I've never considered myself stylish...

...but wow! Someone else does!!! I was extremely flattered when Casey of loft and cottage gave me the Stylish Blogger Award. A fellow Bostonian, Casey lives in a hundred year old home and owns her own design firm. So, she's basically my hero. Casey does a wonderful job of mixing old and new, city with country. Her blog is a great resource, full of awesome DIY projects, beautiful inspiration photos, home tours and tips from experience. It means a lot to me that she thinks I'm "stylish". Thanks so much, Casey!

The first part of accepting this award is to share 7 things about myself with you. I found this part actually rather hard (I'm not that interesting?!), but here's what I came up with:

-I love being a stay/work-on-my-own-business at home mom. Previously, I worked as a 3d animator for a litigation consulting company in Boston for 8 years. I commuted an hour and 40 minutes each way on public transportation. I worked long hours, often weekends and holidays. But in March 2010, when I was 4 months pregnant, I got laid off. They cut our production team of 8 in half and only kept 4 people. I'm really glad I was not one of them, as I planned on quitting on my own sometime later that summer when I was 7 or 8 months pregnant (so that I could be a stay at home mom). This way I ended up being able to help take care of my aging grandmother for 3 months, I enjoyed the last few months of pregnancy without stressing out and I really had time to prepare. Sometimes things just happen for a reason:)

-I grew up in Pennsylvania, in a suburb outside of Philadelphia. I went to college (Syracuse) in upstate New York. I got my first job here in Massachusetts, which is where I met my husband, Paul. And now I'm stuck here;) I spend the weekends in the summer on Cape Cod.

-I love pasta. and seafood. and lattes. and Twizzlers. and any kind of bread. and chocolate jimmies (or do you say sprinkles?) and root beer. and Smores. and Reubens. and blueberry pancakes. I don't like peas. or turkey. or potatoes all that much.

-I love to sleep late. Like until 10 or 11 am. I would do this every day if I could. Don't get me wrong, I can get up early with the best of them - I've never once hit snooze on my alarm. And I'm all about living life to the fullest. But there's something so nice about waking up on your own, whenever you want, and falling back asleep again if you feel like it.

-I'm kind of weirded out by other people's messes. Sometimes I get skeevy at restaurants or hotels. I will not go to the bathroom in a hotel in the middle of the night without socks or shoes on. But my messes? They don't bother me at all. In fact, I'm pretty much a terrible cleaner. I'm lucky to have a husband who doesn't mind half-started projects all over the place. I use our dining room table as a catch all for things I don't know what to do with. I walk around with Maura's spit up all over my shirt all day and it doesn't bother me.

-I really miss doing community service. I tutored and volunteered at an inner city after school program all four years of college. Sophomore and junior year I spent the weeks of spring break building houses for Habitat for Humanity. I am Events Coordinator now for my neighborhood association, but its not the same thing.

-I'm book smart but not that much common sense smart.

The second part of this award is to spread the love. I'm cheating a bit - some of these blogs I discovered recently, some I've known about for awhile. Either way, they all deserve recognition. They're creative, inspiring, talented, helpful, dedicated and well...stylish!

Cozy. Cottage. Cute.
With Two Cats
Reckless Glamour
Good Life of Design
Decorica
Frugal with a Flourish
A Little Bird Told Me
Hirondelle Rustique
Room Rx
On My Agenda
Honey & Fitz

As part of accepting the award, they'll...
1. Thank and link back to the person that awarded them {me}. Sorry! I didn't make this part of the rules up, I swear!
2. Share seven things about themselves.
3. Pay it forward to 15 (or so) recently discovered bloggers.
4. Contact those bloggers about the award!

Congratulations, guys! And thanks again, Casey!!