Chirky

THE STATS:
104 blogs
55% still in the running
30% parenting blogs (mommy or daddy blogs)
7% photography blogs
6% craft blogs (knitting, sewing, cardmaking, scrapbooking, etc.)
3% pet blogs

PAMMIECAKES
I'm entranced by all the mastheads. Some are very dooce-esque, but good nonetheless. And if the pretty mastheads weren't enough? She's also quite entertaining to read. I've added her to my personal favorites list so that I can remember to go back and read her more often.

PET PROJECT
This author wrote a post directly to me, and nothing says I love you like a personal appeal to the head honcho category reviewer (hi! It's me!). Plus, we all know my love can be bought: just send me a piece of chocolate, or an iced Christmas cookie, or a note telling me how wonderful I am (narcistic much?) and I'm sure to respond in kind.

Raillery aside (um, sort of), the thing that caught my eye about this blog was the fact that the author writes as a DOG. Like, not about dogs. But writes AS a dog. And, frankly, I think that writing an entire blog from that perspecitve alone takes more creativity than I've got in my entire being. (Please note that this blogger was not able to post an entry every day during NaBloPoMo, and is therefore disqualified, but did explain why in the entry linked above.)

PINK ELEPHANTS
If you haven't visited Pink Elephants yet, RUN, don't dawdle, to her site. I'm not one to hurry you away from the Chirky domain - I like love you. I like you with your pretty eyes and clicky mice and lingering minds. I like it when you curl up to Chirky with a fresh-brewed cup of joe and breathe all over me. Wait. I take that back. No heavy breathing, okay?

Pink Elephants is personally responsible for creating the NaBloPoMo Randomizer - a site that allows users to randomly surf through all the thousand-plus blogs that took part in NaBloPoMo this year. For that, we all owe her an enormous THANK YOU for introducing us to all those blogs (that otherwise - let's face it - we wouldn't have bothered to click through if it hadn't been for you randomizing them for us).

PIXELLATED SPIFF
This is the thing: I love good design. And frankly? Most of the blogs I've found while reviewing NaBloPoMo have only so-so design. And in some cases? That's a generous comment. I'm always excited when I find a site that has a nice design, good layout, and easy navigation. Pixellated Spiff has all of those. The title and date of each entry makes it easy to differentiate between different entries. The sidebar is fantastico. My only suggestion? Borders around the containers.

But that's beside the point. Besides the design, one of the things I really liked about Pixellated Spiff is the content - the author mixes snippets of her life with photography and entries about knitting. Knitting. And to me? That's cool.

I know nothing about knitting, except something about yarn. And long pokey sticks that somehow loop around each other. I've actually been considering learning how to knit, as if I have large quantities of time at my disposal, because my favorite scarf is one that a friend knit for me and I LOVE it. I make up excuses to wear it, like: "Brrrr. My office at work is so cold. Instead of turning on my space heater, I'll just put on my scarf." My knitted scarf is THAT marvelous.

All that to say, knitting + good design = you've caught my eye.

POPPYMOM
I love the simple design of this site. It's easy to navigate, doesn't make me want to gouge out my eyeballs with a dirty plastic spoon and it links to lots of useful information. My personal favorite line from one of Robin's entries, in relation to whether she should or should not write about something: "My mouth has been known to overpower my gut and nonexistant balls."

Robin, mine has, too. You're in good company, darling.