Thank you so much to Diet Pulpit for this wonderful blog award for sharing beauty, love and joy. I’m honoured that Lady Rose thinks that I’ve added a bit of these virtues to the blogosphere.

There are so many great blogs out there, that choosing only five to pass this along to is not easy. Here are my five picks for blogs that I always enjoy reading and feel contribute a lot of love, creativity and joy to the blogosphere:

Living Within Samsara is both visually beautiful and full of posts that touch my heart.

Mags at Woo-Woo Wisdom writes wonderfully inspiring posts an science, psychics and where the twain shall meet.

I'm filled with good vibes every time I visit Kelly at her blog She Power. This is one lady who exudes positivity.

Lexi at Energies of Creation spreads a lot of love, beauty and joy in the world of blogs with her art and articles as well as hosting the Carnival of Creative Growth.

Caroline at Life's Little Wonders adds much to the world through her gorgeous paintings filled with love and joy.

It would be nice if you would pass this on to your choice of five blogs you feel contribute beauty, love and joy to the blogosphere.

I had been neglecting this blog because I was in the process of building up my other blog on living in the Seychelles. As is often the case with me, when I don't pay attention to something I lose interest. This blog is my first love though and I didn't want to just let it languish and die off. To revive my flagging interest I needed to do something new, so I decided I needed to implement a new design to get motivated again.

And it worked. My motivation is high again and I'm flooded with new ideas for articles.

Unfortunately, after spending a week looking for a new template and fiddling around with it, when I finally published it, I couldn't reinstall Haloscan. In other words, all the wonderful comments my readers had left (and they were often even more inspiring than the actual article!) got lost.

This is typical of every time I "rebirth" an aspect of my life. A sacrifice is required and then new things start flowing in. I often wish it didn't have to be like this, but it always seem to work that way for me.

I just have to believe the sacrifice was worth it...

Tania at Whole Living Today awarded me! Thank you! I feel truly honoured.



I'd like to pass them on to Sara at Crafts of Texture, Ivonnardona at Ivonnardona's Creations, Stephen at Birthing Your Dream and Christine at Live Passionately for providing lot's of inspiration and creativite ideas.

I've got the flu and was feeling totally depressed about my blog. Here I was, busy blogging day after day, and, poor pathetic me, nobody cared. Nobody reacted to anything I wrote. Was I so boring, so uninteresting? Suddenly, in the clarity of fever, it dawned on me that maybe something was wrong with the system, whereupon I asked my daughter to send a test comment. This, of course, never arrived. Then I went to Haloscan and saw that there were loads of comments "pending my approval". This made my day! I am now smiling (albeit feverishly and manically). It just goes to show that sometimes you need to go searching actively for the good stuff. Thank you, everybody! I'll be responding tomorrow.

These sites are doing a wonderful job of getting indie crafters noticed by recommending products, designs and crafts from the independent sector.

Indie Quarter is a UK-based blog promoting independent designers, makers, artists and crafters. I especially like the "A day in the life of ..." series.

Anything Indie is run by a jewellery artist who clearly spends a lot of time looking for interesting artisans on the internet and getting them noticed.

Indie Love The title says it all ... I love her enthusiastic style.

MissMalaprop.com No malapropriasms on her site at all, just great reviews. MissMalaprop is also interested in eco-friendly and sustainable products and ideas, a view that I share.

Pretty Crafty Thing promises sensory overload and certainly delivers.

Please visit the wonderful blogs and support indie artisans.

I’ve been tagged by Tania at Whole Living Today. Hmm, seven random or weird facts about me…

• I will do all sorts of DIY home improvements, but refuse to use power tools. That's what brothers and boyfriends are for ...
• In 2005, I finally visited Venice. I stopped short at taking a singing gondola, but otherwise it was everything I had imagined.
• I love Bollywood movies. Whenever I'm feeling a bit low, I'll watch a Shah Rukh Khan DVD and my heart starts soaring again.
• I grew up with loving parents, good feedback at school and plenty of friends. Yet I thought I was bad and the black sheep of the family. Can there be too much positive feedback?
• I didn't know unicorns were mythical creatures until I was 23. I just thought they were extinct. Still not sure ...
• Many people have said I am like: Liza Minelli, Sophia Loren, Fran Drescher and Barbara Streisand. I'm still trying to see the common thread ???
• Although my housewifely skills are on the low side, I enjoy hanging up clothes. I find it quite relaxing.

Ok… consider yourself tagged:

• Lady Rose at Enchanted Crafts
  
• Andrea at Mind Body & Soul
  
• Chris at soupornuts.com
  
• Fallen Angel at Secret Monologues
  
• Cat at Cut Out + Keep
  
• Sage and Daisy
  
• Tamaryn at her page on Indiepublic
  

Now for the rules:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Post 7 random or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

This week's I've been browsing around looking for the best places in the blogosphere to find craft projects.

Craftzine blog features craft ideas and tutorials contributed by readers. I particularly love this one on what to do with plastic bags. I live in a developing country, where ecology isn't yet an issue to most people (aside from the marine life, that is). Whenever you buy anything, you are handed a plastic bag, even if you have your own bag and refuse one. I'll think I'll make myself a beach bag from this tutorial and try and pass on the idea.

Cut Out and Keep is a veritable treasure trove of funky modern crafts submitted by contributers in the indie crafting community. Many must sees and makes.

Whipup is a community of artists, crafters and makers sharing their passion for making stuff. Contributors are from all around the world and the diversity of craft projects is sheer amazing.

All About Jewellery Making is an independent blogger sharing her great craft tutorials on wire-wrapping, bead-weaving and other jewellery how tos.

You can find everything, but everything, you need to know and more about using wire in jewellery-making, including indepth tutorials with pictures at WigJig. This isn't really a blog, but a manufacturer's website, but the project intructions are too good not to pass on.

I wish you happy crafting!