BLOG 5 Awards!

And now on to the 5 awards that Cynthia from Antiquity Travelers has created.

(If you don't know what I am talking about, read my previous post here)

The first one is The Artistic Award: For a blogger whose work (artistic talent) is consistently beautiful

This goes without any hesitation or second thought to Priya of The Plum Tree. I "know" her for what seems like the longest time. Ah-mazing artist!
Each and every illustration she has done is so very striking...it will stay in your mind for a long long time.She is one very spunky, fearless woman, with a sweet, tender heart, and a weakness for chocolate.
She loves to explore the city of Bengaluru at the crack of dawn and creates pictures that give a completely new view of the city.
Here's one of my recent favorites...isn't he gorgeous! You need to click on the picture to see those intense eyes!

The next award is the Style Award: A blog that uses style to inspire, a blog that is photographically beautiful.

This was a tough one for me to pick, because most blogger do take a lot of care and effort into their photographs. I went through quite a few blogs and settled on this one: Prerna of Indian Simmer

I have been following her for a while now, but I don't think she knows that! Yeah, have not commented much there. She is an awesome cook, and she says three things led her to that: circumstance, lack of help and hunger! Her two moms (hers and her husband's) helped her along the way. She is also a really good photographer, and I think that happened when she had her baby. Here's one of her mouth-watering dishes...Lamb Kofta Curry, I don't eat lamb, but this makes me want to!

Next up is the Journalistic Award: A blog that is well written, informative and inspires discussion.

The winner for this one is:
Galen of 10 Steps To Finding Your Happy Place (And Staying There)
An awesome human being, who has found her happy place after a lot of ups and downs, and is brave enough to share it with us. I interacted with Galen during some troubled times I had, and am really glad I found her. Her blog has been so successful, she recently published her book! And she is donating all the proceeds from the book. Here is her post with details about the book: http://10stepstofindingyourhappyplace.blogspot.com/2012/09/book-and-other-news.html

I am having a hard time picking a favorite post, each one of them is suited to some situation or another. All are extremely helpful!

And then we have the Educator Award: A blogger providing great, usable tutorials that are easy to follow. This one goes to Mortira of Inspirational Beading.

She creates the most fabulous jewelry designer, focusing a lot of bead weaving. But more than that, she is an extremely generous artist, who has shared some great tutorials...for free!
Here's some of the gorgeous work you can learn from her:

Graduated Herringbone "Bobble" Rope

And finally we have the Newbie Award: A favorite new blog (less than 100 followers, blogging less than one year).
When I saw this award, I knew who would get it right away! My dear dear Monique of  A Half-Baked Notion.

Monique started her blog in July 2012, as a birthday gift to herself. Monique, good choice of gift, girl, because we get to benefit from it too!
When I started following her blog, I had no idea she was this green! She has a wonderful way with words (she says she loves to learn new languages, and I have suggested a Rosetta Stone for a different language each year as a birthday gift from now on, since she already has the best gift ever this year ;-)

She loves to play with clay, and this is my favorite creation of hers! She made a map of the world! Nothing less than the globe for this one! Love you to bits, Mon!

So these are my favorite bloggers....some of them.

THE BLOG HOP RULES: there are no rules, but we do have some suggestions. These awards were designed to point out some of the great blogs out there. And you can choose to pass on your award to as few, or as many as you like. So if you've been tapped on the shoulder and given one of these awards, we would love to see you display it proudly on your blog. Join the blog hop and show off that lovely blog of yours. We would, of course, love to hear why you like to blog, and why you chose a fellow blogger for an award. So let's get hopping!