The Craft Begins

1. Love. Obsess. Inspire. is a great place to stop by for visual treats in a number of flavors – fashion, interiors and more.

2.  One of my favorite things on This is Glamorous is the image mashups – usually some gorgeous design paired with a coordinating fashion photo.  Simply beautiful.

3.  All the Mountains…I don’t even know what to say.  Really unusual and gorgeous finds with huge pictures.  Can’t get enough.

4.  If you’re looking for pointers and inspiration for a stylish life, Coco + Kelley is a one-stop shop.

5.  Simple + Pretty satisfies my daily need for fashion and awesome paper products.

1.  I love the funny yet sweet vintage illustration mashups over at Jolly Good Show.  Very charming.

2.  Lisa Congdon is doing her own unique 365 project – a picture or a drawing of a vintage collection of something a day.  School supplies, feathers, you never know what will come up next.  See them all at A Collection a Day.

3.  Grey Likes Weddings, and I like Grey’s hand-curated collection of fantastic and sweet weddings and inspiration.

4.  Sweet Paul showcases amazing styling and photography, as well as tasty recipes and crafty ideas.  Making the blogosphere good looking, one post at a time.

1.  When Miki gets creatively blocked, she creates movie posters.  This one is so simple, it’s amazing.  That’s just the beginning of all of her creative energies.  You can find more at her blog, { miki } says.

2.  I’ve been really into gorgeous calligraphy lately, and I love Patricia Mumau’s style.  A little bit quirky but still modern.  She blogs about her calligraphy projects as well as lots of mid-century illustration (another thing I happen to love).

3.  There are some amazing illustrations to be found at An Open [sketch]book, as well as tons of other visual inspiration.  When I see illustrators like this, it makes me realize just how bad of a drawer I really am.

4.  Another person who’s handwriting I’m jealous of is Marta over at Marta Writes.  She seems to be able to bring a lot of personality and joy into everything she creates.  Something to aspire to in the new year.

5.  All of the lovely things over at Quaint Handmade just make me smile.

Reading these always gets me inspired and puts that warm feeling in my heart.  How can so many people be so talented?

1.  Concrete and Honey celebrates all things beautiful, and her blog shows it.  I am an especially big fan of her interesting and organic floral designs.

2.  I’m obviously having a weird day today, so there is in fact no #2.  My apologies.

3.  If you’re looking for something paper-related, look no further than A Little Hut.  If it can be made out of paper, she can do it.  I’m always astounded by her projects.

4.  An all-around design wrap-up can be found at Visual Notes.  She doesn’t discriminate between flowers, interiors, wallpaper, or just about anything gorgeous.

5.  For lots of beautiful home and color inspiration, don’t miss Under a Paper Moon.  She’s on a mustard kick right now that I just can’t get enough of!

6.  I always enjoy reading about artists who are living and working and selling their art.  I especially like it when it’s art that I’m into!  Camilla Engman shares her works and a little bit of her life as well.

7.  The concept of The Jealous Curator is cool enough, but so are the artists that are profiled.  It’s a really great glimpse into the contemporary art world, and hey, I wish I would have thought of that!

8.  The food styling and the recipes over at the Messy Cook are really wonderful to read.   You know if it invovles food, I’m in!

If you’re just coming down from the after-effects of massive turkey dinners (and then leftovers), take a comfortable seat and enjoy reading some of these fabulous blogs.

1.  to be, inspired has to be one of my favorite new blogs.  They chronicle their antiquing journeys, venturing into thrift shops and restoring old finds.  As an added bonus, the photography is to die for.

2.  My favorite part about reading elephantine is the variety that you get.  Always a beautiful, inspiring picture along with a story about what she saw or heard that day.  The stories are always so simple but so touching.

3.  I would love to live in Small Measure‘s world.  She’s a bit of a homesteader and a bit of a foodie, and advocates living a life a little bit slowed down.  Maybe one day I can be like her!

4.  There’s something about Heart of Light that is so simple and yet so beautiful.  A nice glimpse into a life well-lived.

5.  I can’t say enough good things about Sunday Suppers.  The photography is astounding, the recipes are delicious, all of the food is fresh and organic and local, and the parties look like so much fun!  I might have to head to NY just to go to one of their dinners.

With the food blog, Smitten Kitchen (and her adorable baby boy).  It seems like it’s going to be a while before I post any new recipes, so make sure to check in here for a  great collection of delicious recipes.  You can search by date, ingredient, and season.  And the most inspiring part is that she makes all of these great dishes in a tiny New York kitchen.  How great is that?

1.  Happiness is this new blog.  Tons of retro fun and beautiful things.  She’s got a great aesthetic and lots of fun things to share.

2.  I always love popping over to Wunderbug.  She’s a great writer and has just a lovely perspective on life.  You really feel like you get to know her through her blog.

3.  If you like finding gorgeous items on etsy and/or interior design, Simply Designed & Etsy Finds is the blog for you.

4.  I like checking out Jones Fife for the unexpected and awesome things to be found on the internet.

5.  I like Poppalina‘s blog for her drawings and her beautiful photo mosaics.

6.  Art and Paris – what more are you looking for?  Head over to Little Brown Pen if that’s your thing.

My sister just got an adorable kitten (pictures are forthcoming, I swear) and I notice that I lot of blogs that I read feature cats, somehow. Maybe it’s an internet thing? At any rate, here are some great blog reads, some featuring kittens, some not.

1.  Color Me Katie just makes me happy.  I don’t know if she just edits her life this way or whether she truly is this creative, loving and adventurous, but her escapades are a joy to read.

2.  If I’m looking for something cool that hasn’t quite made its way all around the internet yet, I stop by at Oh? There’s some great taste at work here, as well as some beautiful photography.

3.  If food is your thing, make sure to stop by Bread & Honey.  Just like my cooking (sometimes), everything here is fresh and local and made from scratch.  It’s always fun to watch someone else try to eat a little more meaningfully.

4.  Well, I like cats, and I like great pictures, and so I also like great pictures of cats.  If you like great pictures of any kind, make sure to check out Our Labor of Love for the freshest photography around.

5.  I’ve always sort of wanted to be a florist, so Small Stump + Studio Choo is like flower porn for me.  Wonderful, inventive arrangements and great colors, and they share it all with you!  How inspiring.

6.  Sometimes, I’ve had enough with all of the positivity and sunshine and rainbows that seems to characterize the blogs of a certain interest.  And that’s fine, and I’m equally guily of that as well here (I think I love just about everything) but sometimes I just need to hear someone rant and rave and write extremely cleverly – for that, I Have Happy.

1.  How to make a ruffled pillow from Kelly + Olive.  I think that even if you don’t want to make a pillow, the technique could be useful for other projects.

2.  Great people stationery from Just Something I Made, plus all of the templates to make your own!

3.  These little packages were intended to be for wedding favors, but you could use them for party favors or lovely little gifts.

4.  How adorable and simple are these invites?  IDiY rounds up all the latest and greatest in tutorials for you, and this is just one of her finds.

5.  Everyone knows how much I love bunting – now you can turn it into a stamp!  Another adorable tutorial from Just Something I Made.

6.  Last but not least, make your very own scratch-off stickers from ArtMind.  These would be a great party game, or to send out with your shop orders.

Apparently, I’m into passing my blog bookmarks along…

1.  The thing that I like most about Black*Eiffel is the fact that I think she and I have almost the exact same taste.  At least, I always really like the things she posts, whatever that means.

2.  Reading the Rockstar Diaries always makes me happy.  Taza and her husband always seem to be having so much fun and getting everything they can out of life, and taking fantastic pictures along the way.  A really uplifting read.

3.  La Marquise Des Anges is always filled with pretty, colorful and feminine finds.

4.  If you ever find yourself lost in the maze that is Etsy nowadays, Simply Designed and Etsy Finds takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process.  Great items, talented sellers, and everything is pulled together by color or theme beautifully.

5.  If you still long for the days of your 35mm camera, I Heart Film is the blog for you.  Constantly rounding up excellent photographs, all taken with analog tools.s, i

1.  Design is Mine is a great place to check out for lots of great design finds, like interior design, illustration and unique fashion (how many times can I use the word design in a sentence?).

2.  Fine Little Love celebrates the delicate, the feminine, the delightful.  And there’s always a roundup of fantastic photography.

3.  There’s no better place to find a roundup of freebies than How About Orange.  Downloads, tutorials, and lots of great resources.

4.  Oh, Geninne.  Always inspiring, always full of magical and sweet artistic creations.  And adorable puppies.  What’s not to love?

5.  Wackystuff.  If you don’t know this guy yet, you probably should.  A prolific artist, a prolific sender and collector.  If you’ve spent any time on flickr or sendsomething.net, you’ve probably seen some of his work.  Not sure?  Check it out.

There’s lots of gorgeous, well-thought-out blogs out there.  Here’s a few of my most recent favorites.

1.  A Field Journal is filled with wonderful photographs and lots of inspiring tutorials.  She’s got a really great style that is carried through all of her posts.

2.  I like Little Green Notebook for making good design accessible.  Pointers for good sales and an inspiring do it yourself or two.   I’m currently loving this table.

3.  If pictures of gorgeous interior design is more your thing, look no further than Urban Grace Interiors.  There’s a wide variety of styles and colors and everyone is sure to find something they like here.

4.  I love City of Dionne for the thoughtful posts and the wonderful illustrations.  That she can be that prolific and still find time for such intricate blog posts is amazing to me.  An added plus – she’s always got a great giveaway going.

I’m loving this blog.  It’s a great place to go for party inspiration of every kind.

1.  We Love You So is a great blog from the people who are bringing to life Where the Wild Things Are.  It’s a nice insight into their process, but there are also lots of interesting inspirations and other things to be found.

2.  Beautiful pictures, packaging and really interesting graphic design can all be found at oh, hello friend.  I love the way she’s put her blog together – it really stands out in a sea of not-so-great templates.

3.  I love the photography over at Mocking Bird, and she was kind enough to write up a few tutorials to show you how to “develop” your photos to look like hers.

4.  Nectar and Light gives you 1000 reasons why polaroid film shouldn’t be discontinued (1ooo of which are her photographs).

5.  Want to keep on top of what’s going on in the blog world?  Look no further than Soolip.  Always a great roundup of what’s circling on the internet, filtered for interestingness and gorgeousness.

We have a winner for my March giveaway!  Congratuations to the winner – I’ve sent an email, so you know who you are!  And thanks to everyone who entered – I will be doing giveaways fairly often so check back soon for more details!

I’ve been working on the inside of a 1972 pickup truck so that’s taking a lot of my time this weekend (I’ll share pictures soon) so instead of posting what I’m doing, I thought I’d post what I’m loving instead.

1.  I think that I’m doing to keel over and die from how much I love Candice Stringham’s photography.  She has been shooting these amazing pictures of beautiful ladies with umbrellas, “flying” all over New York.  She has such a sense of whimsy and a touch of humor, I just can’t keep from going back for more.

2.  Purl Soho might indeed have the best collection of high-end crafty goodness that I have ever seen.  Plus, the online shop is great for people like me who live in a tragically unhip place with no access to the wonder that is their fabric collection.  They have wonderfully hip patterns as well, definitely worth checking out.

3.  Erin Jang’s blog is a great place for graphic design and craft inspiration.   I love her custom wedding ideas, and there’s something that’s wonderfully handmade, yet still professional about her designs.

4.  I’ve been looking at lots of flowers lately, as I’m doing all of the flowers for a friend’s wedding in June.  I stumbled upon Wild at Heart and I love their gallery – full of inspiration.  The flowers are romantic, yet modern, and there’s something about a huge ball of matching flowers that is just so striking.

5.  Sometimes, I get a little down about the world, and I just need to read something funny.  I’m not much of a joke person, and my humor personality seems to be most akin to that of Eddie Izzard.  Which makes it difficult to find things that make me laugh.  Puppet Pie, however, might be the best blog out there for putting a smile on your face.  Words cannot even describe.  You’ll have to see it for yourself.

6.  And because I can never get enough of beatiful photography, I find myself drawn to Bloom, Grow, Love‘s blog.  An amazing photographer, her images are captivating and have a wonderful dream-like quality to them (if only my dreams were this beautiful).  If I’m ever able to create photos this gorgeous, I think I’ll be able to die happy.

That’s all for today.  I’m embarking on a new project taking pictures of people’s pets, and I’m excited to see where it will take me.  There’s all sorts of things that qualify as pets down here – dogs, cats, lizzards, goats.  ;)  I’ll be posting photos as soon as I get them!