ON BLOGGING ~ Worlds Collide...

Betty @ Betty's Books passed on the above blog award to us and we really are appreciative. She sent it to us all the way from Malaysia! It is called Neno's Award and what is unique is that not only does it dole out recognition, but it provides an avenue for explaining our love of blogging.

It serves as a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging while seeking the reasons why we all love blogging. The award requests that we share our reason(s) for blogging and pass it along to as many as we like.

This is our kind of award since we don't have to list a bunch of bloggers and move on - we can make it personal - not to mention it fit perfectly with the tone of our planned post.

We love blogging for the relationships it builds. I'm not talking about in the blogosphere. I'm talking about in our real world.

We learn things from fellow bloggers every day and we pass that knowledge along to our friends, family and co-workers face to face

When we come across a job post that sounds like it might suit a fellow blogger to a tee we pass along the ad to them, with the hope that it may improve their livelihoods or gets them on the path to a new dream

We introduce fellow bloggers to each other - through awards like this, through memes we host and in comments all over the place hoping that they make connections which otherwise might have taken longer to find

We try to provide basic blog tips on HTML or helpful sites to reduce frustration and save time for our fellow bloggers

We try to convert as many people as possible to Red Sox Nation - because that means there are less potential Yankee fans in the world which helps everyone really (kidding Otin!)

We get to walk where fellow bloggers have been - and I don't mean stalking - see what we mean below...

On our vacation last week to North Carolina we made a point to visit Asheville as we were staying about 45 minutes away. We wanted to get a taste of this place that Molly lived in very briefly as a young tot. But we also wanted to follow through on a comment made to fellow blogger Colleen @ Loose Leaf Notes to visit her son, Josh, at his pottery studio Clayspace which she posts about often. We had misplaced the scrap of paper with his studio's name on it and so we drove over to our best recollection of the general area of the city where it should be located. Molly recognized the building driving past it because of the images Colleen had shared on her blog. And so we walked in, introduced ourselves to Josh who showed us his cool clay moves and gave us a tour of the gallery. While in the gallery one little box shaped pot caught our eye:



This particular item struck a chord because it reminded us very much of fellow blogger Janet @ Fond of Snape who is always sharing wonderful photos of her dog, Wolf. This pottery was made by artist Melissa Weiss who happened to be in the studio that day making mugs for a local restaurant. Melissa's bio says in part:

"...I make pots to let the world disappear. Clay makes me feel calm, centered and right...I don't always know what those pots are until they come out of the kiln...It's a process of making from start to finish that I can never entirely control. This is where my motivation is found. I can make pots everyday for the rest of my life and each one will be a learning, growing experience. I make pots to use. Pots to contain food and drink and sometimes the occasional treasure."

And so we bought the little pottery box of Wolf. Not because we knew what kind of treasure to hide inside of it, but because the story behind the discovery of it was the best treasure of all. And without blogging, that wouldn't have happened.

We're passing this award along to Mark @ An Eerie Tapestry because he has truly built a relationship due in part to the blogging community. His posting has been less frequent lately because he is reveling in his girlfriend across the pond. Mark lives in England and his girlfriend is in Deleware. They met through NaNoWriMo. I can't think of a better recipient for the Neno Award.