The Road Not Taken and an Award

Hello there. In another post, I said thank you for an award that I was given and I mentioned that I would post the other one in a future post. Well today is that day :-) I always feel a bit funny when I receive blog awards. Even after two and a half years of blogging, I’m always amazed that people pass these along to me and still read my blog. Lol. And this isn’t false modesty talking here...no...I’m truly surprised and very appreciative every time I get a blog award. It’s nice to get a friendly nod from within the blogging community.

Therefore, I want to say thank you to Lis at “An American Girl in Bristol” for passing the Cherry on Top Award along to me.

Lis is embarking upon a similar path to mine so I truly wish her well and hope that her move across to England is a wonderful one! :-)



This is an interesting award because it comes with an intriguing question attached to it. Here are the rules:

1) Thank the person who gave you this award.
2) Pick 6 people/blogs and give them this award.
3) Inform the person that you have given them this award.

Then...answer this question:

If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?

Well, I thought about this and I know they always say that the path that you take in life leads you to where you are right now, and if you change one thing you change many things. And a lot of the time people will say that they wouldn’t change a thing and some days I would say that too. However, there are some days when I’m honest with myself and I would say, YES I WOULD change this one thing. I guess it's the adventurer in me :-) I think that it’s fun sometimes to wonder about what things would be like if you’d taken that road instead of the one you actually took. I don’t dwell on it, but hey, a daydream is good from time to time :-)

Anyway, so if I could go back and change one thing in my life, I would change where I went to school after I graduated high school. I had been accepted at an art and design school and didn’t go because I was very young and bent to the pressure of some advice. (I hold no grudges about this advice…water under the bridge and all that) I wanted to study interior design in this program which dealt with it in the home and business settings. And my ultimate goal was to study on the west coast and then work my behind off and get into doing set design and work behind the scenes on movies and television. California was calling my name! :-) This interest in working behind the scenes was fueled early by my love of all things creative and my love of classic movies. I know that it would’ve been a tough thing to break into, but it would’ve been wonderfully freeing to have just given it a try, even if it didn’t work out. I’ve learned one thing from that road not taken…there is no harm in trying, because no matter however it turns out, you get satisfaction out of knowing that you got to do what YOU wanted to do.

I ended up going to a “normal” university and it didn’t work out so well. And I guess some would say that I could’ve went along the other path later, but as we all know, life starts to happen and sometimes you never catch up :-) Oh well. I think that that is why nowadays I’m doing my best to seek out more of a creative life for myself several years later. I didn’t take that other path, and I’ve put that to rest, but now I’m going at that creative life from another direction.

Oh and in case you’re wondering where Brit Boy would have fitted within this west coast life path…well I fully believe that we would’ve still connected. I figure if we found each other 4,000 miles apart, then there’s not that much of a leap to find each other in California somehow. The Universe had it all mapped out I believe ;-) Brit Boy believes this too.

I’m gonna bend the rules again and just give this one out to everyone who wants to have this award and contemplate this question or not :-) So please take it and have fun with it…until next time!

An Award & Ten Things

Over the last few days, I’ve received two blog awards and so today I’d like to say thank you for one of them and share it. And in my next post I will share the other award. The first award is from Tink at Tinkerbell. She has a wonderful and magical blog, so please do stop by when you can and visit her. Thank you Tink for passing this award along to me!

The award is the ‘A Blog With Substance’ award and I’m truly honored to receive it.


The rules are:
1) Thank the blogger that gave you the award.
2) Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation,& experience using ten words.
3) Pass the award on to ten other blogs.

Okay, so now to sum my blog up in ten words…well. I guess my list would go like this:

1) personal – My blog is about my personal journey

2) truthful – I strive to be real here

3) gratitude – I hope that my gratitude for life shows through

4) happiness – Even though no one’s life is happy every day, I hope I share some joy here

5) nature – I love sharing photos of nature, from here in England and back home in Georgia

6) life – I do my best to celebrate life here

7) love – My love for Brit Boy and my family is here and I hope that love is always seeping into the cracks everywhere here :-)

8) journeys – Well Brit Boy and I always share our trips & the life journey is fun too!

9) colorful – I hope that my photos are representative of this

10) beauty – I have used hope a lot in describing my list and it isn’t really from a place of doubt. It’s because I love that word ‘hope’, because it is an optimistic word to me. And I hope that my love for the beauty of people and the world somehow comes through in my blog :-)

I followed the rules a bit and gave my ten words, even though I know I wrote other words. But hey, what can I do…I love words ;-)

I couldn’t decide upon ten blogs because I find so many blogs of substance out there nearly every day. So in order to share this award, I’d like to give this award to all of you out there reading this. Thanks for reading. Feel free to take this award and pass it along to the many blogs that you love :-)

In my next post, I’ll post the other award and it asks for me to reveal if there is one thing in my life that I would change. Hmmm. I’ve got my thinking cap on….until next time :-)

The Sunshine Award

Hello everyone :-) I wanted to pass out a little bloggy love today, since it has been passed along to me by Elizabeth at Eof737’s Mirth and Motivation and I want to thank her so much. She passed the lovely Sunshine Award along to me and I’m so honored because I love her blog…it’s like a breath of fresh air to me :) So please drop by and visit her wonderful blog.



This award honors and supports bloggers and its goal is to spread goodwill and to pay it forward to twelve other bloggers. I’m excited to pass this blog award back to Elizabeth and also to the following twelve blogs:

From Ohio With Love
Mama ASID's Entrepod
BlogZoom
Necessary Room
PYNTK
Krystal Grant's Guide To Life
Writing to Survive
Operation You
Maitri's Heart
Health Nut Wannabee Mom
Blogging Baby Boomer
Coco Thoughts

All of these ladies inspire me in their own special ways, so it’s my honor to pass the Sunshine Award along to them :-)

Here are a few instructions for paying this award forward:
#1 Nominate 12 bloggers
#2 Put the award logo/photo onto your sidebar or within a post
#3 Link the nominees within your post
#4 Let the nominees know that they’ve received this award by commenting on their blog
#5 Share the love and, if feasible, link the sidebar logo to the person from whom you’ve received this award

Congratulations ladies! And if anyone else wants to share the Sunshine Award, please feel free to take it with you and pay it forward! :-) Have a joyful day!

A Great Honor

This is Brit Boy’s toy, but for now I'm borrowing it and it’s my stand-in cup of honor ;-)

I have some fun news to share. I got a lovely honor a couple of days ago. I was named as one of Alive Magazine's 2010 Women of the Year . The magazine is an online magazine whose aim is to empower women and help them identify and achieve their purpose in life. They concentrate on three words to convey the message of the magazine, which are ‘empower’, ‘inspire’, and ‘connect’. It is a very inspirational magazine and I’m truly humbled to be included in their list :-) I was truly shocked when I found out, but now I’m embracing it and I’m so grateful.

This experience has reminded me for sure that you just never know what life has in store. I was told a couple of weeks ago and at that time I had to send in some information about myself. But I was asked to keep it quiet until the other day when they released the issue. Now however, I can share it with you all :)

By the way, please check out my latest post at my new blog Yellow House Views if you have a moment. It's all about a sale that I've found out about for this weekend.

Have a great weekend! :-)

Another Awards Edition

Hello all :-) Brit Boy and I had a good weekend. No trips to London this weekend but we went into town and it was fun since we hadn't been there in a while. It was fun to have a quiet weekend.

I wanted to post some awards today. I received three over the past several days. I'm still amazed when I get these :-) I'm honored as always to receive them.

The first award is the One Lovely Blog Award from Confessions of a Bookworm. Thank you so much Lindsay.



The next one is the Beautiful Blogger Award that I received from Judy at Sixty Is Just The Beginning. Thank you Judy :-) This one asks that you list seven things about yourself.



Okay, here goes:
1) I like collecting things.
2) I love old movies.
3) I like to dance and sing even though I can't sing ;-)
4) My favorite color is blue.
5) Well this isn't particularly about me, but it snowed a bit here today, but it didn't stick.
6) I love green tea.
7) I love figurines.

And thirdly, I received the Happy Award from Mike at Rambling Stuff. Thanks so much Mike.



This one asks you to list ten things that make you happy, so here I go again.

1) Brit Boy makes me happy :-)
2) Watching the moon and the stars on a warm night makes me happy.
3) Listening to music
4) Having a good laugh with my nieces
5) Taking photos
6) Going for walks in a quiet place
7) Blogging
8) My friends in the blogging world
9) My friends in the wider world
10) Receiving flowers from Brit Boy

Thanks again to all three for thinking of me again :-)

Beautiful Blogger Award

Hello all :-) Sorry that I’ve been away from my blog for several days, but I’ve been working on school work again and spare time has been fleeting. But I’m glad to be back here again. I missed you all. I want to do a bit of catching up here in this post.

Back on the 9th of this month, Lindsay at Confessions of a Bookworm, gave me a wonderful award and I’m truly grateful :-) Thanks Lindsay! Please stop by and visit her. She’s a book lover like I am and I love her blog. She gave me the Beautiful Blogger Award. Isn't it pretty?



As part of the rules, I’m supposed to tell seven interesting things about myself. Well, I’ m here scratching my head….lol. Uh, well I don’t know how interesting my list will be, but here goes. I love a challenge.

#1: I can play the flute, although I haven’t played in well over ten years, but I’m hoping to pick it up again in the near future.

#2: I love books and I often daydream about having built-in bookshelves in our house when we build it and I daydream about how they will look. I browse magazines a lot looking for just the right style. I'm excited to be able to give my books their own home, especially a couple of books that I’ve had since I was a little girl.

#3: I love watching scary movies and mysteries. I don’t like blood and gore movies, but I love a good scary movie on a Friday or Saturday night.

#4: I have a stamp collection that I haven’t organized. It’s still in a pouch and longs for a scrapbook home of its own.

#5: I am toying with the idea of coloring my hair. My hair in naturally jet black and I have played around with streaking it lighter in the past. But I don’t think I’ll do that again. I’m thinking of giving it a warm brown hue to waken up my winter look. It’s something to do…LOL. Of course, I may wait until spring or not do it all…decisions…decisions.

#6: I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m running out of things to list here…LOL. So I’ll say it again. I’ve been an extra in both a movie and a commercial when I was in my early twenties. It was easy money and it was fun.

#7: I love cheese wayyyy too much ;-)

Now, I’d like to pass this along to anyone who wants to take it. I love the community of readers and commenters here, and that’s beautiful to me! So to all of you beautiful bloggers, please take this award with you. Have a great weekend!

A Nomination and Three Awards

I wanted to share some great news with everyone and also say thank you for some awards that I have received recently.

First, my good news is that I have a photograph that has been shortlisted by Schmap guides for inclusion in their travel guide. I told Brit Boy that even if I don't ultimately get included in the guide, I'm pleased beyond belief to have been considered :-) There's no pay for being included, but I don't mind at all. This truly spurs me on to get better and better and to learn more. I do love photography. This was a great surprise to me since I didn't submit it myself. When we returned home from our trip back to Georgia, I had an email from the editor of an ezine that I contribute to. She said that they'd seen my photo in the magazine's Flickr stream and wanted to possibly use it. Who knew :-) It truly made my day and week! I'll keep you all posted. I can understand now what actresses mean when they say it's a thrill just to be nominated...LOL. Here's my photo. It's an alternative view of St Paul's Cathedral. This is the Great West Door of this lovely place.



Also, I wanted to thank two bloggy friends for passing some awards along to me. I'm so grateful to both of them for thinking of me and my little blog :-) Both of these ladies have great blogs that I love to read on a regular basis, so if you'd like to have a couple of great reads, please stop by and visit both of them.

Judy at Sixty Is Just The Beginning gave me the My Comments Rock Award and the Dragon Loyalty Award. I love both of them because they remind me of the community aspect of blogging that I adore. I would like to pass both of them along to all of you my wonderful readers and commenters. So please take these two awards with you if you'd like.






And Patricia at Subjective Soup passed along the Superior Scribbler Award to me. I have enjoyed writing my whole life so I really love this award too. I'm so glad that she likes what I write here, because I love her writing too :-) I'd like to pass this one along to everyone also, because I love so many of your blogs and I think that they're all quite superior.




Have a great rest of the weekend everyone. Talk to you later!

Circle of Friends

Today I'm going to post the other award I received. I posted the inspiration award a couple of days ago and today I want to pass along the Circle of Friends Award. I received this from a great new friend at WAHM Resource Site. Please check it out over there :-)



This award is a great one. I like this award because to me, reaching out to new friends is one of the best things about blogging. I'd like to pass this one along to:

Health Nut Wannabee Mom
Mama Asid's Entrepod
Theresa's Treasures
WillOaks Studio
Regina's Family Seasons
From Ohio With Love

And also, I'd like to pass it along to all who visit my blog. This one should be really passed around, so take it and enjoy! :-)

Inspiration

Yesterday I turned in my latest assignment for my course. I have a few more to go and then I’ll be done. It’s been interesting and I’ve certainly learned a lot about article and feature writing. It has been an eye opener. My next assignment is to write a package for a tv or radio show and a treatment for a half hour television documentary or feature on a particular topic. I have to outline the packages and write out a portion of the actual shows, not the whole thing. This is the part of the course that I’ve been looking forward to most. It will be a challenge, but it will totally take me out of my comfort zone, so this will be a good learning experience. Wish me luck! :-)

In other news, recently I’ve been given two awards from bloggy friends and I wanted to finally highlight them. I was so grateful to receive them, but haven’t had the chance to mention them with all my school work. Well today I have that chance :-) I’ll do one award today and the other one tomorrow.

The first one is the Most Inspirational Blog Award that I received from June at Cen’s Loft. Let me just say, she inspires me with her creativity. She has a great blog on scrapbooking and crafts mixed with stories from her everyday life. Please check her out!



It was hard to decide who to pass this award on to because there are so many blogs that I read that inspire me. Here are my picks, even though the list could have been twenty or more blogs long :-) This is why they inspire me....

Getting Busy Living – because this is my Brit Boy’s blog and the title of his blog is our shared philosophy in life. My husband inspires me every day!

People You Need To Know – because this blog highlights inspiring people who inspire me to do more

Necessary Room – because her blog simply exudes calm whenever I visit...that’s inspiring

Writing To Survive – because her truly creative writing inspires me to look deeper

Operation You – because she celebrates self-love and love for the world around us...truly inspiring

Red Pine Mountain – because her words inspire beauty and her photos do the same

I hope that you enjoy visiting them all. They are truly great. Have a great day everyone!

An Award Thursday

My blogging buddy Ivanhoe at From Ohio With Love has passed along the Neno Award to me and I'm so grateful that she thought of me :-)



The Neno Award is given to "those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging, and to help others seek the reasons why we all love blogging."

Here are the steps with this award:

- Upload the image in your post
- Mention the person that gives you the award with their blog link
- Nominate your 5 blogs of choice with blog name and link
- Leave comment on the recipients' posts to let them know

Now, I'm passing this along to five blogs, but as always...no pressure to participate :-) These are five of the many blogs that I enjoy and I just wanted to highlight them. Also, if anyone else wants to participate and pass this award along feel free to take it with you :-) So here are my five picks....

Writing to Survive
Red Pine Mountain
Regina's Family Seasons
Melana On The Path
Health Nut Wannabee Mom

Please check these ladies out if you haven't already. Have a great day! :-)

Blog Award Catch-Up

I wanted to do a bit of catching up today, in recognition of some fabulous awards that I’ve received a few weeks back. Time got away from me a bit, but I didn’t want to let anymore time go by before I acknowledge these awards from my bloggy friends. To all of you ladies who gave me these, let me say sorry for taking so long. I really appreciate your thinking of me (smile) So without further ado, here they are.

I received the Proximidade Award from Duni at Lovely Purses.



Next, I received the Lemonade Award from Roz at Life In Australia.




And last, but certainly not least, I received the One Lovely Blog Award from Shae at Hey Shae.




I want to thank all of these ladies for passing these along to me and for extending their friendship. And please stop by and check out all of their blogs.

I’d like to pass these awards along to my commenters who are always appreciated and who help me to keep the conversation going (smile)

I have two more awards to pass along in the next few days and then I will be caught up. I’m closing in on my first blogoversary in a few days so I wanted to tidy things up and get up to date (smile) Have a wonderful day!

Catching Up and Saying Thanks

I wanted to finally get around to highlighting some awards that I have received over the past few weeks. I got a bit behind with the holidays, so I want to catch up now because I didn’t want to let the honors pass by unacknowledged. I want to thank all of those who have passed on awards to me. I treasure my bloggy friends so all of these are greatly appreciated :-)

The first award is the Blog Love Award, given to me by my great bloggy friend Ivanhoe, who is a lady like myself living away from her homeland. It’s a great read :-)



Next, I received the Your Blog is Fabulous Award from another great bloggy friend Jodi, who is a great friend to animals and everyone else. This is another great read :-)



The rules are to: Link to who gave the award to you; admit 5 addictions; and then pass the award on to 5 other blogs.

My addictions/obsessions:
#1 Coca-Cola
#2 Books
#3 Pretty Notebooks
#4 Fountain Pens
#5 Cheese

Now I am passing this one along to the following blogs, if they would like to participate…no pressure :-) My picks are:

Tahtimbo @ Everyday Living
Ivanhoe @ From Ohio With Love
Fitness Diva @ Confessions of a Fitness Diva
Jenn P @ The Peacock's Nesting Place
Regina @ Regina's Family Seasons

And my third award is from my bloggy friend Tahtimbo, who is a stay-at-home dad, and writes a blog that I so enjoy visiting because of the relaxed vibe. Another great read :-) He gave me the Friendship Award and this is so kind of him and it's great to call him my friend.



I would like to pass this one on to:
Jennifer @ Writing to Survive
and
Jewelry Rockstar

Thanks again to all of my blogging friends who passed these along to me.

A Holiday Awards Day

I have another collection of awards to highlight today. I’m a couple of weeks late with these, so to all of those who awarded me, I’m sorry for the delay. I’m finally getting caught up. Better late than never though…right ;-) To all of you, thank you very much for thinking of me and awarding me with these. These were all awarded to me right before or around Thanksgiving, so they came at a wonderful time. It’s always good to know that there are others out there who support you in what you love to do :-) All of these ladies have great blogs, so I urge you to go by and check them out. I find in reading their blogs, and so many others, that there is a universal commonality that we all share with each other. And those ways in which we are different simply keep life interesting.

The first award, The Rock Star Award, comes from April at My Life as a Mother and Single Parent



The next four were awarded to me by Anne at Small Town Mommy





Here's some linky love to Maternal Spark who created the Sparky Blogger Award.

And the next three were awarded to me by Queenmadison at Queenmadison’s World





And the final two were awarded to me by Jodi at Jodi’s Journey




All of these awards are wonderful and varied and I love them all individually. It is so hard to decide who to pass them all on to, because I read and love so many blogs. So in an effort to be inclusive and to share the fun with all of those who support me, I will be passing all of these cool awards on to my followers, readers, and commenters. I hope that none of the givers will mind. Why not…after all, this is the season of giving :-)

Enjoy!

A Sweet Goodie

A few days ago, I received this sweet little goodie of an award from my bloggy friend Mike at Rambling Stuff. It's called Simply the Best and I'm touched that Mike gave this to me. I would definitely like to send it right back to him because without fail, Mike is always simply the best :-) So thank you Mike for being my friend and for always making my blogging day!

Great New Awards

Today, I would like to finally acknowledge some great awards that I have received over the past couple of weeks. I’m a bit behind lately, so please forgive me my blogging pals who gave me these awards.

I received the “I Love Your Blog” award from Tahtimbo at Everyday Living . I’ve received this award before, but it never can get old to me. The greatest compliment is to do something that you enjoy and have other people really like it. So I’m thrilled. :-) Tahtimbo is a stay at home dad who writes a great slice of life blog. He also shares my interest in shows about ghosts :-) Please check him out.

Now I’d like to pass this award along to a few of my many favorites in the blogosphere. This is a hard choice because there are so many blogs that I love, but here goes. And I will mention here what I have read on other blogs….to those that I pass these awards along to, I understand that some may not be able to participate in passing these along. So no pressure :-) I just pass these awards along in the spirit in which they were given, to highlight some blogs that I thoroughly enjoy. So without further ado….here are my picks for the “I Love Your Blog” award:



Health Nut Wannabee Mom
My Life in Italy
The Many Ramblings of Me
Rambling Stuff
Grammology
Thinking Out Loud Blog
Just Me

The rules are that you link back to the person that gave you the award and then pass it along to seven of your favorite blogs. Also let them know that they have received the award.

Next, I received a cool award that I had never received before, called the “Butterfly Award” and I was lucky enough to receive it twice. I got this one from two great blogging friends, Mike at Rambling Stuffand Ivanhoe at Communiqué by Ivanhoe . Mike is so sweet because he initially gave this award out that day to a list of blogs that he loves, and then showing the big heart he has, he left me a comment to say that he wanted to give this to me too. What a great guy :-) Both Mike and Ivanhoe have great blogs that I love to visit and they always have something interesting to say. So please check both of them out…they are both very kind folks :)
Here are my picks for this award:




Confessions of a Fitness Diva
Writing to Survive
The World As I See It
Jewelry Rockstar
Regina’s Family Seasons
Fashiona
Small Town Mommy

The rules for this one are to link back to the person who gave it to you and then pick seven of your favorite blogs and let them know.

And last, but certainly not least, is this fab award I got from Heidi at Health Nut Wannabee Mom . Heidi is so sweet and I love her blog. She gives the best health tips on her blog mixed together with lots of fun, so please check her out. Heidi gave me the “Uber Amazing Blog Award”. Isn’t that an impressive title for an award…wow! :)



Here are the rules for this award:
1)Put the logo on your blog
2)Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3)Nominate five other blogs
4)Add links to these blogs on your blog
5)Leave a message for your nominee to let them know

Here are my picks for this award:

People You Need To Know
Communiqué by Ivanhoe
Red Pine Mountain
The Leaping Thought
Gifts of the Journey

Again, I’m so thankful to have been given so many great awards courtesy of Tahtimbo, Ivanhoe, Mike, and Heidi. Please drop by and check out their blogs and all of the other favorites I’ve listed here. Happy reading! :-)

An Awarding Sunday

Happy Sunday to everyone! :-) It’s a rainy, breezy day here today, but I kinda like it. One of my favorite things to do is to be inside all warm and cozy on a day like today, with plenty of movies to watch or a good book to read or to just simply be a couch potato. It’s like the calm before the new week begins. :-)

I just wanted to take a moment today to highlight an award I received from my dear new friend and fellow expat, Ivanhoe at Communique by Ivanhoe. She gave me this award a few days ago and I would now like to pay it forward. First of all, I would like to thank her for being such a good bloggy friend and for her comments and support here at my blog and for thinking of me with this award. Please go by and check her out. She has a great blog. :-)

The award is called, the “Lights Across the Web Award”. I love this award because it is one that shows gratitude for all of the friendship and support and community that we find out here in the blogging world. It's giving thanks for the light within every reader, every commenter, and every friend that comes to share their thoughts. I think that that light is the light of the human spirit. :-)

So I will follow Ivanhoe’s example and pass this award along to all of my readers/followers and commenters here at my blog. The support and sense of community that I have found through blogging has been a blessing in my life. I am so grateful to you all. So please accept this award…you all deserve it! Thank you friends. :-)

Award Day

Blogging has been a great blessing to me in my life and it has enriched my days so much. I love “visiting” my friends in the blogging world everyday and I have made so many connections that I truly cherish.

I have received three awards recently that I want to highlight. I’m a bit late on two of the awards, because I had a hard time deciding who to pass the awards along to, since I love so many. :-) I received one award from my new friend Mike at Rambling Stuff called the “Million Dollar Friend Award”. I am so honored to receive this. Please check out his blog. I now want to pass along this award to some great blogging friends:



Cutie Booty Cakes
People You Need to Know
Kuting’s Place
Red Pine Mountain
Communique by Ivanhoe

The rules state that you pass this award on to four blogging friends and one new blogging friend that you have discovered who is in a different country than where you live.

I have also received the “I Love Your Blog” award from Alison at EleanorBlog a few days ago. I am so grateful to her for this. She has a beautiful blog that I just love visiting. Please drop by and see her. Then this morning I woke up to find to my surprise that I had been given this award again by Sharon at The Artist’s Muse. She is an artist and has a lovely blog too. Please check her out.


The rules of this award are as follows:
1) Link to at least 7 other blogs you love.
2) Link to the person who gave you the award.
3) And let the 7 other bloggers know that you have tagged them.

Here are my picks and since I got this award twice I will highlight seven for each award. But you certainly don't have to do this. Up to seven are all you need for giving out this award. I am just so behind and needed to get caught up. I wanted to acknowledge both awards and I love so many blogs, so this was a perfect opportunity to highlight a fraction of them. Here they are:


News From NOLA
The Junk Drawer
Health Nut Wannabee Mom
Live Passionately
Breeni Books
Brady Bunch Repeat..I Don’t Think So
Tales of Terror from the Black Lagoon
Dragonfly Cottage
Reading Lounge
Blogging MoRe
Writing to Survive
New York Traveler.net
The Virtual Dime Museum
Learn French for Fun

Thanks again to Mike, Alison, and Sharon for my awards.

Blogging Friends

Today I got a wonderful surprise, courtesy of my wonderful new friend Ivanhoe. She gave me the "Blogging Friends Forever" Gold Card and I so appreciate it. :-) She has a great blog and I love reading it because she is in a situation similar to myself, living as an expat. Please check her out. Here is my shiny new card. :-)



The terms for this BFF Gold Card are:

1. Only five people allowed.
2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

I would now like to pass on this award to some great people with great blogs. It is hard to only pick five, because I read and enjoy so many out there. Anyway, I'll stick to the rules. :-) Here they are:

West of Mars

The Domestiquette

Red Pine Mountain

A Day to Share With Tammy

People You Need To Know

I enjoy so many blogs out there and I feel like I go on a journey everyday all over the world. I have connected with some amazing people and just look forward to tomorrow when I can connect once more.

Brilliante Weblog Award

I logged on today and found a wonderful surprise waiting for me. One of my blogging friends has given me an award for my blog. It's the Brilliante Weblog Award. I am honored. My friend writes an inspirational wonderful blog at Red Pine Mountain . Please check her out. I thank her very much for passing this award along to me.

The tradition of the award is to pass it along to other blogs that you enjoy. So here are seven blogs that I love reading and I draw something special from every one of them. They are varied and just show that everyone has something great to offer. Here are my nominees:

Finally Woken
Just Me
Kuting's Place
Fiercely Strategic Marketing
Slighty Mordant
Cutie Booty Cakes
Gifts of the Journey

And thanks again to everyone who comes to read my blog. All the best!