It’s been raining too much here in Grosse Pointe. I needed a bit of sun today, so I tool a virtual trip over to Marrakesh via My Marrakesh - one of the most visually inspiring blogs around. She takes awesome photos and writes beautifully about her life in Morroco. 

I invite you to skip the expensive plane fare and join me today in a cybertrip to My Marrakesh - where the sun in always shining.

Misterarthur is a cycling enthusiast. So much so that he rode his bike across Spain a few years ago, following the centuries old pilgrimage route known as the Camino de Santiago. He now rides about 50 miles each weekend, following a route of his own creation through Detroit. In an effort to create some interest in having others join him, he’s started a new blog called Tour De Hood. It features notes on his journeys as well as a map loaded with photos of our “fair” city. If you’re interested in seeing what our once booming metropolis looks like you should pay it a visit.

The route got its name last summer during the annual Tour de France. Misterarthur was cycling past a church one Sunday when a boy, standing on the steps of a church, yelled to him, “Yo! Tour de hood!”

Get on your bikes and ride.

My friend from Montreal, Kim Vallee, writes an entertainment and lifestyle blog. She’ll be out for part of next week and has asked me to guest blog for her. I’m looking forward to writing about cooking - my second love.  So look for me there ( as well as here) next week.

Now I’ve got to go frost Arthur’s birthday cake. Have a nice weekend!

 cake image via: cake journal

If you don’t know about IKEA Hacker, well now you will. It’s a really fun blog featuring all the many creative things people think up to transform things from IKEA. A very fun read.

Today, Jules posted a chair I sent her a few months ago as part of a larger post on chairs. You can find it here.

Stroll over to Design Sponge to get the details on this fun Before and After post. One of her readers sent in this project, complete with instructions.

Before

I wish I had the time to do projects like this. If only there could be just a few more hours in each day. But then, I’ve mean meaning to do more sewing, soooo…

After

maybe cloning is the answer. Do you like to do these sorts of projects? Here in my little Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, estate sales are all the rage. Furniture that has make-over potential is naturally a hot ticket. How about in your neck of the woods?

Here’s a fantastic IKEA hack to inspire you. It’s an IKEA Terje chair refitted with hockey sticks. I notice, however, that they left out the Red Wings. Oh well, it’s pretty cool anyway. I found this over on IKEAHacker - a very fun site.

Fellow blogger, Kim Vallee has issued a Green Challenge on her amazing blog, At home with Kim Vallee. The challenge is for all us bloggers to get the word about about the environment and what we do to keep things green. I accept!

This is not my tree

Let’s see. We recycle, and use fluorescent light bulbs as much as possible. We stopped using the automatic sprinklers and water our indoor plants with the water from the dehumidifier (we live near a large lake, so there’s always lots of water in that dang thing). I wish I had a longer list. But I don’t. Instead, read this great post from yet another blog, called Inside the Artist’s Studio. It’s all about a cool environmental issue called Dark Skies. Enjoy!

Have you discovered Colour Lovers? It’s a wild blog all about color palettes. You can design your own palettes and submit them for review. It’s a lot of fun. Anyway, there’s a great post on the illustrations from the original Wizard of Oz. They’re amazing! Go here to read the post as see all the illustrations. Here are two, below.

I’ve got to put a good word in for fellow blogger Rachel Perls. Her blog is called HUE and she writes about color (obviously) but in a unique way. She has a great point of view with lots of useful information. She’s a good writer, too. So, it’s a fun blog to read. Check her blog out (right now!) by clicking here.

Here’s an interesting new member of the blogging community. It’s called Design2Share. It features video clips of British born designer Nicola Chernicoff and South African born designer Irwin Weiner discussing various design issues and answering questions. They plan to add a new feature where readers can upload videos of their own homes for critique (?) or for question time. I’ve viewed a couple of this couple’s topics and I like the idea a lot. However, the twosome need to drink more coffee or get more sleep. They’re… a… little…. slow. But then, we’ve all got room for improvement.

You have to stop by Sam Brown’s blog, Exploding Dog. Sam is an artist who draws pictures from your titles. Send him a title and he’ll draw a picture. You can reach him here. Sam also has FANTASTIC hoodies, T’s, books ‘n stuff at his shop. He’s on my permanent Blog list. Instant love! Go see for yourself. Go on!