today is the day

i genuinely suck at this whole blog award thing. it's not that i don't appreciate them, i mean, who doesn't appreciate being recognized and adored and appreciated? it's just that there are always all of those rules attached to them and i'm not that big on rules. seriously, does anyone really want one more list of random things from me after the big 29 secrets and one lie in 30 days thing? and frankly, after that, i've not got that much left. but, what's cool about blog awards is that they are an excellent way to share the blogs YOU love with your readers. so, i'm going to try to catch up on the blog award love right here, right now.

the sweet and lovely joei of the blog my days and night, who lives in one of my favorite places in the whole world (no, not cape town this time) - the philippines - has recently given me not one but two awards. our old friend "honest scrap" and that "kreativ blogger" award that must have originally been started by a dane because that's how you spell creative in danish.

on the same day (which is actually today, believe it or not, i'm on the ball this time), i got the "one lovely blog" award from kristine * who blogs at mostly berlin and no penny for them (don't you LOVE people with multiple blogs?) and who we are all hoping comes to blog camp 2.0 at the beginning of september (hint, hint, kristine).

and while i'm at it, an embarrassingly long time ago, clear back on her old blog, my friend borneochica who now refers to herself as cheekyketek and blogs at not really, gave me one of those lemonade stand awards and wrote something really super sweet and nice and flattering and stuff which is now inaccessible because she closed down that blog (tho' i could still see it in my reader, neah, neah). but anyway, i don't think i ever passed it along.

however, today is the day. i've discovered lots of fun new blogs of late because in this transitional season, it seems like i have lots of new visitors and commenters (yes, that's a word) here on MPC. and when you leave a comment, i click into your profile and check out your blog (that's a tip for you lurkers) and i often feel really grateful because you guys have some good blogs and frankly, i probably wouldn't have found them otherwise, what with the fact that those lame boeing people stopped that fabulous internet that used to be available on long-haul flights and so there's no way to get online when i'm flying. (am i the only one beginning to think some of that blonde bleach seeped into my brain today while i was waiting for the hairdresser to finish her very important and dramatic phone conversation and come back and finish my hair?)

anyhoo, without further ado, i hereby pass all three of the above awards on to the following bloggers....i am aware there were probably rules attached to them originally about how many to pass onto and what sort of tricks they should perform on their blogs when they receive them, but we shall dispense with tricks and just give the awards. and to celebrate the awards, this ice cream:

i hereby bestow the quadruple crown on:

maria-thérèse of afiori

she makes pretty books and takes cool pictures

and lives somewhere in northern sweden where they don't pronounce 777 that cool way that i like best

ju of blog maia & lara

recording the hilarious things her children say

they'll no doubt be mad at her someday and possibly require therapy

but for now, it's hilarious.

plus, we're friends on twitter too (@chachatwist).

and i think she's a fellow julie/julia. :-)

kristine of where is kristine now?

because she cracks me up.

and cheers me up.

and may travel even more than i do.

and because she doesn't have dengue fever.

tho' i do wish she had a normal email address and not one of those no-reply blogger thingies.

lea bolvig

even tho' kristine * already gave her one of these,

because she's also in denmark.

her pictures are beautiful.

and i was thinking she'd make a great addition to blog camp 2.0.

georgie k. buttons of the author's desk

because i love her blog header.

and i am utterly charmed at the notion

that a 17-year-old in utah regularly reads and comments on my blog.

tiffany of the water bottle

because no 18-year-old should

have such an articulate video rant

about the potential publisher of her novel.

and last, but not least,

an open heart of recovery from a life not lived

because she's going to blog camp 2.1 in reno

(tho' she should be coming to DK),

she's got a very big and generous heart,

and she recently asked me what these blog award thingies were all about.

and no, i did not accidentally hit publish

before i was done with this...

and please don't forget to check out joei, kristine* (both blogs) and cheekyketek, who started this whole thing in the first place (and a big thank you to you dahlings. MWAH, as spudballoo would say). i'm gonna go see if i can get some of those blonde fumes cleared out of my head now...for all of our sakes...

inspirational spirits need love too

i already expressed this week how i'm complete rubbish at passing along blog awards, as deserving as i think all of you most decidedly are and as appreciative as i myself am of receiving them. however, in a fit of self-improvement, i'm passing along this particular award, which i was given by polly of sotto voce, because it seems a particularly worthy award of passing along. to use her words, "It's one of the most meaningful awards in the blogworld because it honours someone who is incredibly inspirational in her intelligent and witty writing. And by doing so this award celebrates women's smart, strong and inspirational spirit. These women are like Renee: the acorn, a small package becoming a tall and sturdy oak giving more acorns, becoming tall and sturdy oaks, giving acorns…" please check in on polly's blog for more of the links to the originators of this award (these things have a way of becoming diluted in the blogosphere and i feel i would be slightly disingenuous to link to them here when i don't really know them (i am aware this slightly defeats the purpose)).  (dang, that was a lot of parentheses and this paragraph is really getting long.)

when i look through my reader (google's, of course), there are several blogs that jump out at me as the right voices to pass this award along to. if you don't already read them, i hope you will go check them out. they are, in no particular order:

tara at eyeblog 

she has a house full of girls

she cooks

she's on flickr 

she owns an art gallery

she uses those fabulous double colons as bullets

she makes me think and want to be better at well...everything

molly at ohfortheloveofblog 

she's another of those people who feels like a long-lost sister to me

like a really cool one

who lives in cape town

reads murakami

and has a dog

and a daughter

and steals avocados from the neighbor's tree

and swears on her blog when it's warranted

b at cuttings on a blog 

like me, she lives outside her home country

she inspired me to embark on austerity april 

(which is working, by the way)

she reads lots of great books

and she's a belly dancer

just for fun

delwyn at a hazy moon 

because she takes the loveliest walks

and shares them so generously

and discovers interesting new characters 

and has some japanese-oz connection that i haven't yet worked out

but which keeps me coming back

i hope that all of you will check out these bloggers and i hope that you strong, fabulous women will pass this along to some deserving bloggers. and if you didn't get an award this time, just wait, i've got quite a few to catch up on...

thanks again, polly, for this one, it was a good one.