Stylish Blogger Award

 I've Been Awarded!

I'd like to thank  annielizabeth for bestowing me with the Stylish Blogger Award! What a nice person. Go to her blog here and see all the creative things she does. She runs a small retail/service business, she creates craft and art projects, talks about crochet, cooking, recipes, and organic gardening.

With this award, the following applies:
Post linking back to the person that gave you the award.
Share 7 random things about yourself.
Award 15 recently discovered bloggers.
Drop them a note, and tell them about it!

7 Random things about me:

1) I grew up in the deep south in a family of 5 children. I'm the middle child and was super shy. I live in Ohio now, but have lived in Texas (where I was born), Tennessee, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. (where I graduated) I have been across the Pacific ocean twice and my parents were missionaries in the Philippines and Lima Peru when I was young. I was taught the first grade in Spanish and my teacher couldn't even speak English.

2) When I was growing up my sisters and I had a singing group and we got paid to perform at events weekly and had our own radio show. We sang Folk songs and were called the "Harmony Folk Singers".  I have been performing solo for the past 30 yrs at festivals and fairs in a 3 state area. I sing songs of Karen Carpenter, Anne Murray, Amy Grant, Gloria Estafon, Linda Ronstadt, the Judds, Patsy Cline, and lots of others. I have a CD that will be for sale soon on my blog.

3) I manage a free clothing store that my church owns. It's huge and we give nice clothing away to around 1,000 individuals each year. I work there 1 day a week. In the past (before I started designing), I have been a Realtor, a supervisor for Christmas Around the World, and child care in my home, but the most important job was being a stay at home mom when my kids were growing up.

4) I have been crocheting for over 30 years and started designing professionally in 2005. I love it! I have authored Positively Crochet!, Crochet That Fits (voted "Best Crochet Pattern Book of 2008"), Crochet in Style and Crochet Young and Trendy. I also design for crochet magazines and some yarn companies. I love to cook and have a huge cookbook and crochet book collection.

5) I am a very positive person and try to look for the good in others. It's hard for me to be around negative people or people who complain constantly.

6) I was married for 38 years to the love of my life, until I found out one day that he was having an affair with another woman. This devastated me and it's been the worst time of my life. That was 3 yrs ago and I finally filed for divorce, which isn't final yet. I'm trying to live "one day at a time", and depend on God, friends and my family to get me through.

7) I have 3 grown children. They are: Brian (married to Anca from Romania), Jamie (married to Virgil, Anca's brother, from Romania), and Tracy (married to Ashley from Nashville).
They have given me 5 precious grandchildren! (Jade, (age 9) Chloe (age 7) Sophia (age 7) Coen (the only boy-age 4) and Amelie (age 16 months) They are double first cousins!


15 recently discovered blogs. They are in no particular order:

I'll have to come back and add these blogs when I have more time! If anyone has suggestions please let me know.

 Have a wonderful day!

Mary Jane Hall