Shiny Sweetness Abounds!

(local church pumpkin patch)

I am humbled by the sweetness that abounds within the bloggin community!  I am truly inspired by the bloggers that I have met, ones I follow daily and the blogs I pass through.  I am grateful for each one that stops in for a visit here and for those that take time out of their busy lives to leave me a comment.  I am amazed that I now have 72 people following my little blog!  I am honored that I've been mentioned on a few blogs too.

Jane over at This Week for Dinner liked one of my dinner menus, decided to try it and posted a linky mention to me on her menu.  Mine was a simple dinner idea where she has a beautiful blog full of amazing photos and scrumptious recipes!  So can you say Wow?!

A really thrifty Simple Savvy Girl gave me a shout out link at the end of September on her blog.  Which you should really check out.  She is taking a room a month and posting her makeover progress, plus frugal grocery shopping tips with recipes tossed in the mix. 

Never forget you DO inspire others with your words, your lives and the gazillion makeovers, make dos, tips, thoughts and constant blog sharing.  I know because:

One of my former students from church checked out my blog and made her own decor from an idea she ran across when blog hopping landed her at Shanty2Chic.  Paula shared the idea with her sisters one weekend recently and this is their handiwork.

Yesterday my co-worker's 20-something daughter (new mommie) called wanting to make sure she had prepared her baked apples correctly. Isn't that too cute?  Today she called to inform me she was up til 1am hopping all over blog land.  Her mom came back from lunch today saying she spent the hour with her daughter reading my blog.  Now the mom and daughter team are working up a blog of their own!  I'm so excited for them!  They are the sweetest duo EVER. 

Then there is bloggy LOVE.  I found out yesterday that I won a set of gorgeous placemats from Dawn over at Cottage State of Mind.  Those pretty pears will soon be on their way to me!  I'm sure they will make their way into an upcoming tablescape.  I'm thrilled!  Plus when Dawn announced her 3 winners (yep she knows how to do a giveaway!), she wrote the sweetest blog review for each of us.  Be sure to drop by her place as she is a frugal thrifter that loves antique sales and markets.  You'll love all the pretty finds she comes across on her adventures.

My shiny shout out today is going to Jen over at Beauty and Bedlam.  Jen does it ALL!  She is a mom to 5, a frugal fashionista, an expert thrift store shopper, a menu planning cooking extraordinaire and trash to treasure makeover queen.  Not only that she is sweet and down home as apple pie.  She constantly amazes me with almost impossible feats of organization by keeping up with a popular blog, tweets and comments along with being the mommy, house manager and wife.  This woman can dress like she's straight off a Paris runway with clothes from the Goodwill!

Jen encouraged me to take a double look while I've been on my yard sale, Goodwill, junk store adventures.  Here is the result!  I'm NOT too chicken to say this hippie cool vest cost me 50 cents! and totally makes me look rad and hip in my 40-something years.  ;-)  Thanks Jen!  Hope I did you proud with this one!

This photo was taken this past weekend at a local Fine Arts Fest held outside our local Cultural Arts Center.  I was so feeling all artist like in my old tie dye shirt, bell bottom Levis($10.99 from Ross) and my hip 50 cent vest.  The ladies at the local Creative Writing booth mistaken me for a famous writer, asked me if I am a writer.  Little do they know I AM and to top it off I'm also "published" with a bonifide following of 72!  ;-)  Shine on Ladies!