why thank you very much

A great honour has been bestowed upon me, one I am not worthy of receiving, yet one I will accept nonetheless. LeAnna, my friend over at The Wonders Of, passed on to me the One Lovely Blog Award. This is my first blog award of sorts, and I must admit that I'm just a little excited about it.

I think I get to make an acceptance speech now, right?

Ahem, is this thing on? Yeah, yes? Okay, um, okay. Well, I have been writing this blog for over three years now, which seems like a long time but really feels the same as saying, "I've brushed my teeth for the past 27 years." Both things have happened with varying degrees of regularity, but I feel at my best when I am consistently consistent. Thanks for trekking along with me.

Whew, glad that's over.
Now for the easy part: As a recipient of the One Lovely Blog Award, it becomes my privilege to pass on this award to blogs that I happen to particularly like. Without further ado (adieu? I don't understand the context of this phrase), I give the One Lovely Blog Award to the following Blogs:

Dot&Line Day 2 Day, showcasing the beautiful work and creative mind of Annie, my cousin-friend. Annie displays some of her custom pieces, posts artist profiles, and hosts give-aways here. Also, one of her stunning lampshades was just featured in Fox News' iMAG slide show, "Luxury for Less". Way to go, Annie!

Nursing Birth is only a couple months old, but already has many followers. Written by a Labor & Delivery nurse in a large, teaching hospital, this nurse is a birth advocate operating in, at times, quite adversive circumstances. Her voice is a valuable one, speaking from both experience and compassion.

here be hippogriffs is a recent find for me, and I am tumbling towards the end of the 5 1/2 years of archives. I don't remeber exactly how I stumbled upon this, but I love Julia's brilliant wit and straight-forwardness. While she is probably classified as a Mommy Blogger and spent a lot of time writing about infertility struggles, her writing goes far beyond these topics as well and provides many a laugh-out-loud moments.

Homebirth: A Midwife Mutiny is written by an ultra-feisty, extremely competent homebirth midwife in Australia, where pending legislation is threatening to make such women criminals. While this busy woman doesn't update all that often now, there are again loads of archives (with great pictures and videos of homebirth, including a very awesome breech birth), and this site is a totally inspiring read for anyone either considering homebirth or who is quick to criticize such a choice.

And, a brand-newbie: dear c jane where did you get...? I always love knowing where to get special little things, and sharing resources, and that type of thing. This blog is written by cjane, also author of c jane enjoy it, as an answer to the numerous emails she received about various goodies featured in her pictures. A nice source of eye candy, at the very least!

And last, but not least, 101cookbooks, my favorite food blog. I am not a naturally aspiring "whole foods" chef, but this site totally inspires me to hunt down new ingredients and try combinations that aren't obvious to me. Heidi also reviews cookbooks and interviews other culinary geniuses, so in the end it's a really beautiful collaborative effort towards eating well, in both the health sense and the palatable sense.