gawkerverse

Blogger Spotlight - TasteFood

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:27:00 -0700

This week we are featuring Lynda Balslev, the author of TasteFood. Lynda has lived, worked, and cooked throughout Europe, which has in turn influenced her culinary style and inspired her to start her food blog. Her gallery on foodgawker is full of beautiful, colorful images that will make your mouth water and inspire you to get to work in the kitchen!

Posted by: Angie Rizzo

Where are you located?

San Francisco bay area

What inspired you to start blogging and how long have been doing it?

Upon moving back to the US after living in Europe for 17 years. It was a creative outlet that allowed me to chronicle my food memories, our family food traditions, and favorite cuisines with recipes. TasteFood is 4 years old.

Where were you in Europe? Were you there for a particular reason (job, school, etc)?

I moved to Europe to study cooking at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. I planned to stay on in Paris and look for work after I finished, but along the way I met my Danish husband who was living and working in Geneva, Switzerland. So, after my cooking program finished I moved to Geneva. We were married there, our kids were born there, and we lived there for 9 years, while I worked as a caterer, cooking instructor and designer. We then moved to England, due to my husband’s job, where we lived for 2 years, and then to Denmark where we lived for 6 years before a corporate move brought us to San Francisco. With each move I continued to cook, cater and teach. It was portable, and allowed me to be at home with our kids as we set up a new life. Cooking was a great window into each new culture we moved to, embracing the customs, preparing dishes from homes we had left and missed, and a wonderful way to entertain while we met new friends. I also worked as a food editor of a Danish magazine while we lived in Copenhagen.

Do you have any specific or influential food memories from your time abroad?

Living and studying cooking in Paris was an eye opener. I moved there as a low-fat, caffeine-free, low alcohol, red meat-free American in the ’90s and quickly corrected my path, embracing the French bistro style of cuisine, including butter, espressos, red wine, runny cheese and all sorts of meat. I lost weight. The secret is Balance. It tastes better.

About how often do you post to your blog?

2-3 times per week

Do you have a unique style in terms of your blogging and/or cooking?

I prefer rustic Mediterranean food with bold and spicy flavors, influenced by the cuisines of France, Italy, North Africa and the Middle East.

What are you doing when you are not food blogging?

I freelance write, develop recipes, cater and teach cooking.

What kind of food did you grow up eating and how did it influence your taste preference today?

I grew up in New England where we had lots of fresh fish and seafood. My parents enjoyed international cuisines such as Japanese, Chinese and French, so at an early age I was eating food from around the world. We also ate out in restaurants at least once a week - it was a way to celebrate the weekend. As a result, I’ve always been interested in restaurant food.

Based purely on cuisine, which country do you most want to visit?

Japan

What are your least favorite foods?

I confess that I don’t love a lot of Mexican food. I find the combination of tortillas, cheese, beans and meat too dense.

How do you decide which dishes to blog about? Do you follow a theme or overarching concept in your blogging?

I blog as I go - in other words what you see is what we eat.

Gooey or crunchy?

Crunchy

If you could choose your last meal, what would it be?

Sushi

What part do you find the most challenging about blogging? e.g. Finding content, photography, writing?

Keeping the writing fresh. Blogging is done in a vacuum to some extent, at home alone at the computer. It’s important to connect with other bloggers, writers, cooks and readers, which requires an effort and doesn’t happen often enough.

What blogs do you follow?

Many: either friends and colleagues’ blogs or blogs I admire for their aesthetics, style & sensibilities, or regional blogs that remind me of places I’ve lived, including Danish, British, French or Swiss blogs.

All images via: Lynda Balslev

Blogger Spotlight - Season with Spice

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:17:00 -0700

This week we are catching up with Mark and Reese from their blog ‘Season with Spice’. The colorful dishes on the blog are influenced by midwest and southeast asian cuisine, making for bold and flavorful creations. With inspiration from a historical spice trail in Malaysia, this intercontinental foodie duo has a unique story behind their blog.

Posted by: Angie Rizzo

Where are you located?

We recently moved from Penang, Malaysia (Reese’s home) to Minnesota (Mark’s home)

What inspired you to start blogging and how long have been doing it?

For the three years we were living in Penang, we worked as consultants on many community & arts projects in the UNESCO World Heritage site of George Town. One of those projects included the development of a local spice trail, which gave us a better understanding of the cultural, historical, environmental, and culinary value of spices. From that experience, we wanted to learn more and cook more with spices, which ultimately led to the development of Season with Spice in April 2011.

About how often do you post to your blog?

Right now we are posting a recipe, or a spice related article, once a week.

Do you have a unique style in terms of your blogging and/or cooking?

Because colors represent spices, our site and images tend to be more colorful. An easy task when we were living on the tropical island of Penang during the first two years of Season with Spice, but a little more challenging during a Minnesota winter!

What are you doing when you are not food blogging?

We are spending most of our time right now working on our new business - an organic spice shop called Season with Spice - which will be launched in March 2013.

What kind of food did you grow up eating and how did it influence your taste preference today?

(Reese) I grew up in Penang - a melting pot of Chinese, Indian, Malay, Thai, Indonesian, and other Asian food influences - so I always had an adventurous palate to explore foods from around the world.

(Mark) I grew up on a steady diet of Minnesota dishes, but spent most of my adult life in Asia - living in Malaysia, Japan, India, and Singapore. It was tough at first on a sheltered Midwest guy like me, turning my head to ingredients like fermented shrimp paste, but now I can’t get enough of it.

Based purely on cuisine, which country do you most want to visit?

We would both love to visit countries in the Mediterranean to explore all those wonderful seafood dishes.

What are your least favorite foods?

Pink slime!

How do you decide which dishes to blog about? Do you follow a theme or overarching concept in your blogging?

Our recipes always have at least one spice or herb, and tend to be Asian or Asian-inspired dishes.

Gooey or crunchy?

Crunchy.

If you could choose your last meal, what would it be?

Seafood buffet!

What do you find the most challenging about blogging? e.g. Finding content, photography, writing?

Photographing your lunch when you’re hungry

What blogs do you follow?

Just One Cookbook, Rasa Malaysia , Something Edible, Wok with Ray, and MJ’s Kitchen.

All images via: Season with Spice

Blogger Spotlight - Baked by Rachel

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:18:00 -0700

This week we are pleased to highlight another foodgawker submitter, Rachel Currier from Baked by Rachel. This New Hampshire blogger has a wide range of savory and sweet recipes on her blog that are easy enough for most people to make and even easier to enjoy. Rachel tells us about her love of comfort food and the family who loves to eat it.

Posted by: Angie Rizzo

Where are you located?
I live in a tiny town in Southeastern New Hampshire, with my husband and our three young children (ages 5, 3 and 1).

What inspired you to start blogging and how long have been doing it?
I started blogging in early 2010. At first it was just something fun to do. I loved baking and playing in the kitchen so it seemed like a good fit, especially since I didn’t have any actual hobbies. It’s since turned into much more.

About how often do you post to your blog?
I try to stick to a pretty strict schedule of three times a week. For me, that works, though some weeks are a lot easier than others. Having a schedule has forced me to be more organized, I plan out recipe ideas months in advance sometimes.

Do you have a unique style in terms of your blogging and/or cooking?
I wouldn’t say my style is unique, but maybe I’m the wrong person to ask. Many of my recipes are classic comfort foods, perfect for just about any family. Most recipes can be adapted to fit your personal likes or dietary needs. I bake and cook with my family and blog in mind.

What are you doing when you are not food blogging?
Assuming this excludes all blogging related activities…it really depends on when you catch me. I might be pretending to be a horse, giving my 1 year old rides around the room, working on kindergarten homework or even pranking my husband. I do have my fair share of favorite shows to keep tabs on too.

What kind of food did you grow up eating and how did it influence your taste preference today?
The food we ate was pretty basic. We had pretty busy schedules as far back as I can remember, so everything was always quick or pre-made to some degree. Homey but fairly standard 80’s and 90’s food… the good and the bad. I think the only way any of it influenced my current style or taste preferences is that I adore comfort food. Who doesn’t?

Based purely on cuisine, which country do you most want to visit?
That’s hard. Honestly, the first place that comes to mind is Italy for their fresh pastas, pizza and gelato. But then there’s France with their desserts and fresh breads. Can we just say Europe as a whole? That’d be amazing for the food, scenery and history.

What are your least favorite foods?
For those that know me, this comes as no shock at all but I absolutely loathe tomatoes. I’ll eat ketchup, but that’s it. I know that doesn’t really count, but it’s as close to eating a tomato as I’ll ever get. And even though I live in an amazing place to get fresh seafood, I’m not a big fan. It’s all about the texture but I am willing to try bites here and there to at least see if I like it or not.

How do you decide which dishes to blog about? Do you follow a theme or overarching concept in your blogging?
I blog what I love, or what my family loves, so the schedule… or occasionally lack thereof, is planned around that. I might have items in my fridge that need to be used up, so I make a recipe out of that. Or if a holiday is coming up, I might plan at least a few around that because I know my readers will enjoy it. My main goal is always to please my family, but I want my readers to enjoy the recipes and share them with their friends and families too.

Gooey or crunchy?
Gooey! Cheese, caramel, chocolate, candy… it’s all got to be gooey. But there are times crunchy might win out.

If you could choose your last meal, what would it be?
I’m simple. I’d be happy with greasy pizza, margaritas and warm apple pie. Or even just pie. I could probably live off of apple pie and other apple recipes.

What do you find most challenging about blogging?
Sometimes it’s hard to just let it go. Whether the ‘it’ is dealing with frustrations over content theft, a rude comment or a failed recipe. The good always outweighs the bad, but those bad days are still hard and I imagine they always will be.

What blogs do you follow?
It’s hard to narrow it down to just a few. I have hundreds of blogs in my reader.

What are your favorite recipes?
My absolute favorite recipes are total opposites, one savory and one sweet. The one common factor between the two is the number of times they’ve both been made, which says a lot for how good they are.

Bacon and Barbecue Chicken Pizza
German Apple Pie

Images via: Baked by Rachel

Blogger Spotlight - Emily Loves Food

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:48:00 -0800

We are excited to release our first interview for a new blog feature, Blogger Spotlight. First off, let us tell you a little about this new series. Each week we will be highlighting a submitter from a gawkerverse site (foodgawker, craftgawker, dwellinggawker, weddinggawker and stylegawker). We will post an interview with the blogger and some of our favorite images from their gawkerverse gallery. We thought it would be interesting for our audience to get to know more about the bloggers they look to for inspiration.

We had the chance to catch up with Emily Osborne, the author of the blog Emily Loves Food. A newer submitter to foodgawker, she is in the grips of food blogging and had a lot of great things to say about blogging and her relationship with food (she loves it!).

Posted by: Angie Rizzo

Where are you located?

Auckland, New Zealand.

What inspired you to start blogging and how long have been doing it?

I’d always loved cooking - especially cooking new things. I only have a few select favourite things that I continue to cook - otherwise, I make things once, enjoy them, and move onto the next thing. I also love to photograph my food, it’s definitely part of the whole creative process. So blogging was a natural progression - certainly a better outlet for my food photos than Facebook! I’ve only been doing it for about eight months, though I can’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

About how often do you post to your blog?

I try to update it at least once a week, sometimes every few days. I always find I have a story to tell (whether it relates to the food or not is a different matter!) so sometimes I’ll whip something up just so I can have a ramble about my day.

Do you have a unique style in terms of your blogging and/or cooking?

I’m not sure… certainly my food is usually fairly simple and unassuming, and I like to think that anyone should be able to make it. Like I was saying before as well, I do throw in a lot of commentary in each post: each new post basically comes with The Life and Times of Emily (who Loves Food). So I suppose that sets my blog apart a little, because theres a lot of wee anecdotes about what I did at work, what happened to me at university and what the weather is like.

What are you doing when you are not food blogging?

As a student, study takes up a lot of my time. I’m in my second year of Graphic Design, third year of tertiary study (having also studied animation previously). I absolutely love it though, and am committed to design as a profession. And then, of course, there’s part time work in an windowless department store with ten-year old songs crackling over the intercom in the evenings and weekends.

What kind of food did you grow up eating and how did it influence your taste preference today?

I grew up eating a lot of home cooked food - we hardly ever ate out or had takeaways. Both my mother and father cooked, alternating each night to give the other a break. My dad cooked a lot of classic british meals - which are quite common here in New Zealand - where you had your meat, your vege (maybe come broccoli and green beans) and a couple of potatoes. My mum on the other hand, was a fairly adventurous cook, and introduced me to couscous and quinoa and made amazing asian and middle-eastern meals. Because of this, I definitely don’t find that I revert back to ‘easy comfort food’ - my comfort food is something new and exotic and exciting, to the point where I will go out of my way to avoid that meat and vege and potatoes combo. I really love working with new tastes and smells and textures, and am so grateful that this kind adventurous eating was instilled into me at a young age.

Based purely on cuisine, which country do you most want to visit?

That’s tough. Asia definitely - we’re going to thailand at the end of the year, which should be a culinary experience, but I’d also love to go to Malaysia. And the Middle East, undoubtedly. Anything with fragrant, punchy, powerful dishes that aren’t based around the meat n’ three vege way of eating.

What are your least favorite foods?

Potatoes. Hate ‘em.

How do you decide which dishes to blog about? Do you follow a theme or overarching concept in your blogging?

No, no theme at all. I put up the dishes that I get good photos of, which is probably about 70% of what I make.

Gooey or crunchy?

Crunchy outside, gooey middle. Best of both worlds.

If you could choose your last meal, what would it be?

I’ve known the answer to this since I was about five. Sushi. I just cannot get enough of it. There has never been a time when I haven’t felt like a few piece of good ‘ol salmon and avocado.

What do you find most challenging about blogging? e.g. Finding content, photography, writing?

I think that if I found blogging challenging, I wouldn’t do it! Of course, taking the photo can be a bit of a challenge, especially with ugly food (or, equally, food that smells great and you just want to eat it and not have to worry about mucking around with the camera) but ultimately, that’s only a small part of what is largely a fairly natural, free-flowing exercise. I like the photography, the writing, the styling and I like to cook. There’s no part of the experience that I find a chore.

What blogs do you follow?

I don’t actually follow many blogs myself, but will instead visit them based on individual recipes. I’ll browse through blog after blog looking for a great red velvet brownie or apple pie recipe, and when I find one I like, I’ll bookmark that post of that blog for future reference.

Images via: Emily Loves Food

Site Update: Sort & Filter

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:50:00 -0800

Today we released a few behind the scenes site updates and some new features. One of the features we released last year was the customize page. We determined that many of you weren’t going to this page, so we moved the functionality to the homepage. The primary site updates today are the following:

Sort & Filter Tab

On the homepage and search result pages, you will now see the “sort & filter” tab or the “filter results” tab hanging below the navigation bar on the right side. Clicking on the tab will show the sorting options and the filters sidebar. We hope moving this functionality to the homepage will make it easier to use.

Personal Homepage

When you are logged in and filtering a page, you now have the ability to not only save the page, but to make it your personal homepage. If you make the page your homepage, tapping on the site logo will load your personal homepage. You can always undo and revert back to the normal site homepage (latest page) in the filters sidebar or on my saved pages within your profile. For example, here is a search result for “healthy” excluding dessert & sweets that you could make your homepage to avoid sweet temptations.

Improved Category Filters

Previously when two or more categories were selected as filters, the results displayed posts that were in any of the categories. We tweaked the filters so only posts that are in all selected categories are returned, which will provide better, narrower results.

Popular Pages

The posts on the popular pages were self-fulfilling. Once a post got on a popular page, they remained there as the popular pages get a lot of traffic, which meant the posts on these pages contained mostly older posts. To provide fresher content, we changed the “popular last 7 days” and “last 30 days” pages to only display posts that were published in the last 7 days or last 30 days. Previously, posts published at any date could make it on the popular last 7 days and last 30 days pages. The popular all-time pages will not change.

Most gawked - last 7 days

Most gawked - last 30 days

Site Redesign

Today’s updates are relatively minor, but we are working on some significant user experience (UX) and design changes. The mobile UX will be impacted the most and hopefully improved upon. The tablet and desktop UX will remain very similar with an improved design. We are really excited about the next set of site enhancements! Here are some features that you’ll see coming soon…

Infinite scrolling (don’t worry pagination lovers, we have you covered)
Better navigation
Improved mobile UX (think iPhone app UX)
Lighter page weight for faster page loading

If you have any feedback or see anything wonky on the sites, please send us note via the contact form.

-Chuck

P.S. Have you met the gawkerverse team yet?

foodgawker favorites 06/14/12

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:07:35 -0700

Sample the top five foodgawker favorites from this month:

Southwest Stuffed Peppers make a great summer time dish. [via Sunny Side Up]

Perfect for Reese’s lovers: peanut butter cheesecake with a fudge peanut butter cup layer and an oreo crust, all covered in a rich chocolate ganache. [via Deliciously Declassified]

Sonoma chicken salad puts a new twist on an old favorite with the incorporation of pecans, dried cranberries, and apple juice. [via Cooking Classy]

Stuffed portobello mushrooms are a great gluten-free and vegetarian appetizer. [via A Food Centric Life]

These simple mini cinnamon rolls are yeast-free, use fewer than four ingredients, and can be on the table in less than half an hour. [via Sally’s Baking Addiction]

dwellinggawker favorites 06/03/12

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 12:32:31 -0700

Linger for a while in the top five dwellinggawker favorites from this month:

Is your shoe collection getting out of control? Check out this post for creative ideas to organize your shoes. [via PS by Dila]

The key to a well-organized garden is a great pathway, use these 35 garden pathways as inspiration for your next project. [via Freshome]

Brighten up your home for summer with these 10 colorful ideas. [via Babble]

From ice to sand dunes: 36 incredible places to see on Earth. [via Enpundit]

Style has no price tag— try these tips for a pretty home on a budget. [via Florence Finds]

Forget diamonds, a well-organized closet is a girl’s best friend: 12 Captivating Closets to Covet. [via Fab You Bliss]

weddinggawker favorites 05/28/12

Mon, 28 May 2012 16:24:00 -0700

Revel in the top five weddinggawker favorites from this month:

Burlap adds a rustic touch to any wedding; browse through this gallery for 15 burlap finds. [via OneWed]

A list of gorgeous wedding dresses including this one photographed in Paris. [via Le Magnifique]

Incredible first look photographs from both the altar and first look sessions. [via Bowties & Bliss]

Advice on how best to word wedding invitations. [via Apple Brides]

Wondering how to integrate your pet into your special day? Check out this post with over 20 ideas for how to include your pet in your wedding. [via Bridal Guide]

craftgawker favorites 05/07/12

Mon, 07 May 2012 16:23:54 -0700

Quell some Spring time boredom with the top five craftgawker favorites from this month:

Adorable magnetic closure bracelets made out of t-shirts. [via Henry Happened]

10 incredible ideas for DIY furniture makeovers. [via Babble]

DIY lace socklets add interest and can even make ill-fitting shoes more comfortable. [via Love Maegan]

Be inspired by mystifying paint sculptures made by sound vibrations. [via Enpundit]

Can beachy waves be accomplished by straight ironing braided hair? [via Oh So Pretty]

foodgawker favorites 04/22/12

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:32:13 -0700

Take a bite out of the top five foodgawker favorites from this month:

These s’mores cupcakes have both the flavor and texture of real s’mores. [via The Pastry Affair]

Spiked spaghetti (spaghetti with vodka sauce) makes a great romantic dish. [via 6 Bittersweets]

The best roasted potatoes you’ll ever eat. [via Jo Cooks]

A last minute scramble for homemade cinnamon rolls leads to this simple creation— Crescent Cinnamon Rolls. [via The Hungry Housewife]

Chew it over with a Twix cake. [via Raspberri Cupcakes]

Site Redesign

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 02:09:00 -0700

After 7 months of design, development and a lot of testing, we are extremely excited to launch the new look of the gawkerverse. We are starting out with foodgawker and rolling out the new design to the other sites in the next few days. The redesign adds some new features and a little more polish to the sites. It’s also a responsive web design, which means the layout adapts and optimizes to whatever device (mobile, tablet, desktop, etc.) you use.

We are going to follow-up this post over the next few weeks and give more detailed descriptions and tips on using the new and old functionality, but we want to highlight a few now.

Hover Bars

The first new feature is the hover bars on the photo cards (desktop browsers only).

The title is shown and you can now share the post via Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc., by hovering over the photo. We also added a magnifying glass icon for easier access to the post permalink page to see categorization and tags.

Customize

The customize feature allows you to tailor and save pages to your tastes and preferences. Custom pages are essentially saved searches without the need to enter a search term. Here are few examples of custom pages we created…

* Healthy, fruits and veggies <- vegan, fruit and vegetables excluding desserts

* Asian food <- posts from select bloggers who cook mainly Asian dishes

* Desserts, no vegan/gluten free <- desserts excluding vegan and gluten free

Pagination

We cleaned up and simplified pagination. Now you can enter the page number, hit the return/go key on your keyboard and go directly to the page you want.

Mobile

The responsive web design impacts mobile the most. You’ll see the desktop ads disappear, the navigation collapse, the footer minimize and the photo cards reduce to mini-cards. The layout out should work well whether it’s iOS, Android, Windows Phone or any other modern mobile platform.

On mobile, you’ll need to go to the post permalink page (tap on the magnifying glass) to view a larger image, categorization, tags and to share via Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and more.

You may notice the page numbers only change with every other page load. The page numbers match the desktop site page numbering, but we are splitting the desktop page (46 posts) into 2 pages (24 and 22 posts) on mobile. This reduces the length of scrolling and page weight on mobile for faster loading.

Other Changes

Match by keywords in search - when we launched advanced search, we implemented phrase matching to get better results on search terms, but we realized that it was too restrictive. Now a search for chocolate cake will return all results that have the terms chocolate and cake anywhere in the post title, description or tags. If you want to match exactly by phrase, just add quotes around your search terms, e.g. “chocolate cake”.

Fixed favorites sidebar bug - if your username had a space, period or any other odd character in it, the favorites page wouldn’t show the categories or your tags in the sidebar. This has been fixed.

Search Bar - search is still in the same location in the header. If your screen width can only support three columns of photo cards, the search bar has been collapsed. Just click/tap on the search icon to expand the search bar.

Thank You

I’d like to thank Maria, our designer, for coming up with a great look and feel. I’d also like to thank Sandy Sage and the Crowd Favorite team for developing and implementing the responsive design. I believe everyone is tired of my nitpicking and pixel pushing of the design and code. Thanks to the all the gawkerverse team members who helped out in user testing. It took us awhile to get the redesign launched, but I’m very happy with the results.

Enhancements

Even though we have launched the redesign, there are more refinements we want to make and will do so in the upcoming weeks and months.

Between the gawkerverse and the Crowd Favorite teams, we have tested the new design on 10+ browsers and a few dozen devices. We weren’t able to test across all mobile devices as there are just too many smartphones out there. So, if you see any issues or just have feedback, please drop us a note via our contact form.

We hope you enjoy the new design!

-Chuck

dwellinggawker favorites 04/04/12

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:27:54 -0700

Revel in the top five dwellinggawker favorites from this month:

Thought stairs were boring? Think again with this compilation post of inspirational staircases. [via Lulobird]

A quick tip to help hang or mount items without drilling unnecessary holes. [via The Harpster Home]

Spark your Spring cleaning creativity with a list of 25 beautifully organized closets. [via Babble]

National Geographic took inspiration from the Pixar movie “UP” and created a real-life flying balloon house. [via Inthrlld]

Check out this fascinating design that offers the illusion of a cut chair. [via 1 Design Per Day]

weddinggawker favorites 03/25/12

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:39:01 -0700

Celebrate with the top five weddinggawker favorites from this month:

An elegant DIY wedding in Nebraska for under $5,000. [via Le Magnifique]

A chic wedding in Portland, plus a tutorial for the bride’s retro-inspired hairstyle. [via Bridal Musings]

A DIY aisle runner that can serve as a memento after the ceremony. [via Oh Lovely Day]

What not to do: the top five fashion faux pas committed by grooms on their wedding day. [via One Wed]

A photo diary documenting one bride’s battle with cancer. [via Bridal Guide]

craftgawker favorites 03/20/12

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:21:07 -0700

Find inspiration in the top five craftgawker favorites from this month:

DIY glow in the dark jars are ethereal and simple to make. [via Poppytalk]

Tips for styling curly hair to avoid the “finger stuck in a light socket” look. [via Stars for Streetlights]

Gorgeous geography-inspired handmade wall art made out of string and nails that shows local pride. [via Cook Quilt Make and Bake]

Tired of your boring scratched up laptop? Customize it on the cheap with this fun tutorial. [via Fine and Feathered]

Snuggles the Penguin with his removable scarf makes a cute gift all year around. [via All About Ami]

foodgawker favorites 03/11/12

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:02:15 -0700

Sample the top five foodgawker favorites from this month:

French Crullers with honey glaze are surprisingly fast to make. [via Use Real Butter]

Crispy brussel sprouts with garlic aioli will convert any non-brussel eater. [via Savoring Life with Anna Costa]

Sunny side eggs contained in onion rings— a brilliant way to serve breakfast. [via Apron Strings]

Sausage and mushroom etouffee made vegan. [via Fat Free Vegan Kitchen]

Blueberry and custard tarts make a lovely preview for Spring. [via Butter]

dwellinggawker favorites 03/02/12

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:00:01 -0800

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the top five dwellinggawker favorites from this month:

A unique mountain resort in Germany where you can sleep in a tent hanging 6,562 feet in the air. [via enpundit]

Easy ways to use glass jars, bottles, and vases to decorate your home. [via Lavender and Ash]

Looking for a new headboard? Check out 37 of the most unique DIY headboards for inspiration. [via 1 Kind Design]

Balconies re-imagined as pools make the Aquaria Grande unique. [via inthralld]

A more feminine alternative to the man cave— the ma’am cave. [via Fab Housewife]

weddinggawker favorites 02/25/12

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:31:24 -0800

Rejoice in the top five weddinggawker favorites from this month:

Gorgeous ideas for how to incorporate sparklers into your wedding photos. [via Uptown Designs]

Be inspired by a real wedding featuring an enchanted forest theme. [via Ruffled]

A comprehensive guide to making mismatched bridesmaids dresses look great. [via Belle the Magazine]

Five great ideas for making a bachelorette party even more memorable. [via Bridal Guide]

A list of the best photos to have taken during your big day. [via Aphrodite’s Wedding Blog]

craftgawker favorites 02/19/12

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:24:51 -0800

Become inspired by the top five craftgawker favorites from this week:

What is cooler than DIY scratch off paint? Fantastic for invitations, cards, and even party games. [via Mister G and Me Crafts]

Lipbalm made with koolaid and vaseline, incredibly simple and surprisingly delicious. [via Just Lovely Things]

Friendship ear buds: bringing friendship bracelets into 2012. [via Crown Hill]

Crafters in need of organization will love this simple DIY rotating goal list. [via Cornflower Blue Studio]

Temporary hot pink (or any other color) highlights accomplished in ten minutes or fewer with pastels. [via Oh So Pretty the Diaries]

foodgawker favorites 02/10/12

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:18:15 -0800

Savor the top five foodgawker favorites from this week:

Easy leek and potato soup is a delicious smooth soup that can be easily modified. [via Greedy Gourmet]

Hidden vegetables add moisture to this rich chocolate cake. [via Kitchen Heals Soul]

Both gluten-free and vegan, this Garden Vegetable Medley makes a delicious light lunch or side dish. [via The Shiksa in the Kitchen]

Romantic red velvet cookies can even be made into “blossoms” with chocolate kisses. [via Rikki Snyder Photography]

Unique Rhubarb and Marzipan Muffins add variety to your brunch or dessert table. [via Zap]

foodgawker favorites 02/03/12

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:24:16 -0800

Chow down on the top five foodgawker favorites from this week:

Honey Glazed Baby Donuts make an adorable miniature dessert. [via Kokken 69]

Twice Baked Butternut Squash is baked and filled with quinoa and gorgonzola cheese. [via Naturally Ella]

Whole Wheat Cottage Cheese Pancakes topped with Mixed Berry Chia Seed Syrup would make a romantic Valentine’s Day breakfast or brunch. [via Back to Her Roots]

Served over rice, Lentils with Coconut Milk makes for a healthy, comforting, and filling meal. [via My Kitchen Treasures]

Award-winning Snickerdoodles with white chocolate chips are some of the easiest cookies to make. [via Foodie Crush]