Awards and tagged

I've been given so many awards and tags in the last couple weeks so I've put them all together here. (I apologize if I missed any) I'm not going to pass these on because this took long enough to just put this together!

First off...I was tagged by Suzann~Lavender and Roses to show you five things I love about my state, the state of California. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area so I'm going to only focus on Northern California. There a so many things I love about this area that it was hard to just pick five (so I didn't)!

1. The Golden Gate Bridge ~ I've driven across it so many times in my life but I still feel in awe every time! It's a must see if you ever come to California!

2. The Northern California Wine Country is another wonderful thing about living here. It's fun to drive to Napa but there are also some great wineries just minutes from where I live. Some of the best dates I ever had were wine tasting and picnics at the winery.


3. Another great thing about living here is visiting Carmel by the Sea! It's such a beautiful place and I feel very fortunate to live close enough to visit easily. It's a little over an hour away.

4. We don't get snow where I live but if we drive a few hours to Lake Tahoe there is lots of snow and great skiing. I used to ski a lot when I was younger. I'm not sure how my knees could handle it now!

5. The produce here is better than anywhere I've visited. Our farmer's markets are every weekend, year round! I think a lot of people would be surprised by how much farm land is still here in California. Most of the central valley is still agricultural.

That's my 5 but I feel like I need to mention a few more great things about Northern California:

• My daughter's favorite thing is the sourdough bread which is the real San Francisco treat!


• Great Seafood ~ Eating fresh crab, mussels, oysters and salmon (with sourdough bread of course)!


• The beaches ~ It's 30 minute drive over the hill for me but I love to go to just smell the fresh ocean air!


• The weather ~ I think most people move here for that.


• High Tech Jobs ~ Most of the time in Silicon Valley there are plenty of jobs. You can work at great places like Yahoo, Google, eBay...


• Cultural Diversity ~ I like living in a place were cultural diversity is accepted and appreciated. It's not perfect here but I think people are a lot more accepting of others here.

• Shopping~there are so many great shops and flea markets here.

I could go on and on, I think most people are proud of the state they live in so I'm sure you can understand.

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This award is from Lady Katherine Tea Parlor.

Thank you Katherine for thinking of me!!

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I got this award from Mandii ~ Shabby Vintage Dreams (since her blog is for invited readers only now, I won't put a link to her)

I got the same award from Victoria~Auction Girl Vintage but with these rules:

Answer the following questions with one word answers ... then pass it on to 7 other bloggers

1. Where is your cell phone? car

2. Where is your significant other? who?

3. Your hair color? red

4. Your mother? Martha

5. Your father? Jack

6. Your favorite thing? Love

7. Your dream last night? weird

8. Your dream/goal? Success

9. The room you're in? Living room

10. Your hobby? decorating

11. Your fear? spiders

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy

13. Where were you last night? home

14. What you're not? negative

15. One of your wish list items? cottage

16. Where you grew up? California

17. The last thing you did? awoke

18. What are you wearing? PJs

19. Your tv? Sony

20. Your pet? Beau

21. Your computer? MacBook

22. Your mood? Good

23. Missing someone? Vince

24. Your car? Camaro

25. Something you're not wearing? shoes

26. Favorite store? Marshalls

27. Your summer? working

28. Love someone? Yes

29. Your favorite color? Blue

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? yesterday (tears of joy)

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I also got tagged by Debi~Life in my Studio

Here are the rules to tag by:
1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random/weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Okay, here are 7 random facts about me:

1. I'm sort of shy when I'm first introduced to people by mutual friends but I can easily talk to strangers while standing in line anywhere! I don't know why I'm like that!

2. I'm really good at using PowerPoint, which comes in handy since I have to use it for my job.

3. I'm really bad at math! Really, really bad!

4. I believe in the power of positive thinking!

5. I have a hard time sitting still for very long.

6. I like anchovies on my pizza but I never get them because no one else likes them!

7. I could never live in a big city or in the country....I'm a suburb type of person.

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I was given the award above by Joanne~My Little Cottage in the Making. Thank you Joanne!

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I really apologize for not forwarding all these on but I find it really hard to single out bloggers...I don't want anyone to feel left out so I won't pick anyone!

Also, I've been getting so many emails lately and I've been trying my best to keep up with them but I'm finding it very difficult. If you sent me an email and I haven't responded, I'm so sorry! I've also had a lot of my emails going directly into my SPAM folder so I'm having to spend extra time looking through those each day.