Today is my BLOG-O-VERSARY! Exactly One Year Ago...

...I timidly ventured forth on this blogging adventure. Me. Techno-phobic me. I thought I'd just try it for awhile and really, what's the worse that could happen? I'd hate it, you'd hate it and that would be that. But wonder of wonders, I didn't hate it and you didn't seem to and here we are one year later. Believe me when I tell you that no one is more surprised than yours truly.

Truth to tell, it's been lots of hard but enjoyable work dosed occasionally with bouts of self-doubt and second-guessing. But on the whole I'd say, yeah, it's been a great deal of fun. My criteria is: the moment it stops being fun, I stop. So far, so good.

I can hardly believe all the people I've 'met' here and on the other blogs I frequent. Bloggers from around the world have chimed in now and then and left the most positive comments. Who knew there were this many people who love books and movies and art as much as I do AND are willing to chat about it with a complete stranger? Except I don't feel as if we're strangers anymore. This all works because of you, my friends.

Well, to commemorate this Official Super-Duper Blog-O-Versary I knew I had to do something ultra-special. So, there's a Give-A-Way coming up. This will be my first - my way of thanking those of you (and you know who you are!) who've hung in there with me and stopped by to say hello and leave a comment or two over this past year.

As you may know I'm a watercolor artist (it's the way I earned my living for over 30 years working mostly on childrens' projects) - although since going mano-a-mano with breast cancer a couple of years ago, I've been more or less taking it slow and easy. Haven't done much work at all lately. My energy level is currently down the tubes, so any work takes forever. But I knew I wanted to do something special to share my Blog-O-Versary with you, and here we are.

Long story short: I'm working on a bright and summery watercolor, having it scanned first by my long suffering agent (so I can include it in my portfolio), then I'll post a pix of it here within the next week or so. This post is by way of advance notice.

My Give-A-Way is this:

Anyone who leaves a comment either today or when the pix of the painting is posted will be eligible to win the actual matted 8" x 10" watercolor.

What will happen is this: I'll collect any names from today's post and the up-coming one (you are welcome to post comments on both posts if you like) and write them on bits of paper, then - you guessed it - I'll put them in a hat, close my eyes and pick one. You'll have to trust me on this. I don't do technical mumbo-jumbo so having the name picked by that tricky little thing I've seen on other blogs is not anything I want to tackle. But I'll be scrupulously fair. And who knows maybe no one will want it and I'll get to keep it for myself. (No, my name won't be entered into the mix. I'm the default winner. HA!)

I will pick the winner on Friday, August 5th and announce it here. Then the winner will have to email me an address.

I know, I know, this is kind of a pig in a poke kind of thing at the moment. ( I haven't replaced my camera yet.) But hey, it's free. And I wanted to make sure and note the actual day when I first began blogging and that day happens to have been July 18th, 2010. My picture's not quite finished yet but I'm plugging right along. Take a chance. I guarantee you'll like the thing once you see it probably towards the end of next week. If you want to see the sort of work I do look at the little dancing mole inside the wreath on my left hand side bar. Where it says: I'm A Happy Blogger. Truer words were never spoken by the way.

Please Note: Unfortunately (and I truly am sorry about this), I can only offer this to USA residents (excluding Hawaii and Alaska). The expense to send something like this overseas is prohibitive.

This painting of 'me' and my elderly dog Beemer who passed away a few years ago, is what I use as my profile pix. Just thought I'd throw it in here for those of you who hadn't noticed it and are not familiar with my work. You didn't know I had butterfly wings - did you?

It just occurred to me to add this: If some of you would rather not be included in the drawing due to privacy reasons, please email me and I won't include your name in the final drawing.

My email address is included in my profile badge on the right side bar.