admiring: blogs (in the beginning)

I remember first being interested in reading blogs about ten or eleven years ago – around the time E was born. I followed a handful of bloggers out there writing and doing interesting things – and most were having children about the same time. A few of those early reads are no longer writing – but several are still going strong more than a decade later. Here’s a roundup of the first people that got me interested in this platform.

Sweet Juniper – there were so many things I loved about Dutch and Wood (their early days monikers). Raising their daughter, Juniper, first in San Francisco, and then later in Detroit (in a fantastic Mies van der Rohe townhouse), Jim’s stories about their adventures in and around the city, and his fantastic homemade costumes and play things were such a delight. His posts are less frequent now, but I still enjoy seeing what they are up to. I also love the fact that they commission a different artist each year to do a family portrait for their holiday cards.

I’ve always loved Hilary’s creations and her writing at Wee Wonderfuls – but my favorite part was her Olive and Archie story / make along adventure. Everything she creates is so spot-on perfect, and I was thrilled when she paired up with The Land of Nod to produce some of her dolls. We own Winx (aka Brave Irene, in our house). Hilary always has the best Christmas trees, hands down.

A blog that I used to read religiously (although now retired) was The Trixie Update. It was actually one of several blogs written by stay-at-home dad’s that I loved. I’m not sure how I came to follow so many of those – but it was probably because they all followed one another, and so the connections were made between blogs. I was sort of an obsessive note taker with E when she was an infant – charting her naps and her daily intake of food, and Ben’s obsession with doing the same (and organizing it into detailed charts and graphs) was so fun to watch. He eventually created the Trixie Tracker – a way to keep all your own baby data organized and at the ready for analysis (if you are into that sort of thing). 

Dooce has changed a lot over the years, but I still enjoy reading her posts occasionally. Her daughters are almost exactly the same age as my own girls, and their personalities are very similar. I admired her openness on the topic of her postpartum depression, something I was suffering from right along with her. I’m not a big fan of the blog-as-career path for the most part, but in between her numerous sponsored posts are still some real gems that make me laugh out loud.

Design*Sponge has been one of my consistent favorites for almost a decade – even back when it looked like this:

I love Grace’s style and eye for design trends, and I admire the way her blog has evolved over the years. I still draw more inspiration from that site than any other, and you’ll see various posts referenced occasionally in my own blog.