Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Beautiful Blogger Award

I am so honored that Blondie in the Water was chosen to receive the Beautiful Blogger Award! A very warm and happy thank you to Seumas Gallacher of blogging fame (Blogger of the Year Winner) and author of several amazing thriller novels. Did I mention that he is Scottish? Well he is and it adds immensely to his charm and endearing good cheer. He wears a kilt, too, at least on his blog. Sigh. Be sure to follow Seumas' blog here for a daily chuckle. You have to check out his novels as well. Seumas is a master at infusing humor and intelligence in his stories while taking you to exciting international destinations.

I know I promised an introduction to my characters from Stealing Time on this blog post but sometimes unexpected surprises get in the way of keeping you on track. Heck that's pretty much the reason Stealing Time has taken me seven years to write. After all, my most precious surprise and excellent reason for delay on finishing my novel was the arrival of my daughter, shorty, five years ago.

The Rules:
1.  Copy and place the Beautiful Blogger Award in your post. (Check! Whew that was easy!)
2.  Thank the person that nominated you and link back to their blog. (Check, thanks Seumas!)
3.  Tell 7 things about yourself (Gack, I guess I can scrape a few things together.)
4.  Nominate 7 fellow Bloggers, tell them by posting a comment on their Blog (OMG this is the hardest part.)

Seven Things About Me

I've done several blogs with deets on me so this is hard to come up with new fresh ideas. The award dictates so here goes. I'll try to spice it up with some fab pics.

1. I am a very visual thinker. When I'm writing I can see the scene in my head, smell the smells and feel the fabrics of the environment. When I worked in Boston my office had no windows. I filled the space with large vivid prints of flowers, ocean views, and bright landscapes. I had so many people comment on how bright and cheery the space was. It seemed weird to me that everyone didn't do the same thing. I guess I need color and oceans more than the average person. 

Vivid colors in my palate of 'ocean.'
2. I volunteer a lot of my time to the PTA (Parent Teacher Organization) at my son's elementary school. I've taken the newsletter from a one page black and white sheet to a full color, 8 pages folded and stapled, award winning newsletter recognized locally and by the state PTA. I brought several fundraisers to the school, including a recycling program for used electronics and two fundraisers for bringing new books to the library ($4500 raised in the last 2 years), one through Barnes and Noble. The regional office now uses my arrangement (using student artwork and patron voting) for all of their book fairs. I raised more money in each of the book fairs I've run with them than any other books fairs held at that store. 

Artwork on display at Barnes and Noble during our book fair this April.
3. I created a camp years ago for my kids to keep up their skills over the summer. We call it Camp Waters where I pick a new topic each week for us to focus on. It usually involves a lot of friends, lunch and swimming afterwards in our pool. Topics include: creative writing, art, fossils, geology, dinosaurs, USA geography, photography, cooking, and tons more, all selected at the beginning of the summer by my children. I've written a guest post for a friend's blog about this stay tuned, hopefully he'll post it soon.

4.  I have a very odd sense of humor. A few of my recent posts include:

Keep your ghosts close because you never know...

Yeah, I'm a weird-dough.

I sent this get well pic to a friend who had knee surgery. I don't think he appreciate the humor so I had to explain to him the deer was dead and won't get well but you will. See could be a lot worse! I'm not sure he fully appreciated my sense of humor. Aw jeez, you too? You think I'm a bit off. Ah, well, join the club!

5.  This is very hard for me to just spew on and on about myself. That's a fact about me right? So here are some beautiful pictures to enjoy as you ponder that...
I actually had a cyber pool party here with some twitter friends. Yes, I know that sounds a bit emmmm, crazy. 
Lily Pond in Maine. Site of my blog post Blondie in the Pond.
Crow's Pasture on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

6.  I love water. I know you already know this about me if you've read any of my blogs or follow me on twitter, facebook, or Pinterest. 

Love this picture of sun shining through the curve of a wave!

7.  I love a lot of different kinds of music. My favorite is the Black Eyed Peas but on my iPhone I have everything from Irish folk to Eminem to the Gypsy Kings, pop music old and new, oldies, and I especially love Gaelic Storm. One of my favorites songs, and I think is appropriate for my blog, is 'A Beautiful World' by Collin Hay from Men at Work Fame. Did you know he's Scottish? Yeah, well he is. He's also funny as crap and cusses a lot. He's Scottish, what did you expect? This is from his show and he tells a shark story just before he sings A Beautiful World.


Collin Hay -- A Beautiful World

Here is my favorite Black Eyed Peas song, although it was very hard to choose since I could probably say that about fifteen of their songs. The video reminds me of where I live now, dirtville, and me rawkin out with my peeps. 


Yes, Will.i.am, I did put it on the blog. 

Love the humor and intelligence of Will.i.am, his superb musicality and playful, peaceful lyrics, an unusual combination for rap/R&B music.

Nominees

Please take a minute to visit the pages of my nominees. I look forward to their posts!

My nominees for the Beautiful Blogger Award are:

1. Jeri Walker-Bickett at http://jeriwb.com/

2. Annette Schutzengelchen at annajournal-id.blogspot.com

3. Laurel Robbins at http://monkeysandmountains.com/

4. Leora Wegner at http://www.leoraw.com/blog/

5. Pinky Poinker http://cleverbunnys.blogspot.com.au/

6. Savanna Redman http://www.savannaredman.com/shorts.html

7.  Melody Ferraro http://icarryyourmelody.blogspot.com/


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Connect With Me


When I'm not working on Stealing Time you can find me on my social media at the links below. I look forward to talking with you!