I am pleased and honored to receive the One Lovely Blog Award from Kevin, whose blog – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Man – keeps me entertained, informed and amused.  I love Kevin’s witty writing style and wonderful photos, not to mention the great gardening advice he doles out on a regular basis.  Thank you, Kevin for liking my blog enough to give it an award!

 

The conditions of the award are as follows:

1. Thank the nominator and link to his/her site.  See above!
2. Share seven things about myself.  This is the hard part.
3. Nominate 10 other bloggers, let them know, and then link to their site from your own.  This is the easy part!

Ok, here goes on the sharing part…….

1.  I was born and raised a military (Air Force) brat, a fact that I am both proud of and grateful for.  Once a brat, always a brat.  There is a special connection between military brats that I have not seen in any other culture (yes, it is a culture).  When you meet another one anytime anywhere, it is if you have known each other all your lives, and for those who you have met before, when you meet again it is as if you have never been apart.  I am also grateful for the experiences that I had growing up such as living in other countries and experiencing the cultures (and food!) there.  This is my dad and me in 1976, one year before he retired from the Air Force.  He is scrunching down, maybe to make me feel a little taller!  He is over 6 ft tall and I am just 5’3.  I am going to cheat, and call this fact number one and fact number two since I just relayed my height….so sue me!

3.  I am a bit of a procrastinator, evidenced by the fact that it took me two weeks to accept this award – sorry Kevin!

4.  I have an extremely big and complicated family – we could start our own little town if we so desired.  I have one sister, two stepsisters, 6 stepbrothers, two mothers, two fathers, four sons, 5 stepdaughters and 6 grandchildren.  So far.  Stayed tuned.

5.  I believe that I have undiagnosed ADD or whatever it is that they are calling it these days.  I have already gotten up from the computer and done 14 different things since I started this blog post.

6.  I spell out numbers between one and four and write them as numbers above that amount.  It’s true – see above.

7.  I love a rainy night.

Whew!  Now on to the fun part – nominating 10 other bloggers for this award.  Since this is the One Lovely Blog Award I am going to focus on the “lovely” part.  Being a photographer, it is doubly fun for me since I love lovely.

1.  Just a Smidgen - Absolutely one of the most lovely blogs I have ever seen.  Barbara’s photos look like they came out of a magazine (they don’t), and her recipes look like they are to die for.  I wonder if I can get her to make something for me.  A baker I am not, but she makes me want to try.

2.  Plain Photography – Greg’s blog features big beautiful photos (check out the birds) and I adore his logo.  Nice “About” story too!

3.  John Harding Photography – John’s photos are full of glorious color and the way he captures skies blows me away!  He captures beauty in nature.

4.  Wannabephotographer87 – I have yet to figure out why Amanda calls herself “wannabe”.  Take a look for yourself.  I believe that she is already there!  Her blog is interestingly written, and her photos are wonderful and of diverse subjects.

5.  Photo Nature Blog – if it is nature photos you like, you will love this blog.  Jeffrey has some of the most beautiful nature photos I’ve seen and he posts almost every day, so there are always new and gorgeous photos to brighten your day.

6.  365 from the archive – Follow Mimo’s 365 project as she takes you to faraway places and captures the beauty of the people there.  Lovely photos!

7.  Robert Santafede Photography – Robert has a style that just has to be seen to be believed – his photos are so awesome, I think I have “liked” almost every single one!  Don’t take my word for it – go see for yourself.  You will not be disappointed!

8.  Fabulous 50′s - I don’t think Sherry ever stays home.  She’s always on some adventure or the other (can you say jealous?), and always with camera in hand.  She captures such lovely photos of the people and places she visits, it’s always a relaxing journey when you visit her blog.

9.  TaniaJessicaSmith – an artist and a photographer – Tania’s photos are so wonderful and unusual – she loves experimenting and I love seeing the results of her experimentation.  You will too!

10.  Chicquero – if it’s a visually stimulating blog you are searching for, this is the one for you!  The duo of Denis and Lailah put together amazing photos with a common theme from, um, everywhere!  Their sense of style is amazing and offbeat and very enjoyable.

So there you have it!  This is by no means an exhaustive list and in no specific order, and when I said it was the easy part – I meant easy in finding lovely blogs.  Choosing which ones to nominate was not so easy, so I just went with those that have caught my eye lately.  If you are a nominee and choose not to accept the award due to time constraints, please be assured that I will in no way be offended!  Receiving awards is very flattering, however I am aware that it is a little time consuming to accept them, and in today’s society, time is like prime real estate!