Stylish Blogger Award

As my regular readers know, I have been in a little bit of a blogging slump lately, so I was honored and thrilled when Anna awarded me a Stylish Blogger Award. Anna is a very talented quilter who also resides in Southern California and I have been lucky enough to experience her work first hand through the Sewn Together Bee on Flickr. Over the past year I've got to work with some gorgeous fabrics thanks to her. Remember these blocks?

And she created these lovelies for Marc's Quilt...

Thank you Anna!

So the award comes with a few strings. First, I need to post seven random things about me. This should be easy, right?

1. I love my job (most of the time) but I do dream of living an alternate life. In that other world I would be traveling to developing nations doing relief work.

2. I spent 20 years working as an actor. I primarily worked in musical and classical theater and was trained briefly with the Royal National Theatre. My paychecks weren't large, but I did get paid.

3. After I graduated high school I took a year off before I went to college and traveled around the world with an international student organization called Up With People. It's a non-political, non-religious organization with the mission of building bridges of understanding between cultures. I traveled with a group of 150 people representing 32 different countries. We stayed with host families in each city that we visited as part of the cultural exchange. We also performed community service in every city.

4. Eighteen years later I still keep in touch with a majority of my cast from Up With People, in fact last summer the Scandanavians organized a 17 year reunion in Copenhagen and we had almost half of our cast attend. They are a part of my daily life as we are in constant contact vis email and Facebook. I truly think of them as part of my family.

5. I never thought I would get married. I didn't think it was important. Now, I've been married twice (to the same man). Once (legally) in Thailand in December and again in February here in California (to make the parental units happy).

6. I hate tomatoes with a passion. I can't stand it if raw tomatoes touch my sandwich. I hate the little gelatinous slime they leave in their wake. It's a texture thing and a flavor thing. I will eat ketchup, and spaghetti sauce BUT the sauce has to be pureed. Chunks of tomatoes in my sauce gross me out. I'll also imbibe in a Bloody Mary and I'll eat the pureed type of salsa. And I know it doesn't make any sense but there it is.

7. I was a vegetarian for 20 years. Now I love meat. The bloodier the better. It's all my husband's fault.

Now it's my turn to pass on the goodness to six deserving bloggers...

1) Natalie of Threaded Mess. This one isn't a shocker at all. I have been so fortunate to have met Natalie through the blogosphere. She is incredibly talented and more people should know about her. Even before she was my secret partner in the scrappy pincushion swap last fall I was a fan of her work. Since then I've been lucky enough to work with her in the Hope Circle of the do. Good Stitches Bee and in A Dozen Quilters Bee.

2) Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations. I first came across Megan's blog because she was my secret partner in the Spicing Up the Kitchen swap. Megan made the most beautiful apron for me. I was so impressed and surprised that I hadn't come across her creations sooner. She makes beautiful things.

3) Darci of Stitches and Scissors is yet another blogger I didn't have the pleasure of discovering until her super cute table runner ended up on my doorstep in the SavVy Seasons Swap. Darci is also one of the hosts of the Spicing Up the Kitchen Swap on Flickr.

I know that a lot of these are former swap partners, but I have been introduced to some very talented people thanks to swaps.

4) Up next is Bek from Dreamfctry. Again, I discovered her through a swap. Bek's creating over in Australia and she made me some incredible placemats and coasters that even my picky husband adores.

5) Jewel of the Intrepid Thread. I don't exactly know how I stumbled across Julie's blog but I've been following her for quite a while and I really like her style. Now, I'm lucky enough to be working with her on her Round Robin. I was so excited when I saw her call for quilters to sew with her and I jumped on the opportunity.

6) Esch House Quilts. I have been following her blog for quite some time now. I really admire her beautiful work. She's definitely worth checking out!