You may be aware that I also write posts over at GO! Smell the Flowers blog and right now, they are running the Blog Idol contest. Mike French (whom I am racing for comments to posts, LOL) has very cleverly put this visual together to get the ball rolling. Please fave this and leave a comment to get it out there to the world.

1) Describe yourself in less than 20 words.
2) Details of your blogs URL and why you bother.
3) Why GO! Smell the flowers appeals to you.
4) What you can bring to the community.
5) What you’d like from the community.

Whether you have a story to tell, or you want exposure to your business, or you have had a book published, or are travelling the world blogging as you go, or not and want to start blogging… whether you have something to teach or even having a voice wanting to be heard… whatever your circumstances and expertise, Flowers Wants YOU!!

The contest closes on the 18th of March so get on over there and leave your details. One thing before you do… there are thorns as well as flowers in the garden so make sure to have a good look around to see your way through them Most of all, have fun and tell all your friends!

Have you ever wanted to know more about the authors of blogs and some random facts about them? Well, just for fun, I thought I would take up the challenge from the gorgeous Diane over at Much of a Muchness. Diane has a great blog about Handmade Books and Design for all you crafty people out there and her books are displayed on each post. She uses the most stunning array of papers to cover her books and well worth taking the time to visit.

So here are seven random facts about me that I don’t think I have ever shared here before…

1. I come from a musical family… both my brothers have played in bands and my parents and sister all sing and play instruments too. When I was seven years old, I took up piano lessons and continued for about 12 years. Although I had all those lessons, I haven’t played for a very long time and it’s not high on the list of my priorities these days. If you follow the link to the band, there is a playlist from their last gig where I was asked to join the band on stage and play the tambourine along to the song Black Betty. Imagine!!

2. I have learned how to draw charts of stocks using candlestick bars and can read a chart and follow patterns. Interestingly enough, if you take 5 years of monthly charts of a very well established stock and lay them along side each other, you will see history repeating itself. These days I use software to look at my charts so although the drawing days have gone, the lesson came in very handy indeed.

3. You may have read that I am an adrenalin junkie and I am also addicted to chocolate and cashew nuts… can’t get enough and them and it has to be the right kind of chocolate like Cadbury’s or Lindt… yummy!

4. Unlike Diane, if you read her post, she stated that she cannot reverse park and is having lessons from her son. I on the other hand have it down pat as my driving instructor made sure I did before she would let me go and sit my driving test. Thanks Sabina (my instructor) who also taught 3 of my cousins, my mum and one of my brothers to drive.

5. My most favourite movie of all time is ET. I remember seeing it for the first time when I was about 14 years young and just could not stop crying at the end. I have always had a fascination with Aliens and believe that they are around, just watching us humans and sitting back laughing most of the time. What do you think?

6. Although I love technology, it takes me some time to nut out new software and learn how to use it. I do not like reading instructions and much prefer to go about clicking this and that until I find a way that suits my way of doing things. (Truth be told, most of the time, I can’t follow the instructions!) I do get it after a while. My iPod is great for transferring music and audiobooks or podcasts onto and I wouldn’t be without my mobile broadband to check on things if I am away from my laptop.

7. I volunteer a little of my time online for the worthy cause Invisible Youth Network. Invisible Youth is an organization endeavoring to make a difference by providing human, material and monetary resources for abused, homeless and at risk youth and related programs. Russell Hartshaw who was once homeless himself, is the Chairman and Founder of this organisation. My efforts at recruiting have been very random of late and if you are interested in helping in some way, please do… either by raising awareness of the cause or donating to it if you so desire.

Now there weren’t any rules for this so I am not going to specifically tag anyone, and if you feel like sharing some facts about yourself, link to this so it can be tracked back to the original meme and I look forward to reading up about you.

Have fun!

Who else aside from me is still recovering from the whole holiday season? Here at our place, we are preparing to go away for a little R & R and keeping the kids entertained while I get things in order and keep up with all my favorite haunts and getting some work done is proving what else, but a challenge

Having said that, I wanted to update you on what has been happening in my cyberworld. I was pleasantly surprised and honored to be in amongst this list of bloggers awarded by the spunky Mauro of 1 Million Love Messages with this Inspiring Great Blog Award. The list of all those awarded blogs are included here and thank you Mauro for including me in this list.