SERIES: Let's All Look at Some Blogs // Fashion, Interiors, Design

I guess you’ve noticed by now that I am blogging about some things beyond ‘things to do with kids in and near Lewes’. This is because I have to maintain my interest in blogging to keep blogging, but also because I have some interests outside my children and my town. Most of the posts beyond my original remit are largely related to children, children’s issues, design for kids, unisex fashion, kids apps, etc. But some – like this – are nothing to do with them.

This post kickstarts a new series. It’s time to share a bit of blog love. Because why not? I’m making this a series because it started as ‘I’ll blog about my five favourite blogs’ and then I realised I have loads of favourite blogs.

Like you – who probably yawn deeply when a Little Lewes post drops into your inbox before skimming past all the words and looking at the odd picture, then hitting delete – I have little time to read blogs. Whatever time I’m at my computer outside of work (which is a lot as it is) is spent writing this blog.

But you know what? I really really love them. And from putting this post together, I realise I look at them more than I think. I am a writer and I love to read other people’s words. I like to be a voyeur. I like to lose myself in other people’s lives and interests. I like to learn new things, seek advice, and be inspired. I like the way you can pick up scraps of stuff from meandering around the internet.

I love style blogs. I love food blogs. I love fashion blogs. I love personal blogs. I love family blogs (obvs). I love some parenting blogs. I love some craft blogs. If I’m honest I’m not so into cutesy cupcakey mummy blogs (sorry mummy bloggers, you’re brilliant, but the icky ones are not my thing). I also love to gorge my inner geek with blogs about branding, and content strategy and digital marketing, but I will not bore you with those!

I have just realised that all the blogs on this post are by people that I know. This isn’t a promotional exercise though FYI, I just like to see what my nearest and dearest are up to! I’m obviously stalking them all.

Anyway today I’m starting with:

Interiors/Fashion/Design

SIDELINE LIFE 

This is a fledgling blog by my treasured friend Ellen, the mother of my sometimes-daughters. She is a fashion designer and former trend director and although she’s one of the busiest worker bees I know, she’s launching her own label any day now: the appropriately-named Sideline.

Sideline’s collections will be all of indigo and will be beautiful but highly wearable, because Ellen has the most consistently fantastic taste level out there and is also a very practical sort. Part of the brand’s online presence is a blog, Sideline Life, which covers lifestyle and is mainly about interiors.

Homes in Shoreditch, Barcelona, Brooklyn, the Catskills and the East Sussex countryside have graced its virtual pages so far, and I check in on a weekly basis to see how others live (gorgeously) elsewhere.

Visit and die of jealousy – it’s all super beautiful.

Blog: sideline-clothing.com/sideline-life
Website: sideline-clothing.com
Sideline on Twitter: @SIDELINE_WW

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 ADRIAN JOHNSON’S TUMBLR

I‘m including this because – OK, I’ll be transparent – it’s the blog of the third (first) boy in my life: my husband. He’s an illustrator called Adrian Johnson, and he will soon be rebranding Little Lewes (with this, the nagging has now gone public…). Because we both work at home, talking to me about what he’s looking at on the internet (now, now, don’t be naughty – I mean reference and inspiration) never really happens because we get caught up in school run logistics and whose turn it is to pay the window cleaner.

But I love dipping into his blog (I said DON’T be naughty!) to see what he’s being inspired by. He also posts personal work such as the duck above, which (I think deservedly, but I am obviously his biggest fan) received an unprecedented number of likes on Instagram.

ANYWAY I am not here to plug his wares or flatter him (although think of the points system and what I could earn in lie-ins!), but there’s so much design deliciousness on his Tumblr, woven into a few of the many things he’s created for clients. And as I said, I always love to see the beautiful things he’s looking at online (WILL YOU PLEASE STOP BEING NAUGHTY).

Blog: adrianjohnson.tumblr.com
Website: adrianjohnson.co.uk
Adrian Johnson on Twitter: @ajohnsonstudio

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MORAG BRUCE

Morag and I were one-time writing colleagues at both an interiors magazine and latterly, Habitat. I have followed her blog for the longest time. I love her runway edits and her product page-like interiors posts. It’s like dipping into the best of the best of every fashion and interiors magazine out there.

The cleanliness of Morag’s blog’s design is an inspiration – and is all the better for showcasing the popping colours of each post, which sharply – expertly – juxtapose with her consistent and long-running obsession with black and white (she had this way back when we first ever worked together eight years ago…).

Website/Blog: moragbruce.com
Morag on Twitter: @MoragTheBruce

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LORI + THE CARAVAN

Another Lewes lady, whose wares feature in an upcoming Little Lewes post about unique and unisex baby clothing, Lori Inglis Hall’s background is in politics (though I can barely believe it, she is so soft and gentle) and she now has her own business dealing in vintage childrenwear. She is also just starting a job at Charleston House. Busy lady.

I really like Lori’s fashion-and-vintage-lead posts on the Lori + The Caravan blog. She writes effusively about her love of vintage, sprinkling her observations with snippets of her own life with her antique-dealing husband and their sweet baby son, all while only very surreptitiously directing the reader to the pieces for sale in her shop from time to time. The mark of good editorial!

Blog: loriandthecaravan.co.uk/blog
Website: loriandthecaravan.co.uk
Lori and the Caravan on Twitter: @lorisredcaravan

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HOUSE OF JUBA

Another friend (and one of my clients too) Jody gathers together collections of high-end images as a job. I know. Really. Creating mood boards and brand books, she inspires creative businesses to be more…well…creative.

She sort of has two blogs on her website found in the navigation under ‘Home’ and ‘Inspiration’. ‘Home’ shows images that are informing her briefs and are part of her work; ‘Inspiration’ does what it says on the tin and is part pictures she’s taken around Brighton where she lives, part images that are doing something to her mood.

Jody’s posts are my way of gorging on all that is visual and beautiful – I love her words too (especially when they describe a nosebag round mine as ‘a gorgeous candlelit dinner at a friend’s house in Lewes’). I check back constantly (while encouraging her to get a subscribe button because I’d be the first in line to hit it!).

It’s nice to be enveloped by and get lost in pictures, especially when your job is all about letters.

Website/Blog: houseofjuba.co.uk
House of Juba on Twitter: @jodyjuba

Happy browsing! The next in the series (soon) will be: Kids Craft.

Disclosure: No compensation, financial or otherwise, was offered or accepted in exchange for this post. This is just an indulgent kowtow from me to the bloggers out there that I admire and enjoy, and whose blogs I thought it would be nice to share with others. 

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