Happy birthday/blogiversary to my sister!

Have you met my sister, Carla, from Lollyquiltz? Well, she isn't my real sister, not from a biological standpoint. However, as we have gotten to know each other a little better, we have decided that perhaps we are sisters separated at birth. SO many similarities!

*We were both born in the same year. I would say which year but I didn't get her permission--and she is a teensy bit older so I need to respect that. :)
*We will both be married for 38 years this year.
*She went to college in Kansas. I went to college in Kansas.
*We both met our husbands in college.
*We both have red hair.
*We absolutely adore our grandchildren.

*We are both quilters. Which binds us together (yes, I could not resist the pun...) for sure!
*We are both hexie obsessed.

(Carla's hexies, organized by color and lots of them are already sewn together!)

(I have quite a few more than this, but they are not sewn together yet).

*We are both doing a quilt based on a Kleenex box. The same Kleenex box! (Imagine our surprise when we discovered that little odd fact...)

 Carla's is almost done:

Mine, not surprisingly, is still living in my head:

I attribute her progress on the hexies and Kleenex-box quilt to the fact that she is older. That seems reasonable, doesn't it?

She has a tremendous sense of color.

And I'll admit to being a bit envious of the beautiful backdrops she uses for her quilt photography.

To celebrate this auspicious one-year blogiversary, we are giving away one of my selvage pincushions, appropriately named "Four Seasons." Head on over to her blog and do some reading. While you're there, you'll notice that Carla has some awesome tutorials, so for a chance to win the pincushion, check out the tutorials on her sidebar, and then come back and tell me which one you would like to try first. The winner will be chosen  on Sunday, 6 p.m. PDT. Want an extra chance to win? If you can guess (in a separate comment) which one might possibly be MY favorite, well, you'll get a second chance to win. Happy reading, everyone. And happy first blogiversary, Carla!

An Award? Me? ...and we have a winner

I wish I could read blogs for a living. There. I said it. There is so much amazing creativity and inspiration out there. Although I must admit that sometimes reading  blogs tends to bog me down. Instead of taking that inspiration and doing something with it, I find much of my available time has been used up.

I read a lot of the same blogs written by the "big girls" that I'm sure many of you do as well. But there are a multitude of lesser-known gems out there. Those are my favorites. Those writers are people who have become my friends.

One of them is Andrea, from Millions of Thoughts. She is funny and witty, an awesome quilter, and my friend. She loves solid fabrics and knows how to use them to their great potential.

The other day I received an email link from her, telling me that she had chosen me to receive the Liebster Blog award. It is "awarded" to crafty blogs with 300 followers or less who are quietly going about doing their own thing and possibly not getting the exposure that some of the larger blogs are.

This is my first blog award. There are a lot of choices out there, and to be chosen by Andrea was both amazing and humbling.

It is an award meant to be passed on. These are listed in no particular order, but I  hope you will take some time to check out the blogs of these incredibly talented women:

quiltish: quiltish is one of the first blogs I started reading on a regular basis. Allisa is the classy and talented creator of many wonderful items that she sells in her etsy shop. Most of all, I highly recommend that you check out her Business Bits series. I have gained an enormous amount of information from this series which is very well written.

Wishes, true and kind:   Like Allisa, Joan lives in the Portland, Oregon, area. Which is probably one of the many reasons I love reading their blogs. I'm a Pacific Northwest girl at heart and I'm hoping one of these days to pop up there and meet them both in person. Joan makes absolutely stunning quilts. You will love all the eye candy in her blog, and enjoy her writing too.

Little Scraps of Happiness: Jen is a Navy wife, whose husband is often gone for long periods of time, and the mother of two small girls. That alone makes me admire her more than I can say. Her quilting is beautiful. I really like reading her blog and she always takes the time to comment.

I'm adding my good friend, Terri, as well, although I'm certain she has a readership larger than 300. (It's so hard to tell with Wordpress and Typepad people...).  She has an amazing eye for color, makes gorgeous quilts and bags (I already have one, and this one is on its way), and is a gifted photographer. So after you check out her blog, be sure to check out her shop!

And one more, who I am sure also has a readership higher than 300. If I could choose one writing style to emulate, it would be Monica of Quilt While You're Ahead (also one of my all-time favorite blog names). Along with quilting, you will see gorgeous pictures of food, knitting, English countryside. It's a highly recommended blog read.

The winner of the polka dot scrap giveaway is dooddles, who said:

"Donating fabric to a worthy cause is never a bad thing. Also, I can't tell you how many times I have picked up fabric at Goodwill and was excited about it. Coming from someone on a VERY tight budget, this has always been a welcome treasure. I need to add pinks to my stash. :o) BTW... polka dots are my fave print! Thanks for the chance. "

So, dooddles, I'll be contacting you soon.
 
By the way, dooddles has a blog called fabric.addict.
 
Not that any of us would have a clue what that is all about...

Keeping It Real

Today I read Kerri's blog and learned some new things about someone I may never meet, but sometimes I still feel like we are friends. I have been blogging for a little over a year and have "met" the most amazing and inspirational people. When I first started, it was hard to find my "voice." It is still definitely a work in progress, but I am feeling more comfortable. I'm a quiet person by nature (yes, one of my goals in life is to have someone say emphatically, "Would you please just shut up!!!!).  When I first started blogging, the intent was as a marketing strategy, to get the word out about our fused glass business.

Yeah, about that...the more I got into blogging, the more I found myself reading...and writing about...sewing and quilting. Mark and I discussed our etsy shop. There is a lot to be done in that regard, and our course of focus is changing there as well. But right now there are a lot of things going on in the background that just seem to have put it on hold for a while. Until that all settles down, I'll continue to focus on getting to know my blogging friends a little better.

Facts about me-

I'm a third generation Californian, although I only lived in the Los Angeles area until I was about 3, and then not again until I was married. Counting California, I have lived in six states.  I have lived in nine cities, including Chicago for about six weeks when I was really small.

I'm proud to be a natural redhead (although nature now gets a little help). Treat us nicely--we are an endangered species.

As a profession, I am a medical transcriber. I previously was an accredited records technician, working with medical records in a hospital, for which I had to take a state boards examination. I have won two typing contests, probably because I am on a computer up to eight hours a day. In fifth grade I purposely lost a spelling bee.

In June I will be married to my best friend for 37 years. We are completely different from each other in so many ways--he would love to get paid for public speaking, I think you couldn't pay me enough to be a public speaker, we like different books, different movies, etc. But our core values are identical and I think that is why it works so well.

The best gift in the world is being a grandmother.  The benefits can't even be measured.

My favorite places to be are at the coast

or at our rental cabins at Huntington Lake.

I don't really splurge on "stuff" but I sure like my iPhone. I have an iPod too, my second one. My first one never had ANY songs on it--only audible books.

I wish I had worn braces.I love newly sharpened yellow #2 pencils. After they are worn down a couple of inches, I no longer like them.

I never EVER eat blue M&MS--personal protest (yes, I know. As protests go, people have already pointed out how ineffective it is--I just don't think they needed to add another color). According to the M&Ms site, of people polled, 31 percent say blue is their favorite color. Go figure.

However, eating the pastel M&Ms at Easter doesn't bother me at all.

I wish I could play the violin so I could be in an orchestra. I wish I had seen Liberace perform. I would pay a lot of money for a ticket to see James Taylor.

I used to have a birthmark on my arm in the shape of Africa, but it has faded.

I want to ride a Zamboni.

I love to read blogs for hours--and sometimes do. I love going to Starbucks but don't like the taste of their coffee (although I really do like coffee, just not theirs). I always order a tall coffee, no room, because everything else intimidates me.

I have the most awesome red cowboy boots. Even if I never wear them again, I'll never get rid of them. However, they do get out and party from time to time. Just not on my feet.

The first five years of our marriage, we lived in Scott City, Kansas, on the Kansas-Colorado border. We have lived in Fresno for almost thirty-two years. But Trudy will always be my BFF. Forever. (And yes, when I proofread this, I do realize that it was redundant to add "forever" again. But I meant to do that.)

I have gone through at least six creative stages: knitting, crocheting, counted cross stitch, needlepoint, tole painting, china painting, scrapbooking. Quilting is NOT a phase. It is my passion. And there is no better way to spend some time than at a quilting retreat with some of the people you like the most!

I would love to learn more about you, so how about sharing? Come back and let me know, so I can visit your blog.

Blogging for Bucks

So what happens when you are trying to get your etsy shop going and then one of your favorite blogs decides to accept ads? Well, if you think the items in your etsy shop and the blog are a good fit, you make contact. And we are nothing if not chic entrepreneurial....

Christina was exceedingly patient with me. I told her we planned on adding a lot more items to our etsy shop. (uh, three little pendants....not really enough things to choose from). But time was working against me. I needed a couple of weeks but I still wanted to be at the top of her list. (Yep, ask for it all....) We worked the timing out and then she emailed me last week, saying, "Just send me your button as a jpeg and I'll post it." Huh?

A couple of months ago I had an etsy seller create a new banner for the blog and the etsy shop, along with a couple of avatars. Would those work? Nope, not the right size. So I contacted her again and for a whopping $4 she created a cool new button, which I then emailed to Christina, who posted it.

Ta da! Monday morning we got our first sale.

So check out Christina's cool blog, then click on our button (fourth from the top) and check out our etsy shop. I KNEW there was money to be made in reading blogs!