BLOG AWARD

My blog was recently tagged by a dear friend, Miyako, who has the delightfully entertaining and informative blog, Orchid's Daily Voice with the Liebster blog award. Liebster is German for favorite. This award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers. I'm supposed to list the names of five blogs I follow that have less than 200 followers and it hasn't been easy.  I've finally settled on the five that are listed below.

1.  Dianie Mac Designs 

2.  Colony Mountain Stitcheries

3.  Kay's Kids

4.  Sharon's Fancy

5.  Ye Olde Crone's Gazette

The rules are to list the five blogs and make contact by leaving a message in the comment window letting the blog owner know they've been tagged. 

Do a post telling who the award came from and finally put a copy of the award on the side bar you your blog to be copied by the award recipients.

Thank you for thinking of me, Miyako and hopefully the bloggers whose blogs I have tagged will know I tagged them because their blogs are deserving.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

DOGS NIGHT OUT

The very first thing I want to do is say thank you to Mina from Green Witch with Sprinkles for giving me yet another award. It's getting to be a habit with her. I'm starting to think she likes this blog. I'm supposed to pass the award on to five people who's blogs I follow that I feel are a ray of sunshine but can not choose just five. You are all special and are all a ray of sunshine to me. Please copy this button and display it on your side bar.

Thanks to all of you who have such enjoyable and interesting blogs. You really do add a ray of sunshine. I also want to take this time to welcome my new followers and to thank the ones who have been with me since the beginning.

Now that I've gotten the important things taken care of I'm going to introduce you to the newest member of the Santa Squad. As you can probably guess by the title of this post, there's more than likely some dogs in the bag. The reason we now have dogs showing up is because I've been thinking of my canine niece and sending healing thoughts her way. As those of you who follow my sister Marlene's blog all know, Daisy recently had surgery on her leg. She is such a happy little girl that even when her leg was bothering her she was still so full of joy. I know that she's probably keeping Marlene jumping trying to keep her from doing something to keep it from healing, hence the thoughts I've been sending her way.

So, not to drag this out any longer, here he is.

Since I've discovered black gesso I can't seem to stop myself from using it on my pieces at least in the areas of their coats. It really seems to give me the results I'm looking for.

Here's a little known fact that I'm going to share with you. Santa carries sweets in his pockets because he suffers from low blood sugar and has a sweet tooth. This time he has a ginger bread man cookie and a couple of candy canes. Two of his favorite snacks.

Here's a look at the two dogs in the bag. They are flanked by Annie and Baby Bear.

It almost looks like Baby Bear is trying to climb out of the bag. Maybe he is.  The scarf that Santa has stuffed in his pocket was an early Christmas gift from Mrs. Claus. 

I couldn't resist giving you another look at the pups. Have you ever noticed how looking at a happy puppy makes you smile even when you don't realize you're doing it? Maybe it's just me.

Now I suppose I'm going to have to put some cats in the next bag or my feline nephews are going to feel I like dogs better than cats.

I want to thank everyone who's expressed an interest in winning one of my Santa's in the contest/giveaway. There is still plenty of time to enter and come up with the guess that puts you in the bag for the main drawing. So far it's a pretty empty bag. The bag for the second drawing is getting quite full.

The clue for today is: Think Christmas, folks!!  
The item on the plate is something that you see  only at Christmas. It is edible but is not normally eaten. Does that help? Please feel free to put your guess on this post.

Happy Independence Day to everyone in the states and a Happy Canada Day for our neighbors to the north.  As always, thanks for stopping by.

My First Award

I was recently given a Versatile Blogger Award, twice, first by Linda at Olde Baggs 'n Stuft Shirts and then by Mina at Green Witch with Sprinkles. I have to tell you I had no idea of what to do about it. Although I felt honored and totally surprised by receiving the award I really didn’t have a clue as to how to respond. As a fairly newbie when it comes to blogging I needed help with how to proceed and Linda was kind enough to offer to hold my hand, figuratively, along the way so here goes.

The original rules....just so you know and in case you want to follow them, were tell everyone 7 things about yourself and then pass this award along to 15 other bloggie friends that you find to be very versatile in their blogging life.  I’ve never been very good at following rules so I won’t even try to do so now but will muddle through it my way.

7 things you may or may not want to know about me:

1. I have two younger sisters who are my best friends.

2. I have been 24 years old for the past 42 years and was 13 years old for a very long time before that. Age is just a state of mind.

3. Although I’m an artist to my core, I’ve spent most of my life being a techy and am better at writing a program for a CNC controller than I am at writing a piece for my blog.

4. I would have chosen, “Off My Rocker” for my blog name but my sister beat me to it and I felt, “Just Plain Nuts” wasn’t descriptive enough.

5. I believe in magic.

6. I’d love to live in Madrid or Tuscany as both places appear so beautiful and full of magic and poetry.

7. Christmas is my favorite holiday and I have always loved Santa.

I would like to award the Versatile Blogger Award to the following bloggers:

Crystal from Crystal Clear

Heather from Rose Hill Designs

Geralyn from Sprinkled Blessings Studios

Joyce from The Bears Blog

Maggie from Off My Rocker

Kristin from Kristin Dudish

Jan from Laughing Dog Arts

Josie from Hey! It’s Dark in Here

Carolee from Musings from Behind the Easel

Rona from New Challenges


Those of you who I have tagged may do anything you wish with the award just know that I have found your blogs wonderful places to visit and feel you are worthy of the award. I would have also tagged Mina and Linda with the award but am biding my time. I'm sure a way to show them my appreciation will some day present itself.

Thank you for stopping by.