1 Sweet Award, 1 Fantastic Prize, 29 Gifts and more !

So I have put out some "atta-girls" or recognition for a few of my friends in Blogland today. I have been very blessed with inspiration, love, appreciation and many kind words from quite a few sources this week and many of these blessings came from within my awesome blog community ! Today is my 75th post and I have to say that starting this blog and building my blog friendships has been such a positive addition to my world. Yes, the contact is mostly "virtual" but that doesn't make it any less "real". It blows me away every day how kind and caring the community of artist/bloggers is. I am so grateful for being a part of it.

Okay on to the well-deserved plugs !!!!

The first one goes to Lesley at Funky Art Queen who awarded who awarded me my first every blogging award ! The Blogging Friend Forever Award ! How cool !

Thank you so much Lesley !!!!! She is a fun and funky artist with a great attitude and is very generous with her blogging love.

Here are the rules for paying it forward after receiving this award :

1) Choose 5 people to pass the award on to

2) 4 must be dedicated followers of your blog

3) one must be a new follower of your blog, or live in another part of the world

4) and you must link back to the person who gave you this award

Here are my picks for the Blogging Friends Forever Award (it was hard to choose only 5!!!)

1. My talented, funny, "thinker" friend, Jennifer at The Stumbly Diva

2. The superb teacher, wise woman and wonderful writer, Paula at Little Scraps of Magic

3. The bright and cheery Quebecoise artist extraordinaire, Lulu from my pink turtle

4. The supportive, infinitely kind and talented "soul journaler" Arlene at artDeMe

5. The always hilarious, super cool crafter, and hockey-loving Brit, Sarah at are you flowin'?

Congrats to all you ladies ! You so deserve to be recognized for the awesome chicks you are !

The next "atta-girl" today goes to grrl+dog, who had hosted this "lush and rampant" (her words!)discussion at her blog about ART, winged, crowned and/or otherwise, and offered a chance to win a copy of the beautiful zine, Pasticcio, for participating in the above-mentioned discussion. Things got a little heated but in a friendly debater-kind of way. Head over to Grrl's blog and watch a hilarious "doll" video she made to announce the prize winner. (Hint : it may just be a "Royal" winner !;-))

My final honorable mention today comes from the ladies at the Yahoo Soul Journal Group. Kathryn, one of the moderators there, mentioned this site : http://www.29gifts.org/ to the group.

I checked it out and was very inspired to think of ways I can add more of the giving spirit to my life. The project encourages you to give something of yourself for 29 Days and to record how it effects your life and also to recognize the rewards that your receive back as a result of your giving. I started my 29 days today, and I will give you guys some updates along the way. It seems particularily fitting to begin this now as Canadian Thanksgiving is next weekend !

So check out some of these amazing bloggers and see what treasures you find ! Happy Sunday !