I am completely blown away by food blogs. Well, not all food blogs. But the ones with amazing food photography, wow. How can someone be that amazing at making up (?!) a recipe and then photographing their food so perfectly that it could be in some big magazine? Mind blown. Please God one of you move in next door to me.

So that brings me to the first new feature I’m adding to Mint. Since I have no ability in the kitchen, and struggle constantly with indoor photography, I won’t be sharing any recipes or dishes of my own. My husband is the cook in our little family of two, and without him I’d make nothing but frozen pizzas, beans and rice, and cereal. But God do I love to eat.

On Tuesdays I’ll point you to one of these incredible food blogs I’ve started subscribing to. I’ll just tell you a little bit about why I picked the recipe as the “recipe of the week” and share a beautiful photo. So even if you’re like me and don’t care for the cooking part, I think you’ll like this feature. I hope.

The first recipe I’m going to start out with is Cherry Almond Pudding Cake by Shared Sugar. Not only does it sound and look delicious, but the recipe is one Mara adapted from her Grandmother, who sadly passed away a few weeks ago. This is a recipe I actually think I’ll try to make myself, and when I do I’ll think of Grandma Chris! She sounds like such a cool lady. And the fact that she couldn’t cook very well but could make one hell of a Cherry Almond Pudding Cake gives me hope. Thank you, Mara!

On a side note, thank you for all the sweet comments you have been leaving on Mint’s birthday post and on the Reader Survey. You sure know how to make a girl feel good!

Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Margot will be here on Mint each Monday, and Ellie will be over on Pitch Design Union at the same time.

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Oh man it’s crunch time for me this week! I’m eyeball-deep in a a couple big projects that both launching right on top of each other. More than ever I am trying all my Howdy Do It tricks so I can keep my head straight and my to do list on track. But I’ve been cutting a few corners here and there. I’m exhausted (yes I realize it’s only Sunday, Monday), there’s take-out boxes littering the coffee table and a huge pile of dirty laundry on the bed. Also, ahem, workout clothes do not count as getting dressed.

Sigh. You can’t always have it together right? But there are three things on my mind to help:

five.sentenc.es: “A disciplined way to dealing with email.” This to help keep me from drowning in my inbox. Sort of like how Twitter has a character limit, you limit your email responses to a few sentences. Also comes in two, three & four senten.ce varieties for the extra brief overachievers!

My new file cabinet (excuse the crappy iPhone shot)! Here she is, scored free at an office that was being demolished in my neighborhood. A most fetching hue of seafoam green, with retractable hinged lid and complimentary red, yellow AND pink folders, she’s quite a beaut I think. Old offices are the best places to score office supplies & materials! And I’m so excited to have more spots to put stuff!

Also a goal for AFTER these projects launch: paint the bathroom. Benjamin Moore Sea Haze 2137-50 and I have a date and I *will* tackle this one then. After only six months talking about doing it, crikey.

Let’s have it guys, what shortcuts do you take when things get bananas?

{Photo credits: Collaboration pieces from Eric Smith’s Live Now series}

—Margot

I’m so grateful to be able to work on Mint every day, to have met such wonderful people through my blog, and to have so many supportive readers. Mint has grown a lot since it began two years ago, and I have you to thank! So, I’d like to give away a set of 50 calling cards of the above design, customized just for you (or a friend)! These are great for small business owners and bloggers, but they’re also great to use as personal calling cards with your phone number and/or email address. Here’s how to enter:

1. Complete the reader survey. I’d love to learn more about who you are, what you like, don’t like, want to see more of, etc. It’s completely anonymous & just takes a few minutes.

2. Leave a comment on this post. Don’t forget to fill out the comment form with your name & email address.

Survey ends Monday, February 22nd. One winner will be randomly selected on February 23! Thank you so much!

In case you’re new here, this is the deal with “favorite threes”: instead of a traditional blog roll (which would be miles long at this point!) I feature three of my favorite blog reads each month. Sometimes they are new finds, and others are old favorites. I hope you’ll add them to your reader, too!

Afternoon Delight is a blog written by Kate Arends, a graphic designer working in Minneapolis. Among other things, she likes avocados, distance running, sock monkeys, hip-hop, estate sales, and scotch. But she’s also really good at finding cool stuff, and I’ve been especially impressed with her recent wedding design work.

Eco-stylista is an eco-conscious design & lifestyle blog updated 3-4 times daily. Like Afternoon Delight, the photos are small, but that makes scanning through to find your favorites a lot easier. (Click on images for the large versions).

Share Some Candy is a gallery-like blog (one image & no text per post) started by Reuben Miller and Yael Miller with a killer set of curators. The posts on here are a great mix of things you’ve never seen before, favorites that have been making the blog rounds already, and occasional updates from everybody’s “old favorite” designers and artists. I find something to bookmark each time I visit.

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You can see past blog favorites in the archives. And, in case you forget which blogs are being featured, scroll down the right-hand sidebar and you’ll see their banners displayed for the whole month. Thanks for being awesome, you three!

photo credits: 1. elle decoration uk found via, 2. Gary Harvey found via, 3. if you could on flickr found via

I had a couple of big deadlines this week, so I have to admit I didn’t keep up with all my blog reading! But, here are a few things I know / did / am doing:

+ Thanks to Ivana, Kelly, Erin, Lisa, Karly, and Danni for generously sharing their Valentine’s Day DIY projects and recipes on Mint this week! If you missed them, you can see them here.

+ LOCALS! TONIGHT! One of my polaroids was accepted into the Rebus Works show, Plastic Cameraworks2! The opening is tonight in Raleigh from 6-10pm. Only Burger will be parked outside. Yum.

+ If you’re a local crafter/designer, applications are now open for the May 1st Handmade Market. Deadline is Feb.26

+ For this week’s Howdy Do It posts, Margot talked about why she blogs and I did an office supply round-up.

+ Over on OK Great, I’ve rounded up aprons under $50 (inspired by those aprons above!). Sadly, I’ve decided to “retire” from OK Great so this will be my last. Whoa… Also, check out this great post on a talk given by two local designers, Blackarm Bespoke (handmade shoes) and Raleigh Denim (handmade jeans).

+ Mint is two years old this month!! To thank you, wonderful readers, I have a little giveaway planned for next week!

{iamge: repurposed handbag, oven mitts, and apron from snygg, via modish}

Have a great weekend!

Our last Valentine’s Day DIY is from Danni Hong of Oh, Hello Friend. Danni doesn’t really need an introduction, does she? She runs a beautiful blog in addition to being a talented designer and jewelry maker.

To see more pictures, get the full instructions, and download Danni’s printable PDFs, please click below:

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We’ve got two Valentine’s Day DIY projects for today! This first one is by Karly A. Young of SweetBeaker. Karly designs beautiful custom invitations, business cards, logos, you name it… and has a great etsy shop, too.

To see the instructions, more photos & download the free printables from SweetBeaker, click below:

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