Was it the Sauerkraut?

I think Suzy is right about the luck that will be bestowed upon those eating kraut at the new year. Two lucky things happened to me yesterday.



I won a beautiful rooster bowl from Laurie at Bargain Hunting with Laurie. As you all know I am a chicken/rooster collector from way back so I was thrilled to win her giveaway. Click this sentence to see the rooster bowl. I just recently discovered Laurie's blog. We share a table setting/ dish collecting hobby. So a big thank you to Laurie and her husband, who was the one who drew my name. Laurie has a fun style of writing and sharing the bargains she has discovered. If you are out surfing, please pay her a visit. I think you will enjoy her blog.


Some of you have been to my tablescaping blog where I indulge in my passion for setting tables. There has been just a tiny little following for that blog. Lately I have had the urge to set tables so I have been putting a lot more time into posting there.

Yesterday I went to check its stats and holy cow, I had 3,080 visitors yesterday and already today 1,573! Whoaa, where are they all coming from!? I started to read some comments and people were congratulating me for being a "Blog of Note". I vaguely remembered seeing that phrase someplace. Finally I remembered where--at the Blogger dashboard. They had selected my lowly little blog as a blog of the day! I have no idea how they are selected (probably just a random thing), but I must admit I was pretty thrilled to see Tablescaping as the first selection for the day.

So go eat some sauerkraut. I am running out to buy lottery tickets before my kraut luck runs out!

Please STOP the Blog "Awards"

I feel so good when someone feels something I have posted has inspired them enough to tell others about my blog. As humans, most of us can never get enough appreciative comments and I am so grateful to all who have good feelings to share about my blog.

You may remember a few posts ago that I acknowledged a couple of the current popular blogger awards I was given. It really felt good that a new reader had thought enough about me to give public accolades. I felt honored...............and very conflicted because I have strong feelings about the whole award concept.

You may have also noticed that I did not offer the awards to 5 other blogs like I was supposed to. I have wrestled with this decision for over a week. How could I deal with my feelings gracefully without offending the giver? I decided to wimp out and say nothing negative at all. It seems blogland loves these things and I acquiesced to the mobs. I now regret not speaking out and so here I go climbing up on my soapbox to rant.

There are so many blogs I enjoy. Any of them on my sidebar are more than worthy recipients. Of course, probably all of them on my sidebar have already been nominated. And that, my dear readers, is where my problem with these blogsphere awards begins.

How many revolutions of blog awards do you think it takes to get over one million awarded when every awardee nominates five more?

5 X 5 + 25

5 X 25 = 125

125 x 5 = 625

625 x 5 = 3,125

3,125 x 5 = 15,625

15,625 x 5 = 78,125

78,125 x 5 = 390,625

390,625 x 5 = 1,953,125

Surprising, isn’t it? Just 8 revolutions and there are nearly 2 million. It's really nothing more than the old pyramid scheme invading blog rankings.

Is it just me or do others wonder how worthy an award is when everyone has it?

Do you find these things are getting out of control?

First it was only memes. Then it was awards with a link back to the original poster (a very frowned upon way to increase hits to a blog). Now I am noticing many awards with no link back to the originator (it was the 1st thing I checked on the two I posted), so at least they were started with good intentions.

Even so, are you tired of seeing new ones crop up daily? Are people just finding it tough to come up with postings, so they use these as fillers to have something to talk about? I can see where a meme is tempting when you can’t think of anything to write about. And, even I, enjoy a short getting-to-know-you-better meme post. But some of those list 100 things about............utterly ridiculous. Who wants to read 100 things about anybody?

I just wonder when it will all end? Will the next one be an award for the blogger who started the most blog awards?

I, for one, really don't want to see blogs turning into one big award fest. I have come across so many of them lately that my eyes just skim right past the post.

I think we need a STOP the blog awards campaign.

I bet this post won't put me in the ring for a Miss Congeniality in the blogsphere award.
But I wouldn't be surprised if someone hasn't already started an award for just that.