The Dazey Lady Contest 

A few weeks ago we had our big Dazey Lady contest! It was amazing and over 100 inspiring girls entered by telling us how they are following their dreams. I was particularly inspired by Juliete of @julzjunkiejewelry because she chose to quit a steady job and school to follow her dreams. What started as a fun project became her passion, and she's damn good at it too.

Check out the lovely video and shoot we did below as well as her entry :) shop her JULZ on www.julzjunkie.com! Also check out the hastag #dazeyladycontest and see the other entries, so uplifting and inspiring! 

 SHOP THE TOPS HERE

Julette's Original entry story:

Hi loves! I'm Juliet, the little 27 year old boss lady behind Julz Junkie. The name starts with my nickname "Julz" and my very first customers would always return over and over wanting more so that's where "Junkie" came in. I figured this was the perfect time to tell you a little about myself for the #dazeyladycontest and how I ended up here.

I worked in Real Estate, Property Mgt and Escrow for around 7 years. I did go to college and wanted to be a Dental Hygienist. That's until one summer I was bored and sick of all my cheap jewelry always tarnishing on me. I've been creative all my life so I went to the local craft store and picked up my first set of jewelry pliers and some chain. I analyzed all the jewelry I had and taught myself everything I know. To be honest it was just a hobby until friends started admiring my pieces. After doing it for a while I noticed how happy I was doing it and started selling pieces on an online marketplace. Every day I would have lots of designs running thru my head and would run home and make them.

At my job at the time I was doodling jewelry designs and losing focus (oops 🙈) and that's when it clicked that I had to go with a different career. Of course my family was a little worried that I wasn't going to start the dental hygiene program and that I was quitting my job, not to mention I had rent to pay. Everyone always said "omg Juliet the fashion world is such a cutthroat business". I figured if I was gonna give it a shot this was my chance and well as you can tell it was totally worth it! Now, my life consist of jewelry 24/7. I also work part-time for a well known Jewelry designer in LA and have learned a lot to apply to my own business. I get home and put all my focus to my brand. I do everything myself and I am very proud of it. Hashtag #girlboss lol Obviously if my lil brand blows up I'll need some help but at the moment I've got it under control 😜 Never be afraid to try something new and go after your dreams no matter what anyone tells you. Don't lose hope because nothing happens overnight, just stay motivated and you will get there. Thank you so much for the endless support, it never goes unnoticed. ❤️Julz

 This Lovely creative is Irene Luna. She attended my Dazey Lady event, and approached me asking to shoot! I thought she had such a unique and striking look; I couldn't say no. I think all the girls I shoot are beautiful and wonderful, but frankly I'm getting a little bored of always shooting your standard blonde California girl. Irene was different, and it was refreshing. Dazey is all about celebrating and empowering ALL women. When we met up to shoot I was delighted with how smart, funny, and confident this 20-year-old girl was. I asked her to write a piece for the new Dazey Zine and she KILLED IT!!! Read her amazing story below, and check out the magical shots we got.

Not your stereotype by Irene Luna:

From the moment my grade school teacher handed my class and I a box to decorate for back too school night, I knew one thing: I wanted my box to stand out, to be different. When people liked blue, I wanted red. When polka dots were in, I was into stripes. When the world was watching this, I was reading that. To me, standing out in a sea of very pretty fish, is by far the most intriguing opportunity. Not to say it was ever an easy option, not in the slightest. (read more below)

SHOP THE TOPS HERE

I always knew I wanted to be a performer, I grew up in theater, and in dance. Undoubtedly, the stage is my first love, and acting my dire passion. I can't exactly pin point the reason that I love being in front of an audience, but I just feel right when I'm in that “all eyes on you” position. So naturally being in front of the little eye of a camera came as a part of that deal. To be completely honest, I never saw myself as the “model type”, therefore I never really thought modeling was for me. I do not have a perfect taut figure (my thighs love each other too much), and I’m a brown haired, brown skinned Hispanic, far from what I grew up thinking a model was. In fact, growing up, being a model to me meant being in the secret society of perfection. Given such an ethnic background and lack of tiny waist genes, I very well knew I could not and would not be able to afford that membership. 

But like I said, I have always embraced my desire to stand out. It has successfully pushed me to strive toward being the odd one out, learning to love myself and the unique qualities of not only myself, but of every person I come across. It hasn't always been easy breezy cheesy toast, of course not. I can't say it's exactly pleasant or easy to be standing in a room full of beautiful girls similar in many ways to one another, while you stand with more resemblance to the chair in the corner than any of them. (continued below)

A healthy, positive, ambitious mindset is a very big part of having the ability to do what you want to do. Deciding to feel good about you, is what makes you feel good about you. Not the approval or fondness of people whom you don't know, if we were to let that dictate where our lives were going we wouldn't get to enjoy the world and the ridiculously awesome experiences it has to offer. And relinquishing those joys of life is not in the cards for this gal. 

I see not being the stereo typical model, as a great opportunity to represent the color of the world, because really if all fish were blue I'm sure we wouldn't be so intrigued with the sea. I know there is beauty in every face, ethnicity, and proximity of our thighs. Being different, and ‘not looking like everyone else’ is now a pretty trendy thing, and it’s quite a lot of fun to be apart of a generation that has such a rad outlook. 

Knowing that the confidence that everyone is able to bring to their own looks, craft, and passions is what is most important. Not being the stereo type, and embracing the things that make you different to the standard, is what adds so much color to the world, gives us all more reasons to connect with one another, and even more reasons to enjoy and strive on this cool little rock we live on.

Xx- Irene Luna  

 Hey Dazey Ladies! So as many of you know I do mini design tutorials on the @dazey_la Instagram story all the time. I've been getting a lot of people asking to save them or put them on the blog since they disappear after 24 hours. When I started one yesterday I took some screen shots and decided to save and re-upload it. I know the video is super choppy and portrait style, so I decided to go more in depth below. I hope you find this helpful and never hesitate to ask questions. Previous knowledge of adobe illustrator is helpful.

This will be for my "march on" collection based on signage I saw at the women's march. I'll be working on designs all week and should be released in the next month or so!

Xx-Dani Dazey

1) Open a fresh adobe illustrator file. I always find 3-4 images that inspire me. Weather it's the colors, fonts, or design elements. I keep them on the side of the frame to reference. The goal is not to copy any of them, but take bits and pieces you like to create something new! 

Start with a base font, something you like that has a similar vibe to the end goal. This will however be totally changed so don't fuss too much :) 

2) Separate the font as a new text box on each line. Then select the first and apply the "warp" effect like shown below. There is a lot of fun options to re-shape the text! Some of my favorites are arc and flag. Here I have applied a different warp to each line as you can see. I like to adjust the fonts to blend in with each other. 

3) From here you select the font, go to "object" and click expand. This will make the font editable. Once it is outlined you can use the pen tool to re-trace these lines. Make sure you have the letters selected when editing. 

4) Here I am about halfway through. Just take it nice and slow one letter at a time. Keep the edit stokes close to the original or it will create a new line instead of re-shaping the current one. Here you can see I'm going for a more funky text and almost melting the letters into one another!

5) Now that I'm finished with the letters I am going to add a text shadow. Not your average "drop shadow", this trick works better :) Duplicate the font and add a thick "stroke" to the bottom one, I have it at 10 points here. Then I took the top layer and made the "fill" white and added a 2 point stroke. Then you just place the top font on the bottom one.

6) As you can see Below I decided to take the bottom shadow and expand it, merged using pathfinder, and then added a black stroke with yellow fill. Then I took the pen tool (better at making straight lines then the pencil tool) and I used to to create the background "beams" by just clicking at each point. All I needed to do was 1/4th of the background and then duplicate it. Then I grouped the background and used the warp tool again to add the "twist"!

7) I then selected the whole design and change the stroke to have a "rough" line by using the "brush definition" tool (you can see it next to where it says "uniform"). This particular stroke option is very thick so I have changed the stoke to 0.25. I have also changed the colors, which I will do 10 more time before print I'm sure haha. 

8) To add a distress I bring my files into photoshop by copy and pasting to a new design file. Then I paste a downloaded "distress" layer on top. This layer is literally just a speckled transparent .tiff file that matches the background. You can download them off of the internet! I usually go in using the pattern stamp tool to define and add even more distress.

9) To get a preview on a tee all you do is find a semi large photo of a blank tee and place the graphic on top. On the right side above layers you can select where it says "normal" and change it to "multiply" on a light tee, or "screen" on a darker tee. This takes away the white box and makes it look like it's printed on the tee.

And here you have it! The finished product :) Hope you enjoyed my first little tutorial post. I do them a lot on the Insta story but this is the first time I've done a big blog tutorial! I plan on doing more along with more legit videos and not the quick phone story ones haha.

 There has been an amazing amount of rainfall this year compared to your average dry California winter. It has been a HUGE help to our drought. The usually dusty hills have been exploding with green glistening grass. In between the rainy days it had been a photographers dream! This is the adorable little Jess. We shot this at the base of griffith park! 

January was just a crazy month I hardly had any chances to shoot! Excited to get back behind the camera and make awesome stuff 2017 :) When exotic beauties reach out to shoot it's hard to say no! This is Cherie and she is visiting LA from Amsterdam. She was scouted out here for modeling and acting while on vacation and is spending the next few months in LA taking classes and building her portfolio. I am obsessed with her amazing hair and striking eyes, a photographers dream combo, right?! 

She's wearing all goodies from our new resolution collection. Designed to make a positive impact on our future. You can shop it HERE!

After much anticipation our big Dazey LA video is finally here!! Dazey is so much more than just a company. Supporting and encouraging fellow females is the real mission behind the brand! We explore the journey Dani took starting Dazey and some amazing people involved along the way.  Starting a business can be scary, but luckily I've had the best Dazey Ladies by my side who you get to meet in the video too! Huge thanks to my babes involved @officiallyquigley, @thewestsidecollective, @nikkiijoiner, and @aldenstimle.

Last but certainly not least big shout out to the badass female director Melissa and her husband, owners of @longhaulfilms! They did and amazing job and made this process so easy and incredible.

Below are some stills and behind the scenes photos the day of the shoot!! We filmed much of it in my incredible WeWork space. The video release came right in time after being a speech winner at the WeWork Global Summit Los Angeles Demo Days event. The winnings included 25k towards Dazey, I was blown away! Such an amazing organization and community I am proud to be apart of. Post coming soon covering the big contest! A special thanks to my boyfriend Phillip for taking these and always helping out so much :)

  Quigley is no stranger to the Dazey blog and insta. She's someone who has helped me since the beginning :) I wanted to go a little deeper and feature her as a Dazey Lady!

She's an amazing blogger and model. We met right before I started Dazey on a shoot. She is possibly the sweetest human ever and quickly had become one of my best friends. She's also been a huge help in my business by collaborating on photoshoots all the time and cross-promoting. It's so crazy to think of the people I may not have become close with without Dazey! Read more able this lovely lady below:

1) Dani -First off what do you do!? Would love to talk about what you do for a living and what you passion is.

Quigley -I am a professional player of the game "Dress Up." For real though, blogging is my job... but playing dress up is my art. My excuse for not cleaning my room as a teenager was that I needed my clothing in a pile on the floor because I "needed to see my palette." No joke. Putting outfits together really is a passion of mine, and I love being able to inspire women to take risks with their wardrobe too. Clothing is so much more than fabric; it's a way to express your unique identity and make a statement! I also help brands with art direction and consult on social media... this is really fun because I love helping small business owners build an identity for their brands and visualize who their client is and how to reach her.

2) Dani -What inspires you and get’s you excited!?

Quigley -This sounds really cheesy, but runway shows really inspire me. I can get lost in a sea of screen grabs and Pinterest boards from my favorite runway shows. 

3) Dani -Where would you want to be in 5 years from now personally and professionally?

Quigley -In five years, I would love to have my own line and also be able to do a bit more traveling as a blogger! I will probably be writing a musical or a book or something like that. I definitely see writing and public speaking in my future! I want to do a TED talk too. :)

4) Dani -What does being a Dazey Lady mean to you?

Quigley -Being a Dazey Lady means wearing many hats! No pun intended. A Dazey lady does it all... she takes risks and lives big. She doesn't get in her own way and goes out of her way to help lift others up. She is a symbol of community and love!!!!

XXX Quigley

Have a bit of a personal post for you guys :) First off exciting news, my little sister Doma got engaged! Before me yes, but that's ok because her fiancé is an awesome guy and they are perfect for each other. Plus I'm probably destined to be a career-driven spinster LOL. Anyways last week we headed out to palm springs so I could shoot their engagement photos! My sister is a lady of many talents as well and dabbles with photography too, so I had her shoot some photos of me wearing the new Dazey. I'm also wearing gorgeous goodies from her jewelry line @stone.and.spirit. We come from a family full of creatives, in fact I don't think these anyone who doesn't have some sort of creative skill or dive. It really does run in our blood. 

I used to blog way back in the day, but I'm more used to being behind the camera as of late. It's fun to have my photos snapped for a change, so huge thanks to ya little sis! 

It’s been a little bit of a wild ride planning this collection but I am SO happy to announce it is FINALLY HERE!! Inspired by the new year, this collection is all about resolutions. A Dazey Lady is always positive and strives to create a better future for herself and the world she lives in. I wanted to make something to help remind her to stay strong even when the future seems uncertain. You can’t rain on our Dazey Lady parade!

Yesterday I got to shoot one of my closest friend’s Alden (@aldensteimle) who also happen to be a major model babe! We had the most amazing girl boss crew involved, I don’t know how I would get by without my Dazey Ladies. We shot in Topanga Canyon, a small hippy mountain town right outside of LA that seems to be untouched by time. Corri of Ocean Urth Jewelry was kind enough to let us shoot in her lovely bohemian home. We had to postpone the shoot because LA has been cloudy and rainy for weeks, which never happens! As we got closer to the new shoot date the forecast predicted the “big winter storm” to fall directly on it. By some miracle as soon as we got on location the clouds parted and it became a gorgeous sunny day. It couldn’t have been a better shoot and I am so grateful!

I hope you enjoy the collection! Check out my lady boss team below :)

Model: @aldensteimle
Photog: @danidazey
Hair & Makeup: @eden_thrillz
Jewlery & home :@oceanurth
Styling: @thewestsidecollective
Headbands & allover HUGE help: @im_with_the_band_headbands