Blog envy

I see that another week has passed since my last blog entry. Remember when I said I was going to be better about blogging? I swear, people, I’m trying. I don’t know how so many people seem to find the time to blog every single day. But they do, and recently I’ve become a little obsessed with blog reading. Maybe too much of that is why I can’t find the time to blog myself?

I have realized that there is a huge community of people who craft (knit, sew, draw, etc.) and then blog about it. How cool! I love seeing what other people are doing. It gives me so much inspiration, as well as a long list of craft books I now want to purchase. The other thing I’ve noticed is that there is what seems to be a large crafting community in Portland, Oregon. Why did I not know that when I lived there? I guess I was right out of college and more focused on things like “deciding what to do with my life” and “making a new marriage work” than really following my crafting passion. But now I feel like I missed out on something amazing. How is it possible that I have already lived in the perfect place for me and will not have the chance to live there again for another 30 to 40 years?! For now, I will live vicariously through the blogging of others who are there.

Here’s a list of some blogs that I’ve been reading on a daily basis lately:

house on hill road

angry chicken

Wee Wonderfuls

all buttoned up.

glittergoods

Wise Craft

Additionally, I’ve had some really excellent online shopping experiences recently. Since I now do most of my shopping online, I’ve been trying to find smaller businesses to frequent, rather than giving all my money to corporations. Not only do I feel good about helping out “the little guy,” these businesses know how to use personal touches to make me feel like I’m actually important as the customer. A novel idea in our world of Wal-Marts and Targets.

I got some spectacular fabric from Cia’s Palette – I would show it to you, but it’s for a quilting challenge I have with my mom, who just happens to be one of my faithful readers. And tucked in with the fabric I ordered was a good sized swatch of a different fabric that was equally awesome and in complementary colors! I also got a great vintage dress pattern from Eva Dress. This was going to be the dress I made for myself for this year’s Marine Ball, but it turns out we’re going to be out of town that weekend. Maybe next year… And finally, I picked out a Japanese book on embroidery and some floss from Superbuzzy. And tucked in that package was some Japanese candy! This experience basically taught me that I love getting surprise presents! And the shipping time for all three of these orders was way less than when I order from companies like JoAnn Fabric or KnitPicks. Granted, shipping time for us has a lot to do with the whole Diplomatic Pouch mail system, but I got the feeling that these people packaged my order and took it right to the post office as soon as I ordered. Very cool.

So there’s some online exploring for you to do. Obviously, I highly recommend all of the sites I listed. Let me know if you know any great sites that I should be checking out. I need something more to fill the time between work, dog walking, crafting, eating, and sleeping.