The Versatile Blogger?

The "Versatile Blogger Award" allows the recipient(s) to sport the pretty little green badge seen in my right hand column today.  Thanks from me to Contemplative Photography for gifting me with this honor! I hope you'll visit Contemplative Photography yourself for a view of her lovely  photography, a read of her always challenging and thought-provoking posts; don't miss the constant newness in the site's left-hand column - gifts to yourself in prose, photography and daily poetry!

Part of the fun of this Award is that I'm allowed to gift or present it to 15 of my favorite versatile bloggers.  Bending the rules a little I'm bestowing it upon 10 of my blogger peers - they are not in preferred order or even alphabetical - just bloggers I always enjoy visiting:

1.  Christine Kane
2.  Diamonds in the Sky with Lucy
3.  Country Parson
4.  Anchors & Masts
5.  A Seat at the Table
6.  Seedlings in Stone
7.  JustBLiving
8.  Contemplating the Moon
9.  Textures Shapes and Color
10.The Whole Blooming World

Finally, as an award winner, I am to share seven things about myself that my readers/followers might not know - you already know I'm a Christian, a spouse/mother/retired person, exercise and travel lover.............hmmmm, things you don't know - here goes!

1.  I enjoy waking as many days as possible without an alarm sound of any kind ringing in my ears
2.  I'm hooked on the Netflix (no commercials) version of "Grey's Anatomy" - I'm into Season 3 now
3.  I'm going to have a one-woman art show in June 2011
4.  I've lost 8 lbs in the last 5 months and in the meantime,  added a number of lbs of muscle (BTW - they're lost and there is no reward for your finding them and returning them!)
5.  My current record of push-ups is 25 in a row
6.  I have a Life Coach with whom I adore working and would unhesitatingly recommend
7.  My birth year is 1942

Thanks again for the nice award from one of my fellow bloggers and to my readers for commenting or just viewing as you feel called to do:))

Creative Blogger Award

I'm pleased to post this nice site award today! It came to me from blogger author - Christine over at Abbey of the Arts. I've had the pleasure to meet her in person and to have been a participant in one of her amazing spirituality workshops. I highly recommend her workshops and her site!

As I said, Christine sent the award along with some rules I'm observing to pass this award along to some of my favorite sites -

List 7 things that I love and then pass the award on to 7 other bloggers - tagging them and letting them know they've won this award! If you'd like, you may copy the picture of the award and place it on your sidebar.

Seven Things I Love:
1. Sleeping in a bed outfitted with a yummy feather comforter and choices of firm, medium, soft, squishy pillows
2. Waking up without an alarm clock
3. Hearing an owl hooting at dusk or early dawn, or a "lookout" quail's call to the hen and her chicks that all is clear, or the close-up exhalation of a giant humpback whale
4. Feeling touch and hearing the sound made by breeze in the palm trees on an island
5. Walking a labyrinth
6. Meditating in the a.m. until I feel just the "being"
7. Viewing visual art in person in museums, in galleries, in studios, and even online

My Selection of Seven Creative Bloggers:
Unlike Christine's selection, I am not able to limit my 7 blogger selections to only those bloggers with whom I've had face to face contact - far from it - most of you I've never met anyplace except online; a couple of Christine's favorites are mine as well and sites I never miss*, but I'm not counting them in my seven today.......not in any particular preferential order, they are -

Karen at Art in the Garage for her artistic site of mixed media presentations; my favorites - her female portraits - each with personality and distinctly Karen's work.

Katherine at TreffingerDaily for her beautiful small and large masterpieces. Not having met Katherine in person, I have met her artwork and it is exceptional. She gives her readers a bit of bio on each piece she exhibits on her site.

Jan at A Church for Starving Artists - always beautifully crafted and clever words about the Gospel and/or daily living. She credits her posts to many persons, not the least of these being Jesus, and other less heavenly celebs!

Misty Mawn - a gifted artist and admired teacher, Misty's work is exciting to see "in progress" and captivating in its presentation. You'll find poetry, family tales, photos, drawings, and weekly or monthly challenges to accept or just admire on Flickr as the entries come in. This vignette of family life was just too good for me to forget - the title and photo still make me giggle - read the post and smile!

Albina at Out of Hands - oh, the work I find here justs gives me goose bumps some days - visually rich in color and content.

Susanna's Sketchbook - content, photos, drawings, the wings project - creative, creative! I always get a visual lift on this site.

Country Parson considers himself quite the curmudgeon - some days I agree, some days I think he's just a darned good preacher. He always challenges my mind whether the subject is theology, the current economic status, land use, anti-discrimination, or the Book of Amos. He's one of the few men bloggers that I regularly read. I would like to find more male bloggers with good content - I'm not saying they're not there, I just haven't stumbled onto their sites.

*Diamonds in the Sky with Lucy, Barefoot Toward the Light, Anchors and Masts, Lucy Creates,
The Painted Prayerbook