Blog Love: Newbies + Not-so-newbies
Thursday, April 28, 2011
So, I've decided it's time for a little regular feature action around these parts. Partly to give you all something to look forward to (oh I am ever the optimist) and partly to give me one less blog post to conjure up out of thin air the dark recesses of my increasingly frazzled mind. It's win win.
You might recall that when I first created my oh-so-stylish, jam-packed-with-wonderfulness Blog Love page, I picked out a quintet of talented blogger/photographers (now forever known in my mind as Len's Ladies - thanks for that Nicola) and gave them each a little slice of blog love pie. Because I'm nice like that.
I don't know if any of you were remotely interested, but I rather enjoyed sharing a little love for some of my favourite blog ladies and I quite fancy keeping it up. And so, I give you my new regular feature: the imaginatively-titled Blog Love. Cue fanfare.
The idea is that, on the last Friday of every month, I will pick out a selection of fabulous bloggers, probably loosely grouped by some sort of theme (I love themes, patterns, common threads, tenuous links and so on. Such. A. Geek.) and give them a little bit of love right here on these very pages. Hopefully you will love them too and then we can all be friends together. Yay!
But, I hear you cry, it's Thursday! Well, yes it is. In case you have been living under a rock, there is a certain wedding taking place tomorrow and I will be too busy quaffing buck's fizz and giving The Dress marks out of ten (I'm hoping for an 11 - don't let me down, Kate!) to be faffing around with all this blogging malarkey. I expect you'll be the same. Or you'll be too busy bah-humbugging, in which case, you can just read this post again tomorrow. Or you could pop over to Rock My Wedding and read their very sensible post on why we should all just shut up and be supportive. Okay? Jolly good. (See, I'm getting all posh in preparation.)
Anywaaaaay - back to the blog love. This month, as you may have guessed from the title, I am giving a wee shout out to a posse of bloggers who, like me, are new, or sort-of-new, at this game (and who are, frankly, playing it way better than I am).
GREY & SHINY
"Aahhh…. That. Was. Glorious. The first long weekend since Christmas! How are we allowed to go that long without a holiday in Canada?!? I didn’t even realize how starved I was for a break until it arrived and it felt like heaven wrapped in cheese, dipped in fine wine." (Read the rest)
I dread to think how many new blogs are proudly unleashed onto the world in a flash of post-festive inspiration each January, only to slink miserably off into the internet archives, unread and unloved, a few short posts later. After three months of blogging I'm still clinging on, and I can't help but feel a certain kinship with those who took that same small yet terrifying step at the same time as me. It's like the girl you sit next to on your first day at primary school; you will always have a bond. Even if she turns out to be a snotty bitch who steals your favourite troll. Mercifully, that is not the case with the wise, eloquent and decidedly unsnotty Nina, who started her blog grey&shiny a couple of weeks before I did.
In her blog blurb, Nina describes herself as an "environmental health researcher, newlywed, and proud dog-parent. I'm nearly thirty and just realizing that adulthood doesn't actually come with the answer-book to life like I expected." Which could totally have been written about me. (Apart from the environmental health researcher part, obviously. Oh and the dog bit. But you know what I mean.)
Nina writes thoughtful posts, and interesting, borderline nerdy posts (I mean that in an excellent way), and funny posts, and posts about Finland (because who doesn't like a bit of Scandinavian chat?) and posts that take the words right out of my mouth. She also just joined twitter (yay!) and she put me on her blogroll (YAY!) so she gets a gold star from me.
Plus her favourite things include saunas and Jon Stewart. You and me both, Nina. You and me both.
I strongly suggest you go and read her blog immediately. Make sure you say Hei! from me.
KIND OF A MESS
"The champagne J.Crew bridesmaid dress for my sister-in-law’s wedding that I bought in October? DOES. NOT. FIT.
Oh, it fits. But in a 'Lord, Jesus woman, if you bust that zipper you’ll take the whole room out,' fashion. Or as Jethro’s dad would say, 'Ten pounds of hog in a five-pound sack.'" (Read the rest)
Alyssa really needs no introduction. If you read A Practical Wedding (and if not, er, why not?) you will know her smart, hilarious voice from her weekly Ask Team Practical posts. Surely Alyssa has been blogging forever, right? Wrong! She launched her blog, Kind of a Mess, just a few days after I started scribbling away over here at a safe mooring. Don't worry, Alyssa, I'll show you the ropes. Ha.
I would love to put the fact that we started blogging at the same time and yet she has four times as many subscribers as I do down to her ready-made APW readership. But, sadly, I can't even use that excuse. So, I must face the truth: it's because she's SO DAMN FUNNY. Seriously, the girl is the wittiest, most ridiculous-in-a-good-way blogger I have come across in a long time. If only I had some stories about getting trapped in a lilac chiffon open bust babydoll and a pair of crotchless knickers, maybe my blog would have a lot more readers. On the other hand, it would definitely have two fewer readers (um, hi Mum and Dad).
Nevertheless, I can't recommend her blog highly enough - she is one clever lady, and a fabulous, natural writer. It's not all crotchless panties and boob cakes. Promise.
AUBERGINE INK
Shiny bubble meet wedding planning. Pop." (Read the rest)
The lovely Ms Aubergine of Aubergine Ink is one of the not-so-newbies - she actually started her blog back in January 2009 (see? January. It's where it's at) when she was planning her beautiful wedding. At that stage my wedding blog obsession was but a twinkle in the diamond ring hidden in Fin's sock drawer, so I must admit I didn't read it at the time. However, I'm pretty sure I would have loved it. She's a fellow Lillian and Leonard enthusiast for a start, so, obviously. And when you look at someone's blogroll and go, "yep, yep, yep," you know you're in a good place.
But then, just over a year later, the blog stopped. Silence. Nothing. Zilch. WHAT???
(A little aside: to me, this is an interesting lesson that a blog, no matter how big or small, exists only at the whim of the person who writes it. If I wanted to, I could simply stop blogging, stop tweeting, stop pinning, stop commenting, stop replying to emails and just... disappear. I'm sure you're all shouting "Noooooooooo!" at your screens right now. (Apart from Fin who's crying "Yaaaaaaaay!".) Fear not, I have no intentions of sending a safe mooring off to bloggy heaven just yet, but instead of seeing blogging as a responsibility or even an obligation, it's liberating to think of it as something the blogger gives freely; it is theirs to bestow, not ours to demand. I suppose the same could be said of any creative endeavour, really. Food for thought...)
Now where was I... oh yes, speaking of food, back to the wise and deeply purple Aubergine. She continued to tweet, and could even be found popping up in blog comments professing her love for smooth newsreaders and bourgeois architects. But still no blogging. That is, until now.
Ok, so I don't know if two posts counts as a full-blown comeback, or whether the elusive eggplant intends to write any more. She may not thank me for drawing attention to her return... but she linked to me, so I therefore feel perfectly entitled to link back. Who knows, maybe if you all go and welcome her back, she might bestow upon us more of her wisdom, humour, and pretty pretty things? It's got to be worth a shot.
OVERSIZED CLICHÉS
Personally I think Megan's body is definitely fabulous. And yet. And yet, her lats made her feel bad, even if it was just momentarily. Her lats which are amazing and help her climb mountains, lift heavy saddles, and beat up boys (just kidding) -- they make her feel ... bad? They made her feel anything less than strong and freaking fantastic?" (Read the rest)
Ok I need to hurry this up because (1) this post is getting really long and (2) it's late and I am starring in (ok, going to be in the background of) a publicity shoot for my law firm's website tomorrow so I need to look my best. Or, at least, not look like a crack addict who's had two hours' sleep.
So - Zan! Zan is another not-so-newbie who returned to her blog, Oversized Clichés, just last month after not posting anything for TWO YEARS. I know, crazy. She is sweet, she is funny, she is thoughtful, she's a fully-fledged member of Team Practical, she lives on a farm (I happen to have a soft spot for ladies who live on farms), she owns a baby chick called Lauren BaCAWW!? and she is planning a fabulous wedding to an English cowboy for which her vast Mexican/Jewish family makes up over 95% of the guest list (I wish I could see how the English guests will cope with this. Hilarity is bound to ensue) and to which she might possibly be wearing blue, shiny, beautiful shoes.
I think that just about covers it. Clearly, she is awesome. Go, now!
And that's your lot, ladies and gents. Tune in next month for the next exciting instalment of.... Blooog Looove! (And who knows, maybe by then I'll have come up with a more exciting name for it.)
Now, back to the royal wedding - where did I put that bunting?
Images: 1.Little Jewel Weddings via Boho Weddings 2. Sibelius Monument in Helsinki, by Dmytro 3. Best bridal portrait EVER. Rockstar Photography via A Practical Wedding 4. Lillian and Leonard 5. the spectacular Megan (not Zan) via Oversized Clichés 6. Hmm, maybe THIS is the best bridal portrait ever? Decisions, decisions. Zan, by Katie Jane Photography, via A Practical Wedding
Images: 1.Little Jewel Weddings via Boho Weddings 2. Sibelius Monument in Helsinki, by Dmytro 3. Best bridal portrait EVER. Rockstar Photography via A Practical Wedding 4. Lillian and Leonard 5. the spectacular Megan (not Zan) via Oversized Clichés 6. Hmm, maybe THIS is the best bridal portrait ever? Decisions, decisions. Zan, by Katie Jane Photography, via A Practical Wedding
8 boats moored
Aww! Kirsty! You are the cutest.
ReplyDeleteAlso - I look forward immensely to your Royal Wedding post. The parents of the children I nanny for are going to a fancy-dress Royal Wedding party tomorrow morning at FOUR A.M. so guess who has to be at work at FOUR A.M.? This girl. There will not be any bunting.
They do, however, have a big screen TV so I'll set myself up on the couch to watch instead of streaming it on YouTube as had been the plan.
Thanks for the love, love! :)
Hello there! I've been blurking for some time now, but I wanted to say that I think this is an awesome idea! Post-wedding, I've been struggling to replace my daily wedding blog reads with some new, smart, entertaining non-weddingy ones, so thank you for making my search easier :) I can't wait to check these ones out!
ReplyDeleteHei! and I'm not sure what else to say... you've left a wordy blogger with no words, that's quite the feat there. I guess I'll just go with kiitos and thank you.
ReplyDeleteOh and you're pretty damn awesome yourself. I always know I'm in for a good laugh - and some serious inspiration - over here.
Zan - I am glued to the coverage already!!
ReplyDeleteAshley - well hello, and thanks for de-blurking. You should defo check out the Blog Love page, there are loads of amazing reads - but a little sneaky wedding blog reading is still allowed... isn't it?
Nina - aw, thank YOU!
Well thank you muchly for the hat tip.
ReplyDeleteNot promising anything but I may even write a proper post this week. With whole sentences.
This is one of the absolute nicest things ever written about me and my blog. You are LOVELY, and don't think I'm not going to take you up on that offer of help....
ReplyDeleteA case of insomnia meant I didn't even budge when the children tried to wake me up for the service, even with the added enticement of Rebecca's freshly made scones... but there's a picture floating around of the happy couple kissing at Buckingham Palace with a flower girl in the foreground who has her hands over her ears and looks distinctly hacked off. That flower girl made my day.
ReplyDeleteRight, that's me back from our hols in deepest Donegal and catching up on my fav blogs. Thanks for the wee mention (I do love Len!) Now you've created a situation for me - the sun is splitting the sky, the hubs is no doubt sitting downstairs giving the ceiling the evils wondering if I'm ever getting off the computer and you've only gone and given me a load more blogs to check out!!
ReplyDelete