Interesting Blogs...

The blogosphere is a wide, wide world all it's own. If you can dream it, there is a probably a blog somewhere devoted to it. Cosplay, Street Magic, Fans of Harry Potter - yep, there's a blog about that. So how in the world are we supposed to wade through all of the blog noise to find what really matters to us? I haven't the slightest idea, really.
Me, well, I've wasted many many hours jumping from blog to blog, picking out pieces that I found interesting, or humorous, or helpful. Most of them only had a couple posts I could relate to, and were pretty quickly forgotten. Some, however, managed to make the permanent cut. These are blogs that consistently post content that I enjoy reading, and that relates to me. So, without further ado, here's my top five blogroll....

Psychology for Photographers
This blog may be called psychology for photographers, but really, it's packed full of info for anyone who owns a small business. It's especially helpful for those who don't want to compete on price, but rather want to find the customer who values their business, regardless of what your product costs.

Creative Live
Want to go to artists college, for free? Yea, me too. And that's basically what creative live is.  You can go to creative live at any time on any day, and watch free seminars for artists. They have classes on almost everything any artists could want. From "how-to" photography, to marketing, to running a small business, it's a photographers dream. Not into business? There are classes on scrapbooking, quilting, cooking, floral arranging paper making, money management.... need me to go on? There an awesome, FREE, online class to fit everyone's needs.

Becoming Mom
While this blog is written by a fellow photographer, it's not really about photography. It's about being a mom. I love this because, well, it's real. Ariana talks about her struggles with infertility and IVF, and cataloged her journey to motherhood. She writes touching posts to her children that make me tear up. What I find most inspiring about Ariana's blog is that it's honest, and so deeply personal. It feels as if she's allowing me to be a part of her life. That type of honest blogging is something I hope to accomplish here on my own blog.

Inspire Me Baby
I am a photographer, so of course there's going to be a blog that is about nothing but photography. I heart Inspire Me Baby so so much. It has awesome interviews with other photographers in a baby business, and great links to prop shops. But mostly, it's just filled with dreamy baby photos. And I'd be lying if I said I haven't wasted so so many hours just scrolling the posts, drooling over the stunning images. It's session research, so it's not wasted time, right? Right???

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
TRIGGER WARNING - INFANT LOSS
This one - this one is really heavy. NILMDTS is an organization of newborn photographers who volunteer their services to parents whose babies are stillborn, or who are lost shortly after birth. It's heart-breaking, the posts are hard to read, and it reduces me to tears every.single.time. But it's also incredibly important. It reminds me how trivial my daily problems are. And it's a way to give back to those who need me. In the scope if their loss, I can't do much. But I can provide them with memories, with the recognition that, yes, their baby lived, and he/she was beautiful. And as mothers, as women, as human beings, I think it is our responsibility to be there for mothers in their greatest time of need, and do what we can to make their loss a little easier to bear.