Moi? A stylish blogger?

Grazie mille to UK Blogger Gail Crane, host of The Writing Bug for nominating me as a A Stylish Blogger. Here is my badge of honor, which I will proudly display in my sidebar shortly. 

I take this award as a high compliment since I put a lot of time (too much) into creating the look of my blog. I came upon the precise look I wanted for my opera blog, Operatoonity, within a few tries. But not this one. I changed colors and formats and backgrounds upteen gazillion times trying to hit upon something that was a visual expression of my personality.

I also think the Stylish Blogger designation is acknowledging a writing and/or personal style. Again, I try to approach each post as an opportunity to help the world understand who I am and what's important to me.

In accepting this award, I must tell you seven things about myself and nominate fifteen other bloggers. Fifteen? Oy!

Anyway, here's seven things about me you might not know:

1. I write a different sort of holiday newsletter each year in defiance of the dreaded stereotypical Christmas letter.

2. I aspire to domestic goddesshood but am forever falling short because of my concave cheese soufflés and general slovenliness though I have a few housekeeping idiosyncrasies--I don't like my husband Bill to put his sweaty knitted cap on my embossed Lenox vase, even if it's without posies.
3. I got down on my hands and knees and cleaned the kitchen floor with a toothbrush a week before my daughter was born. Yes, it has been cleaned since.
4. My husband is nicknamed Dangerman because he hates to take any kind of risk--physically or otherwise--and is constantly admonishing me to be careful and not to do anything stupid like fall off a sidewalk, which I have done.
5. In the pet department, I have an indoor cat Frodo who is more fierce than Scylla the six-headed monster from The Odyssey, a parade of outdoor cats by my basement window regularly, and many unexterminated pests who call our happy domicile home.
6. I sang the Beer Barrel Polka version of the Apostles' Creed during Communion Service in church last week--word! 



Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign

7. I live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where the prevailing wisdom embraced by my people is the adage, “What’s the use of being Pennsylvania Dutch if you can’t be dumb?”  

I will announce the fifteen other bloggers deserving of this award in the next post. I will be looking for people who are up-to-date posters and who have a certain . . . how do the French say it? Ah, yes--je ne sais quoi.