Thrice Blessed with Three Awards

 

Let me quote Bobbie, I need to go out and buy a lottery ticket.  

I have, in the past few weeks I have twice been given the honor of One Lovely Blog Award from Mandy of Beads for Brains: 365 and Bobbie, of Beadsong Jewelry and an Educator Award (part of Blog 5) from Therese of Therese's Treasures.  

I am both overwhelmed and honored. 

With regard to the One Lovely Blog Award, I am to name 7 random facts about myself and link to 15 blogs.  This is very similar to the Kreative Blogger award I recently received.  Instead of repeating myself I am going to add 39, yes 39, new links to my already lengthy list of blog links on my second tab.  I think each and every one of these links is extraordinary and have added them to my RSS feed.  When any of these 239 bloggers creates a post I view it.  (See my post about The Next Button to discover exactly how I navigate to all those blogs.)

As part of the Blog 5 Awards Therese gave me an Educator Award.  I love to teach; I honestly believe teaching enriches both student and teacher.  I hope my love for sharing knowledge extends beyond the tutorial.  As a recipient I am to name 5 bloggers in the following categories:

Artistic: A blogger whose work is consistently beautiful.  Every blog that I follow needs to be in this category.  I am, however, going to limit myself to just one who is part of the 39 new blogs on my list.

     Artful Living on the Bluff, Designs by Cindy Caraway

Style: A blogger who uses style to inspire; a blog that is photographically beautiful.  This is actually a tumblr, not a blog and I have given it an honorable mention before.  I find this art inspiring for many different reasons.

     Blog Posada

Journalistic: A blog that is really well written, informative and inspires discussion.  I have named these three bloggers for their writing before.

     Nichole Hanna 

     Beadsong Jewelry

     Olive Bites

Educator: A blogger providing great usable tutorials that are easy to follow.  There are multiple blogs I could include on this award, but I am going to mention only one because I just love her "I Might Make That" series.

     Torque Story

Newbie: A favorite new blog (less than 100 followers; blogging less than a year).  I am going to refer you back to the Kreative Blogger award where I set one of my limits to bloggers with less than 100 followers and I mostly stayed within my own rules.

Honorable Mentions: These are some of the 39 new blogs that I want to draw your attention to.

If you love big and complex seed bead jewelry be sure to visit Caroline Fung and Crimson Frog Designs by Kinga Nichols.

If freeform peyote inspires you hop on over to Ibolya-gyöngyei.

I love to look at wire weaving and maybe one of these days I will give it a serious try; for inspiration be sure to visit Mar Ya Morevna a Russian artist.  I also added Taniri Design to the list, although this blog has not been updated for the last year.

For unique and romantic jewelry be sure to look through the posts of Edera Jewelry who does the most amazing work with lace and beads.

A special shout-out for My Bead World who has been most supportive in comments.

One final thank you to Mandy, Bobbie, and Therese for the awards.  I feel blessed, validated, and empowered.  I grinned from ear to ear when I saw my blog listed with other bloggers that I admire and respect.

Kreativ Blogger Award

I was delighted when Lynsey, of Musings of the Unicorn, gave me a Kreative Blogger Award.

I thanked her in comments for her generosity and then told her it would give me something to blog about today. Then I began to think about the fact that as a recipient I need to name 10 other deserving bloggers- how the heck can I do that when I subscribe to hundreds of blogs? I decided what I would do is try to pass along an artful link to a blogger with less than 100 followers or to a blogger that you might find helpful that is not likely to popup on your radar. 

The rules of this award are as follows:
When you receive this award, there are a few rules:
1. Post a link to the person who awarded you
2. Share 7 well-thought out random things about yourself
3. Award to 10 other deserving bloggers and let them know

7 well thought out random things about myself:
1.  I read.  Now I don't just mean I have that skill, instead I mean that I am a passionate reader.  I think I would read to the exclusion of just about everything else if given the opportunity.  The books I read for pleasure are Science Fiction and Fantasy.  Need a good book? just ask.

2. I read political blogs.  I am an avid follower of politics.  I also know that when talking politics the person on the other side of the conversation has to be willing to engage, articulate, and able to put politics aside in order to keep the peace.

3. I am well educated.  I have three college degrees, none of which involve art.

4. I love to eat good food so I cook.  I follow food blogs.  I shop farmer's markets and small local shops when possible.

5. I love Native American art.  This is how my love of beaded jewelry began.  This is also why I know how to spin wool.  One of my long term goals is to make a Navajo style rug beginning with spinning the wool, using natural dyes, and building the loom which is a necessary step for this type of weaving.

6. In my professional life I tend toward positions that are in the public interest.

7. I dream, and here we are talking REM Sleep, vividly.  My dreams are extraordinary.  I sometimes share my dreams and people seem shocked at the breadth of my dreams and the details which are so far from their own experiences. 

Ten Blogs you should look at:
1) Olive Blogs.  I had intended to limit myself to blogs with less than 100 followers, but then I would not have been able to mention Olive to you.  Cat, who writes Olive Blogs was my first follower, just because I happened to mention to her that I had just started a blog.   That, however, is not the reason why I am mentioning her.  I list this blog because it is a pleasure to read, it makes me laugh often, and I get really good business advice from her.

2) Nicole Hanna Jewelry.  Nicole has not been an active blogger of late, but I am listing her anyway.  Nicole is another blogger who almost always makes me laugh, or at least smile. She also does fine wire work and writes great tutorials.  Maybe some day I will take up wire work for more than wrapped loops and simple clasps.

3) Another Country Beadworks.  I have given special mention to this blog before.  Morwyn has a great eye for design.  She also works with seed beads so what is not to love?  In addition, she recently gave up on her Etsy shop so be sure to put her blog into your reader so you do not miss her new creations.

4) Bizuteria by Dominikana.  More wirework to inspire you to something new. 

5) Pérégrinations de perles. This is not an English blog.  If you like seeing the process of how a piece is made add this blog to your reader.

6) Torque Story.  This blog has one of my favorite features: I Might Make that Monday.  How many of you do not have a long list of things you might someday get around to making?  This is a wonderful read.

7) Luann Udell.  I know Luann has more than 100 followers.  I also bet she is not in your list of blogs.  She is a great writer and pushes you to see yourself.  Plus she makes these really fabulous beads. 

8) Gabriella Gyongyblogja.  Another non-English blog, another creative beader.  Gabriella is worth keeping an eye on.

9) Créations laure : Bijoux fantaisie.  Laure does not have a list of followers.  I am pretty sure it is beyond my 100 count limit.  I am also pretty sure that many of my regular readers have not discovered her.  Laure writes complex multi-part free tutorials for seed bead weavers.  She is creative and generous.

10) Must Haves Jewelry.  Linda works with PMC, silver, and gemstones.  Not anything I do but certainly inspirational. 

Okay, that was hard.  To all you bloggers out there that I love and read regularly you were not forgotten just not quite within the lines I set for myself. 

One more link.  One of my decorating blogs had a great link to this artist:
Andrea Posada
Take a look at this beautiful work and be inspired.