of textiles keeps us informed both from textile design and interior design standpoints. The interiors they create exude beauty and they are all around great gals.
Ally Kim, a true tastemaker, chronicles not only her own journey in her home and decorating it, but also her passion for travel on her blog, From the Right Bank. It takes us on a global journey of experiences and sights through her perspective. Her travel photos are a visual feast of cultures.

And with that, you have our current, somewhat random assortment of favorite blog reads. Although we still have many more to share with you – so keep an eye out for another blog roll call soon!

We’re just getting back into a regular routine post Design Bloggers Conference 2014 (DBC) – and after this whirlwind conference, regular may never be again. It was a motivating and an inspiring few days, for sure! Filled with fun, fabulous advice, and friends new and old. Attending this exciting conference cemented our commitment to the blog for steve mckenzie’s and we’re thrilled to begin implementing some of what we’ve learned and what’s inspired us here with you!

We’re sharing all about our DBC 2014 experience with you in a two-part blog series so even if you weren’t able to attend, maybe you’ll feel as if you were there, even if it was just for a bit. Or, if you were lucky enough to go, hopefully you’ll enjoy hearing about it from our perspective…

For the steve mckenzie’s team, our DBC 2014 experience begun Sunday afternoon, at the party celebrating Dwell with Dignity’s first Atlanta makeover, featuring our friends Kerry Howard (yes, the same “Tastemaker” we shared recently!) and Brian Patrick Flynn, who worked on the design of the space, and a fantastic group of DIY experts and volunteers. We were thrilled to help this great cause, and look forward to doing more in the future! On our way out, we did have a little fun at the photo booth:

After the party, we were ready to get the DBC 2014 party started… literally, with the conference’s opening event at Atlantic Station hosted by Sunbrella and Traditional Home. It was a great time, and we met many new faces. The loft space Sunbrella had designed was just fantastic, and had us dreaming of in-town living!

DBC 2014 officially kicked off in a big way Monday morning with a Keynote address by Bravo TV’s “Million Dollar Designer,” Jeffery Alan Marks! We loved learning how he adds one thing in every space that’s an accident. What a smart way to keep things interesting!

In addition to Jeffery’s keynote address, we, like the rest of the DBC 2014 attendees, were greatly inspired by the floral on stage, including two of these amazing Ranunculus and Rose arrangements…

After ogling the floral, and absorbing all Jeffery Alan Marks had to share, we were ready to get to the “Business of Blogging,” an amazingly informative talk, which featured one of our all-time favorite bloggers, Palamoa Contreras of La Dolce Vita (celebrity moment!). We also met blogger, and landscaper extrodinaire, Jan Bills, of Two Women and a Hoe. Jan is a laugh and a half, not to mention brilliant. We have another blogger crush!

La Dolce Vita blog - Design Bloggers Conference — The lovely Paloma, educating the DBC audience.

La Dolce Vita - Design Bloggers Conference - steve mckenzie's — Paloma Contreras and Jill McKenzie after day one of DBC 2014.

After another informative session on “Digital Content Marketing,” the 2014 Design Blogger Hall of Fame awards were announced. And, the big winner for “Best Overall Design Blog” went to none other than La Dolce Vita! Congrats to our friend Paloma on this much-deserved win!

The next session on “Building your Brand” was uuber popular. Our friend, and editor, Amy Flurry was one of the speakers and shared some secrets from her fabulous book, “Recipe for Press.” This was a session not to miss!

Celebrity designer, Timothy Corrigan offered up the next Keynote Address, and spoke to an enthralled audience on “Designing your Brand.” He spoke from such a unique perspective, sharing how he took his experiences from working in advertising to build his brand as a designer. He also doesn’t believe a room is well designed if it’s not comfortable – right on!

Day one of DBC 2014 ended with a wine tasting – yes, a wine tasting! And a fantastic talk on how to turn any topic into a lively and shareable story by Jeremy Parzen, who authors the wildly popular blog Do Bianchi, where he talks about wine and so much more!

Each of the three wines we tasted represented a different time in Jeremy’s life, the story he told us, and how he made it shareable. Not only were the wines wonderful, so was his speech!

Phew! That was quite a day… And to think, that was only day one. Day two was just as fantastic, if not more so. Like we shared earlier, DBC 2014 was quite an experience! We hope you’ll join us for our re-cap of day two, which we’ll be sharing here very soon!

If you attended DBC 2014, please let us know what you thought about the conference and who your favorite speakers were…