Just Blown Away

I'm just blown away on a Saturday morning. Just checking my emails and discovered I received a sweet award from Belinda Keller.  This is my first award ever. I've seen awards on other blogs but I've never had one. Didn't know what you had to do to get one either. She's such a sweetie to pass this award along to me. I'm very flattered to say the least.

Thanks so much Belinda. Visit her blog today and say hi.

When you receive this award you are to pay it forward and follow these rules:

1) thank the person who gave this award to me and link it back to their blog

2) share 8 things about myself

3) pass this award to 8 other individuals that I have recently discovered

4) leave a comment so that they can pass along the recognition!

So lets see 8 things about me........

1. Well.. tomorrow (Feb. 20) is my birthday. I get to do a lot of celebrating too. It started a week ago when my sweet hubby bought me an iPhone 4. It's my first smart phone and I'm loving it so far. 
2. I love gadgets and gizmos. (Such as the iPhone) but I love my Cricut; sewing machine; AccuQuilt Go; Big Shot die cutter; Bind-it-all; Martha Stewart score board; hundreds of markers; tons of paper; and a few thousand rubber stamps. I also love organizing cubes, boxes, crates and anything that might help me to be more organized.
3. I recently rejoined Stampin'UP! for the third time. The first time was in 1997 and was with them for a number of years. They really do have the best products around.
4. I was a sign-painter for about 18 years. I painted signs after working full time and would sometimes put the sign in front of a gas heater to get it to dry faster so I could paint the other side. Geeze... How did I ever live through that?
5. I'm still living my dream of my new craft house "Strawberry Studio" that we built in the summer of 2009. I pinch myself  everyday because it is truly a dream-come-true. I noticed yesterday when I walked in it still smelled like a newly built house. It is full of recycled/re-purposed items that didn't cost a lot of money.
6. I started sewing when I was about 10-years-old. Sewed through a finger back then and learned fast not to do that again. Made a lot of my clothes in those days because I was skinny as a stick and a straight-shirt dress was in style.
7. I started painting and drawing when I was big enough to hold a pencil. In  the first grade my teacher popped my hand with a ruler because I was drawing instead of listening. Oops... She just didn't know I needed the practice.
8. My husband and I took in a stray cat about a year and a half ago. He was nearly a year old then and we love him to pieces. His name is Mr. Whiskers and he is very spoiled. This may not seem like anything special, but my husband hated cats and we both just never wanted pets because we worked so much. Now I just work part-time (after eight years of a one-hour commute one way) I retired from that job.

PHEW! I hope that wasn't  TMI! (Too Much  Information)
My turn to 'Pay it forward' goes to some of my favorite places to visit. You will too like them too. They are in no particular order as they are all wonderful.

1. Jo Wilson
2. Diana Gibbs
3. Lynn Pratt
4. Trena Brannon
5. Denise Hill
6. Melanie
7. Mary Fish
8. Gretchen  Barron

Thanks again Belinda for including me in your choices for the Stylish Blogger Award.

Have a happy Saturday everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.

Debbie