Lovely

Kaja of Sew Slowly and Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict nominated this little space for a Lovely Blog Award this past month.  Thank you to both of them for the honor!  

Truth be told, I accept it with a bit of guilt in that I haven't blogged all that regularly lately and, in fact, have been mulling over whether or not to continue blogging, or maybe just take a break.  But since I can't seem to make up my mind as yet, here we are, and I'm happy that you are still reading too!

As part of this Lovely Blog deal, I'm supposed to share seven things about myself.  Being all about the random, here are some off the top of my head, in no particular order:

1.  In addition to sewing, I love to cook and bake.  Baking doesn't always love me back, however.  Or perhaps more correctly, baking really loves my back...side. 

Chocolate Beet Cake

1a.  I eat, cook, and bake gluten-free and dairy-free (for almost nine years now, for health reasons).  This is not as hard as one might imagine, but I'd be kidding if I said I didn't miss ice cream and pizza and donuts from time to time.

1b.  I love to watch Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Also, anything involving Tony Bourdain.  Part of me wants to hang out in a dive kitchen with Guy Fieri, and the other part wants to sit at the table or bar with Tony Bourdain.  Kinda like I want to play fetch with the happy-go-lucky retriever and then chill with the attitudinous cat.

2.  I have some eclectic collections...Royal Haeger and other pottery, vintage paint-by-number paintings, and Pyrex, to name a few.

3.  Going hand-in-hand with #2, I love thrift shopping, but I've now reached the point in life where I want less stuff in the house, not more.  More often these days, I only window shop at thrift stores and leave the cool stuff for others to take home.  

(Aside:  I just got home from a thrift store where there was a well done vintage paint-by-number for about twice what I wanted to pay for it, so I left it there.  Regrets?  I have a few...)

3a.  Finding contemporary, vintage, and other interesting/useful fabric at the thrift store makes my day!  It also makes some of my quilts, like these:

4.  I am an ISTJ, if you're into the Myers-Briggs personality type thing, but with a more flexible, liberal, and less organized inclination than the description implies.

5.  Dark chocolate is one of life's necessities, in my opinion.  I eat a couple squares of it every day.

6.  Listening to podcasts is my thing lately.  Some favorites:  Serial (seriously? so good!), StartUp, Mystery Show, Reply All.  I also love story-focused programs on public radio like This American Life, and The Moth. 

7.  I started doing "yoga for dummies" in January.  For reals. Some of you may remember this post, and it's ironic that here I am a year later having actually learned a teensy bit of yoga and feeling better for it. Most nights will find me doing some gentle moves and stretches during The Tonight Show.  Jimmy Fallon cracks me up, so maybe it's not truly "legit" if I'm laughing, but it works for me!

"Woman Pulling Radishes" - Not a legitimate yoga move, but fine in the garden!

Now the last part of this blog award is nominating others.  There are so many beautiful blogs, it's hard to pick just a couple, but here goes:

Kevin the Quilter
Sophie Junction
Quilting in My Pyjamas
Patty the Quilt Lady
Three Old Keys

I hope you check out these lovely blogs and leave some comment love!  Thanks for visiting here today too!