First and foremost, I hope you’ve all been busy sharing some good times with friends and family during the past few weeks, and that you’ve celebrated your respective holidays with lots of great food, frivolity and a little reflection as well. We just returned from celebrating a most lovely Christmas with my mom out of town, and it was wonderful to be with her and to have the chance to spend some quality time together. Thanks for having us mom, you’re the best and we love you!
Second, I’d like to share a great surprise that happened on my way out of town for the holiday. I discovered that I’d been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Sharyn at The Kale Chronicles and also by Eva over at Kitchen Inspirations. Wow! What an unexpected honor, and a super Christmas present, to boot! Sharyn’s blog, The Kale Chronicles, features her inventive recipes using ingredients from her CSA box, and for each post she creates bright and charming watercolor illustrations to go along with the subject, a unique and quite wonderful approach. Eva at Kitchen Inspirations is a graphic designer like myself, and hails from Canada. Her blog features some diverse and terrific sounding recipes along with lovely photographic images (she’s quite a stylist and shooter, too), as well as tales of her travels and culinary adventures…it’s a terrific read. Thank you both so much for honoring me with this special award and congratulations to you both on your nominations as well.
So here’s how this award works, and I’ll do my best to get this as right as I can, but should I happen to bestow this upon someone who has it already, I’m sorry…I probably didn’t see it on your blog. Please just know I was thinking of you and don’t worry about it…after all, these things should be fun and it’s always nice to know you are well thought of, yes?
The conditions of this lovely award are:
- Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.
- Share 7 things about yourself.
- Pass this award along to 15 blogs you enjoy reading
- Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.
7 little known facts about me:
Thumbelina, AKA Loafacat
1. Well, if you read the About Me section of this blog and the intro to this post, you already know I’m a graphic designer. What you may not know is that I’ve had my own business for 23 years…and have been in the business for 30. Yep, that’s right, I was a child prodigy! 😉
2. Although I’ve lived in this big city in Georgia for 30 years, I was born and bred in Alabama and you can see more about my interesting little hometown here.
Cinderella, AKA Bitty Cat
3. My husband and I have two cats…or maybe I should say they have us. They’re sisters and their names are Cinderella and Thumbelina…so named by the shelter they were rescued from and the names stuck. Their mother was part Bengal and they are, um, very large girls. Cinderella is skinny and weighs in at 11.8 pounds and Thumbelina is a big, round, 13.8 pounder. Or at least that was their weight in July…who knows how big they are now! They are very sweet kitties with huge personalities to go with their size, and they add so much joy and laughter to our lives.
A Christmas present...my new orange immersion blender!
4. Orange is my favorite color. I think it’s a happy color. My car is orange, my business notebook is orange, my business card has orange on it, my immersion blender is orange, as are my orange juice squeezer, my kitchen utencil jar, my chef’s apron and the collars and tags on the cats….all orange, all the time. Orange is the new Red, don’t you know. My husband is originally from Florida…the orange state. I wasn’t happy on the day I found out that Home Depot had stolen my signature color!
5. I’d planned to go into journalism in college…but decided I had more talent and interest in art, and commercial art in particular, so I changed direction. This blog is sort of a coming out party from that initial closet desire to write.
6. I come from a long line of very fine home cooks…my mother, her mother and my aunt to name a few. I’ve never taken a cooking lesson, but I did take one pasta making class. Alas, I’ve still never made pasta, I’m ashamed to say.
A jellyfish stranded on the beach after the storm.
7. Amongst my many career ambitions as a child, I wanted to be a jockey and race horses. After that rapidly became out of the question, I decided I wanted to be a marine biologist…but since I have no head for mathematics, I eventually became content to study and observe marine life instead, and hence my endless fascination with the ocean and it’s creatures.
So enough about me for now and on to the meat of the matter, nominating other deserving (and hopefully not previously nominated) blogs that I enjoy reading. In no particular order, here are my nominees. Please do take a moment to link to them and enjoy reading them yourself!
Hmmm… is that 15? I think I mentioned that I don’t have a head for mathematics! I’m going to link to some other folks that I follow, some of whom are currently on my blog roll and some who will be soon. I encourage you to go see their blogs, as well as the others I have listed on the sidebar of my home page, because I really do think you’ll have fun reading their posts. And to these folks below…I know you’ve already received this award, but since I want some of my readers to know about you and enjoy you as I do, I’m going off on my own tangent and taking this opportunity to share you with others. Consider this the “B&B Nod.” And if I’m mistaken and you haven’t yet gotten the Versatile Blogger Award…you have now!
From the Bartolini Kitchens
The Kitchen’s Garden
Outtakes on the Outskirts
Chica Andaluza
Savoring Every Bite
Backroad Journal
Sweet Peach
Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide
Olives and Artichokes
Just a Smidgen
The Plum Palate
I look forward to reading more posts from each and every one of you next year, and to discovering more folks out there in the blogosphere to share adventures with. I wish everyone a new year that is happy, and happily full of reading!
bits and breadcrumbs 
Hi Betsy, Thank you for mentioning my blog. I really appreciate all of your support since I started my blog. Have a Happy New Year.
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Hi Karen, you are most welcome. I hope you have a very Happy New Year, too!
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Congrats. You are so much prettier than Home Depot I would not worry too much about their theft of your signature color, woman of so many talents. A wish for a wonderful 2012 goes out to you and your family. Hope we run in to each other in the new year!
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Awwwwww, shucks, Gavriella! That was such a sweet thing to say and thank you so much. I wish you a wonderful 2012 filled with all good things and hope that we see you very soon! Happy, Happy!
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Congratulations, Betsy! It was wonderful news to learn you’ve won an award and thank you so ! much for your kind mention of my own blog. Thumbelina and that stranded jelly fish are both amazing, if not for completely different reasons. I’m off now to check out a few of the other blogs you’ve mentioned. Again, Congrats
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Thank you so much, John! I’m glad you like the Thumbelina and the jellyfish shots…two of my personal faves, so I just had to include them. And you are most welcome for the shout out…I surely would have nominated you and your blog for both of the awards I’ve received had you not already garnered them! Happy New Year to you!
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Congrats on your award!
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Thank you, yummy! I really enjoy your blog, and look forward to reading many more great posts in the new year!
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Ah, well done to you on the award! Most deserved indeed. And thanks too for the “nod”…too kind! Had to smile about the love of orange…I love it too. Last year I recovered my dining chairs in a burnt orange fabric and have nwo just finished crocheting a HUGE blanket in many tones of orange for the sofa (well, me, lying on the sofa). Have a wonderful New Year!
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Thank you Chica, and you’re most welcome for the “nod”. Yours was one of the first blogs I visited and I do enjoy your posts so much. Glad to know I have fellow lovers of orange and burnt orange amongst my blogging friends! Your dining room chairs sound lovely, as does that big blanket…I admire your skills as a seamstress, something I was never able to really do with any success. HNY to you, too!
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Thank you so much darl.. i am in such good company.. you have noted some of my heroes in your post.. and I LOVE ORANGE and am proud of it.. in fact i have painted entire WALLS in orange! we are colour sisters, tho i have to say.. your cats do not look like sisters.. cute tho.. HNY.. c
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You are so welcome, Celi. I do love reading your stories…you are truly gifted, orange sister! It’s true, our kitty girls don’t look much like sisters, and they have quite different personalities. Only when you see them side by side and look at their very round eyes do they look a bit like siblings. We think they are very cute, too, thanks! HNY to you!
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Way to go, Betsy! This is a well-deserved award! Thank you so much for adding me to your blogroll. We must be on the same “page” today, I’ve just been adding blogs to my sidebar “link” widget.. and have added you in:) Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve!!
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Thank you, Smidge, for your kind words and for adding me to your blogroll! And you’re so welcome for the link. I do enjoy your blog so much. It’s been such great fun this year to “meet” so many new folks via the blogosphere and exchange ideas. Hope you have a wonderful New Year’s Eve, too, and a very Happy New Year as well!
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Happy holidays Betsy, and thanks for the shout out. I look forward to reading more of your blog in the future.
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Eva, it is I who thank you for nominating me for the two awards! I think your blog is great and I’m so honored that you enjoy mine. A toast to more great reading and sharing in 2012, and all the best to you in the New Year!
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Congratulations on your award. I’m new to the world of blogging and your site, but I’m really enjoying both. You’d feel right at home in our office, as I’ve decorated with orange accents. All the best to you in 2012.
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Thank you profiterolesandponytails! I’m finding that orange is much more popular than I ever imagined! I’ve been blogging for 6 months now and it’s been really fun getting to know other bloggers and read their posts. I’m glad to have “found” you through Eva, and look forward to reading more this year. Happy 2012 to you, too!
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Very well deserved award! I always love reading a bit more behind the bloggy curtain 🙂
How can you not like orange? Especially a funky retro orange. It is a happy colour indeed.
Thank you for the lovely award too.
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Thank you for the compliment, cityhippy, and you are most welcome for the award! I hope your holidays have been grand and may your new year be filled with many happy times and some happy retro orange things, as well!
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Congrats and happy new year!! Always so much fun to learn more about fellow bloggers! I’ve enjoyed following along with you and thank you so much for the mention!! Looking forward to more of your posts and delicious recipes!!
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Thanks so much for following, and you’re most welcome for the mention! I’m looking forward to more of your delicious recipes in this fine new year, too.
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