Tagged!

(iStockphoto)

I have been tagged!  Marilyn from Joy and Lace Cottage has presented me with the Thinking Blogger Award, as someone who has inspired her with my blog.  I am so honored by this, I can’t tell you!  As a new blogger this compliment is just tremendous to me.  Being tagged, my responsibility is to now name five bloggers whose blogging sites regularly inspire and entertain me.  The hardest thing here, is to settle on only five! 

One site that I would name as my number one inspiration, Marilyn has already named as one  of her five favorites.  That site would be Under a Blue Moon, which belongs to my dear sister Andrea!  Andrea is beyond inspirational to me, and in fact, is one of the main reasons I started blogging.  Her site predominantly features decorating, cooking, and matters of style.  Her writing style is fantastic.  She is humorous, humble, elegant, sympathetic and thoughtful  She is also a very accomplished photographer, and many of her pictures are so inviting, they make you want to step right into them.   If you have never checked out her site, don’t waste one more second—go right to her link and start enjoying yourself.  Her most recent post features lilacs, so the photo above is dedicated to her.  All I could wish for any of you would be to have as sweet, helpful, gracious, kind, and motivating a sister as I am blessed with.  And, believe it or not, I have three others besides her that are each totally awesome in their own ways.

OK.  The following individuals must now consider themselves tagged with the Thinking Blogger Award!  My other five favorite, most inspirational blog sites would be:

Sara at The Winemaker’s Wife http://thewinemakerswife.blogs.com/
    Sara is a lovely young woman whose blog site is dedicated to food, wine, and lifestyle experiences.  She is a newly wed, and her husband is a wine maker in the Santa Cruz mountains.  She is an aspiring food writer, and I predict she will one day be as well known as any of the Food Network super stars!  Her food and wine pairings are terrific, and her entertaining and decorating ideas are fabulous.  Her photographs are without a doubt, some of the very best in blog-land.

Lisa at Stashmaster http://stashmaster.typepad.com/
    Lisa is a passionate quilter, who literally has inspired me countless times to copy her designs, buy what fabric she buys, and quilt more and better.  I sometimes think that Lisa and I are living in parallel universes, so similar are our tastes and backgrounds.  Since I started blogging, I have become fast friends with Lisa, and a day without an email exchange with her is a bleak one indeed.  How she gets any quilting done is a mystery, as she works full time and has three young children!  Oh, and did I mention she is a kick boxer?  Check out her blog, and her quilting album in particular.  This is one very talented and nice lady who has added a lot of value to my days.

Darlene at Quilting Daze http://quiltingdaze.blogspot.com/
    Darlene is without a doubt, the most accomplished and prolific quilter I have ever come across.  Her talents are HUGE.  Please go to her amazing website and read every single post she has ever done.  When I discovered her, that is just what I did, and when I was finished, my head was spinning with all the gorgeous patterns, designs, and projects of hers I wanted to copy.  Her taste and mine are remarkably similar, and   it never ceases to amaze the two of us how much alike we are (except that she is ten times more talented).  Darlene is someone who has become very dear to me, and I look forward so much to her posts and to the emails we exchange almost daily.  Darlene and I are so in sync that we are planning a Fat Quarter Challenge between the two of us on our respective blog sites in the near future.

Kim at Daisy Cottage http://www.deardaisycottage.typepad.com/
    Kim’s blog is in my opinion, one of the most inspirational decorating sites in existence.  She lives in an 1920’s cottage, which is featured in most of her posts.  She decorates, cooks, collects, crafts, and knows how to turn a house into a home better than anyone.  Her photos are stunning and the fact that she is a very regular poster is a wonderful gift to all her avid fans.  She is responsible for my new found interest in "thrift shopping", and for a number of lovely treasures which have found their way home with  me.  Her site is so welcoming and inviting, you will feel as if you have been invited right into her cozy world.  I can’t tell you how many super ideas and recipes I have gotten from her remarkable blog site.

Leigh at Cinnamon Sticks http://cinnamonsticksss.blogspot.com/index.html
    The truly wonderful thing about blogging is that one gets to make friends with people all over the world.  Leigh’s blog is such fun, you must make it one of your favorites.  Leigh is a quilter who lives in Australia.  Besides being a very talented quilter, she is a professional cook, enthusiastic china collector, and mother of two grown children.  No matter how many miles separate us, I find Leigh and her interests a very worthwhile addition to my life!

So thank you to all you inspirational fellow bloggers!  You have added immeasurably to my existence and it is a true honor to call you friends.