Inspire Me

Inspiration. It can be such a fickle thing. For me, it's a constantly shifting source; I'm inspired and pushed to create by so many outside influences. There are many blogs that I follow (I'm not going to give you a hard number -- you would either a: not believe me, or b: think I'm completely nuts) (you probably already think that I'm completely nuts) (and there she goes with the parenthesis again...) (someday I should really learn to spell "parenthesis" without a spell-checker.) What were we talking about? Blogs. Right. When I started to find more and more blogs that I was interested in, I realized that it was time to organize them all in a feed aggregator. There are several of these: Bloglines and Google Reader are two popular ones (I currently use the latter; there is a "share as you read" feature that I like to use sometimes). I organize the blogs that I read according to category, and then depending on how I'm feeling that particular day, week, month, those are the ones that I read.

I was going to write a little blurb about why I like each of these, but instead I'm just going to give you my top picks from each category in the blogs that I follow/subscribe to, as well as some other links to tutorials, free online pattern sites, etc. I have a bunch of projects that need my attention today, and since it's Andrew and Elijah's 1st day of school after the Winter Holiday, I actually have a shot at putting a dent in my list!

Without further introduction, here is a list of sites that have brought me much inspiration and creative stimulation this past year.

Mommy blogs (there are only three of these because I don't have patience for the format of most in this genre -- these, however, are standouts with clever writing, great photography, and the occasional thoughtful essay):
amalah
Girls Gone Child
The Kil Empire

Mommy/kid gear:
Cool Mom Picks

Photography and knitted inspiration:
BrooklynTweed
Life In Color
Lolly Girl
Never Not Knitting

Craft and sewing:
A Dress A Day
Angry Chicken
Anna Maria Horner
Make Something
Posie Gets Cozy
Soule Mama

Some of these may seem obvious to those of us who live in the online knit/crafting world, but for those who are new to this sort of thing:
Craftster
Knitty
KnittingHelp.com
Knotions
Twist Collective
Whip Up

Spinning wisdom:
Abby's Yarns!
Boogie Knits

Do you have a favorite source of inspiration? If so, I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

I have no pictures that are related to anything today, so instead, I leave you with this.

Because once or twice a year, everyone should have one.

In our next post: a return to our regular child-stories, pictures and family updates!