Smitten Kitchen is a blog project founded by Deb Perelman, a woman of many trades such as “a record store shift supervisor, a scrawler of ‘happy birthday’ on bakery cakes, an art therapist and a technology reporter”.  So if you’re looking to create “stepped up comfort foods” that are quick, simple and elegant, she’s the woman to go to.

After looking, and drooling over recipes such as: pink lemonade bars, zucchini rice gratin or bacon corn hash; it’s difficult to not be inspired to jump in the kitchen and cook, but instead of feeling overwhelmed with lack of ingredients, time, or skill, we’re introduced to a new world of cooking with simple ingredients.

Check out more of what Deb, and her family of eaters, has to offer at Smitten Kitchen. Warning, you’ll leave hungry.

{all images © 2012 Deb Perelman}

Color Collective is a blog dedicated to {beautiful beautiful} color. Every day, a photograph is posted, along with a “color story” pulled from the photograph.

{Color Collective: 2.28, original image via J.Crew}

We could spend hours + hours looking at each image, pulling inspiration for future collections and new and exciting Fair Isle projects…

{Color Collective: 2.13, original image via Fredrik Akum}

{Color Collective: 2.07, original image via Kittenhood}

{Color Collective: 1.23, original image via Gucci}

{Color Collective: 1.09, original image via Harper Smith}

Color Collective has been going strong since 2010 – regardless of your style or color preference, you are guaranteed to find something that inspires you!

A website devoted to…well…all things crafty, Craftsy is a wonderful resource for projects, patterns + inspiration in pretty much every category of craft – knitting, sewing, home dec, crocheting, quilting, jewelry, cake decorating (yep!), spinning, weaving…the list goes on.

One of the best features of the website is the Online Classes section, where students can sign up for online classes that feature video tutorials, access to the instructors for additional questions, a forum for sharing projects, patterns, and more.

{For those of you who were intrigued by the Mason Jar Cosy tutorial we published earlier in the month, there is a Crochet Lab taught by Vickie Howell that you may find interesting!}

In addition to Classes they offer, there are also cyber “craft-alongs”; Workshops from a slew of designers that give you the option of asking one-on-one questions from the designer/instructor.

There are tons more features on the site – so much so that we’re still exploring and finding out all it has to offer. To sign up {it’s free!}, visit the homepage here.

Advice to Sink In Slowly is a project devoted to inspiring and assisting first year design students. Started in 2006, the goal is not only to inspire, but to impart knowledge based on the experience of a recent graduate onto those just beginning their education.

Write Down Everything by Thomas Austin

Although quite a few years out of design school ourselves, we find the posters to not only be beautiful to look at, but we can easily find inspiration from them as well.

Be Patient by Temujin Doran

Collaborations Are Fun by Rovert Evans

When in doubt, Make Tea by Owen Davey

Challenge Yourself by Amy Timms

To view the full collection of posters – of which there are many! – click here.

We could spend hours – hours! – looking through the amazing-ness that is the Cosby Sweater Project, a website devoted to the iconic “Cosby Sweaters” from the mid-80′s – early 90′s television show.

The author of the blog takes stills from episodes, draws print designs based off of the sweaters, and even adds an (often hilarious) synopsis of the episode.

The drawings alone are really inspiring as potential starting points for new design, and lend themselves to a multitude of possibilities when thinking about color, pattern and texture.

{And really, who didn’t LOVE The Cosby Show?}

Friend (and part-time model) of Kelbourne Woolens, Stacy Bazis, just recently opened up an amazing shop in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, Meadowsweet Vintage.

A wide assortment of haberdashery, the store features a rotating selection of quirky and amazing vintage goods and handmade products from local artists.

Stacy brings her unique and talented eye for design, color and style to everything she carries in the shop, and each item is hand selected by her on her many {many!} expeditions to flea markets and estate sales all over Pennsylvania.

You can check out her online shop here, and for those of you lucky enough to live in the Philadelphia area, you can visit the shop at 4390 Main Street in Manayunk. As an added bonus, Stacy is teaching a beginning knitting course at the shop starting on January 11th!

{click to embiggen for more information.}