I'm speechless!

...not really!  I'd like to thank all the little people...oh wait!  I AM the little people!  I would sincerely like to thank my friend Mary over at The Tulip Patch for awarding my humble little blog with this...

And honestly, I DO try to be stylish...I AM a hair stylist, after all!  But not on my blog.  I really didn't imagine that anyone other than maybe my mother (Hi, Mama!) would ever care to read about my adventures in quilting.  I am SO very grateful to my followers for reading and giving me feedback with your comments :)

There are a couple of rules that go along with this award.  The 1st is, I get to pass this award on to 8 of my favorite "stylish" blogs.  And 2nd is, I have to share 8 things about myself that you may, or may not, know about me.  And in the hopes that you will stop at each of these links and skip over the 8 boring facts about myself, I will start with the links...
and the awards (in no particular order) go to...

Sandy @ Sandy's Sew Clever
Victoria @ She's Crafty
Grandmama Jane @ Grandmama's Stories
Natasha @ Joy of Quilting
Andrea @ Millions of Thoughts
Miranda (and Charlie) @ Miranda and Charlie
Erin @ My Patchwork Life
Vera @ Seams to Sew and Quilt

I "follow" roughly 85 blogs (yes, I counted, and yes, I read new posts everyday!) and it was really hard to single out just 8...I love them all!  These are just SOME of my favorites and they ALL deserve this award, too!

Ok, so I guess there's just one more order of business...

1.  I've been a hair stylist for almost 18 yrs now and I absolutely LOVE my job, although, it does cramp my quilty style occassionally.

2.  I'm "mom" to 3 beautiful, talented, extraordinary, funny, etc...children...who are not exactly "children" anymore.  At 20, 18, and almost 15, they are almost grown.

3.  I am married to the "Love of my life" who has 4 kids of his own.  I call them my "bonus" kids.

4.  I have NEVER won a giveaway in blogland.  And I've entered A LOT. 

5.  I have an addictive personality (self-diagnosed, of course).  But because of this awareness, I have chosen to make my addictions of the sewing-kind.  Also, puzzles of just about any kind, but mostly numbers.  I love math and I suspect that's why quilting is SEW appealing to me...lots of math in quilting :)

6.  My very 1st job was at McDonald's.  Which I am oddly kinda proud of...not even I know why.  I encouraged each of my kids to apply there when they were old enough, but none would :(

7. Both my girls are also hair stylists.  The oldest has had her license for 2 years now and the younger will test for her license in May.

8.  I can solve a Rubik's cube.  I keep one on my station at work and will occassionally ask someone to "mess it up" for me.  I love love LOVE coming into work and finding it "messed up".  And I cannot leave work until it's "fixed".

So there you have it.  Be sure to check out the links above and to those of you who have wandered over from The Tulip Patch, WELCOME!  I would love to get to know ALL of you so leave me a comment, click on "follow" and if you have a blog, let me know so I can follow you, too...there's always room for more on my reading list ;)

Look around you...

Go ahead. Do it. Look around for just a minute. What do you see? I'm sitting on my couch, in my living room. From here, I can see the big picture of my beautiful family sitting over the mantle.

I can see from my front window, the tree in my front yard, with birds coming and going from their own "homes". I can see my dog (Mojo) sitting in the sunroom (aka my sewing room, aka my creative sunny haven)

patiently waiting for me to come in there and work on a sewing project. It's not very sunny today, but the weather man says we have severe thunderstorms headed our way later tonight. I actually LOVE thunderstorms and I LOVE living in Oklahoma where we have a lot of them in the spring time.

So, do you kinda see what I'm getting at here? There is beauty all around us. Wherever you look, if you know what you're looking for, you can see the beauty in everything God has created. And He created it all...just for US.

So do it. Look around. Do you see it, too? I hope so.

Darlene