blog awards at the close of the year

this, for me, has been The Year of the Blog. although i created this blog back in 2004, i went all of 2005 and 2006 without writing a single word on it (thank you gods of google, for not closing it down and giving it away to someone else). blogging has, for me, this year, been a salvation. i know, i keep writing about recovering from a bad job--breaking up with a job can be a bit like a divorce, is what i found out--and like the newly divorced, i keep harping on about it.  but the fact remains that this blog has been an absolutely essential part of my recovery from that divorce with my bad job and my process of finding my way back to me.

but even more important to that process have been the real friends i've made here in the virtual world of the blogosphere....both your words here as comments on my blog and even more so on your blogs, which have made me laugh and think and have brought tears to my eyes and have inspired me. i've become more thoughtful, more creative, better read, and on the whole, been enriched by getting to know all of you.

so, a big thank you to tangobaby, who entirely too kindly bestowed upon me not one but two awards:

the superior scribbler

(i am definitely a scribbler, albeit through typing)

and a love your blog award

which is sparkly, which makes it automatically fabulous.

and i hereby pass both of these awards on to the following bloggers, all of whom i go to on a daily basis for the nourishment of intellect and soul:

1. woman on the verge, gwen is well-traveled, smart and funny. and she recently asked her readers to send her books to donate to public school teachers in the chicago area. i sent a whole box of only slightly subversive materials her way, but i think she's awesome and hope she doesn't get in trouble for any of those books i sent.
2. sucker for marketing, amanda invented the hilarious WTF? wednesday posting and she makes me laugh. plus, she recently had a cocktail party for charity, so she is not only hilarious, but generous of heart. amanda started me on the whole balderdash escapade and is one of my fellow contributors to balderdash, which also won these two awards from tangobaby.
3. oh for the love of blog, molly lives in cape town, which is one of my favorite places in the world. she's smart, she's funny and like me, she also loves lists. plus, she's a very clever member of the balderdash team. 
4. eyeblog, tara is a relatively new blog friend, but i go to her blog every day to see her pictures and to read the latest of her escapades with all of those girls in the house!
5. mammy's love, barb has a knack for shedding a positive light on any situation and whenever i need to be lifted up, i go to her blog and read about her latest home improvement projects, her beloved grandbabies or her latest acts of kindness to her family. she makes me want to face the world in a kinder and gentler manner than i have a tendency to do. 
6. tripping towards lucidity, andi is quite possibly one of the busiest people i know (i know this because i follow her on twitter). whenever i've run out of something to read, i go to her to find some inspiration. 
7. tiny happy, melissa's embroidery and her photos and sketches always make me take a deep breath and feel peaceful again in the midst of a hectic everyday. 
8. gotta live a crea8tive life, janni is my only blog friend who lives in the same country as me. she takes great photos and shares all kinds of creativity on her blog. and we are so going to start a creative group in 2009, so be watching out for that!

there are, of course, many, many other blogs i read and love on a daily basis, but i surely have other awards i should have passed on, so i will save those for another day. rules on this one...simple...link to the person who gave them to you, and pass them on to those blogs you love. tangobaby, you'd have been on the list if you hadn't already been the giver. :-)

bask baby bask

the gorgeous, hilarious and brilliant tangobaby is a Blog of Note. congratulations, dahling!! you totally deserve it!! just remember us little people. we loved you before you were famous!

fake americans prevail!

i have never been prouder to be a fake american. ever since i heard the news, i have had a lightness in my step and a song in my heart. in a celebratory mood, i bought mathilde some shoes that are one pair of only 500 made in the world (some skater brand from LA, starts with an "s," escapes me at the moment, i'm lame and old, so sue me EDITED:  it's Supra). and i bought myself this:

is that not just so extra cool? it will possibly also enable me to connect with my home planet when i'm on the road. :-) it will no doubt be fantastic (i'm trying to get off fabulous, i know i overused it) at the tangobaby cabinet meetings, tho' now we may not need her to be president in 2012 quite as much, because obama (i get goosebumps just saying his name) will surely have two terms.

seriously, watching just pictures, without sound, on CNN across the room in the club floor lounge, i get goosebumps all over my entire body..like on my feet as well...i didn't even know you could get goosebumps on your feet. i loved when clinton was elected, but have to admit that the joy i felt then wasn't anything like this. this is the beginning of a whole new and exciting era. i actually feel proud to be an american for the first time in more than 8 years (more than 8 because it was bush + the monica lewinsky crapola, when frankly, who wouldn't have done what monica did, given the chance (sorry, hillary)). can you imagine, living outside your country and wincing a little bit every time your nationality came up? i had actually recently been mulling over applying for danish citizenship. now it looks like i won't need to. i don't have to hide my passport in shame anymore when i'm in line in the airport!

i've been overwhelmed today by congratulations emails and SMSes. it's so exciting and wonderful. it makes me so happy that both my in-person friends and my blog friends have been so kind and thought of me on this historic day! i wish we could all simultaneously raise a glass together, wherever we find ourselves in the world and toast in celebration. we did it, my fellow fake americans, and i am so proud of us.

p.s. i'm going here tomorrow morning and i might be offline...just think of me, lying on the beach with a cocktail and celebrating the triumph of the fake americans! catch ya on saturday if not before.

i'm back on form

because i haven't made any for awhile, i bring you two campaign buttons for tangobaby's presidential quest.  two because i couldn't really decide. you'll see....

it's totally amazing what a little fluffy snow will do for one's mood. 

i was even charmed by the plane being de-iced. those little de-icing machines are so futuristic-looking:

i have a strange affection for SAS:

i'm not sure if the affection stems from the elderly stewardesses (SAS = Sexy After Sixty) or the charming scandinavian mix of onboard staff--the humor of the danes, the style of the swedes, the tree-hugging-ness of the norwegians. whatever it is, if one can feel affection for an airline, then oddly, i do for SAS.

monday links and ramblings

i've expended a lot energy, not to mention time, being outraged about sarah palin, but will admit that it's cooling. not least after reading this article about how all of her antics should make us laugh, not cry. is this whole thing just because we crave entertainment? of course, we should remember that she's most definitely not harmless, but we must admit that it's been pretty entertaining.



at first i wondered how i would survive until election day and now i'm wondering what i'll do to fill the void when the election is over. although we don't yet know the result, i suppose i already feel anticlimactic because i've voted and sent off my ballot. not to mention that i vote in illinois, which is a pretty sure bet obama state. i've done my part and i know you'll all do yours.

* * *

lest you guys think all i do is read about politics, i hereby offer some of the other, totally non-political things i've been reading:

1. will we eventually download books from amazon directly into our brains? this is a discussion that husband and i have very often...where evolution will lead humans and whether the internet is in fact the stirrings of the next life form?

ok, i looked around and realized that's pretty much the only non-political, non-work-related article i've read of late. man, it's bad. i will be glad to have my brain back when this election is over, so i can fill it much more stimulating things...like why madonna and guy ritchie are splitting!?

* * *

the mailman just came and brought me this and this:

tangobaby's fabulous chinatown book!

and a beautiful print

and two of those little moo cards

(NOW i know what they are, even if i still don't know what it stands for!)

thank you, tangobaby, madame president!

* * *

and because it was a rainy, dreary weekend, made for staying indoors and baking organic chickens and squash and making warming curries, and because this blog has become way too much politics and way too little inspiration, i hereby share the weekend's creativity:

working with mathilde (husband's middle daughter), we made two pillows for her bedroom, using some cute japanese matrioshka fabric (the fabric is japanese, not the matrioshki, they're russian) from etsy (which can't be linked to at the moment due to scheduled maintenance) and a couple of lush anna maria horner fabrics.

and i'm working on a small lap quilt, made entirely of anna maria horner fabrics:

i got the top done and will reward myself today with a trip to get the batting and backing fabric, if i finish the writing i need to get done (and which is fast becoming urgent, which may be just what i need to be able to finish it). but yes, i've reached the point where i have to threaten myself and then promise rewards. i'm clearly a bad parent.

on that note, i'm off to write...it's the same piece i've been struggling with for the past several weeks. i think i'm struggling because i actually care too much about it and want to get it just right. do you ever have things you do that with? and if so, how do you get out of it! i'm open to any and all good advice! because i've written about ten different versions of this thing and none of them are right and thus far, i've been unable to combine them into something i can live with. but, today, i shall succeed!!!

i voted today!

after a horrible panic due to the fact that i hadn't yet received my absentee ballot (and i had been patiently waiting, thinking it would come), i got in touch with the chicago election commission and found out they hadn't received my request! arrgh! the good news was, it wasn't too late and because they have great service, i actually was able to request and receive a ballot via email, all in one day! i've filled it out and sent it, so it's on its way! i would have been devastated after all of this, not to be able to vote.

today's election quote translated from danish :  "sarah palin has had the same effect on the campaign as  halloween candy. at first, voters got a proper sugar high and afterwards a bellyache."

and looking ahead to 2012, i bring you today's tangobaby campaign button:

and because i adore the campaign button maker :

hope you're having a lovely weekend.

won't you join us?

as part of my ongoing campaign to be tangobaby's secretary of state, i give you today's campaign button:

i am beginning to think i should have nominated myself for vice president since i'm doing so much active campaigning here...hmm.

on the campaign trail

i might have a minor addiction to the campaign button maker. that and i really, really want to be tangobaby 's secretary of state.

actually, i'd be quite ok with ambassador to somewhere fun. like south africa.

tangobaby for president

the fabulous tangobaby is running for president and she's also got a fabulous contest going on (i know, that was two uses of fabulous in one sentence, but this is really, really FABULOUS). part of the contest is to make a campaign button for the tangobaby 2012 campaign (you can never start too early). since blogger comments wouldn't allow me to post my badge in her comment field, i had to post it here:

the contest is to join her administration and i have nominated myself for secretary of state.  here are the reasons i outlined in my comment, per contest instructions:

first of all, i am aware that there are other countries. secondly, i live in one of them. thirdly, i frequent them, well...frequently. i speak several very important (and not at all minor(nodding, nodding)) languages, so i could eavesdrop in the hallways and make sure we get the deals we want...like on arms control and space exploration and alternative energy (because we will definitely think that arms should be a little more controlled, space explored and energy more alternative than they are today). another plus, i pass through duty frees the world over and know where the best deals to be had on perfumes and mascara and mac cosmetics are--thereby saving the taxpayer/donors money because this is really largely about the wardrobe. additionally, i do not want, nor have i ever wanted a louis vuitton purse.

one thing that might speak against me, but i want to be up front about it so that you're not surprised by probing fox reporters--is that i tried, and utterly failed, to become miss south dakota , which is right up there in lameness with trying and failing to become miss alaska. but, i wanted you to know because i'm all about the honesty.

if you too are optimistic enough to think there will still be a united states of america which will be in any condition to hold another election in 2012, get on over to tangobaby and nominate yourself for her administration!