Tuesday, January 05, 2010

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!

4 comments:

Heather said...

Fluffer nutter? That brings me back to childhood. I still can't believe you didn't list foodie blogs. Thanks for the new reading list, though. I sure have enough time on my hands. :)

katie said...

Wow... that sandwich looks killer!

Anonymous said...

I feel like a complete stalker as I am reading all of the Darling posts on your blog. Your 10 year history, sister postings, night out on the town, I could not get enough of your blog.

Fluffernutter sandwiches are the best! Thanks for sharing your adventures!

Jenny

Faith said...

Jenny,

Thanks! It's always great to know that people are enjoying our blog. I'm so glad that you've had a good time reading through it! :)