Thursday, May 19, 2011

Blog Roll: My Personal Favorites


Like many other bloggers, I love reading blogs.  I enjoy seeing what others are doing in their homes, how they express themselves creatively, and more.  I also find a lot of inspiration on various blogs.  I read all sorts.  Some devoted to decor, some to cooking, some to savings, some to just plain living.  Now and then I'll tire of a blog and drop it off my list.  A few are always favorites.  At the beginning of this year, I cleared my blogs from my list of favorites and started all over again.  I kept only a five or six on my roll who had become friends. 

Why wipe out a list of blogs?  Because I get locked into the same thought processes and the same ideas repeated over and over.  I wanted a new, fresh, more creative approach to life this year and I needed to see where new blogs would take me.  I've had fun.  My inspiration has soared, I've enjoyed myself tremendously. 

I thought I'd share some of my current favorites with you and I want to start the list with a new friend, one who has a brand new blog.  V asked me to be her mentor as she begins her foray into the world of homemaking.  I was honored and when I found her announcement of her blog this morning I was thrilled to pieces.  Please stop by and visit her blog and welcome her into the blogging and home making world won't you?
Friend Rhonda is a homemaker extraordinaire in my opinion.  She cooks, sews, decorates, makes her clothes, keeps grandbabies while mommies work, mows the lawn, can find more bargains in a thrift shop than anyone I know and has a thrifty green thumb. 
http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/

Heidi and I have been part of a homemaking group for years together now.  She's an accomplished quilter and needlewoman, an American expat living in Holland.  She has a creative eye that I enjoy.  Earlier this year we challenged one another to ferret out treasures in our cabinets, closets and cupboards.  Heidi took that challenge further and came up with Make Do and Mend Mondays to use some of those treasures in our day to day lives. 
http://thecranberrychronicle.blogspot.com

This blog is by a young girl, not more than 20 or so, who lives with her parents in a most unconventional (by today's standards) way.  She only posts about once a month but I feel so restored and rested by her posts, her beautiful photography and her narration of their daily lives.  She inspires me to look more for the simple frugal things I can do in my life instead of at what I'm told I need.  Living proof that beauty and happiness isn't packaged up and waiting to be bought in a store.
http://aspiring-homemaker.blogspot.com/

Manuela is a popular blogger. I can't remember how I found her, but she's lives in Georgia and that led me to comment and we've 'chatted' back and forth ever since.  Manuela is a gardener and has the prettiest vegetable plot, grows flowers and roses and berries and such all in a city setting.  If ever anyone could find beauty in a thrift store, Manuela is the one.  She sees more possibilities in things than most and has a treasure hunter's eye.  Her mantra has to be that thrift is beautiful.  I'll share her link but I'm going right back, I see she's posted two or three new posts since I read earlier this week:
http://www.acultivatednest.com/

Okay, now I'm all caught up with Manuela, here's another popular blog, this one from the land downunder.  A real homesteader/thrifty woman who has just finished a book on the subject (the publishing world called her) about her life on her small homestead. 
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/

Crystal is well known among thrifty bloggers and homesteading bloggers alike.  She homeschools, has a garden and keeps her home in order (a feat with children!). 
http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/

I'm fairly new to reading this blog but so far I like what I see.  I love that she decided to bike to work recently and is apparently keeping that habit up in an effort to save gas.
http://www.thriftylittleblog.com/

Another blog I'm new to as well.  I spent one evening this week reading backwards through the blog (from recent posts to some made last Fall).  Very interesting and love the remodels she's done thus far.  None of them costly and all of them ending up looking very pretty.
http://frontporches-sweet-tea.blogspot.com

That's it for this afternoon.  These are only a few of the long list of blogs I'm currently reading but I have something to do...it's called 'housework'!  I have been having a very leisurely day to day.  It started with being left to sleep in and then making a big breakfast and feeling too full to get up and do anything so I read a bit, and then Chance started listening to a favorite radio program online so I didn't want to make noise (that's my story).  Seriously I need to sweep, vacuum, do a handful of dishes and find out where an unpleasant aroma has it's source.  So I'd better get busy, huh?

See you all tomorrow for Frugal Friday!



5 comments:

Tracy said...

I suscribed to The Bon Bon Club. I have followed both Down to Earth and Aspiring Homemaker for quite some time now. I recently cleared my blog list to less than 40 blogs. I'd had more than 100! :)

Rhonda said...

Hello Terri
thanks so much for the sweet compliments, I think you know I feel the same way about you.
Like you and Tracy, I don't read nearly as many blogs as I used and I rarely read the big, heavy on advertising ones.
I like the ones by real people just talking about their real daily doings,
I'd never heard of about 1/2 of your favorites, I will visit them when I have time. thank you for the tips.

I made the nicest little cake for supper, if you were closer, I bring you over a few squares of it.

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

Thank you Terri!

I love the Aspiring Homemaker blog (I wish she posted more). I read Down-to-earth blog too - how funny didn't know you did.

I don't read as many blogs as I used to and I don't read any of the well known big blogs (too many sponsor ads for me). I'll go check out the other blogs you mentioned. If you like them there's a good chance I'll like them too!

Unknown said...

There are several on this list that I am looking forward to acquainting myself with. I have always been very interested in homesteading information. I think part of that is because of the way I grew up, part of it is the boyscout values my dad taught me, and part of it is a general distrust of over-reliance on technology, gadgets, and society as we have come to expect it to be.

Thank you for the mention :-) There's really not much over there, yet, but as the days count down to the end of June, I'm gearing up and putting on my game face :-P lol

Heidi said...

Thank you for the honor you do me by mentioning my blog. I too add myself to the list of not reading blogs like I used to. I lost many of my own readers as a result but I need to get on with life here in my home so computer time has to suffer for it. Yet I hope that being online with my new challenge will help people to look at their homes and make more of life there with what they already have.

Hugs from Holland ~
Heidi