Blogs I am Compelled to Check Regularly
I’ve now officially visited soulemama enough times to warrant adding her blog to my links list. What do I like about her? What DON’T I like about her? She’s a homeschooling crafty mama in the woods of Maine with Waldorf tendencies and she’s written two books about creativity and the home (Handmade Home and The Creative Family). And while she is quick to remind us that neither she nor her family are perfect – she takes care to delight in her family, instead of complain. I like that.
My friend Nathen Lester has started his own blog called Nathen’s Miraculous Escape. He investigates ideas deeply and is interested in many things: swing dancing, writing and performing music, healthy intimate relationships, honesty, physical and emotional health – the list goes on. Besides the fact that he is my husband’s oldest and closest friend, and the eldest son of one of MY closest friends, Darlene (you can see her blog below), I am always interested in what he has to say.
For those of you like me, who were dismayed when Laura’s blog, blue heliotrope, dropped off the radar, she’s back, reborn as a mother; blog name: il piccolino. Laura and I wrote and illustrated countless stories together as kids and then, as now, reading her turns of phrase make me jealous! (And want to read more…)
corrinacorrina – Corrina not only has a great writing voice and good dose of sly humor, but she’s also a photographer and has a lyrical, light visual sense as well. You can check out her professional photography at rosewaterstudio.com. An essay of hers was published in The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You to Read. She also happens to be my sister-in-law.
Heather B. Armstrong over at dooce.com is a well-known blogger who actually supports her family with her blogging. She gained early notoriety when she was caught anonymously blogging wickedly biting criticism about her boss and co-workers six years ago. Although she is widely known as a mama blogger because she frequently writes about parenting her extra-sensitive daughter, Leta, she writes equally well about design and mental health. I find I crave the way she so honestly relates what’s going on in her life and how she peppers them with mind-bending analogies.
Maya at JT Homestead posts irregularly, but her sweet voice and insights are worth waiting for. If Maya had a superperson identity, it would be Flavorgirl. She used to work as a personal chef and her cooking (and recipes) kick ass. She and her husband are interested in sustainable living and community-building. They nurture and work the earth in an amazing garden just outside their living room window. She and her husband used to be my neighbors in Joshua Tree.
Darlene Lester at Darlene’s Good Life gives the best parenting advice of anybody I have ever met. She has raised five boys to be remarkable men and has been married nearly forty years to a musician (no easy feat). Caution: she speaks her mind and her ideas are far from mainstream. She likes to pepper her posts with lots of exclamation marks. She is a dear, dear friend.
Mama T and I went to McGill together. She used to be a librarian but now she’s now a stay-at-home mom and frequently blogs about her daughters’ antics at “Life Changes After Birth.” She writes concisely and frequently about living sustainably, TV obsessions, budgeting within her husband’s income, and reading. Her daughters’ names are Clara Roan and Pippa Rue – does that not make you think Mama T is cool? She also posts her recipes at Cooking with Mama T.
Blogs I’m Checking Out
One Skein – inspired by the book of the same name, you can find pics, directions, and inspiration for everything between knitted cupcakes and felted bowls.
Southern California Art
ArtForum’s LA art guide – a comprehensive listing of galleries and museums with exhibition listings and links.
ArtForum Diary – ArtForum.com’s LA art gossip column with photos of lots of art celebrities.
Flavorpill – does a web-based art guide in five cities.
The Flog. – an art blog run by Frette, an LA-based artist and now Culver-city gallery owner. Heavy on visuals, short on words – she also posts a current art events section in her sidebar.
Fecal Face – an art website run out of San Fran, but includes lots of LA and NYC events and artists.
General Art Links
Artspan.org – San Fran-based art directory.
Southern California Action
FishbowlLA– Run by mediobistro (they also do a Fishbowl DC and Fishbowl NYC), they call themselves a “a blog about the Hollywood creative community and L.A. media.”
General Art Links
Money Blogs
Boston Gal’s Open Wallet (formerly known as “Jane Dough”) anonymously posts her financial net worth every month. Between times she posts about general financial things of interest.
Shopping for Gifts
Saving the World and Green Blogging
Go to Eco-Libris to plant a tree for every book you own. Or read their blog (at blogspot) which covers many green topics.
While you’re at it, you can plant trees to offset your air travel emissions at American Forests. According to this article at San Diego Earth Times, “Eco-tourists who want to achieve true ‘global cooling’ travel need to plant three trees for every 4,000 miles of air travel.”
Food Blogs
*These links are also listed under the Eaten page
Steamy Kitchen: Modern Asian Cooking
a thinking stomach – Food blogging by a Pasadena high school English teacher. Her recipes are as good as her prose.
101 Cookbooks – this blog is written by Heidi Swanson, a San Fran-based food photographer and writer. She started the blog as a way to start exploring her 100-volume cookbook collection, and now is getting her own cookbook published.
Losing Weight Renegade WW-style
*These links are also listed under the Eaten page
restaurantpoints.com will give the ww points for meals from several dozen popular chain restaurants, from Applebee’s to Starbucks.
Core Food List – this lists all the foods for the ww core food program (where you can eat as much as you want as long as you don’t stray from the list).
thismamacooks has lots of ww recipes.
This blog, deutschbabe, got off to a good start, but then fizzled. There are a handful a good ww tofu recipes here (but that’s all).
An online ww point calculator at webmilhouse.com. We’ll see how long it lasts; ww is pretty proprietorial about their material.
Blogging Help by Bloggers
Lorelle on WordPress is not only a blogger who has published two books on the subject, but she specifically examines every facet of blogging on wordpress. I found her blog going through the wordpress FAQs.