Another Award!

Brenda has gifted me with this lovely blog award. It will serve as a reminder to me to keep laughing through the pain until we get things figured out somehow. Thank you, Brenda.

Now I need to find 15 blogs to pass it onto. This might take a bit of thought. I follow several blogs, as I've mentioned before.

I will add to this post until I have all fifteen listed. Given that I'm blogging from bed and the light in here isn't conducive to play with minis or fiber, it shouldn't take me long to get started.

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1. After a bit of thought I decided that I should start with The LawDog at The LawDog Files. His blog is what started "Little Thoughts" even though he doesn't know it. Until FH said, "Hey Babe! Read this," and I laughed until tears streamed down my face I didn't know people with brains and imagination were on the internet. Strange but true. Somehow that fact had completely escaped me as I only sat in front of a computer to play games, read the news, and read comics. Thank you, LawDog, for opening a new world for me.

2. Once I began reading The Law Dog files regularly it did not take me long to find AD. AD is short for Ambulance Driver and his blog is appropriately called A Day In the Life of An Ambulance Driver. Wow. The stories he tells swept me away on roller coasters of emotion. Some are fantastic, snarky encounters with people who allowed their own stupidity to get them into whatever mess AD had to come get them out of. Some are heart wrenching and make tears pour out of my eyes.

3. From the gentlemen above I found my way to the lovely Phlegmfatale at Fatale Abstraction. She has brought bright spots into my life since I started reading about her adventures with the pups, her jewelry making, the shooting adventures, and shoes. I cannot forget the shoes. I'm not really a "shoe person," mainly because I have very little balance to begin with and the pretty shoes always seem to be high heels. That and I spend all my spare cash on miniatures, fiber, and craft supplies. So I live vicariously through Ms. Phlegm. Firearms and fashion sense... ye gods what a wonderful combination!

4. The CrankyLitProf came next. When I started reading Cranky Epistles I was treated to some of the best imagery and word play I had seen since I left campus. In fact, she's better as expressing verbal frustration, wit, and snark than anyone else in the blogosphere. Heck, I'll go far enough to say I wish I was able to actually take classes at her campus. Of course having a student who actually follows a syllabus and reads the assigned work might cause her to question reality. At least that's what it seems like for the majority of her posts relating to work.

5. From Dr. Cranky I migrated over to AngryBlackBitch, by Shark-Fu. I will admit I was intrigued from the moment I saw the link on Dr. Cranky's blog. My actual thought was, "I'll bite." Has anyone ever talked with a person who not only possesses book smarts but also a heaping amount of common sense? Roll that into a person who actually cares about the state of affairs in this country and the world, but it also willing to fight for it. That is a fraction of Shark-Fu. There's a bit of kinship for me when I'm in her blog. We both grew up in St. Louis, MO and love Blues hockey. I would love to have a drink with Shark-Fu one of these days.

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Once I created Little Thoughts, I figured out there was a way to find people interested in the same things I was. I wandered around and found fiber people and then shepherds. The number of amazing blogs by wonderful people that I read daily literally doubled at that point.

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6. Michelle at Boulderneigh is an absolute joy. Critter stories, fiber (oh ye gods, the fiber!), beautiful landscape photos, pictures of the beauty around her. There's also something to be said about a person who looks past a label of religion and sees instead goodness.

7. Sharon at In Stitches always posts gorgeous pictures. Usually of the area around her home and her fiber projects, but also pictures of the wonderful places she visits. For me though, it's the pictures of the desert she lives in that make me remember home. They always take me on wonderful mental journeys.

8. Karen at Karen's Shetlands has a lot of critters around her place that end up on camera, and subsequently on her blog. Wildlife flocks to the bird feeders. Sheep frolic. Aged equines live in peace and comfort. And of course there is fiber. Tactile junkie that I am cannot resist it.

9. In her Fiber Journal, Leigh shows the world her exquisite creations from wheel, needles, and loom. Not to mention the tales and pictures of her two cats Rascal and Catzee, told from their own perspectives. Leigh is a delight to know, even just through comments back and forth. I look forward to each new post to see what "strings" she's playing with.

10. LSW at Woolgathering not only plays with fiber and had an interest in miniatures, but also tells great stories about her pets, genealogy, and the sites in central Texas. There is always a post worth reading at Woolgathering.

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Now to finish this monster post so I can perhaps get some mini work done as my back is a bit better than this morning. And frankly I'm tired of laying about. I have quite a few projects that need tending to.

These last five are blogs that I found my way to by chance or because they found me.

11. I nominated Alice at Double Purr for a different award before. But Alice sees things I cannot. Somehow she uses paper and ink to create little pieces of art. I do not understand how it works. Paper is not a media that can creatively use on my own. Each week there is generally a new card that she's finished and sometimes a bit about her cats. Sometimes there are even miniatures. It's always a surprise.

12. Miz Minka found me. I'm still not sure how, but I've been delighted to make her acquaintance via the blogosphere. I can generally find either a smile or something to ponder at Miz Minka's Musings. Retraining my brain to read some German doesn't hurt my feelings either. I've spent too much time neglecting that bit of my education.

13. I've mentioned the beauty painted by Pamela Terry before. From the House of Edward always takes me away to some other place where serenity, contemplation, and introspection rule. Places I may never see come alive in my mind whenever I read her blog.

14. Jen at Cake Wrecks finds the most hideously wrong and perfectly sweet pictures of cakes from all over. Her blog never ceases to amuse or inspire me. Of course there has been confusion, but generally that's from me trying to figure out what the decorator responsible for a cake was thinking when they were turned loose with icing.

15. Jean Day is an accomplished miniaturist who I have always admired. It was by chance that I discovered her blog, Jean Day Miniatures one day. Hers was the first minis-only blog that I came across. Through her blog I was able to find many of the wonderful miniature blogs that I now follow.

And there is my completed list of fifteen wonderful blogs. There are so many more out there, but these were the first fifteen that I ever read so they will always be special.