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I Won (another) Blue Ribbon Blogger Award!

Today I had the honor of going to New York for a luncheon at Country Living‘s headquarters as A WINNER in the 1st Annual Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards in the ‘Lifestyle’ category. This is in addition to winning their Reader’s Choice Award in the ‘Lifestyle’ category; only Crepes of Wrath and Crafty Farm Girl won both the Reader’s Choice and Judge’s Choice Awards. Wow.

The luncheon was for the winners of the Judges Choice Award, which was not officially announced until today after the luncheon. We were actually told some time ago of our wins, but were sworn to secrecy until the official announcement by Country Living, so it’s so exciting to finallybe able to share with everyone. My congratulations to all the other 23 finalists and to the winners.Mingling during the Meet & Greet before lunch.

The Winners! Left to right are Rachel Garza or Always a Project, Wendy Hyde of The Shabby Nest, Sydney Kramer of Crepes of Wrath, Linda Ly of Garden Betty, Beth Styles of Secondhand with Style, me, and Melissa Caughey of Tilly's Nest

Now there’s a reason I’m a blogger. If I liked being in the public spotlight or being photographed I suppose I’d be teaching classes to a real audience somewhere. I’m not. I have such a fear of public speaking that even a Dale Carnegie Effective Speaking course years ago did not help. Thankfully we were informed that we would not be required to say anything.

I also didn’t have time to work myself up into a state because most of my afternoon yesterday was consumed with this:

My daughter India getting a cast on her arm Wednesday afternoon.

India not only broke a bone at the joint of her thumb and hand and has to be in a cast for 6 weeks, but she also got diagnosed with a concussion. The ripple effect from those consumed my time and thoughts for the rest of the night.

Although parts of Connecticut are still struggling without power from our freak October snowstorm, today was a beautiful day here and, after farming the kids out to various friends because they were off for parent-teacher conferences, Country Living sent a driver to pick Jim and me up for the drive into Manhattan.

When we arrived at the beautiful Hearst Tower we were whisked up to the 44th floor and into the room where the luncheon was to be held. The views of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park were a breathtaking backdrop.

The View of Manhattan and Central Park.

How'd you like to live in that apartment?

The view across to the East Side.

There was a meet-and-greet as people arrived. Lots of the Country Living staff was there, three of the 4 judges, all of the winners in each of the seven categories, and lots of press as well. By the time they were ready to take pictures of all of the winners my mouth was so dry from nerves I couldn’t even talk!

Mingling during the Meet & Greet before lunch.

Another wonderful shot of my photogenic-self to put in the trash.

The Winners and the Judges.

It would have been nice if Jim had moved a little more to the center so we had a better view of everyone.

The judges in attendance were Sarah McColl of Pink of Perfection, Jodi Kahn, author of 3 books and blogger of Simply Sublime, and Cooper Boone, Country Singer, TV personality and author of the blog Cooper’s Kitchen. Cooper was the very funny and animated Judge in charge of handing out the awards to each of us. Of course I was up first. Thankfully I didn’t trip, drool, or throw up.

I got a hug from Cooper Boone! I get the feeling he's a big hugger.

How uncomfortable was I standing up there with all eyes on me? And look, they even had me up on the screen on the right with a screen shot of my website's home page!

Another horrible shot of me, but he's pretty cute.

Finally I got to sit down and watch everyone else get their awards.

Melissa Caughey of Tilly's Nest. She got a hug too.

Rachel Garza of Always a Project. I loved this picture.

None of the other winner’s photos came out great, and they’d kill me if I posted them so I won’t. The awards are beautiful. A blue ribbon under a glass dome. I could not get a decent picture of it tonight, but will tomorrow in the natural daylight to show everyone. We also got sent off with a huge goody bag!

The centerpieces at each table.


The lunch was delicious, but I was too busy clapping and taking photos to eat much of it. The centerpieces were beautiful too.

I wish I’d had more time to talk to each of the winners some more, but it was a really fun day. Everyone at Country Living was so gracious and they made each of us feel special, and very honored, for winning.

Even on a special day like this, I was still really happy to get home, pick up my children, and feed the farm. Everyone missed me.

Comments

  1. I’m so proud to be your friend.

  2. I couldn’t be happier for you!! Congrats! Give india a hug for me…poor thing!

  3. It was so nice to meet you in person, Aimee! Your photos turned out great. My husband claims that the ones he took looked in focus when he shot them… funny that they are so blurry now… He also managed to get every crazy look that crossed my face!

    Hope that we can keep in touch!

  4. Aimee, it was such a fun day! So glad to have met you. Great pictures too! If you want, feel free to use ones found on this link:
    http://tillysnest.smugmug.com/Other/Blue-Ribbon-Blogger/19958153_3mDCjq#1571671503_3tPscvd
    Just give a link back to me for credit :)! It was lovely meeting you. Please keep in touch!~Melissa

  5. Congrats Aimee! I’m happy to have found your blog and wish we could’ve chatted more that day!

    • Hi Linda! I really wish we’d all gotten a little bit more time to chat together. It went by so quickly. I hope you had fun while back in New York. You certainly brought the beautiful weather back with you from California! I’ll be checking in with you and your beautiful gardening and cooking.

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