An award!!! An award!!! I've won an award!!! I've never won an award before!!!

My blogging friend, Miss Hope, has awarded me the Brilliant Weblog Premio-2008 Award! [Personally I think the southern sun has caused her to feel a bit faint - surely I don't deserve such an award... If you read her blog, you'll see she thinks I have a busy life. Not really, not busy...]

The only catch is that I have to pass the Award along to seven other worthy bloggers. (I suppose I can't really just send it on back to Miss Hope, since she's already received her award but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE visit her - she'll be your friend, too!)

So let's try it... here you go...

1. Jeanette at A Passion for Scrapbooking, Decorating and Shopping - Some day my house will look like hers - NOT! I found her while I was trying to design a scrapping room but she's since become one of my favorite bloggers. She somehow has the time to find all this stuff, but the thing that appeals to me the most is her vision. She has an idea in her head of how she wants her house to look, and is on a path to getting it. Not like me - not only is my dinner table full of leftovers and hand-me-downs, but my home is, too!!! One of the nicest things about Jeanette is she's so responsive - if you drop her an email or a comment, it's not unusual to hear back from her...
2. Dawn at Because I Said So is the mother of 6. Now although I haven't birthed them from my loins, I'm the (step)mom of 2 (adult kids) and every time I visit the salon, I ask if there's a grey hair in there. So far, no, but I know, deep inside, it's just a matter of time! 6 kids! Young'uns, too! But she has time to write a book, visit BlogHer as a speaker... I haven't even done a load of laundry in weeks (thank goodness DH is on summer break and he's been doing them!)... Dawn and I have never met, but my neighbor has 5 boys, and when I read Dawn's blog, I can so easily pretend that she lives right next door!!!
3. I actually had the chance to meet Suzanne when I visited my sister in AZ this past spring. If you know me, you know that I am obsessed with becoming organized. Not that I've done it, not that I'm particularly in the process of doing it, but along with time management (another lofty goal!), I read all I can read about organization with the intention of applying it (someday). Suzanne has this great website called Let's Talk Organizing. I actually won several hours of organizing help from her when she opened her new offices; that's how we "met" and when I found myself heading out AZ-way, we both jumped at the opportunity to meet. She's a fun, bubbly lady who loves her kids, Scotland, 2008 Dodge Caravans and her blog - go and read her blog for some terrific ideas and you'll meet a great person, too!
4. I have the pleasure of working with Ellen at a not-to-be-named publishing house in NJ (yes, if you do a bit of digging, you could figure it out...). Her blog is IT-oriented, family-oriented, music-oriented, work-oriented - in no particular order! She's a bright, funny woman and I think you should visit her blog to laugh and learn (again, in no particular order!).
5. Although I can't say that I'm personally friends with Heather, I think her site, Dooce, is one of the best blogs I've ever run across. Her writing is outstanding, and what a way with words!! I'll warn you - it's not for the faint of heart! But if you read nothing else, read her monthly newsletters to her daughter Leta - that is one mom just filled to bursting with love for her baby girl!!! And be sure to check out her three daily photo postings - love her sense of style and Chuck and Coco? A picture is worth a thousand words!

I can't do it. I can't come up with 7. I don't want to just list 7 blogs I read. I wanted them to be friends. Blog pals. Like Miss Hope. I read quite a few blogs, most of them, though, topical - they're scrapping blogs, and while they're great, they're not my friends, and I can't speak personally about the authors. There are a couple up there that are more acquaintances than friends, but as you know, their lives are open to us through their blogs and we just feel like we know them!

Even though Miss Hope has already received this award from her friend Chelle, I think she deserves it again, so she's my #6!

I have a #7 but it's a private blog and she wouldn't be too thrilled with receiving this award. So E, #7 is for you, but you'll never know about it 'cause I won't tell you about it, and you don't know I have a blog...