inspiration award and blog love

My lovely friend Claire of Country Mouse Tales has given me a blog award, woo!

Here is the lovely, lovely thing that Claire said about me and my blog:

"Vixie @Matin Lapin. Vixie and I have been friends in real life for over three years now, and she is just one of the warmest, sweetest, kindest, funniest and most talented women I know. She has recently taken to blogging in a major (and very Vixie) way and I am loving her posts on art, Eurovision, tea, and everything else."

How lovely is that? What a sweetie!

So I have to pass this award on to ten bloggers who inspire me... hmmm...

It's been hard, but my ten most inspirational bloggers/illustrators (what can I say, I can't resist illustration blogs) would have to be, in no particular order:

• Missed Connections by Sophie Blackall is the dreamiest illustrated blog I have ever seen, and brings to mind romantic Amelie-esque fantasies with every image.

• Jill's Today I Saw blog is a charming insight into someone else's life through pictures.

• The Dainty Squid is written by Kaylah, the blue-haired, camera-wielding, kitty-loving collector-extraordinaire. I love her blog, it's just so down to earth, stylish and generally lovely!

• Geninne's Art Blog constantly inspires me with the beautiful, delicate birdy paintings.

• Little Doodles - no matter how I may be feeling, seeing Kate's delicious birdy (and cakey, mmm) illustrations makes me so smiley!

• Planet Fur is written by the lovely Marlous, who is based in Netherlands - she writes about all sorts of pretty things and makes utterly gorgeous felt mounted animals (I couldn't resist asking her to make me a very special unicorn, and I LOVE IT!) - check out her blog and adorable Etsy shop.

• Vi Hart's blog is full of the most wonderful mathsy-geeky-genius-awesome videos reflecting her love of everything Maths. I especially love the snaaaaaaakkkkeessssss!

• Color Me Katie is the most uplifting thing on the internet - I simply adore everything Katie has to say, seeing all her gorgeous bubbly-explody-rainbow-popping photos and reading about all of her amazing adventures!

• Young House Love is one of the sweetest blogs I know, I love reading all about John and Sherry's DIY adventures in their delightful new home.

• Hey Pais - how can one not be inspired by this??? It is the internet's only journal comic by a cat, after all!

So, there we are: what do you think of my choices?