Beautiful Blogger Award

I am so excited & honored to have been nominated by Heather over at Sewing on Pins. I love reading the Beautiful Blogger Award posts & I'm excited to share my own. The rules are simple: List 10 things about yourself (harder than it sounds!) and pass the award on (which is kinda tough, since a good many of the blogs I read have already been awarded). Here goes. I warn you now, this will probably contain a lot of motherhood related things. :)

1. Prior to becoming a Stay at Home Mom, I worked for 3 years as a loan officer & loved it. I never intended to go into the financial field, but started out as a teller & within 6 months my supervisors were 'grooming' me for the banker position. I loved it. And maybe someday I'll go back. Maybe.

2. I love books. When I wanted to start sewing, that's the first thing I did. Bought books. When I was single & thought I needed a puppy-I bought a book. And promptly decided that a puppy was SO out of my league. Unfortunately, my town's library is really, really lame but I do use Paperback Swap occasionally. I rarely re-read my fiction books, but I have been known to read The Outsiders & The Prince of Tides numerous times.

3. I don't celebrate Christmas, birthdays, Easter, Halloween...anything, really. As a Christian I find the pagan roots to these holidays inappropriate & have chosen not to participate in them :). I do observe the Memorial of Christ's death, as Jesus commanded at Luke 22:19

Shawn & I moments after his birth

4. I gave birth to both my babies naturally. I was terrified of going through a C section & research indicates that many forms of pain relief increase the risk of one, so I hoped to do without it, and it's a good thing because I was already dilated to a 9 by the time I got to the hospital with my son. There wasn't time for any meds by then. And, yes. I do think I deserve a medal. I think they should be standard protocol for all women who just gave birth--no matter the form.

5. I've lived in the same town my whole life. It's a teeny, tiny town. Population 1730 as of 2000. It's the kind of place where people still smile & say hello when you pass them on the street. As a teenager, I swore I would leave & never come back. But now, it really is a good place to raise my children.

6. When I was 17 I spent 3 weeks traveling Europe as a Student Ambassador for People to People. I saw the Eiffel Tower, Michelangelo's David, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sistine Chapel, the Roman Colosseum, the Louvre (including Mona Lisa), and some really, really hot Sicilian guys. Mmmmm.

7. My babies are 19 months apart in age. My son Shawn was born in November of 2008 & Laila arrived in June 2010. I was still breastfeeding Shawn (not exclusively, though, he was definitely eating solids regularly by then) when I got pregnant with Laila. I love having them so close in age; already they are inseparable. But, wow. My body needs a break from cooking & sustaining little lives. :)

8. I also enjoy digital scrap booking. I've been doing that for about a year, after giving up on paper scrapping. Doing a layout on paper took me forever & I hated pasting things down out of fear that I'd want to change it. Digi scrapping is much less pressure. :)
I (shamefully) have done very few pages since I started sewing, but I really enjoy it. (You can click on my layouts to take you to my gallery, where you can read the journaling)

9. Ooh. Here's a good one. (This '10 things' is tough!) My best friend (since the 6th grade!) & I married brothers. Yes. We are now sisters-in-law. She lives 15 minutes away & her youngest boy & my oldest boy are only 7 weeks apart in age! That's them up above--back when they were little & oh so sweet & cuddly. Sigh. Now they are simultaneously entering the "terrible twos"

10. I am a multi-tasker and a planner to a fault. It seems like I am never focused on one single thing. When I'm working on one project--I'm planning the next 3 (at least). It gets completely overwhelming & is not conducive to enjoying the moment. It is something I'm working on. :)

And now, for nominations. This was hard because (as I said) so many have already been awarded. But, here are my 2 nominations!!

Sewing By the Book has proved to be an excellent resource!! Amy reviews books, talks colorways, shares projects, her sewing space, how to make your very own, custom dress form...well, check it out for yourself! Amy, I can't wait to get to know you better!!

And also, Mikhaela at Polka Dot Overload. She's been blogging for awhile, but I just discovered her recently. She's another talented seamstress who even sewed herself some maternity clothes (and she knits!! Amazing!) Oh, and our baby girls were born within days of each other. How cool is that?!