Red letter day in the award department

My Skywatch post is on my Picture A Day blog.

I'm not really into tooting my own horn, but I wanted to share with you the fact that I've won an award from a fellow blogger. And not just one award, but two. I'm honored to receive these awards from my peers. Let me tell you a little bit about each one of them.

Today, I received the Arte y Pico award from Mental Pause Mama. I wasn't quite sure what this award entailed, although I've seen it on other blogs, so I visited the site and it kept going back to the google search page. If you visit and it starts jumping off, just quickly hit the stop key and you will be able to read about it.

The rules for this award:

1) Pick five (5) blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language,

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award which is here: "Arte y Pico".

My choices for this award are the 5 following blogs:

Noble Pig -- Since the beginning, I've loved her stories, her recipes, her knowledge of fine wine and she's a freakin hoot to boot!

Parvum Opus -- I first came across Olivia's site in late winter and have been a regular viewer ever since. Her photography just takes my breath away sometimes.

Wine on the Keyboard -- Can't get enough of Kacey. Have to read her every day. Something's always going on at her place, even if it's just shots of SuperGuy (her husband) fixing something in the backyard. Always a pleasure.

Quiet Life -- Donna Boucher is a contributor over at Pioneer Woman's Photography site, but I first saw her blog well before she started doing that. I find her easy to read, and her pictures are beautiful. Her favorite saying at the end of every post: "Encourage Each Other". I like that.

Little Red House -- I have been visiting Mary ever since I began blogging. She's interesting, she's from New Jersey, so we have that in common, and her love of antiques and dishes in particular is quite fetching. I also am in love with her new photography blog.

And now for the second award, the Brillante Weblog Award, which I received from Shimmy Mom!

The rules are that I have to award 7 other bloggers whose blogs I admire and that I visit frequently.

Each award winner must show the award and link seven nominated people from their own blog then post a message on the seven chosen blogs.

Blogs that I admire and visit frequently have been mentioned above as well, so here are 7 more:

Mental Pause Mama -- Gotta see the mama as much as I can. I love the way she loves her family, her friends, and she's been there from the beginning with me.

The Tombstone Chronicler -- Ditto Annie. I love that she enjoys graveyards and photographing them. She lives near Mental Pause and they're good friends. Some day I'd love to meet them!

Pioneer Woman -- Yeah, like I'm even gonna tell her about this. But I love her. Can't get enough.

Midlife by Farmlight -- Jeannelle's blog is amusing and about her life as a dairy farmer's wife in Iowa. Whatever catches her eye on any given day is what she writes and photographs. She's into the sax and the religion. It's an inside joke. Go to her site and visit her cows. They'll tell you all about it.

Georgia Rectors -- Posting about her life, her travels, her family and especially my favorite part, her photography. It's beautiful. It's enchanting. And she's become a new friend.

Fertile Mertile -- Ever since she won one of Pioneer Woman's Name That Photo contests, I've been visiting her site. She's real and she's honest. And I think she probably has the most photogenic children. No wait, it's not just that they're beautiful, she's a damn good photographer to boot.

Dlynz -- Dlynz takes lovely pictures and I enjoy visiting her site as much as I can. She's interesting and she's fun. She adores her family and I love her for it.