Wanderlust: Your Lovely Places

A few weeks ago I got an email from Sylvain Louradour in France, who has a genius blog called Your Lovely Places that collects and chronicles people's favorite spots on the planet. Sylvain asked me to contribute mine, and I was happy to oblige.

I chose Notting Hill, London. It is lovely, to be sure, but I really chose it because that part of the world has a special emotional resonance for me.

I lived in London for two years after high school (ostensibly, I was going to college -- but what I was really studying was English Bands, with a minor in English Guys).

While I was there. I spent more weekend mornings than I can count in the throngs at the Portobello Road Market. My friends and I would nosh on steaming vegetable samosas and spend hours trawling the stands, poking through bric-a-brac in search of buried treasure, before retiring to the pub for lunch and a bit of liquid fortification. That time was just a really happy, exciting, and carefree period in my life, and one that I'll always cherish.

About a year ago, I was lucky enough (thanks, Mom!) to be able to share this lovely neighborhood, with its sherbet-colored houses and dusty antiques shops, with my husband and children (those are our kids in the picture above). The trip was a bit melancholy for me, since both London and I have changed much in the years that have passed. But it was also wonderful to return to the locale that had meant so much to me -- and that still holds a very special place in my heart -- with the people that I love most in the world.

Anyway, it's fun to peruse the other favorite spots that Sylvain has collected, which range from someone's bed at home to far more distant shores. Take a look:

The Basque Country

Kaufbar, Berlin

Teluk Bahang, Malaysia

The Marais, Paris

Hôtel Luna Convento, Amalfi

Check out Your Lovely Places right here -- and if you'd like to join in, email Sylvain with a photo or a drawing as well as a brief description of your lovely place.

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.

Shameless Plug: My Kitchen Chairs on design*sponge

Grace Bonney of design*sponge (and House & Garden) is, no exaggeration, a blogging goddess to me -- and to many of you, I'm sure.

(If, by chance, you were just returned to Earth after a years-long alien abduction and aren't already totally addicted to design*sponge, I'm hereby ordering you to drop everything and immediately bookmark Grace's gorgeous, inspiring, and trail-blazing blog.)

So I'm flattered beyond words that Grace approved of my little kitchen-chair rehab project enough to post it on design*sponge today.

Thank you so much, Grace!

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.

Thank You decor8!

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Holly Becker at decor8 for making my modest little effort her "Blog of the Week." Holly is one of my blogging idols, and to get her vote of confidence means the world to me.

Thank you, Holly! I am truly honored.

(If, by some minuscule chance, you actually wound up here on your own and aren't familiar with decor8, you absolutely must drop everything immediately and click on over. decor8 is one of the freshest, loveliest, and most influential design blogs around. It's total eye candy and is packed with wonderful ideas. You'll quickly find yourself checking it hourly and wondering how you ever got by without it.)