Kicking *Craft* and Taking Names

The extremely pretty Sarah over at Craft n Clutter has officially made me blush.

After being awarded, herself, she selected Crafty Intentions as one of the blogs that inspire her with content. Thank you Sarah! I'm so pleased. I've only been at this for a while, and I'm typically a serial lurker. Talking about myself is often difficult - I'm iNtroverted! I'm venturing out of my comfort zone to publicly discuss the fact that I'm trying wear down the carpet on the left side of the elevator at work by shuffling back and forth on it whenever I'm alone in there. And I'm never sure whether it's interesting enough to show and tell about the fact that I can't. stop. making ice cream cone pincushions with candy colored sprinkles. Or that I toiled for 5 months on a skirt worthy of being constantly compared to "Joseph's technicolor dream coat". It feels good to be validated.

I marvel daily at the creativity, wit, strength and intelligence displayed by the bloggers I read. I'm inspired by so many - I can't wait to share with you some of my current favorites that definitely deserve recognition.

1) I'll start with Jenny at All Sorts. I feel like a kid in a candy store when I open up her blog. First of all, she's an amazing children's book illustrator. Second of all, she does beautiful, adorable, perfect crafts. She has enormous attention to detail and she lives constantly in one of my favorite color schemes. In fact, I had just chosen the color scheme for my craft room when I found her blog - So I happen to think she has exquisite taste. If you don't read her already, go take a peek - I promise, you'll be hooked.

2) Next there's Ann Wood. Ann is an artist - she is popularly known for her little birds that are sold as Cake toppers I believe. I love her ships. She inspired me to do a series of my own floaty ships - sometime I'll post photos - in the mean time, go check out the source - but make sure you have tissues on hand for the inevitable drool.

3) For number three (my favorite number), we have Futuregirl. I LOVE her stuff. My favorite animal is the Octopus. Futuregirl makes the CUTEST felt octopi and other sea creatures. I am constantly impressed with her creativity in the design and interpretation of things.

4) For number four, I honor Erleperle. I love to drink in the cute - take one look at her site banner and you'll understand. I think we have a similar appetite for trims and ribbons. And It's because of this blog that I am inspired to start delving into cross stitch and embroidery.

5) Lastly, I'd like to share my crush on Audrey Kawasaki whose blog is at http://i-seldom-do.livejournal.com/. She's around my age and her career as a painter has sky rocketed off at what seems to be light speed. She dropped out of Pratt Institute to pursue her own agendas and things seem to keep getting better and better. She is an elusive blogger - but don't let that stop you from checking her out. She shows photos of works in progress and shares what's up next for her to do. The way she types makes me think of her a gentle delicate doe with a soft quiet voice, not much above a whisper. The women she paints are haunting - simultaneously innocent and erotic. I am blessed to have been been able to sign on to purchase one of a series of prints - "Lacey". I got number 100/150. I can't tell you how excited I am to finish the remodel of our upstairs hallway and get it framed so that I can hang her and see her eyes everyday.

Thank you again to Sarah at Craft n Clutter for thinking of me and thanks for this opportunity. I hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do.

In the event that these ladies want to give their own set of awards - I invite them to pick 5 blogs they feel deserve recognition for their creativity, design, fascinating content and contribution to the blogging community. The rules are simple: include the name of all five winners and a link to their blogs. Show the award and the name and link of the blog that has given you the award. And lastly, include these rules and link to the origin of this award which is the "Arte y Pico" blog.