Sunday, June 30, 2013

Lieblings

The delightful Busy Mama left a comment the other day saying that she had nominated me for a Liebster Award. Her blog has a mix of craft types, as well as some daily life snapshots, both of which I enjoy a great deal. there's something very soothing about seeing instants from someone else's life. She also runs a crocheting circle reasonably near to my house which I have consistently failed to go to. On top of that, she called me funny, which is the quickest way to my heart and ego.





The award is a great way of raising the profile of other blogs. The rules are as follows:

1. Anyone nominated wins! (Isn't that lovely?)

2. You should link back to the person who nominated you.

3. You should nominate five blogs, with fewer than two hundred followers, that you like and feel deserve the award.

4. You should let nominees know by leaving a comment on their blog.

5. You should attach the little Liebster badge to your blog.

You can also ask questions of your nominees if you so choose! I'm not going to do that, y'all have things to do.

(I mean, yes, everyone winning means this is really just a chain letter of sorts, but it gave me a boost, and who doesn't like to hear their work complimented? I like giving compliments, and this is an excuse.)

I find the middle clause of rule number two quite difficult - I mostly follow biggish blogs, because they're the easiest found. I'm like an anti-hipster. I'll try to keep it to smallish ones, but I rather hope I won't cause offense by seeming like I think someone must have a smaller readership than they do. Is that something people might be offended by? Hopefully not. Anyway, my nominees are:

1. Erin Kate Archer. I've been following her blog and harbouring a crafts-crush for a few years now. She's an awfully talented lady, and works in a whole wide range of media, which I love. Keeping track of her blog is a great way to find tutorials scattered around the internet, and her own designs are just stunning. Everything is beautifully photographed, and her blog is an all-around aesthetically pleasing affair.

2. Stitchlily. A person I sort of know from real life, but who has probably forgotten me! We met when I was working at the Science Gallery's Crochet Coral Reef exhibition - she had contributed to the reef. Her blog is very enjoyable and entertaining to have on my feed, as I get to read about the range of group projects, festivals and workshops she works with, which I otherwise wouldn't hear about. She also has a brilliant mix of project types, mostly textiles-based, and anyone who can make something I can't make is essentially a wizard in my books.

3. Cornflower Blue Studio/Flower Moon. This absolutely has more than two hundred followers, but I only discovered it recently and I'm quite enamoured. Lots of short posts is a format I like quite a lot, I like the diversity of the projects, and it's great for project ideas. (I am going to make this for everyone for Christmas, but with chilli instead of cinnamon. Exciting.)

4. Everywhere Knits. If you're looking for blogs to follow, this hasn't been updated in about a year, but I always enjoyed when it was! It's written very conversationally and the photos are mostly taken by webcam, which makes it feel very friendly.

5. Shocking Blankets. This is mostly a Sherlock fanart blog, which might flout the rules if this is meant to be messy crafts, but the art is adorable, and I keep going back just to revisit the #not dead gifs because they make me giggle. Plus, the girl who runs it seems incredibly sweet.  There's nothing not to like!  I discovered this a few weeks ago via a Ravelry thread discussing Sherlock fanart, read my way through all of it, felt all fuzzy inside, and decided to start drawing again, after several years of intentions. And now I draw a non-zero amount! I feel like if you can inspire someone to take up, or take back up, a hobby, you're doing something right. (This one is a Tumblr, so I'm not sure how to leave a comment in a useful way, as I'm pretty sure anonymous asks don't allow links.  If I set up a Tumblr account it would be full of pictures of cats before I chose a username, so I feel I should delay that for as long as possible. Does Tumblr show traffic sources? Hopefully!)

And now I have to contact all these people to say hi and let them know about the nomination. I did not anticipate it when I started the post, and it is unexpectedly intimidating.

Also, this post had made me realise that I'm rather short on Irish crafting blogs, if anyone has recommendations I'd be delighted!

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