Awe Shucks & Oh Dear...

The 'Awe Shucks' part of this post is the wonderful *Stylish Blogger Award* that my sweet sister-in-law Emily of A Lasting First Impression gave to me recently...the 'Oh Dear' part comes later. Emily's blog is special to my heart not only because she is family...but because she has an amazing gift for writing posts that are encouraging, thoughtful, real, and spirit focused. I'm always inspired when I read how the Lord is working in her heart and life. PLUS...she posts about my two most favorite little dudes Johan & Erik all the time (remember the monkey & the giraffe?).
So thank you dear Em...and since I'm supposed to share 7 things about myself now, here goes!
(Update (1/24) - I just found out that the the lovely and extremely talented Rebecca of Acanthus and Acorn has also passed this award on to me and I'm very honored and thrilled as her witty, informative and beautiful blog is one of my favorites! Thank you Rebecca...I am now twice blessed!)
(2nd Update, 3/10/11 - I was so delighted to be nominated twice more for this special award by Melissa of Mel Dreams Often and Linnea of Linnea's Diary, and want to thank them from the bottom of my heart, I am now quadrupely blessed! ♥

1. God introduced Himself to me back in 1989 and we've been a team ever since...I've never looked back. The blessing of 'knowing' how much you are loved by Him is life changing. He loves you whether you know it or not...but truly knowing it is a feeling I can compare to nothing else I've ever experienced....I'm grateful every single day.

2. I can count to ten in German and...I wore Dirndl's when I was a little girl (loved them)! All thanks to Gitzi, my very German mom!

3. I *used* to be able to play the 'Rain Song' by Zeppelin from start to finish...on my Gibson Hummingbird (just like the one above) which was passed down to me by Gitzi when I was in my teens (she used to play too). It's been in storage for a while now and I'm kind of looking forward to picking it up again, I'd love to see what kind of music, if any...still resides in my fingers, I miss playing.

4. I'm not very fond of filing...my piles of papers haunt me daily....

it's just one of those things...I don't mind ironing, vacuuming, other sorts of organizing, my junk drawer is always neat, as is the sock drawer...it's just filing...paper stuff (although, now that I think about it...my card stock is always tidy...that's something, right?).

Maybe I just need some cute file folders like these....maybe the boring ones just don't inspire me, yes, that must be it...cute file folders will solve everything...I just know it!

5. I do fold my laundry immediately when it comes out of the dryer. I suppose this could have been included in the previous "thing" but oh well...the picture was taken so I thought I'd use it.

6. I was a hair stylist for 16 years. I loved it but had to quit for health reasons...the chemicals got to me (huge problem in the industry, although it's getting better now).

I had my own business, renting out a space at a fabulous Seattle salon...I miss the people I worked with and my clients terribly, they were the best.

I still dream of owning a vintage barber chair one of these days like the beauty above, to seat the family and friends who still allow me to touch their tresses. I think they're works of art...and look at all the gloriousness surrounding it, the lovely tiled floors and walls, the art, lighting, shelving...perfection!

7. In my teens...a little bit before thoughts of being a glamorous hairstylist flitted around my young brain, I had high falutin ideas of being an 'Album Cover' designer...ala Roger Dean (he designed all the Yes album covers). I did the water color above when I was about fifteen.

(Artwork above and below by Roger Dean)

My father, who used to draw quite a bit (it does run in the family), was always rendering images of knights, armour, swords, castles and the like...and my initial artwork had a slight bent towards this style, with a little fantasy thrown in for good measure. No medievalness going on...just maybe places where a knight or even possibly a damsel in distress might hang out.

(Above watercolor also done around age 15)

Now I draw (and teach)...kitties eating sushi and happy pigs dancing (and I believe singing) in rain puddles...and I wouldn't have it any other way!

So there's my list....now I am going to pass the love around and give this award to several brilliant, inspiring, and of course very stylish bloggers in the hopes of getting to know you all just little bit better. I've enjoyed reading the fun and interesting 'things' other bloggers have posted from this as well as other awards....so without further ado...here's my list.

*Morning T* (fashionably stylish)

A Perfect Gray (tastefully stylish)

A Room For Everyone (happily stylish)

Beauty In The Ordinary (both ladies are beautifully stylish, inside and out!)

Colorific (colorfully stylish - hehe)

Dumbwit Tellher (stylishly amazing!)

Hill House Ramblings (classically stylish)

Hood Canal Gal (a very stylish eye)

Ivy Lane (stylishly sweet)

Little Augury (fascinatingly stylish)

Notes From Abroad (foreignly stylish)

O so D (perfectly stylish)

Purple Flowers (stylishly warm)

Rambles With Reese (stylishly, and newly, Italianesque)

Simple Daisy (creatively stylish)

I could have kept going and going and going...

Whether you choose to participate or not, please know that you are all thought of as thoroughly stylish in your own very special way and your wonderful blogs speak volumes about you already (but it would be fun to know what color toothbrush you use and stuff like that).

So if you should choose to accept this assignment...(why am I sounding so Mission Impossible?) here's how it goes:

1. Thank and link back to the person that awarded you.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Award 10-15 (recently or not so recently) discovered stylish bloggers (sorry, I kind of cheated here).

4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about the award. ♥

Now...for the "Oh Dear" part of the post...my computer has been behaving very badly this past week (actually longer than that) and after seven years...we are finally going to part ways.
I'm not sure how much time we have left together...

But the good news is that a shiny, modern, new one is on it's way and I should be up and running at full speed very soon. In the mean time...I keep praying that this old friend decides to hang around for just a tiny bit longer.

I think this was my longest post EVER!! Thanks for sticking around!

(image1: here 2: here 3: here 4: google-unknown (expired url) 5: here 6: here 8: Personal 9: here 10: here 11: here 12: personal 13& 14: here 15,16,17: personal 18: here 19: here