The thoughts, sewing projects, and fabric oglings of a dedicated sewist.

Thank you, Patty!

1/31/13
I received a nice surprise over the holidays when Patty from SEWmuchKNITting nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blog/One Lovely Blogger award.  I was so pleased!  It's taken me a while to post about the award because it came with some instructions.






First, I am supposed to share seven things about myself that my readers don't know.  I always freak out a little when I get asked questions like this but I think I've found a few things that won't be too boring or weird!

1) I'm a reader.  I have loved to read for as long as I can remember and the characters I've met along the way have helped shape who I am.  My top five books are: East of Eden by John Steinbeck, I Married a Communist by Philip Roth, Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, Charlotte's Web by EB White, and The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.

2) I'm a runner.  It keeps my crazies away.

3) My mother was a nun and my father was a priest.  Interesting, huh?

4) When I was 18-years-old I was a singer in a band called The Courgettes.  I was living in England at the time and friend Caroline (the other band member) and I just liked this word (French for zucchini).

5) I've moved around some.  I've lived in  twenty-one different homes in two countries (US, England), four states (Illinois, Colorado, California, and Georgia), 11 cities (Maywood, Naperville, Englewood, Faversham, London, Canterbury, Coventry, Chicago, Oakland, Atlanta, and Berwyn) and one unincorporated territory (Puerto Rico). 

6) I have a tattoo.  This ties in with #1 since the tattoo is the word timshel, a central idea in the book East of Eden.

7) I'm highly unsentimental but I choke back tears when watching Taylor Swift music videos.  I don't understand this part of myself at all and it surprises me every time it happens.  I'm not moved by soft cuddy animals, the thought of keeping baby books for my kids makes my skin crawl, and my husband calls me the least sentimental person alive.  The music I usually favor is much grittier than Taylor Swift (hooray for the Drive By Truckers!), but I watch one of her songs on YouTube and I just get overwhelmed.

I was supposed to nominate ten people for the award and let them them know about it.  As far as I can tell, every single blogger I can think of to nominate has already been nominated.  So instead, I'm going to list my favorite blog posts of all time:

1) Sewing for the Life You Want from Mari at Disparate Disciplines.  I'm still thinking about what this means for me.

2) True Confessions - I Sometimes Sew Deshabille from Karen at DidYouMakeThat?  The whole True Confessions series is hilarious.

3) Cloacas and Poop from Dawn at Two On, Two Off  This lady makes me laugh!

4) One of Lladybird's vogue rants.  If you are having a bad day, just read all of these posts.

5) Something from Oonaballoona  It took a couple of tries for me to get into this blog and I think that's because you don't always get poetry the first time you read it.  Now I look forward to every post for the humor, the joy, and the PERSONALITY.

6) Rhonda at Rhonda's Creative Life runs a series called Fabulous Free Pattern Fridays where she posts patterns made from simple geometric shapes - genius!  The Hanging On a Cliff Dress is one of my favorites.  And Rhonda is also the only sewing blogger than I've met in real life - hi, Rhonda!

7) Liza Jane from Liza Jane Sews did a post called Moving Forward after the shootings at Sandy Hook.  It was the best thing I read at that time.

8) I can't pick just one thing from my dear friend Candice's blog, ReFab Diaries.  She has an eye for beauty, an appreciation for people who know how to make do, and an abundance of whimsy. 


Go read all these posts and then read them again.  Three cheers for sewing bloggers!
9 comments on "Thank you, Patty!"
  1. Nice to 'get to know you' a little more :-)

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  2. Aw, thanks! That was a hard post to write. I don't usually like to be super personal online (sounds counter intuitive since I have a blog) but I needed to write something. Loved reading more about you! I am called out all the time by friends and family for being unsentimental, especially by my husband. A nun and a priest?!? I want to know the story!!

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    1. You are welcome, Liza Jane! Glad to know I am not alone in my lack of sentimentality. Devon's favorite story about this is when I cut Belly's hair for the first time, I simply threw the hair chunks in the garbage. Devon said (with some amusement), "I think you are supposed to save those - first haircut and all." I said, "Oh really? Huh. I'll save something from the next cut."

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  3. Hi there

    Congrats on your award. Great to get to know some more about you! I am also a reader and a runner and am originally from England.

    I did the draw for my Pattern Pyramid and you are the lucky winner. Please e-mail me at Deborahleejones@yahoo.ca with your contact details and I will try to get the package in the mail before the end of the week.

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  4. Thank you so much for the mention! You're not still living in Chicago, are you? I'd be up for a meetup.

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    1. Hey Mari, I'm just outside Chicago in Berwyn. We should organize a Chicago sewing blogger meetup - I think there's enough of us around. I'll shoot you an email this weekend so that we can scheme about it.

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