You Make My Day and a Meme

I've been fortunate to have been chosen by some of my blogging friends to receive this bloggy award:
Hege over in Norway and Ruth in South Africa both gave me the "You Make My Day Award." Thanks, Hege and Ruth! I'm to pay it forward and pass the award on to ten blogs that make my day and I have to add these two first, even though they've both already received it. The feeling is mutual, my friends!

You Make My Day:

1. Hege - A delightful blog about knitting and life in Norway. I love the photos of the mountains, the winter scenes and her kids! Hege also runs a cool hiking blog here.

2. Ruth - Ruth's kid has just about the most beautiful eyes you've ever seen and you should visit her blog just for that. Though she writes lovely posts about crafting and life in South Africa too. She's an awesome seamstress and is really rocking on her quilts.

3. Rebecca - She kept saying that she was going to be done with her blog once she was done with her cancer, but she keeps posting! (Even though her cancer is gone!!) Double yeah! I am fortunate to have coffee with Rebecca (in person) each weekend where I get most of her updates, but I love her blog posts anyway. She's a science nerd, gotta love it.

4. indieknits - Indieknits' blog makes me laugh! I adore the tales of her stash enhancement, finished objects and pub adventures! A great blog.

5. Plums in Bloom - My friend Laura who thought that she could just sneak onto the blog scene and not tell anyone she was here. Ha! She's on my Google Reader and I love to click on her posts to find out the latest in her pregnancy, knitting and "pupper of the week" features.

6. Knittymama - Love Knittymama! (Who doesn't?) Even though she's just a stone's throw away from my house, I don't get to see her and her adorable children nearly enough, so the blog is a fun way to keep up on her adventures.

7. This Vintage Chica - Eren takes awesome photos and presents them in her blog posts in such beautiful ways. She's also an amazingly strong woman who manages a household of three young boys while her husband is overseas in the military. I love her polka-dotted rain boots too...they're like her super-hero cape or something.

8. She Knits Shizknits - Sheree's photos also dazzle and her young boys are just about the sweetest models ever. She knits some beautiful items, spins some beautiful yarns, and shares photos and tales of her family's adventures with CSAs and vegetables. Living in a much different climate that I do, she reminds me that our snow WILL melt and we WILL be able to plant fresh food again!

9. RioTokyo - My friend Hadley just departed for Tokyo for a 3-month school adventure leaving her husband and friends behind in Minnesota to read about it by blog. Thank goodness for blogs! I love living vicariously through Hads as she travels in Japan and sees amazing things.

10. Lostview Farm - My friends at Lostview Farm are definitely living the good life, even though you hear about the downsides of it on the blog too. They remind us that it's important to go for what you want, to live how you want to live but that it's not always a yellow brick road to get there. Truly inspirational. (With two insanely adorable kids on the farm to boot; can't beat the cute kid photos.)

To all of you, you make my day!
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I recently received an email from my young cousin, Abbie, telling me many different things about herself according to the rules of "4." The instructions were to pass the email on to as many of your friends as possible in the hopes of learning new things about your friends, that you may have not known before. I thought I would post it here too and invite all of my blogging friends to join in. I'm not officially "tagging" anyone, but if you do choose to post about your "4 Things" then please let me know so I can read yours too!

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. babysitter
2. The Muffin Man - drive-through bakery
3. The Gap
4. The Bell Museum of Natural History

Four movies I would watch over and over again:
1. The Princess Bride
2. Moulin Rouge
3. Lord of the Rings
4. Little Women

Four places I have lived:
1. St. Louis Park, MN
2. Minneapolis, MN
3. Duluth, MN
4. Arcata, CA

Four places I have been:
1. England
2. Germany
3. France
4. Glacier National Park

Four of my favorite foods:
1. kale (anything green and leafy, really)
2. yogurt & granola (obviously...)
3. homemade bread
4. pad thai with tofu

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. in a mountain cabin, knitting
2. hiking on a mountain pass
3. biking
4. in a yarn store (with someone else's credit card!)

Four people I think will respond:
1. Hege
2. Ruth
3. indieknits
4. Rebecca
Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. our new baby in July
2. potty-training for Jackson?
3. not being pregnant anymore
4. my trip to NYC in three weeks to be in the audience of the Martha Stewart Show!

Four things I say regularly:
1. goddammit (yeah, I know...gotta clean that up)
2. "Can you say PLEASE?"
3. "Just a minute, Jackson, Mommy's making dinner."
4. TGIF! or "love, friday"
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I was also tagged by the Garden Goose to do the "7 Things" meme. I'll just link here to my "8 Things" meme (which is really the same thing, you just get one more thing) instead of doing it again. The eight things still stand true!

Again, I won't tag anyone specifically for the "7 or 8 Things" meme this time around, but if you post about it, do let me know!