“Your Blog is F@*%^$&# Fabulous”

Trish over at Scent Hive has bestowed upon this journal the “Your Blog is F@*%^$&# Fabulous” award. Wow, thank you Trish! I've secretly yearned for one of these awards ever since I noticed that my daughter and her friends received similar awards on their blogs.

The award comes with a two part "to do list", part one is somewhat of a challenge but do-able. The challenging portion is that I must list five other blogs I am an avid reader of. Well, I must admit, I don't read many blogs. However, after pondering I came up with a few, my blog awards go to, in no particular order:

1. Lillyella and the inspirational muse Nicole. Her blog is very pretty and inspired me to take the plunge to upgrade mine a few months ago. I've learned so much from Nicole and am so grateful for her friendship, her aesthetic and savvy business sense.

2. Storque is one of my daily reads, filled with interesting stories about fellow art spirits and the vast universe known as Etsy. Today I found an entry about LOST by Katie, how synchronistic!

3. Design Sponge is a blog I was introduced to years ago when my graphic designer suggested I get my own blog. Grace Bonney of Design Sponge offers beauty filled and clever ideas for your home. She also features quite a few creative souls. I adore the "look" of this blog along with the excellent content.

4. Poppytalk offers food for your inner artist. This little gem came my way from a link to photo of Blue Poppy Jewelry studio from my friend Lisa. Poppytalk is a proponent of handmade and serves up a bounty of well designed objects and fun.

5. Painted Threads is a blog created by my fellow artist friend and Otis graduate Judy Perez. Judy and I met while at art school. She now creates gorgeous, mouth dropping quilts and contributes regularly to her blog. Her blog, like her quilts, are intricately woven with bits and pieces from her spirit as an artist and mother. I choose Judy last year when I was part of a similar favorite blog tagging thread.

Part two requires me to list my top five addictions;

1. Chocolate

2. My husband, Greg Spalenka

3. The raw materials of botanical perfume...today it's Fir absolute.

4. Tea

5. From the TV show realm...LOST & Fringe. We don't have TV hook-up, but that doesn't stop me! Gotta love i-Tunes and i-Pods.

Here are the rules for those of you who just got this Your Blog is F@*%^&# Fabulous! Award:

1. You pass it (the award) on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.

2. You list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

3. You copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. Also, don’t forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

Image up top was nabbed from Scent Hive and then modified in Photoshop so that the color was more in my palette.

The Handmade Tag: Wrap up

The Handmade Tag Game has come to an end, congratulations to the two lucky recipients:

Scentual Soundtracks
and
Spider, Spin Me A Story

Their task now is to create this game on their blog. I encourage you to click over to their blogs and participate in the tag.
In the morrow I shall post what fragrant delight these gals shall be receiving made from my hands to theirs.

Handmade Tag

Every once in awhile I get in this zone. It's very enchanting when it happens and I'm not conscious of it until afterward. The other day was a zone day. I was doing some work and research on the computer when I came across the blog of a fellow etsy seller. I am still not sure how I found her. The zone has this "Magical Mystery Tour" element where the Divine is driving the bus. The bus made a stop at an enchanting, beautiful oasis. This was my introduction to the luminous and inspirational Nicole of Lillyella. Have you seen her blog and jewelry? I'm a bit smitten by it all, so pretty. Thus I made a comment on her blog and joined in on a game. I've just discovered that I was one of the lucky winners of the handmade gift set by Nicole pictured here. It also means I now create the game here. If you would like to play along here are the guidelines:

Requirements:

1. You have to be crafty and willing to make three handmade gifts

2. You must have a blog that you post to regularly

Here's how it works:

I will randomly select three people to receive a handmade gift set from me. They then have to post this game on their blog offering a handmade item(s) of their own to three people and so on.

My handmade gift set will include:

Something from the Land of Botanical Fragrance and a yummy baked item...like cookies or biscotti....or perhaps something else along that vein...like Lavender truffles. Feel free to make suggestions. Perhaps the fragrant item will have a relationship to the baked good...like Vanilla
for example.

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post by end of day next Tuesday (3/03) saying you would like to play. Please include your first name and a link to your blog. I will randomly choose three people and announce them on Wednesday (3/04) . Get your engines ready, this should be fun!