Tag I'm It!! Twice.

Ok, so Gayle at The White House (the one in Fairbanks) tagged me several weeks ago with the Friends Award. Isn't it purty??
Well, actually it is and I'm sorry, Gayle, that it has taken me so long to respond. The following words came along with the Friends Award.

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers."
When you pass the award along please include these guidelines. I am to choose eight friends to share this with."

Ok, so what I'm going to do is name a few blogs that display friendship. And I'm going to break the rules--I'm not naming 8. My bloggy friend circle is rather small and I think many of the blogs I read have been named already by Gayle. But I still would like to bestow the Friends Award on them and if they wish to write about it--fantastic. If they wish to accept the award in silence--also fantastic.

The definition of self-aggrandizement is thus--"an act undertaken to increase your own power and influence or to draw attention to your own importance". I have got to say that most of the blogs I read totally lack self-aggrandizement. Here are a few of my favorite bloggers who totally lack self-aggrandizement. (Don't ya just love that word?)
#1.
ChrisC and JonJ at Our Vanilla Life. I discovered this blog through Tink. Chris and Jon live in Tampa and love the beach as much as I do. Lately they have been sharing pictures of some of the beaches around them. Gorgeous shots. ChrisC does amazing projects with shells and has a blog about that aspect of her life also.

#2. Kathleen at Southern Artistic Touch. I'm not sure how I discovered Kathleen. I actually think she discovered me first. Kathleen is a grandma, like me. Her blog is what I would describe as eclectic. She blogs about a little bit of everything--cooking, grandson, family, weather, food (oh my you should look at the pictures of her cooking!), etc. I really enjoy reading her blog and would love to sample some of her cooking. Did I mention she cooks!!!

#3. Mary the Teach at Work of the Poet I found this blog because she started the Ruby Tuesday meme. Again, she has lots of great posts but I love checking into her blog because she is forever changing the picture on her header and each and every one is different and beautiful. Go check her out and join in on the Ruby Tuesday meme. It's lots of fun.

Ok, I could name Tink and Tootie too but Gayle already got them. So, I won't do it again--but do go check out their blogs. I love them!! And I could name Gail at Shedding the Wolf but I won't. I should as pay back for tagging me in the next Tag I'm It that I got!! But go check her out too. I love it when she goes on a baking bender and posts pictures of the goodies she has baked.

Ok, so here is Tag #2--thanks to Gail mentioned above. The "rules" of this Tag are as follows: "I must take a self portrait of me, of course, and post it on my blog. Not just any old portrait, but a right here, right now, as I am portrait. No leaving the room to make myself beautimous, no primping or changing clothes. Nothing. Just right here, right now." Since I got this last night, I took the picture right away. The camera was sitting right beside me so I was still sitting at the computer when I took it. I HATE having my picture taken and to have to take one of myself is even worse!! But here you have it--in my full glory. And I'm not going to pass on this tag because I already tagged a bunch of people in this post and I don't want everyone and their brother to hate me. OK?

So are you ready for this???