In a span of two years, I have changed the focus of MARIENELA. When I launched it on April 20, 2012, it was supposed to be “My Blog” where I was just going to write my musings and whatnots.
A year later, I changed gears and planned it to be a depository of all my photographs – beginning with the photos that I took with my Kodak Instamatic camera that Santa gave me when I was 5 years old to my trusty Nikon 35mm SLR camera plus all the Polaroid snapshots I took in between.

My plan was to scan all those photos and give them a digital life. But, finding the time to do all the scanning was hard in between attending fashion shows and writing trends. I need more than 24 hours a day!

Then, when 2014 rolled around, Sara, my alter ego, thought of refocusing MARIENELA into a Books and Fashion website, two of the things that I love. We don’t have to drop the photography portion. After all, this is the era of social media and hashtags. We just can’t use my old photos unless it’s #TBT (Throwback Thursday) or #FF (Flashback Friday). We have to take NEW photographs!

I have the fashion portion down pat. In fact, everyone in the staff does. That’s what we do the whole year round.

Surprisingly, though I was scared on how the books section will do, it developed naturally and organically. In fact, it is fast becoming as strong as the fashion section.

Now, Sara wants to branch out to movies and then restaurants, even shopping. But, those will have to wait.

Updated May 16, 2014 || Mar 23, 2013 || Feb 21, 2013
Written April 20, 2012
Dallas, TX