Friday’s Fave Five Blog Heaven

 

 

 

Friday again, time to share some of the good stuff from the past week. This is one of my favorite meme’s because it makes me look over my shoulder and realize just how happy I really am. I treasure all the good things, big or small.

It’s been a very busy week, I had quite a lot going on here a lot of it related to blogging!

1. I am writing this post using a new tool, and I love it!! Robynn talked about Windows Live Writer in this  post. Robynn in her turn had read about it here.  I got very curious, so I downloaded it, and gave it a try. It is great, indeed it is! I can add special effects on my pictures, crop them, add a watermark , tilt them if I want to, change them into a black and white or a sepia, anything …  It is AMAZING , I already showed some of the features in yesterday’s post.
   Only one click and I can insert emoticons, Wikipedia links, quotes, tables, maps, tags, video’s and all kinds of lovely features. 
   No need to be a geek to be able to work it all out, because it’s very user friendly. If I can do it, so can everyone else!
   I’m in blog heaven. I AM!
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. On Sunday there was a meet up with some Belgian bloggers. My friend Nana and my sister did one hell of a job organizing a get together and it was a big success. It was great to meet the people behind the blogs and to finally be able to put a face on a nickname. Some of the people I had already met in real life, some of them were new faces. I guess I have known it for a while now but still I find it odd how familiar they all are. It felt like catching up with friends you have known for years but haven’t seen for a while .
   
   
3. Monday evening my sister and I were invited at my blogger friend Nana’s home. Nana and I did some shopping together earlier that day, and spent the rest of the afternoon cooking together.
   We made all kinds of finger food and tapas for us to enjoy with a glass of wine. My sister joined us after work. Three good friends, a giggle and a tear … girl’s stuff. Wonderful.
   
   
4. The Solidago  (Goldenrod)  is finally blooming on my patio. I planted it years ago, but I never seemed to be able to get flowers on it. They always seemed to dry up just before they bloomed, but this time I gave it some extra care, extra water and for the first time in years managed to see them bloom! Maybe it’s because of all the rain we had this week? Mèh! My husband installed a watering sprinkling system for the patio garden because it was so hot lately, and it has been raining ever since. DUH!! I want my sunshine back!
   
   
5. I got four awards since I came back from holiday! I’m getting so behind on them! I’m going to pass two of them on today, and do the other two in tomorrow’s post, so stay tuned!

This is the Bella Sinclair award Wanda gave me earlier this week.
This award was created by Ces in honor of her dear friend Bella to "celebrate art, inspiration, friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring".

I’m going to pass this award on to five blogger friends to thank them for their friendship, comments and inspiration. 
 

• Carletta at Carletta’s captures, she does a wonderful job at her photo blog. Did you know Carletta had a photo blog? Well, you do now, check it out!

• Kirsti at Mi Vida Ocupada, because of the wonderful job she does with the Photo Scavenger Hunt.
• Terri at Ways I see the World because of the inspiring photography, and because she has become a wonderful friend.
• Thom at Thom’s Place for Whatever, well … speaking of friends … he is a dear one, always ready to help me, and because I FINALLY have a chance to pass on an award he has not given to me first!
• Jacki at Moving at the Speed of Light she cooks, she travels, she photographs, she gives wonderful comments and she always has something interesting going on on her blog.
  
  
  

Next up is an award I received from Thom, the Humane Award:

“The Humane Award is in order to honor certain bloggers that I feel are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn’t for them, my site would just be an ordinary blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendships through the blog world.” Recipients of this award should write a post about it, linking to the person gifted the award, along with ten of their own nominees.”

 

Ten nominees! This is always the hard part! Thom has selected his entire blog roll   so it’s going to be hard to find ten people who did not already get this one! If you’ve already got it, well … I guess you deserved it twice? So here we go!

• Korie , AKA Lilacspecs: it’s because I “met”her I started blogging in English in the first place!
• Christine: Momentarily writing on the John Braun’s page of her husband to report on John’s recovery. She was one of the first friends I met in this blogosphere.
• Kim at Frogpondsrock: another friend since the beginning. She’s a great ceramist, she has a great sense of humor and her posts always come straight from the heart. She lives in beautiful Tasmania. Unfortunately has just lost her mother and this causes her immense pain. Hugs, Kim. xxx
• Melissa at Sunbonnet Cottage has just recently started a new blog called Summer Pudding, and I’m very much looking forward to reading her stories.
• Alida at Here we go again: another friend from the very beginning, sharing glimpses from her life, her kids and her family through her stories and her photo’s.
• Evelyn from Musings from the Redbellfarm: We “met” by accident because she found a picture on my blog of the house in Goult she had stayed in in Provence. What are the odds huh? We both share a love for Goult, Provence and France.
• Robynn at Robynn’s Ravings: I love her great sense of humor and she was the one introducing me to Windows Live Writer I talked about earlier.
• Wanda from Moments of mine: She lives in a little corner of paradise and I love visiting her blog and go out on walks with her, see and hear the things that she sees through the pictures and the videos she shares on her beautiful blog.
• Violetsky at Sightlines, again a beautiful blog in words and images.
• And finally, Libby from Neas’ Nuttiness: because just like mine, her days are always too short too!
  
  

So there, phewwww! I think I made it!
There is more where that came from! 

Find more Fave Five participants at Living to Tell the Story.
Have a great week!