From the Right Column... Not a Political Statement

I "volunteered" to judge a student blog-writing competition produced by my national association and sponsored by a major design industry manufacturer, and spent a chunk of time last night reading the 51 posts that were sent to me and my fellow judges. This was not a fun experience in giving back. A few posts were very good. Most were not. Well, they're students and will hopefully improve.

This exercise did get me thinking about what makes a good blog post -- interesting material, new information, helpful ideas, original expression, easy to read -- and about the many design blogs I do enjoy reading. They deliver these points on a regular basis, and I highly recommend checking them out.

You can find my favorites linked alphabetically in the Golden Links - Blogs of Note column on the right. I'm proud to call many of their publishers personal friends, especially including my fellow Blogger 19 members. We love hanging out at trade shows together and sharing food, fun, fellowship and our favorite products and trends.

I've had the pleasure of contributing to some of their blogs, including...

Cote de Texas
KitchAnn Style
Kitchen and Residential Design
Life of an Architect
Useful Spaces.

Many more of them have contributed to mine. Type "Guest Post" in my Search Box above to find dozens of these! Three talented designer/blogger buddies have also contributed kitchen projects to my upcoming Taunton Press book. These include...

Kelly Morisseau of Kitchen Sync
Cheryl Kees Clendenon of Kitchen Details and Design
Susan Serra of The Kitchen Designer.

I'm beyond thrilled to have their work included and will let y'all know as soon as the book is published in December.

FYI, I don't consider this to be one of my best posts, but it does contain helpful information -- i.e., some of the best design blogs you should be reading, if you're not.

It's late. I worked all weekend. And I came up with something for tomorrow's post, since I committed to posting every Tuesday for as long as I keep Gold Notes online. Done.