Beautiful Blogger Award

A week or so ago my special friend, Donna Parker, nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award and I have been pondering what I could say to thank her for this honor, what I could share about myself that most of you don't know already and then select seven others for this award. Thank you, Donna, I'll do my best to fulfill the obligation.

First, however, each of you should view Donna's blog because of the gorgeous location, beautiful art and be part of her exciting move to San Miguel, Mexico.

I became aquainted with Donna a few years back when we both belonged to another group. We have stayed in contact and I have read about her travels abroad, her move from eastern Canada back to the west and now her anticipated move to San Miguel. She is one of the most beautiful women I have known.

Here are the basic rules for this award:

1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2) Copy the award and place it on your blog.
3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4) Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.
5) Nominate 7 bloggers and post their links.

We are down to the interesting things about self. What could they be?

Probably the most interesting thing is the fact that we have moved to so many different locations from Utah to California, Europe, Washington State, Idaho, back to California and now retired in Idaho. It is always hard to pick up and relocate but this has also led to an interesting life and an opportunity to meet and multiply the number of treasured friends. Due to business trips I also travelled to New Orleans, New York, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Alaska, Bermuda and Amsterdam.

While on this journey we raised three children who were exposed to the great outdoors, learned to hunt, fish, ski and spend many weekends boating on some of the most beautiful lakes in the country. They too made new friends bringing additional joy to our family. And, our children make us proud every single day. Our only granddaughter has definitely made my life more interesting and the joy from our relationship has brought an abundance of love. SHE IS MY DOLLY!

Being married for over 50 years, should probably have been listed first because life is never dull married to hubby. We always say "we grew up together" and at times we're still trying to become adults but finding the child in each of us still surfaces.

Which brings on another interesting phase of my life, Playing in the Sandbox. Who would have thought that a career gal working with numbers, spreadsheets, budgets and office procedures would have fun coloring and making art projects. A vast new and interesting phase has kept me busy and I have met some of the most wonderful people of a lifetime who share this common arena from oriental themed art to steampunk, altered books, charms and greeting cards. Many of these friends are professional artists, like Donna Parker, but a few like myself enjoy the hobby and the associations.

Friends from local art groups make my life interesting EVERY DAY and I am indebted to each and everyone of them. (THEY KNOW WHO THEY ARE; I might miss one if I attempted to name them individually.)

NEIGHBORS rank right up there to make my life interesting because of their support and friendship. At our age, it is comforting to our children who reside in California to know that we have friends who care enough to keep an eye on us. They visit, entertain, shovel snow and offer to assist without asking. We share the latest news over a glass of wine, celebrate holidays together, meet for lunch and birthdays and just visit over the fence when yardwork consumes our energy.

Life itself creates interesting twists and turns when a recent change in my diet was required to eliminate wheat and other grains along with milk products. The good part of this twist is I lost over 15 pounds.

The above may not be a list of individual interests, but a life that hopefully makes me interesting to others.

One last comment . . . I have always believed that change is good and even when things look dark, something worthwhile surfaces. I do worry and do get stressed but all in all I try to look for the good in all and keep positive about life. Life is too short to do otherwise.

Now to select seven others to pass on this award....the only way was to put my favorite blogs in a hat and draw out seven and they are in random order:

Heather Taylor - http://oohlalaartsy.blogspot.com/
Lynn Stevens - http://trashtotreasureart.blogspot.com/
INKA - http://alteredartifacts.blogspot.com/
Cynthia Powell - http://cynthiapowell.blogspot.com/
Maggi Grabowski - http://fromtheartgrotto.blogspot.com/
Tyra Smith - http://netnet.net/~cloud9/ (not a blog per se, but a beautiful site filled with oodles of tips and techniques)
Gayle Page-Robak - http://gaylepage-robak.blogspot.com/

I realize that some of these bloggers don't participate in awards and I respect their decisions; however, I could not omit them from my list. There are many, many other favorites that I check regularly and I honor them as well.