I'm a Staaah....

Oh, the joy, the honor!!! Oh the responsibility.... Aggggghhhhh!

I have been twice honored in the past 24 hours. Not one, but two beautiful awards from two wonderful people. An embarrassment of riches!


First the amazing, brilliant, witty, superlative writer Dianne at Forks off the Moment has bestowed yet another generous award on me. This one is called the Arte Y Pico award and - as you can see - is as elegant as it's name. It's got rules with it, though. I hate rules, but...




1) Pick five (5) blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog.

My five choices for the Arte Y Pico Award are as follows:

Stacey Huston at A Focus in the Wild. Stacey writes poetically about her exquisite photographs of wildlife. I love the music collection on her site too. Always a joy to visit. Like a trip into the wilderness with a musical accompaniment.

Anna Carson at Anna Carson Photography. Anna is a gifted photographer and her wonderful color projects have introduced me to some of my favorite people in the blogosphere, a world of beautiful photos - her own and others, and last, but not least - a new way of looking at the world through my camera lens. I've participated in Projects Green and Blue and am eagerly anticipating the next color challenge that is coming up in July.

Jay Simser at Bailey's Buddy. Jay is a regular participant in my Saturday Wordzzle Challenge, adding his own special twist to the process every week. I am awed by the prolific variety of his posts. I don't know how he finds the time to share so many posts on such a wide range of topics and still do all the things he does in his life.

Jay at The Cynical Bastard. Jay is the best kind of cynic - witty, but - I'm sorry Jay - as big hearted as they come. He's another regular at wordzzles. He is currently doing a series featuring Darth Vader in Las Vegas. It's brilliant and I can't wait for this week's installment.

San at A Life with a View. I'm relatively new to San's blog, but I find it delightfully creative. Make sure you take a tour of her gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It's just beautiful.

Carletta at Round the Bend. Carletta's photography is lovely and she has been a kind and loyal blog-friend to me. Last week she took her readers on her travels through West Virginia in a series of wonderful posts with pictures and cool history and geography lessons.

OK... that takes care of the Arte Y Pico Award. My gratitude to each of you for being out there. My gratitude to Dianne for the award and for the greater reward of her friendship, outrageous praise and continuing encouragement.


Now on to the second! award granted to me. (How cool am I?) San at A Life with a View generously gave me this beautiful Special Scribe Award. It doesn't seem to have any rules. Yippee! I'm going to pass it on to three people.



Michelle at Full Soul Ahead. I discovered Michelle's site during autism month through Linda at These are the Days (see below). Michelle writes about autism and life with honesty and wisdom that enriches the reader.

Linda (Snoopmurph) at These are the Days. Linda is my niece Cindy's good friend. It was her encouragement - for good or ill - that got me to re-start this blog. Linda writes on a wide range of topics with an love, humor and a tender eloquence that reflects her beautiful, loving and generous soul. I'm proud to be her adopted aunt and glad that my niece and her children have such a good and wise friend.

Sandy Carlson at a Writing in Faith. Sandy Carlson is one of the people who keeps One Single Impression going and that alone should get her an award, but... I wanted to give her this award not only for her own wonderful blogs, but because I swear she is everywhere. She not only posts prolifically, but I find her comments everywhere I go and they are always thoughtful and incisive. I think that's pretty cool.

and last, but not least...

Dianne at Forks off the Moment. I know she just have me an award, but that's not why I'm giving this to her. Dianne is such a remarkable writer. She is eloquent, passionate, kind, funny, generous, creative... She was one of the first people I met in the blogosphere and her kindness and encouragement kept me going early on.... and still does. She impacts so many people, both with the wit and insight of her posts, but with her generous and unfailing encouragement.

WHEW!!! Now I have to go tell all these nice people that I have given them awards. Wow. Awards are wonderful, but they are exhausting.

Thank you Dianne and San for your generous gifts to me. Thank you to all the people I've passed these awards onto just for being the people that you are.

(My apologies for the weird changes in type face and size. I'm not sure why that has happened. I tried to fix it and it seemed to get worse, so I'm just leaving it as is....)