One Lovely Blog Award

The Orchestra Director’s Wife has nominated me for the “One Lovely Blog” award. This lovely lady writes from the heart about her life, thoughts and her beloved chickens. I am deeply touched that she thinks my blog is worthy of a nomination. Thank you The Orchestra Director’s Wife!

My life has been a chaotic mess lately resulting from a recent move to the “boonies”. However, I intentionally make time for taking daily pictures. There is just something about taking a break and looking for inspiration in daily life and being out there in “nature” that helps me relax. Macro photography is a passion of mine. However, I am attempting to do other types of photography at the suggestion of a friend. I am hoping to get a zoom lens in the near future to expand my horizons.

Before I go on, I need to let you all that there were some rules in receiving this nomination. Here they are:

1. Thank your nominator
2. Add the badge to your site
3. Share seven things about yourself
4. Pass on the award to 15 nominees
5. Inform the nominees by commenting on their wall

Now, I have to let you all know that I am a rule breaker. I have never been a fan of these types of things due to a variety of reasons which I will not mention here. However, I thought this would be a fun “exercise” to do. So, I will just list things about myself, list a few blogs I read and let all the other rules go (with the exception of thanking my nominator!).

Seven Things about Myself

I had written a list of 100 things about me and posted that on facebook years ago. However, I think the list would be mighty overwhelming for you all to see. So, I will just stick to seven things.

1. I am Christian – broken, fallen and imperfect – a believer in Christ and saved by Grace.
2. I was once a professional programmer (nine years). I actually loved the challenge of programming; but, I disliked the rat race.
3. I played the piano early in life (first through fifth grade) and then the bass clarinet in both junior and high school (along with one semester of college in ’83). I have not picked up an instrument since then. Although, I may be learning how to play the mandolin in the future.
4. I love to play Cribbage (a board game); but, it is rare that I get to play the game these days.
5. I worked as a housekeeper for a hotel in the eighties (while attending college).
6. I have a phobia of flying. In fact, I get panic attacks before I even get onto the plane. In spite of this fact, I have been outside the continental US (England, Wales, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas & Canada) when I was younger. The older I got, the less I could tolerate the panic attacks and what it did to my body. I have not flown since my oldest niece’s wedding when I did way too much flying in one short week. If I am not mistaken, that was about twelve years ago. I am not sure what I will do if I must fly once again – pray and hope to die? Ha!
7. I am non-traditional. In other words, I dislike diamonds and roses (a girl that dislikes diamonds and roses? How can that be? Ha). I prefer stones such as opals, sapphires, etc. and wildflowers. I would have eloped because I did not want the traditional wedding and all the stuff. However, I knew eloping would have hurt Mother. So, I went through a traditional wedding. It was my gift to her just like walking across the stage when I finally graduated from college was my gift to Dad. The things we may not like to do can be thought of as gifts to others.

Some Examples of Blogs I Follow

I have a wide range of interests. Besides my family members’ and friends’ blogs, I follow:

• inspirational blogs such as (in)courage: home for the hearts of women, where posts are written by a variety of authors from all walks of life and Meet Me in the Meadow with Roy Lessin which is a devotional type blog with short, simple and sweet posts.
• some comics such as Rose is Rose and Pickles. After all, I need a daily dose of smiles and laughter.
• a few crafty blogs such as U Create and Be Different, Act Normal. These blogs often find tutorials, crafting and sometimes cooking links and then point you to them. Another blog, Infarrantly Creative, offers tutorials, tips and more for a variety of crafts and DIY.
• quite a few quilting blogs and one of them is the Moda Bake Shop.

  This blog is actually a division of Moda Fabrics that provides tips, tricks and “recipes” (patterns) for quilts and more. I find it a neat site and one does not need to use their fabrics to make the “recipes” that are provided.

• many cooking blogs. I must say In Jennie’s Kitchen is one of the rare ones that have touched my heart. I have followed this blog for some time. Her blogging changed over a year ago. She had suddenly lost her beloved husband which is one of my worst nightmares. It was devastating for her and her two young daughters. She writes from the heart (and provides recipes).
• a couple pet blogs such as The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee which the blogger posts lovely cute pictures of kittens she currently fosters. She has fostered many kittens and a few cats throughout the years and is an inspiration to many. In fact, I would love to foster kittens and cats in the future.
• the Digital Photography School site. Many of these articles are way over my head at the moment; but, I desire to learn and this site has been extremely helpful. Sometimes, they offer challenges. It is through one such challenge that I managed to get a decent self-portrait that I love. This site offers tips and tricks and it covers a wide range of the types of photography such as landscape, macro, models (portraits), etc., & etc. In fact, I often skip or skim over articles (e.g. models/portraits) I am not interested in. For me, this site is worth the following due to the rare gems that are helpful for me in learning about photography. For example, some of us are foodies and this short and sweet article recently came up on their site: Top 5 Tips on How to Photograph Food.

  Now, one tip I have is you must practice; otherwise, you will not gain the understanding of the whys and wherefores and the “knowledge” will not stick in your brain. Just do it. Don’t be scared. You can always delete the bad stuff.

THE END.

Not really. I will be posting again soon.

Piece,