Before we start talking about issue N°2 (which has been out there far too long not blogging about it), we want to share some thoughts and experiences from the reason we were not really telling you about our second issue: “The Hive – European Blogger Conference” taking place this weekend in Berlin.

The weekend started in a perfect way. At first we finally met the other speakers of this weekend’s conference at a lovely café in Kreuzberg (Ganz Wien). And they were such a creative and inspiring bunch. First we really want to thank the three ladies who put so much effort into organizing this weekend: Radostina (79ideas, Peggy (Paul & Paula) and Yvonne (The Girl in the Laundromat).
As always in the digital world: it feels a little weird but wonderful to be guessing whether “the girl over there in the blue sweater really is xxx – she kind of looks like on her Twitter picture, don’t you think?”! Toni was thrilled to meet one of the blogs she read for a long time: Lindsey from “Lost in Cheeseland”. I myself finally had the chance to meet Yvonne from “Fräulein Klein”, after writing so many emails back and forth. Especially when meeting contributors for the first time, it feels very special to us. And after tweeting back and forth for a while and being stunned by her design work for “Wayfairer Magazine” we loved meeting Anne from “Prêt à Voyager”. Then again there are these times you do not really recognize the people you were having conversations with on Twitter – Anne from “Anne’s Kitchen” we just got to know today … in the end we could NOT stop talking ;)!
Furthermore we felt we made new friends and connections: lovely Emily from “From China Village” and we had a very inspiring talk to Marika from “tonbogirl”.

That’s what a “blogger dinner” looks like – no worries, we talked a lot as well ;)!

But the little gettogether in the backyard of ‘Ganz Wien’ was not the end of this Friday. The AMAZING (exclamation point !) Tina Bernstein (colourliving.co.uk) had organized a pre-conference dinner with five ladies from UK: Toni (Skandivis), Caroline (Trend Daily), Ursula (Room to bloom), Chi (Carousel – soon to be renamed as we found out ;)) and Sophie (A Hidden Blossom).
We – a little group of five German bloggers including Clara (tastesheriff), Susanne (Lieschen heiratet), Ricarda (23qmstil) and us – joined them and it was an evening filled with laughter, great food at Dudu and – as we felt – new found friends!

Let us tell you more about the conference and our own speech tomorrow. Toni just finished twirling in colourful dresses in front of me and so we are all prepared for the party at Cosmo Hotel tonight! See you!!

When composing these profiles my favourite part is to write the short introduction. This is because I/we have got a story with each and every one of our contributors. Susanne for instance somehow read about us on Facebook and sent me a short message. After a short (okay, I admit – very long) stroll through her blog, I instantly replied avidly. Although there was little time before the first issue would launch, we agreed to collaborate. Ideas were mailed back and forth, we phoned and finally came to a decision: Susanne would produce a bread feature in our sisterMAG colours.
My favourite memory however goes back to a very dark and very cold evening in February. I had just finished layouting Susanne’s pages, send them through to her, a little uneasy and unsure – would she like it? Only a few minutes later my phone rang with an unknown number. Susanne had just been sitting in front of her computer as well, editing pictures and wanted to let me know that she liked it! She even commented on the little aslant square on page 43. This makes me the happiest: when people notice the small and little details one thinks about for ages, turning and pushing a square around the page!

However I’ll stop rummaging through old memories and present Susanne Schanz – photographer (http://www.fotografie-schanz.de/) and Blogger (http://la-petite-cuisine.blogspot.de/)!

And in the end I have to show you a little picture which Susanne sent to me in the hectic phase before sisterMAG issue 1. Isn’t it true? Thank you so much, Susanne!

Even more excited because of my meeting with Mary (blogpost here) some days before we were waiting for the second issue of Rêverie Magazine. Rêverie Magazine (Rêverie is French and means a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts) is truly a dream – not only for soon-to-be brides but for all people in love with beautiful sceneries, innovative decorations and inspiring ideas. It is maybe the most beautifully designed magazine of all digital-only magazines I know.

I felt immediately in love with the second issue when I saw that it featured the wedding of The Duke & Duchess of Windsor as Past Reverie (hier lesen). I’ve just finished two biographies of the tragic couple. The wedding dress of Wallis Simpson aka Duchess of Windsor is well published as Cecil Beaton took the wedding photos. Just click on the pictures below to go directly into Rêverie Magazine!

One particular focus of the second issue is Britain and its various talents like Paul Antonio, the leading calligrapher in the UK or the photographer Julia Boggio.

But what really makes you hold your breath are the wedding features. Even a person like me who hasn’t planned her wedding since kindergarden wants to be star of a Mexican Wedding like Zaheen and Reginas or head to Claridges as husband and wife like Sarah and Oli.

There is so much to discover in the latest issue of Reverie Magazine – just have a look at Mary and Kate’s masterpiece.

Yours, Toni

Judging from the latest tweets and messages on Facebook you may have figured that we are up to something … which is issue N°2 of sisterMAG. We decided it is just fair to give you heads up regarding timelines and activities of this final phase. This is why we will again be tweeting a lot more – keep your eyes open for the hashtag #lifewithsismag (follow us here: @sister_mag). Especially Thea will tell you more about the coming together of the magazine and what goes into making this magazine, she’ll also reveal what music the editorial team listens to and where the inspiration comes from! Today’s inspiration comes from a lovely blogger – Joy from sageandberries.com – who will also be contributing to our new issue. The confetti we found on her blog where she has the most lovely freebies and design inspirations!

Which brings us to issue N°2. Drum roll please … we’ll present the new issue exactly 10 weeks after launching our first publication : on 4th May 2012. We’ll keep our options open and say that we will publish on that Friday if nothing goes terribly wrong. Bear in mind: we are a startup, so there are also things, which can go terribly wrong ;)!

Let us tell you this: it will be packed with eye candies and interesting stories. We have travelled up and down the country, talked to people at the other end of the world and will work nights to bring you the newest version of the journal for digital ladies!

Best, Toni & Thea

One of my secret favourite features of issue 1 was the London DIY walk. Not only the walk itself was a lot of fun, but there were a lot of the shops included I DO go to every time we are in London. Furthermore a lot of work went into the illustration of this article. You might remember the maps and introduction pages to each new district. Today we want to tell you a little bit about how we put all of it together.

The first step was to draw all the maps by hand. I used a simple Google maps print and drew the most important streets on transparent paper. These maps were then scanned again and edited in Photoshop (contrast, clarity etc.). I used a seamless background from Lost and Taken (a great ressource site!) as background for the whole page. Then I added all the paint drops (Photoshop Watercolor brushes – this is a pack from Deviant Art). In Indesign I added all the text as well as the headlines (font: Weltron Urban)

Looking at those pages I somehow had the feeling that something was missing. Without further ado I decided to add some watercolor illustrations. They are hand-painted, scanned and placed in Photoshop, put on “Multiply”. Some of you might even remember the evening I made them because I couldn’t keep myself from tweeting some images ;) (which means: you should follow us on Twitter to get some inside scoops of sisterMAG production ;))

If you haven’t done so already: you can download all of the maps as free PDF here! Lets see what we’ll come up with for issue N°2, which is not that far away – there will be another city walk and maybe I have to get out my paints once again ;) Have a lovely day – I am working on the cover for issue 2 today!
Yours, Thea