Oh, Woe Is Me.......

Okay, so here's the story:
I had a totally hideous couple of days the middle of this week, culminating in an incredibly horrific Thursday when everything went wrong, my emotions were bouncing like a super ball and it was all I could do to keep it together at work before coming home and having a complete meltdown.

As of Sunday I was on a fabulous high (which made the fall so very far down!). I had bought stamps, made a card, entered challenges, tweaked my blog and basically had a wonderful time. I was ecstatic. Then I had a couple of yukky days at work (not my fault - the only silver lining).

To console myself, I went online to see if anyone had found my blog because of my challenge entries.  Although there was a jump in the number of hits, there were no comments - just a very depressing "0 comments" sitting mocking me at the bottom of my post. 

Then I found out that my card had won me a first place with Moving Along With The Times! Wheeeeeeeee! Things were looking up again.  But I still thought it was odd that no-one was leaving comments (have you worked out how slow I was being, yet?!)

It has taken me until today to find that part of the tinkering I did to my blog design means that I have to approve every comment (amazing that the click of a little button could have me so low, and the remedy is to click another button, but there you go). So instead of being unloved and lonely here, I in fact had more comments than I ever have before, all sitting and waiting patiently for me to post them up. What a fabulous pick me up! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am discovering that comments are comfort food to me. There is nothing better than when someone tells you they think what you're doing is worthwhile :) So thank you to all my comfort food contributors.

I also had a huge pick me up in the form of my buddy Kasey, who has been wonderful again and given me an(other) award (the Leibster Blog Award also came from her). This new one is the A Thing of Beauty Award and there are some terms that go with it.

I have to tell you 5 things about myself and then award it to 5 other people. So, I guess I'd best get on with it.

5 Things About Me:

1 I'm an Army brat who spent the first 15 years moving
2 I am addicted to Twinnings Blackcurrant Tea, which I drink out of a 500ml mug
3 I read almost anything I can get my hands on, but love dark fantasy, historical and alternative universe genres (am reading Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth", Robert Jordan's "Knife of Dreams" and Charlaine Harris' "Dead Reckoning" at the moment).
4 I love a wide range of music, but can't listen to it while I'm trying to concentrate on something else
5 I have been spending "date night" with Will watching Eureka - we're up to the beginning of the fourth season and neither of us are sure we like the twist in the plot.

As for the five people I'd like to give this award to:
1 Carole at Apples & Pears
2 Heather at Rica's Haven
3 Chrissie at Simply One of a Kind
4 Cheryl at Cottage Creations
5 Kitty at Kitty's Krafty Blog

Thanks for all the inspiration, girls!!!

Okay - so now I'm going to quickly put up another of my stash cards, then go off and find out what other challenges are out there that I can enter!  This is one I did for a friend's birthday:

The card recipe is as follows:

Copics: R00 - skin; R27 and R37 - red of dress and N2, N6 and N9 for the hair.

Wings were done in Twinkling H2O "Iridescent Blue".  The flowers and the red ribbon were from my stash, the bug ribbon is by Cardmaking for Connoisseurs, item "Trim - FNRR88".

The image is a digistamp from A Day for Daisies called "Bitsy Bug Rosa", the sentiment is a Just Johanna which I went looking for and can't find - has Just Johanna shut down???

I would like to enter it into the following challenges (wheeeeeee!):

Crafts And Me: Ribbon

Totally Stampalicious: Anything Goes

The Crazy Challenge: Ribbons

And that's all I've got for now (it's a pretty long post - I figured I'd let you go and get on with your weekend!)

Until next time,

Happy crafting!