brilliante blogs

A few days ago Jenny of FancyPants design blog was kind enough to nominate me for a 'brilliante weblog' award... Thankyou Jenny! It was so lovely to receive this little piece of positive feedback - and it reminded me again that the best thing about this blog is all the wonderful and talented people that it brings me into contact with! I love the sense of community amongst blog writers and readers :) makes me feel very lucky.

Anyway, apparently a 'brilliante weblog' nomination comes with a few rules -

1) Put the logo on your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on yours.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

I don't normally take part in such things but it seems a good way to profile some of the inspiring blogs I read regularly....

SO my 7 nominations are:

- Design for Mankind
Erin is an inspiration... Design for Mankind is such a great collection of beautiful images and design-related musings. I love how Erin's personality comes through in her words... and she has such a generous spirit! Her Mankind Magazine is the perfect example - she regularly and painstakingly produces this magazine, and it is absolutely free to download! Yay for that. Also, I especially love her 'dailies' in which creative people share how they spend a day. (Currently the very talented Sandra Juto shares her day).

- Bloesem
Who doesn't love Bloesem? I aspire to have a blog this fabulous one day. Irene just has a knack for finding the loveliest things.. and a genuine interest in promoting independent design and fellow bloggers. I have recently also been reading Bloesem kids - for someone with absolutely no interest in having kids anytime soon, I have a very peculiar soft spot for kids design (kids clothes, shoes, bedding, homewares etc).

Image - Maria Vetesse, via Bloesem

- Black Eiffel
Black Eiffel seems to slip under the radar a bit... I'm not sure why, but I don't see many links to Black Eiffel from many other blogs... I can't figure it out! It's one of my absolute faves. Beautiful images... and lots of links to things that I've never seen elsewhere.

The beautiful home of graphic designer/artist Paula Scher - via Black Eiffel

- Studio Home Creative
Julia is an interior designer New Zealand, and her fantastic blog covers a lot of New Zealand and Australian design. Studio Home Creative has come such a long way in only a short time... it's great to see Aus/NZ design being promoted so passionately!

- Design is Mine
This is a relatively new find but I'm really loving it. I don't know how Summer manages to juggle baking, blogging, parenting and illustrating all at the same time (and at the age of only 26!) Agggh. Her blog is full of beautiful images... and she also has a food blog called Bread & Honey which she writes with her friend Alice.

image by Jennifer Zwick via Design is Mine

- Pia Jane Bijkerk
A lovely recent discovery... Pia is an Australian stylist who divides her time between Paris, Amsterdam and Sydney. Ahhh. I love the visuals but also Pia has a way with words that makes me smile... "....I will fill you in on the details once at my destination. I hope you don’t mind that you will all be coming with me."

Images from Pia Jane Bijkerk's online folio

- Book by its cover

Julia Rothman does such a great job with this simple, beautiful blog. She reviews interesting books (most with an art/design focus) every week and posts beautiful images from the pages of her discoveries. She's also a fantastic illustrator - her folio is here.

Artwork by Finnish artist Hanna Konola, via Book by its cover

Oh but there are so many daily favourites - Design*Sponge, Lena Corwin, too many to mention. Might leave it there for now.