My first blog award!!!

Terri!!! My dear friend! My sista! Thank you so much!!! What a wonderful surprise and one I never expected!!!

My dear friend Terri of Lakewood Manor awarded me with this fabulous blog award. I urge you all to check out her blog. She is a talented and gifted writer with a knack for making you feel as if you are right there with her because of her words and pictures. I first "met" Terri several years ago through the the now-defunct message board at Gooseberry Patch. A bunch of us stuck together and formed a private board where we can still connect. Back in 2006 Terri and her handsome husband Bob traveled to New Hampshire and as luck would have it they were staying just about an hour from where I live! So I gathered up my New England diva sistas, Robin and Marion, and along with my fabulous Mom we got to spend the day with Terri! I am so grateful her travels brought her to our neck of the woods!

So, here are the rules for this award. In the spirit of paying it forward I am to:

1. Put the logo here on my blog, and anyone I award to can do the same
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs
4. Add links to those blogs on your's
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

Before I share the lovely people I want to nominate for this award, I first want to say that I know all of the ladies Terri nominated (with the exception of her beautiful daughter Ashley, but I feel like I know her! :-) ) and I can't think of a group of women more deserving. A few of them I have had the pleasure of meeting in person, too! Like my partner-in-crime, totally un-PC, tells it like it is (like me), has the sense of humor of a teenage boy (like me!), diva-dixielicious sista Staci! And one of THE sweetest, most genuine, most real, most fantabulous women I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with, Tina! I haven't yet had the pleasure to meet in person Robyn, Renae, or Anne but I feel like I have known them forever. They are wonderful, amazing women!

And without further ado, I give you a glimpse of seven spectacular women! I nominate:

1. Tanya at Mindless Clutter. So here is a funny story. Tanya and I first met well over a year ago at a scrapbooking store here in MA called Right at Home Scrapbooking. This store is a little over an hour from where I live but Emily Falconbridge was going to be teaching a class there that I wanted to take. (I first got to take an EF class at CKU-Masters in Boston in '06 and I was hooked!). I headed down there with Amy, Tracy, and Angela (of course! the MMRS, uh, like to leave our mark places! :-) ) Tanya was taking the class and as it turns out lives very close to us and very far from the store, like us. We had a great time chatting and creating then when the class ended went our separate ways. Fast forward almost a year and I am at Absolutely Everything (of course...don't I live there?!?) and I bump in to Tanya, who tells me she never knew AE was there!!! Eeek!!! Well, needless to say she is as addicted to shopping at AE as I am and I continue to bump in to her at all kinds of scrappy places, like CKC-Manchester. Tanya, one of these days we will actually create together again! I urge you all to check out her blog...it is hilarious, irreverant, poignant...trust me, you WILL be inspired!

2. Lacey at o0o0snapshot0o0o. I found Lacey's blog through another blog I visit and was hooked on her fun, whimsical scrapping style, the fabulous photography, AND most of all the fact that she is a Beagle Mom like me! I left a comment on one of her posts, she emailed me, and it turns out we have a lot in common. It is always nice to chat with someone who "knows where you're coming from," ya know? You must visit Lacey...you will get sucked in, too! :-)

3. Amy at Ink, Paper, Yarn Oh My! First of all I don't even think Amy knows I blog! LOL Amy and I are actually friends IRL. We met through Tracy...whom Christine and I met through Stampin' Up! when were all demonstrators, which led to us meeting Angela. Amy signed on as a demo and ended up with Tracy as an upline. And the MMRS was born....and I am so not even gonna go in to how we dubbed ourselves that and what it means! ;-) Simply put....my friend Amy is THE knitting queen!!! That girls churns out some fabulous knitted projects. Oh, and it doesn't just stop there...oh no. She SPINS most of the yarn she knits with!!! Yep, gets the raw wool and spins it herself, on one of, I think, three wheels she has now (correct me if I am wrong Amy). Plus she makes cards like nobody's business!!! And she is just basically one cool chick. Check her out!

4. Jeanette at A Passion For Scrapbooking, Decorating, and Shopping. Do you want to read a blog that is pure delightful eye candy? Do you want to read a blog that will inspire you word after word after word? Do you want to see pictures of an absolutely gorgeous home and a to die for craft room? Do you want to visit a site that is so much more than a blog...it is a one-stop, all encompassing resource for everything blissful? Then visit Jeanette! Seriously. Just do it. Go on now. You can blame me later when you have depleted your savings, checking account, 401K, and sold off a kid AND a kidney to buy all the fun stuff she finds!!! (I was lucky enough to meet Jeannette at CKU-Masters in '06!).

5. Nora at NDG. I don't know Nora other than from what I read on her blog. I actually think I found my way to her blog by way of another blog that I linked to from another blog that I linked to from 2peas or something convoluted like that. I am so glad I did. Rarely a day goes by that I don't check to see if she has updated. OK, this girl should seriously be a professional organizer. The stuff she gets done day to day just makes me feel like such a schlub, yet so inspired to think that maybe I can do a fraction of what she does. Her scrapping style is so unique and fresh and funky and I fully admit to scraplifting her on many an occasion. Her decorating skills are just so fabulous...seriously, search out her blog for any pics of her home you can find. You will love it!  And she is a Christmas and fall nut like me...so of course I relate right away! And she is so real...so real! I love that she openly shares with us her life with her way cute hubby and adorable talented son, her home, her art, and her feelings. Definitely a must-read for your daily blog-hopping!

6. Pat at Back Porch Musings. I recently discovered Pat's blog through my friend Terri. Go there. Go now! You will so thank me! It is a gorgeous, warm, inviting, cozy place where you instantly feel welcomed as a friend. This lady is one wicked talented gal! Her decorating, her photography, her writing, all of it...TO. DIE. FOR. Didn't I say get over there now?! No go...but please come back! :-)

7. Emily at Trend Watcher. I had to give a shout out to the super talented, wicked cool Emily Adams from Luxe Designs, even though she doesn't know me from a hole in the wall! LOL. I have had the opportunity to take classes/do make -n- takes with her at past CKUs  I have gone to (in her Magic Scraps days) and she is so warm and friendly and totally fun. Now she works for one of my favorite scrappy companies, Luxe Designs, designers of some of the most uber-trendy, super cool scrapping supplies on the market. But I mostly have to give her a big shout out for "Sense-sational Sundays!" Such a fantastic idea! Check out her blog...she finds some amazing Etsy stuff and she creates all kinds of papery goodness!

So there you have it. Seven amazing, talented, wonderful women! Enjoy your visits to their super-cool corners of cyberspace. Just don't blame me when you are glued to your computer for the rest of the night! :-)