Blog Love

I've been awarded the I Love Your Blog Award by my dear friend Darling Diva, also known as Nancy. I met Nancy through our love of a certain actor and a mutual friend. We were the three amigos getting lost in the wilds of Scotland! During those days, Nancy and I discovered we loved a lot of the same authors, and she has widened my horizons so much. She is my main source for new books to read as our tastes are quite in tune. She was the one who told me about Twilight. 'Nuff said. Nancy goes to tons of author talks and even romance writing conventions. She is always "in the know" about the latest hot thing in the kind of novels I devour. Her blog, The Things In Life That Make Me Happy, was also one my inspirations for starting my own blog. Thanks my Darling Diva!

The rules for this award are that you need to:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

These are my nominations:

I'll start with the personal, and end in the political!

1) Darling Diva's The Things in Life That Make Me Happy. Check out her favorite authors! If I'm the movie maven, then Nancy is the book maven.

2) Our mutual friend Kaione's blog The Art of Nothing. Kai is one of the most well-traveled friends I know, and she takes gorgeous pictures. I love that she takes pictures of the great meals she has on her trips, too! Makes me feel like I was there. She's also a damn fine video maker. Mwah!

3) Suburban Scrawl - Melissa and I know each other from synagogue, and someone there I think first told me about her blog. She's a tiara-wearing Martha Stewart wannabe. She's a mom with teenage sons, like me, and I just love reading about all the food she makes (with pictures!) like her international feast for the Olympics. She also has a snarky sense of humor in relating her adventures, and I love that. Here's a picture of the Aussie burger she made to watch Amazing Race. Check her blog for the ingredient list!


4)Living the American Dream - yet someone else from my synagogue that blogs. Hillary moved to my town from England over a year ago, and in addition to her blog writes a column in our local paper about her take on living in America. I just find her absolutely hilarious, and enjoy seeing my town through English eyes. Red Squirrels have nearly vanished in England, but she encountered some in her yard recently that stole her autumn decorations:

This morning I went out again. All but two of the gourds were gone. No signs of any vandalism, but knowing Naperville as I do, the neighbours are more likely to break in and redecorate your home than steal anything off the front porch.

4) List of the Day Blog - Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that List of the Day is my source for tons of very funny and bizarre posts. Mostly not safe for work, but a laugh riot. Today's post of a list of classic classified ads is just one example:


5) Katie MacAlister Katie MacAlister's Men In Kilts is one of my all time favorite romance novels. I don't visit her live journal every week, but if you need a Dishy Guy Monday pic, Katie will set you up. This week it's Angel:

Yes, she knows how to keep her readers happy.

6)From the personal to the political. My first blog read of every morning, and several times a day, in fact, is Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish at the Atlantic. He's conservative. He's gay. He's HIV postive. And he was one of the first conservatives to come out for Obama. You all know I'm a liberal, but it is fascinating to me to read about the disappointment of the last 8 years from someone who started as such an enthusiastic supporter. Not only does he have spot on political commentary and news, but he also posts bizarre mental health break stuff every day. Andrew keeps me in the know. The fact that in the midst of serious political commentary, he can post a silly 80's video convinced me that eclectic was the way to go in my own blog.

7) Talking Points Memo by Josh Larson has also become a must read every day. Josh has scooped the newspapers on several political stories this year, and I appreciate his biting wit, too. During the last debate I spent the evening flipping back and forth between Josh and Andrew's live blogging commentary.

For a movie maven, I haven't listed any movie blogs as my seven blog loves. I check several for movie news and opinions:

The Movie Blog
Movie Moron
We Are Movie Geeks
Spoutblog
Perez Hilton (of course)
and Variety now has several blogs on their site, as well as EW's Popwatch (love the Brit loving Bits 'n Bobs!).