Happy Blog Birthday to Me!

Photo by Miel et Soleil

This blog is two years (and 1,359 posts) old today. Thanks so much for coming along with me for the ride!

That's Random: Tagged

Drey from the lovely Bijou Kaliedescope out of Melbourne, Australia just tagged me with an "I Love Your Blog" Award. Thank you so much, Drey -- the feeling is mutual!

Here are the rules:
1. The nominated is allowed to put the picture on their blogs.
2. Link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate seven other people and link to them.
4. Leave a message on those people's blog to make them aware that they're nominated.

So now it's my turn to share the award with other bloggers I admire. My list of bookmarked blogs is embarrassingly long, and there are literally dozens that I read regularly. (Seriously -- I think I may need a blog intervention.) But I'm going to focus here on some beautiful blogs that may be new to many of you, and that I haven't already given a shout-out to in one way or another. Check them out when you get a chance:

1. Automatism

2. Eye Spy

3. Hidden in France

4. Ill Seen, Ill Said

5. Please Sir

6. Roadside Scholar

7. Whorange

If you're in the mood for still more great blogs (and have several hours to kill), don't miss my blogroll to the left!

Shameless Plug: Join My Blog Network on Facebook

I haven't quite figured out yet why you should -- but I'm working on it, I promise.

Anyway, click here if you're so inclined.

(P.S. Thanks to everyone who's joined so far. I love "seeing" you guys!)

Sound Off: Talk to Me, People

Photo by Mrs. Maze

Hey everybody. There's something I've been meaning to ask you -- because, well, I sort of feel like we're friends at this point.

So, umm, here goes: Why so quiet? I know from my super-sneaky site counters that a couple thousand of you stop by most days. And yet ... you're surprisingly silent. (To my regular commenters -- and you know who you are, all five of you: Thank you!)

But the rest of you, what's up? Why are you giving me the silent treatment? It can get a bit lonely here behind the keyboard, and I long to hear you talking. What am I doing wrong? Am I not leaving enough room for you all to chime in, or am I somehow giving the impression that I don't want or need you to? What can I do to encourage more give-and-take?

Let me know and I promise to do better. In the meantime, feel free to jump in and join a debate on the merits of "disposable decor" or how bad Design Star blew this season. Confide your deepest, darkest feelings about Gwyneth Paltrow or Juno. Weigh in with advice for a fellow reader with a design dilemma. Start a conversation. Ask a question. Share a tip. Vent. Give me an earful about something that's bugging you. Or, you know, just say hi.

I'm listening.

Over and Out (and Happy Blog Birthday to Me)

Photo by Tod Brilliant

It's my "blogiversary" today. More Ways to Waste Time is 1 year and 773 posts old.

So, um, yeah.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend -- hopefully one that includes cake!

Shameless Plugs: Look, Ma -- I'm e-Famous!

Thanks so much to Lucky magazine and to The Washington Post for their shout-outs to this little blog during the last few days. (And thanks also to the sharp-eyed readers who let me know about them!)

Lucky deputy editor Jennifer Romolini posted on my recent writeup of Jacaranda Home in her eBay Obsessed column, while Terri Sapienza at the Post included my post on Cameroonian Juju Hats in her weekly Blog Watch roundup for the newspaper's Home and Garden section.

It feels a bit silly to get so excited about a couple of in-passing mentions. But blogging -- and any kind of writing, really -- can sometimes be a lonely business, so it's truly wonderful to know that someone out there is actually reading. These mentions, as well as your comments and emails, mean so very much to me.

Thank you, Jennifer and Terri. And thanks to all of you for visiting me here in my little outpost in cyberspace! If you've just arrived thanks to links on the Lucky or Post websites, please take a minute or two to look around, and come back anytime -- there's lots to see.

That's Random: Fun With Widgets

I've been enjoying the music over on BeachBungalow8 (henceforth known as BeachBunghole8 ... sorry, Megan!), so I just added a playlist of my own here.

The Project Playlist widget is at the bottom of this page if you want to skip tracks, adjust the volume, or just turn it off. And if it really bugs you, please let me know. It's fun to play around with different tools and widgets that let me share more of the stuff I'm digging, but I certainly don't want to annoy you guys.

Update: OK, you've spoken and been heard: I've turned off autostart on the playlist. So if you want to listen while you surf, you'll need to scroll down and hit "play."

(Oh, and if you're interested, you can create your own free playlist here.)

That's Random: More Words of Wisdom

God, this is so true. I really think I need to get out more ...

On the other hand, you could just leave me a comment. ;-)

(Photo illustration by Jennifer Daniel for The New York Times, via Swissmiss.)

A New Year, and a New Look

Happy 2008! I hope you all enjoyed a restful and joyous holiday.

I used some of the downtime to pimp the blog a bit, and to add some cool new bells and whistles. Please let me know what you think. (Don'tcha just love how my avatar got skinny all of the sudden? If only that were true in real life ... )

Anyway, please take a minute to check out some of the new stuff I've added:

* At right, there are expanded Bay Area shopping listings, plus new sections on great stores to visit if you find yourself in L.A. or Portland, Oregon; I'm going to include other cities soon as well.

* I've added Etsy (at left) and eBay (below) widgets to show off more of the great things I'm eying.

* At left again, check out the funky real-time world map showing where blog visitors are hailing from.

* You can now get More Ways to Waste Time as an email digest. Just enter your email address in the subscription form at left.

* Finally, I'm accepting ads from stores and companies with products or services that I think will be of interest to my readers. Email me for info and ad rates.

That's about it for now, though I'll continue tweaking, experimenting, and (hopefully) improving this blog throughout the year.

Speaking of improvements, two things that you asked for via the More Ways to Waste Time reader survey -- and a big thanks to everyone who took time to share their thoughts -- are more House Voyeur visits, and more How Tos.

I'll do my best to bring those to you, but need your help: If you're interested in giving readers a virtual tour of your home (or even sharing a single room or a completed project you're proud of) -- or if you know someone whose home shows a lot of creative flair and whom you'd like to nominate for a tour -- please let me know.

And if you've tackled a simple craft or decorating project and are keen to share a snapshot or two of the finished product along with instructions (or again, want to nominate a friend who might be), drop me a line and tell me about it.

Thanks so much, and here's to all the design inspiration to be discovered together in 2008!

Cool Stuff: Gifts for Bloggers

Last night, my blogging buddies Porcelain and Cardboard from the awesome Design Boner tagged me with a virtual holiday gift. Isn't the Erich Ginder Ghost Tree Rack, $1,700 from Design Public, just perfect? Thanks, guys -- I love it!

Now it's my turn to gift some of the blogging friends I've made this past year. I've never met any of these ladies (or gents) in person, but I feel they're all kindred spirits. More importantly, they inspire me, educate me, entertain me, and make me laugh every single day. (And it's thanks to them that I can never seem to get any work done.)

Please note that the relative price of these items has nothing to do with my affection for each these bloggers.

First up, of course, has to be my Design Boner peeps:

For Porcelain:
Porcelain Golden Honey Bowls With Woven Rocks, $225 for three from White Forest Pottery (duh)

For Cardboard:
Cardboard Deer Trophy Puzzles, $12 to $44 from Cardboard Safari (duh again)

For Holly at decor8:
Morrissey Silhouette Pillow from Etsy seller Olive, as soon as she makes some more (because Holly loves her some Mozza)

For mom-to-be Angela at Shelterrific:
My Mom is e-Famous Baby Tee, $16 from Miss Domestic

For Nicole at Pink Loves Brown and Making It Lovely:
Cocobola Print, $25 from Etsy seller Melissa Moss (for obvious reasons)

For Laure of At Home at Home and Apartment Therapy: Los Angeles:
Poolside Drinks at the Figueroa Hotel

For Kate at Girl Meets Glamour:
A $100,000 gift certificate for 1stDibs (because girlfriend has seriously good, champagne-and-caviar decorating taste)

For Katie at Katiedid:
"Save Katie" print, $10 from The Poster List

For Hannah at Printer & Piemaker:
Cathrineholm Blue Lotus Plate, $37 from eBay seller nantiques20 (because this would be perfect for her new turquoise kitchen)

For Catherine at Scrappy Girl Decorates:
A $1,000 gift certificate to the Rug Company (so she can just go ahead and get a living room rug, already)

For Victoria at sfgirlbybay:
The $1,000 Reader's Choice Award in the Domino Decorating Contest

For Megan at BeachBungalow8:
Martha Stewart: Just Desserts, The Unauthorized Biography, 1 cent at Amazon (because we all know how much Megan love/hates Our Lord and Savior)

For Your Mama at The Real Estalker:
The "Metallica Mansion" in Pacific Heights, $10.5M (because Kirk Hammett's on-the-block Gold Coast dowager is probably the closest thing we have to celebrity real estate in these parts)

For Tom and Lorenzo at Tom & Lorenzo and Project RunGay:

Random guys who are NOT Tom and Lorenzo: Ed Salvato for Gay.com

All-Gay New Year's Caribbean Cruise, $5,950 at Travelpride (because these guys deserve a break from all that hilariously catty blogging they do)

And finally, for all of you:

Bouquet of Roses, by flickr member Welshlady

A dozen red roses and my undying gratitude. Thanks so much for reading!

P.S. What virtual gifts would you give to your favorite bloggers? Post your ideas in the comments box and let us all know!

That's Random: My 500th Post!

Iced, by flickr member Elan Photography

OK, so this is actually my 502nd post (the big 5-0-0 came and went yesterday without me even realizing it). So I just wanted to pause for a minute and say, "Woo hoo!" And, of course, to thank you.

I started this blog on a whim one day a little over seven months ago -- really just to have an outlet for my design fixations and random musings, a chance to showcase some local stores, designers, and artists that I thought were cool, and a place to catalog my object infatuations so that I could stop driving my friends (that means you, Kitty) crazy by constantly pinging them with stuff that caught my attention.

And now this blog has kind of turned into a whole new obsession for me. Luckily, it's not just for me: More than a thousand of you visit every day -- from Alaska to Australia and lots of points in between. Who would've thunk it?

Thank you all so much for reading, commenting, emailing me, linking to this blog from your own, and sharing your homes and projects these past few months. I absolutely adore being a part of this wonderful online community of fellow design junkies. I love having made lots of new email buddies and even a few flesh-and-blood friends in the offline world via this blog. Most of all, I cherish discovering beautiful new things to share with you every day and being constantly inspired by all the creativity out there -- including your own.

Thanks for sticking with me, and here's to another 500 posts!

All the best,

Leah

Cool Tool: Bloglines

Admit it: You are addicted to design blogs. Otherwise, why would you be here? (Well -- not you, Mom.)

And sometimes your little blog-surfing habit threatens to get in the way of your productivity at work. There you are, clicking from one bookmarked blog to another, jonesing for new posts like a junkie in search of a fix. (Uh oh -- is that your boss walking by?)

Honestly, it can take hours out of your day, and leave you feeling frustrated when your favorite bloggers fail to post anything new, even after your third check in an hour -- not to mention guilty and ashamed of your growing eye-candy dependency. (Is there a BA -- Blogaholics Anonymous -- meeting around here?)

Click in vain no more. Bloglines is a free and terribly handy service that lets you subscribe to all of your favorite blogs so you can view them in one place.

Simply paste the blog urls into Bloglines’ “subscribe” form and they’ll be added to your “feeds” tab. (While you’re at it, go ahead and subscribe to More Ways to Waste Time right here.) Bloglines feeds can even be sent to your cell phone or handheld, and you can add a “subscribe” button to your browser bar so it’ll be right there the next time your internet wanderings lead you to a new blog you like.

When a blog you’ve subscribed to publishes a new post, its name will turn bold and the number of new entries will be indicated in parentheses (that’s my own feeds page in action, above). Simply click on the bolded blog title, and the latest posts will appear on your screen. You can also set up Bloglines to alert you to new posts via email, or download a “notifier” icon for your desktop that’ll clue you in when you have new posts to read.

Other features include “clippings,” which lets you save posts to read later (so surf while you work, but limit your serious reading and ogling for your lunch break). “Clip blogging” allows you to create a blog based on your clippings, either for your own enjoyment or to share with like-minded friends. And you can use the “email this” button that Bloglines thoughtfully includes on each post to ping your blog-loving buddies about posts you think they’ll enjoy.

With Bloglines, you can control your blog addiction. Don’t you feel better already?

Check it out here.

Good Reads: "An Imagined Life"

Don't get me wrong -- blogging is a blast. But if you post every day (on top of having a "real" job or other responsibilities that tend to fill the better part of your waking hours), it can sometimes be a bit of a grind, too. It's all too easy to fall into a quick and businesslike "Look at this: It's cool" blogging style. I'm guilty of it myself.

That's why I especially admire other design bloggers who take the time and invest the blood, sweat, and tears to craft prose that's funny, clever, and surprising.

Right now I'm just loving the "An Imagined Life" posts from Apartment Therapy: Chicago's new contributor, Jessica (aka Cardboard, who moonlights on the great Design Boner blog as well).

Jessica takes a vintage item found at a thrift shop or antiques store and tells its story as she imagines it -- where the piece came from, who its previous owners were, and what it might say to you if you stumbled upon it in some dusty shop corner.

In Jessica's able hands, these furnishings not only have personality, they have dialogue.

Check out "An Imagined Life" here and here.