I don’t have a blogroll, for the same reason that I don’t do #followfriday on Twitter – I would much rather know why you follow/read someone than to just know that you do follow/read them, and since I often don’t find that blogrolls or #ff tweets generally give me enough to go on to see if I want to read or follow someone, I don’t do them myself. I’m sure this breaks all sorts of blogging and tweeting “rules” in terms of increasing my audience or followers, but rules were made to be broken, I guess. Which is possibly an odd thing for someone who sometimes lives by rules to say …

But, if I did have a blogroll, or did #ff, Merl would be on the list.

Why, you ask?

(Yeah, I knew that was coming)

Because ….

• She’s funny – she calls people squirrels, has a wife, and uses terms like magpie. I like a person who can see the lighter side of things and even poke fun at themselves every once in a while.
• She designs amazing and unique jewelry. I am lucky enough to own one piece. I may or may not be eyeballing an item or two in her newest lookbook.
• She quit her full-time job to design said jewelry. It takes guts to follow your dreams, and I love supporting independent, creative types when I can.

And as a bonus, she has a very cool giveaway on right now (ending the 17th). So, go and check it out.