You Make My Day Award

My dear friend Laura Sparling has presented me with this award - bless you Laura & thank you very much for thinking of me.

It's now my honour to hand it on to five people who make my day - here are the guide lines as to how to pass the award on:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day. Check!
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver. Check!
3. Display the “You Make My Day Award” logo. Check!
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news. Just about to ;-)

I would like to give this award to:

Jean of 'Snap out of it Jean. There's Beading to be done!'
Corrine of Jafabrit's Art
Angela of Angela's Art Diary
Margot of The Impatient Blogger'
Dan of Dan's Blah Blah Blog

Truly unmissable blogs :-)

The Nice Matters Award

My pal, the Rock CHICk ™ gives me such lovely awards & I'm eternally grateful to her. There might be an ocean between me & Long Island, but what's a bit of sea amongst friends. We sit on our beds ( are you sat on your bed yet, Jean?) & write, read, draw & make jewellery. My bed is in a house on what passes for a high hill around here & from my panoramic view, I can look over the valley to the distant hills which lie to the south west. Jean lives somewhere over there (quite a bit over there actually) and I regularly salute her - I'm a respectful creature!

Incidentally I'd love to know how many jewellery designers assemble their jewellery on their beds? I can sit comfortably in amongst all the beads, bits, bobs & tools and s p r e a d myself out as much as I want. My dog doesn't trip over anything & no one gets spiked by my pliers.

I shall now quote Jean who quoted June's friend because June's friend nominated June & then June nominated Jean who sweetly nominated me & my nominations are coming in a minute including one for Candi who is in fact Jean. Is everybody with me?

"The Nice Matters Award is a friendship award. This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. I understand that I have to pass it on to 5 other nice bloggers......."

The following people are a delight to know:

Candi

Angela

Violette

Rosemary

Christina

I Have Committed an Act of Immodesty!!

I've just had the sheer effrontery to describe my blog as humorous. I hope I can fulfil this claim - perhaps Cathy's Award will help?

I know where I'm going to be spending the rest of the day - reading the other blogs listed on Humor-Blogs.com :-) I see some familiar names already!

Cathy & The Oracle

For a long time, 'Learn how to use Photoshop properly' has been on my 'To Do' list. During the past two days, I've given it my best shot. I wanted to design a magnificent & theatrical logo for an award that some of you may not be familiar with. Despite reading two manuals and having lessons from Tom, Ellie & Lula, I failed to learn anything relevant to my project. I do know how far I can throw a Photoshop manual because there's one close to the bottom of our garden. The fox can read it. Despite my love of foxes, I refuse to make friends with this one because I suspect that he or she is responsible for the sudden disappearance of the partridges.

Accidents have been happening in Beadland. Miss Margot & Cathy of Aardvark Art Glass fame are nursing injuries - I wish both of them swift & speedy recoveries. Miss Margot's got a slinky dress to slide into for her birthday celebrations - I hope her wrist dressing can disappear in time ( STUPID BACON!)

Cathy held a high speed meeting with some stairs. Since my own tussle with a door & floor, I have been sporting some rather charming bruises in an array of fetching colours. I was quite proud of mine until I heard about Cathy's accident & saw what a real humdinger of a bruise looks like. Hasten over to 'Bloggidy Blog' & see the Oracle for yourself. You will then see why I felt compelled to give Cathy this award. I wanted it to be an exotic & flamboyant award but Photoshop & I just don't see eye to eye so the logo is as humble & modest as me ;-)

Third Post of The Day - the 'Rockin' Girl Blogger' Awards

Here are my five choices for the 'Rockin' Girl Blogger Award'.

I love the work & the wit that the following ladies produce. I admire them with a genuine heart. They have spirit & they explore - they go that extra mile. In other words they ROCK!

Laura Sparling

French Toast Girl

Violette

Angela

Someone somewhere deserves more than one 'Rockin' Girl Blogger' award. May I therefore present the Rock CHICk with her second?

Rockin' Girl Blogger award

A Saucy Set

I am a lucky lass! Jean has bestowed another award on me -isn't she just the coolest cookie in the whole wide world! So many good things emanate from Jean - Jim & Jean have souls which radiate a heady warmth & shine.

I haven't managed to adhere the button on to my blog - I'll work it out tomorrow when I let you know who my five Rockin' girls are.

I've also got a new entry to add to 'The Treats, Tips & Temptations Scrapbook' - something pretty to look out for tomorrow!

This is a tatty message to leave on my blog - it's devoid of all the usual Ditzey Daisiness. I hope that normal service will be restored tomorrow!

Downcast!

It had to happen. I do not dazzle. I do not have Margot Potter's wit, glamour, sex appeal & lustre - she's darn intelligent too & was born to write as well as sparkle. I'm not jealous because I love Margot - she works SO extraordinarily hard & when she's President, everyone in the States will surely sing with delight!! But she is a perminent fixture on Top Momma where as I reside under a stone at the bottom of Blog Land's gadren.

The reason for this despondency: I've been booted off Top Momma because I'm not popular :-(

Woe is me! Woe is me! Woe is me! Woe is me!

I was handed a copy of a new book today: 'The Dialectical Behaviour Therapy ( i.e. DBT )Skills Workbook' - looks good. BUT! The school holidays have begun. How am I going to find the time and peaceful lucid moments in which to work on this?

I mean no disrespect to people without children, but why do some of them assume that children play happily together & do not need tending & that processing laundry for two adults, two children & a Lula is a mind-numbing activity which shrivels your brain to the size of a walnut. Brothers & sisters hate each other at the top of their voices during the day, but glue together at bedtime & refuse to be parted. There's also the matter of trying to keep a household running in a building site. We've had one wall removed & another is partly built - please don't ask. Why did he marry me? What was it about me that attracted a man who would eventually fall in love with a mallet?

I squeeze in as much work as I can, but nevertheless, finding enough quality time for work is a problem.

I tend to work at night, even though it breaks my doctor's cardinal rule about a regular sleep pattern. If I work until four in the morning, I can take full advantage of a head that clears at about eleven at night. I can survive on short bouts of sleeps for quite a long length of time, but eventually I pay for it.

What a dull & dismal entry too - how bored you must feel! When you have such feelings or think you are approaching the end of a nappy soaked road, have a go at what I occasionally do. Try it for one minute & progress as required. Pick up or pluck someone ( or something) & pretend to waltz around the room with them. Do not attempt to do this in a supermarket though - the management will not comprehend.

When the brood are whining that I haven't done this or that or are in ' full-on whinge & whine mode', I announce that I'm a mere human being and therefore fallible. A short silence ensues during which, they try to work out what fallible means. Eventually they walk away muttering rather than whinging - I can cope with muttering - and then they start to murder one another again. The 'good enough' idea is a superb piece of advice which I gleaned from the excellent, helpful, and comforting book called ''Families & How to Survive them' by Robyn Skinner % John Cleese. The idea of being a 'good enough' parent is manna!. It's pointless trying to be a perfect parent with a perfect child - these parnerships do not exist. Why not experiment by aiming to be a 'good enough' parent for a while- it cures some of the wilder guilts that afflict a parent.

Top Momma & a Big Favour!

My photo has finally floated on to the front page of 'Top Momma' since I submitted it a full eon ago. Now it's there, I'd love to keep it there for as long as possible.

So pretty, pretty, pretty please, would you click on Momma for me? The more clicks I get, the longer my picture stays on the front page. I would love to collect a badge so will you help me?

Sunday Part I: Schmooze Award

My dear friend & mentor, Jean Yates has very kindly honoured me with this award. Jean has taught me so many things & explained things to me which have never made sense until now - momentous things such as events in my childhood, being a mother & how to befriend bipolar. She is also a lady who knows what I'm talking about when I send her a letter addressed to 'Dear Shoes' which I eventually sign off with 'Love Hats'.

I'm hopeless at explanations which is why I continually drop links into my blog. These take you to other websites which are better equipped for these tasks. Follow this one today: Do you have the power to schmooze?

Queen Jean is the Empress of Schmooze. BJ (Before Jean) I would not have had the confidence to push along the Postcardian Quest to raise awareness of ovarian cancer. Indeed were it not for Jean & the amazing momentum she generated, I would have floundered and fallen to my knees within days! She produced contacts like bouquets & each and every one of them has a beautiful soul. Jean collects angels & they are her friends.

Let me now turn to the awards that I would like to pass on. Please allow me to quote from the award site. 'When it comes to blogging, schmoozing is your ticket to making new friends, getting yourself noticed and building a reputation.'

Emma Ralph
Hands up anyone who hasn't heard of Emma? No paws waving in the air? I thought not - I rest my case! Anybody who is anybody has heard of Emma. Emma keeps an enormous amount of jars of genius in her brain & amongst them is one labelled 'Schmoozability'. If she so desired, Emma could move a mountain. She is a force of nature.

Laura Sparling
If you've been unfortunate enough not to have seen or held a bead by Laura, please visit her gallery & goggle at her beads. Perfect precision - her work is astonishing. It is for this reason that people seek her advice and 'they come not single spies but in battalions', to quote Shakespeare (who, by the way, was speaking about sorrows & not espionage or warfare).

Laura must have one of the biggest mailbags in Bead Land because not only is she a Bead Maestro, but she's also a born teacher who writes in beautifully constructed sentences. Her Inbox must be packed to the rafters with people desperate to schmooze - that's what happens when you've built a reputation like Laura's.

I've known Emma & Laura for a long time. Recently I've had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of some more ladies who impress me with their intelligence, talents & integrity - surely these are prerequisites for schmoozing?

Sisters on Sojourn -Karen & Linda are two of my journalling heroines & their schmoozing is a work of art. They are the authors of 'Visual Chronicles' which just happens to be one of my Battle Books.

Jafabrit's Art Prams in trees, dolls which are not dolly, skunks, the theme from Austin Powers & a looooooooooong list of contacts. I like!!

Penelope Illustration One of the founders of Illustration Friday - need I say more? Actually I will say one more thing - I LOVE Penelope's work!

Clarice Bean is the ultimate schmoozer, but she doesn't have a blog so sadly I can't pass on an award to her. She confines her schmoozing to books & her website - nevertheless she is the belle of the schmoozing ball. In the words of my daughter, Clarice is 'awethome!'