blog crush: urbaNiche

mmm, chocolate dessert in manila (clearly before i learned flash was the enemy)
forgive me, food pictures are HARD!
this cake is for you, urbaNiche!!

not so long ago, urbaNiche, a lovely blogger and fellow feature on apartment therapy found me (through a comment, lurkers, come out of the woodwork, will you?). she explained to me the other day in an email how she came to my blog (via the helleristninger stones on etsy), which is always a topic that fascinates me...how we make these connections in the blogosphere. she's a fellow nikon girl and her little sweet pea has the most precious chucks i've ever seen, tho' he can't wear them at the moment thanks to a cast (we hope he'll soon be fine). someday, i hope she comes to blog camp. but in the meantime, do go check her out, because she's totally my latest blog crush.

blog crush: where is kristine now?

authentic blog camp bubbly for you, kristine.

it seemed like about time for another blog crush. i've been threatening to thinking about blog crushing kristine of where is kristine now? for some time, but her most recent post on the art of travel put me over the edge. she's worldly and adventurous. she's smart. she's funny. she drinks. she eats good food. she makes lists. she reads. she hangs out on beaches. she takes a wicked picture. and did i mention smart and funny? most of the crushes i've ever had in my life (not just blog crushes) were smart and funny, now that i think about it. run along and check her out, i know you'll love her too. and possibly, you'll want to move to vanuatu. like i do. (tho' admittedly she hasn't to my knowledge actually mentioned vanuatu). 

blog crush: heliotrollop

kim of heliotrollop, this beer, which is very special because it's a blog camp beer, is for you!

i've been a bit absent from the blogosphere in recent weeks and have hardly been managing to read all my regular reads, let alone go in search of new ones. but thankfully my very underdeveloped theory on the sociology of mobile phones post brought a few lurkers very nice new people out of the woodwork and one of them is my new blog crush. i give you the lovely kim of heliotrollop. i'm not sure what that means, but she claims that everything else was taken (which is pretty much why i call myself julochka, so i can understand that).

here are some of the reasons why you should go check her out:

1. she's smart.
2. she's funny.
3. she tricks people into making dinner for her (this would be the kind of skill we could use at blog camp).
4. she hates wal-mart. this alone = instant follow in my book.
5. her mother buys her sweaters that indicate that they've never met (so does mine, tho' you might not have known that, but now you do).
6. she learns from her mistakes. (well, ok, time will tell on that one..)
7. she too is pondering whether she has too much stuff.

seriously people, i'm starting to think that she's me in new mexico. go read her now. and for the love of odin, follow her. you won't regret it.

blog crush: chez spud

spudballoo, this lovely blue beverage is for you!

i was reminded about my blog crush thing this week as i laughed maniacally to myself in my hotel room at the inaptly-named grand hotel in oslo. i laughed maniacally because i was reading chez spud, a rather new but nonetheless great blog written by a woman who isn't afraid to order up costumes and wear them for the purpose of her posts. 

i actually "met" her first on flickr, where i think she was blogging before she started her blog (at least as near as i can tell--i didn't actually interview her for this post, so i'm mostly making this shit up).

it may sound a little strange to say she was blogging on flickr, but i say that because of things like this:

• toys i hate number 1: playmobil
• london calling...not anymore it ain't 
• treasure 9: letter from my grandmother 

she's got a magic wand!

she's also part of the gang who is excessively twittering of late. (note to self: find a new way to say "of late," since you are totally overusing it.)

a few other reasons to love spudballoo....she takes fantastic pictures. she's nikon. she's got a lensbaby. she looked absolutely gorgeous at her wedding. she apparently went to south africa on her honeymoon (and we know how much i love south africa). oh, and she's got a mac too. (i learned all of this from flickr.)

i hope she really does take the vomit ferry and comes to visit me soon. but in the meantime, go read her whole blog and then when it's over (because it's over too fast) you can lurk for hours on her flickr photostream.

p.s. the bottom two pictures of spudballoo are hers, which i blatantly stole from her blog and didn't even ask if i could, i'm not stalking her and snapping her picture while she sleeps and/or dresses up as a roman warrior woman in her backyard. i promise.

blog crush: the fragrant muse

a glass of white wine at sunset by a beautiful, still lake

this is for you HRH TFM 

the beauty of this bloggy world is making new friends. people who very quickly feel like long lost sisters, or at least a best friend you've been missing. people who finish your sentences in an IM convo, or perhaps, due to the nature of IM, say the same thing as you at the same time. the fragrant muse is one of those people. or should i call her--her royal highness the fragrant muse. ;-)

we actually met first on flickr, when she asked me about my camera (she might have been sorry, as i issued a book to her on flickr mail, waxing philosophical about how much i adored my nikons). happily, she's got one now too. :-) and i can't wait to see what she sees with it.

she's a new blogger...she's only been blogging for about a month. but what she's done so far is very promising. like me, she had years of piano lessons and can't really play. and just today, i learned something and tomorrow, you can bet i'm going to go see if my local health food/treehugger store has some clary sage oil.  i want to see what it does to my dreams. now if she would just give me advice on the exact right oil to combat my procrastination and make me write all that stuff i need to write tomorrow...

please, go check her out, you will definitely not be sorry.

blog crush: the (mis)adventures of veg!

sarah --two glasses of champagne

one for you and one for the hubby

it's friday and that means it's time for another installment of blog crush!  this time, i turn your attention to the amusing antics of sarahenviro at the (mis)adventures of veg!  she's only been blogging on (mis)adventures for a short while, but she has already made it clear that she's hilarious. this is a girl who managed to break all ten of her toes in one go. she hates that the olympics are coming to vancouver. she ponders things in list-form (and we know how much i love lists).  she rants even more than i do and sometimes even wakes up disgruntled.  in other words she's exactly the kind of person we'd like to hang out with at blog camp.

so, if you need a laugh or just to feel better about your own level of coordination, run along to vancouver  and have a look.

blog crush: cuttings on a blog

please forgive crappy quality of iPhone photo

the latte is for you, B 

i know you do coffee, not tea

yes, dahlings, it's time once again, for an official blog crush. i hereby give you cuttings on a blog--a witty and well-read, well-traveled, belly dancing spanish girl in oxford. what more could one ask? she's learning dressmaking, she had the computer skills to merge several of her multiple blogs into one (some of us would do well to do the same...ahem, ahem). she blogs in two languages...check her spanish language blog here. i'll admit that i can't really read much of it unless she mentions menu items since that's as far as my spanish extends (not that i'm saying she does)--guacamole anyone? she makes lists...like this one of her five rules for life. she's inspiring people from belize to zambia with her thoughts on home. she does beautiful posts on the covers of books.

do i really need to go on? why are you still here? go read her! you won't be sorry.

blog crush: ohfortheloveofblog

it was so much fun indulging yesterday in the whole concept of outwardly declaring my blog crushes (instead of just stalking them in silence), that i have to give you another one for the weekend!  and yes, it's another south africa-based blog.  i have a bit of a thing for cape town and have been a faithful reader of molly's ohfortheloveofblog since she found me last summer (after i bought heather moore's fabulous patchwork and went all giddy about it).

so molly, since it's the weekend and who the hell cares whether it's 5 p.m. yet (it must be 5 somewhere), this glass of crisp cold chardonnay is for you. i hope you like it, i bought it in norway, so it was $45.

i recently gave molly a blog award, but i really can't stress enough how cool and funny and smart i think she is.

1. she's the one who has me counting all my creativity during 2009 (we're both trying to reach 100 things created and we may have gotten a little creative in our counting--hey, does that count?). 
2. she has the cleverest titles to her posts. like this. and this.
   
3. she loves murakami. 
4. she rants and swears. 
5. she makes lists. (sigh) oh, how i adore lists.
   
6. she devises clever plots against her avocodo-hoarding neighbors. 

and except for the camping, she's pretty much me living in cape town. or so i feel sometimes (and i realize she may find that deeply disturbing). there are a few people i've found here in the blogosphere who i feel are my long-lost sisters and molly is definitely one of them.

so please go check her out, if we all do it, she'll have to change her tagline which today reads: "blog like nobody's reading." 

happy weekend!

blog crush: what will i ever do with my life?

i will not go on and on today about how happy i am to have been named BoN on tuesday because i realize that i'm fast becoming insufferable, but there is something really, really cool about it that i must share. and that's new people finding me as a result of it, which results in the even better bit in which i find them.

this red velvet cupcake is for you, extranjera 

so i hereby give you my very first official blog crush: what will i ever do with my life? 

if you need a laugh (or perhaps just a cocktail), you must go here. hilarious finnish girl in africa. i've had tears running down my cheeks (and it wasn't just the pollen) and i completely scared the cat out of a sound sleep because i was laughing so hard. just now. right here. in front of the internet.

and all of my previous unofficial blog crushes, like you and you and you and you, oh, and you. i promise this will be a regular feature and you will be officially acknowledged. but you will all love extranjera, so run along and read her now. but don't do it for my sake, do it for your own. :-)