One morning I was sleepily drinking my coffee and perusing one of my favorite blogs when I saw my name mentioned in a post. Christine of Patchwork Allsorts nominated 10 bloggers for the One Lovely Blog award, and I was one of them!

Although Christine and I have never met, she is one of the nicest people I know. She has a beautiful blog and her posts are unfailingly positive, uplifting, and inspiring. I love taking a peek into her life across the pond and imagine having tea with her while we look at her collection of craft and quilt books. Christine nominated other more worthy bloggers, and I am honored to be in their company. Be sure and check out her post to learn some very interesting details about her.

The purpose of this award is for bloggers to nominate fellow, mostly newer, bloggers that they wish to recognize. The goal is to bring attention to blogs that we think are ‘lovely’ and enjoy reading. Hopefully others will enjoy reading these blogs also. The nominated blogger is asked to thank the person who nominated them and link back to them in a post, share seven personal facts, and nominate 10 other bloggers for the award.

I will not be nominating any blogs, but you are invited and encouraged to click on the links to my favorite blogs in the right sidebar of this page, all of which deserve the Lovely Blog Award.

Here are seven facts about me:

1. I was born and raised in northeastern Oklahoma. The picture above is the farm my family moved to when I was 10. If you look closely you can see my pet chickens next to the barn. I lived in Oklahoma the first 29 years of my life, moved to Texas for 28 years, back to Oklahoma for seven years, and returned to Texas in 2012. The Road to Oklahoma is the name of my blog as well as a traditional quilt block and pretty much describes the journey of my life.

2. My husband and I met when we were 10, started “dating” at 14, married during our last year of college, and had our first child – a son – when we were 21. We had a daughter 5 years later. Our son and his wife, who live 6 miles from us, have our 3 grandchildren – a boy, 16, and two girls, 14 and 12. Our daughter married our son-in-law in January 2014, and they live near Dallas.

3. I have a degree in mathematics with a minor in history. My jobs have been secretary, administrative assistant, pastor’s assistant, data input, office manager, and most recently I had my own catering business. Now I am officially retired.

4. I am a trained storm spotter for the National Weather Service. I have been fascinated with weather since the age of 10. The stormier it is, the happier I am. I love lightning, thunderstorms, and supercells. The picture above is a funnel I photographed from my front porch when we lived in Edmond, Oklahoma.

5. My grandmothers were both quilters, and my mother sewed until I took over her sewing machine when I was a freshman in high school. I took a hand quilting class when I was 36 but didn’t get serious about it until I took a basic quilting class in 2010. Learning the entire process was so much fun, and now I can’t get enough of it. The photo above is of my Mom and me in 1975 discussing how to make curtains out of sheets while my Dad looks on. I was pregnant with my daughter. Don’t you love the 1970s clothes?

6. I have a dog and a cat. I am mainly a cat person and have had many sweet kitties in my life, most recently Katy, my fiesty little black cat. A neighbor found her up a tree on a busy street when she was about 6 weeks old, and I immediately adopted her. I met Buddy, a mix of bird dog, Dalmatian, and lab, in 2006 when he was a puppy at an adoption event for a rescue organization. When we walked by his cage he rolled onto his back and showed us his pink belly. I picked him up and that was that. My kids tell me that my pets have replaced them as my children.

7. My favorite pies are sour cherry (pictured above) and gooseberry. My Granny, the ultimate Pie Queen, used to make both kinds, but gooseberry was the most unique. She picked and canned her own wild gooseberries from Missouri, and the pies she made from them were mouth-watering. Although I watched her bake many times I never asked for her recipe, so I had to do a lot of tweaking until I was able to bake pies that closely resemble hers.

Thanks for taking the time to wade through all this!