This week’s humpday blog love goes to a cooking blog that I’ve been drooling over for months. I’ve pinned a ton of recipes for future use.   I’ve made several recipes from this blog and have yet to have one fail or have one not receive rave reviews. [images copyright smitten kitchen]

My favorite recipe on the site?  The chili. Hands down best chili I’ve ever made.  Or had for that matter.

[chili recipe + biscuits]

I also just baked some amazingly fudgy brownies that I’ve been wanting to try for a while.

[best cocoa brownies recipe]

Next up, I’m trying the fresh tomato sauce recipe. I have a load of tomatoes from my grandpa from my adventure last saturday. I’m excited to try this!

Share on Facebook

It’s been a while since I posted some love about another blog.  But I’ve been wanting to post about DIY or Buy for a long time.  And she’s been blogging a lot more lately, so I feel like it’s a good time to post.

DIY or Buy focuses on analyzing exactly what the title implies: should you do something yourself or are you better off buying? Her tagline is “Make it or buy it? We’ll help you decide.”

My favorite posts include dishwasher detergent, egg nog and granola. This past week she did a promenade of fried foods in honor of the Iowa State Fair. I slightly feared for her health, but she made it through!

Anyway … if you are in the mood for some good tutorials, fun things to do yourself and maybe some greening of your daily routine, check out DIY or Buy.

Share on Facebook

Okay, so this is totally cheating since it’s not a blog, but Hatch Design has a totally adorable website and they are having their 4th annual Easter egg coloring contest.

I’m in love with their website, and I just cast my vote. You should too!

Share on Facebook

Hey all!

My friend, sewzinski, who makes AMAZING stuff just gave me a shoutout on her blog.

Go check it out!

Share on Facebook

This week’s Humpday Blog Love installation is dedicated to The Hipster Housewife.

The Hipster Housewife is a blog started somewhat recently by Des Moines’s  own Cat Rocketship. If you live in the Des Moines area and haven’t heard of Cat, get out from that rock you’ve been living under.  Cat is a huge mover and shaker in the Des Moines Art scene. She’s a painter. A director of a local indie craft show (that I blog about often — Market Day). And she’s just recently embarked on her latest endeavor: housewife.

Well — not in the sense of the word you would think of — she’s not a June Cleaver or a Roseanne.  She moved her painting studio to her home and does an array of housewifey type things … like cooking, cleaning, and other things.  You can read all about it in this fabulous guest post she wrote over at small strokes.

Anyway, The Hipster Housewife is where Cat chronicles her adventures. Some of my favorite posts include figuring out that you can EAT the honeycomb (I did not know this!) and making cheese with her friend Kyle.

I’m a little bit jealous. I would love to have a studio at home and do all these fun housewifey things. That, and I love Cat’s idea of feminism — I DO WHAT I WANT TO DO. Don’t tack on “… as long as I’m a doctor/astronaut/physicist”.

Anyway, go check her out. I’m sure she’d love to have more than my daily comment on her blog. I’m wondering if she’s beginning to think I’m stalking her …

Share on Facebook

This week’s Humpday Blog Love goes to my friend Cara at Little Pretties.

I met Cara a couple months back at Market Day. I didn’t realize until later that I’d been following her on Pinterest and that we have very similar taste in things. I bought an ultrasuede hair comb from her — which I’ve been in love with forever — and have yet to find just the perfect outfit to wear it with.

Cara makes a LOT of different things. She mostly makes jewelry and accessories.

Oooh and also, it’s CAR-a. Not CARE-a. Just like I’m CAL-ee not CALE-ee.  I thought that was kind of funny.

Go check her out — she’s also featured locally at Vitae, The Art Store and Instinct Gallery.

Share on Facebook

This week’s Humpday Blog Love goes to Domestica, a lovely shop in Des Moines that holds such fabulous art, design and accessories.

Domestica is always on the cutting edge of fun and funky handmade items.  They carry June Craft, from Cedar Rapids, who just a bit ago was unknown, but has exploded all over the internet with their  goods — such as the long dog (below).

After a recent visit to Domestica, I’ve become smitten with Felix and Jayne.  Their pieces are so unique and fit my style perfectly. I’m in love.

So if you have a hankering for good taste, go check out Domestica and tell them that chimes sent you.

Share on Facebook

I’ve been working with a local blogger who wanted to launch a bigger and better version of her blog.  She curates and posts about local Des Moines vendors that cater to wedding needs.  The website: Des Moines Wedding Savvy.

We began talks a couple months back, and after chatting about the creative direction for a while, I decided it was time to build out the site. I love her style and it definitely shows throughout the blog scheme.

So, brides, check her out.

Crafty peeps — she’s got a lot of local vendors (big and small) featured. Want yours featured? Contact her, and she will hook you up. She’s always looking for new and exciting vendors who are ready and willing to cater to her brides. Plus, it never hurts to get your name out there in one more place.

Share on Facebook

This week’s Humpday Blog Love goes to an awesome local lady — the one, the only, Laura Palmer.  Her blog is called “A Love Letter to a New Year“. My favorite recent post is about her fandom of Glee — she even called herself a total GLEEk.

Her blog is dedicated to all things happening in the 27th year of her life. She’s got a list of things she wants to do and she’s out and about tackling it. Laura also makes adorable greetings and sells them on etsy amongst other places. In true diary style, each post starts out with, “Dear 27.”  She’s very entertaining and always has awesome photos and visuals to go with her tales of adventure.

Head on over and check her out. You won’t be disappointed. If you are, then you probably shouldn’t be reading my blog either.

Share on Facebook

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve done a Humpday Blog Love post.

This week’s Humpday Blog Love goes to one of my favorite local ladies: Kristin from Iowa Girl Eats.

Kristin has been on a fabulous vacation in Italy for the last several days (I’m so jealous!), but she is a foodie who’s into being healthy and fit. Her blog includes a lot of recipes, ideas for food combinations, reviews of local (and far-away) restaurants and foods, fabulous traveling escapades and tips for running/walking/working out.  I’m always inspired by her — she’s healthy and fit, but isn’t afraid to eat what she wants — good food is good food.

So thanks for the inspiration, Kristin! Be sure to check out her blog, Iowa Girl Eats.

Share on Facebook