The Violet.

Is it weird that I have knots in my stomach I'm so nervous to announce this? Okay, well I do. 

So here's the story. You know how I write on occasion about working on some project and meeting with my friend Ashleigh every now and then but I couldn't really talk about it much? Well..I can finally talk about it! 

Dear wonderful, supportive, lovely blog friends - I am happy to formally introduce to you The Violet! The Violet is an online women's magazine for women trying to navigate their way throughout this big bad world. (It even says so on our "about" tab!). The idea came to me back in October when I came upon a bunch of new and awesome online magazines. I was so excited with the fact that people were coming up with these great new publications and they were being so well received. And I do have a slight obsession with magazines (seriously, I might even be called a magazine hoarder). I got the chance to work for San Francisco Magazine last year, and fell in love with all things publishing. I knew that I wanted to create a publication one day...I just didn't ever think it'd actually happen. 

Anyways - part of my me journey this past year and a half I've been blogging has been to learn to slow down, stop, and appreciate the moments. And also, to learn to create more of those moments. I'm a self-proclaimed pessimist and I often find myself digging some dark hole to climb into and hide when things get sticky or tough. I have found that there are times that I desperately need reminders and sometimes even an instruction manual on how to appreciate and acknowledge the little things, so as not to get swallowed up by focusing on the big things. So I thought, if I feel this way, there must be others who feel this way also. So why not create a magazine that focuses on living fully, moment by moment?

There are many magazines that I drool over. But I can't help but feel sometimes when I close them, that I'll never be able to achieve what they put out there because, well, I'm 23 (almost 24) years old, I have a part time job and I work for myself the rest of the time. I'm busy, stressed, and irritated at the fact that employment opportunities are few and far between. Essentially, I'm on a budget. But actually, being on a budget doesn't mean that you can't live a full and rich life! We maintain that with a little bit of creativity and a lot of heart, you can have your cake and eat it too! (it also says that in our "about" tab!).We want our readers to sit back, enjoy the issue, close it and feel inspired to go out and create moments and memories.

Sometimes I like to think of our publication as Martha Stewart's daughter publication - she loves crafts, and cooking, and being healthy, but there's a little edge to her. And hell, she sometimes struggles to pay the rent on her apartment, and can't spend hours upon hours creating the perfect centerpieces. :) 

The Violet will have sections on affordable ideas for crafts and projects, things to go out and do, issues that women deal with in today's world, culture, living healthy, fashion and personal style, and food (duh, you know there will be a food section if I'm involved) among other things. We've got a team of BRILLIANT contributors - many of whom you know and love - and I can't wait to introduce them all to you! And our first issue is set to come out *hopefully* by the end of next month or possibly early April!

Ashleigh and I have been working our tails off trying to launch the website and getting everything together for the first issue and we're so so so excited to be able to talk about this now. It makes it really real! I know this has been a crazy long post, so I'm gonna wrap it up and we can chat more about this later :)

But first, do me a favor. Check out The Violet and if it's something that you like...

follow us on twitter

and maybe our Tumblr blog also?

and like our Facebook page!

It would mean the world to me!

Also, check out our discussion question on our facebook page and under the "community" tab on the website. Send in what you feel to info@thevioletonline.com and we may feature your responses in our first issue. We really want this magazine to be something that young women in the blogging world connect with so we would love your involvement!

Thanks so much

xo.