Sunshine Awards!

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Amanda from The Grains of Paradise for nominating me for a sunshine award! Amanda has inspired me in many ways when it comes to eating, photography, and blogging (and ready teenie bopper books...oops!) Amanda is a beautiful person inside and out...and her blog is beautiful too! In fact, every morning, the first thing I do is check my Google Reader to see if she has a new post! I love her photographs, her recipes, and hearing about what is going on in my beloved Maui. Amanda is a friend of mine from high school and introduced me to the blogging world. She also sparked my interest in vegetarianism and veganism. Amanda's blog is a bright spot in my day and I highly recommend checking it out. She also talks about all of her travels.

In honor of this award, I will also mention my other 12 favorite blogs. You can do the same award by copying the award into your blog, nominating 12 blogs and linking them to your blog,, and then commenting on each of those 12 blogs to let them know you gave them the award. Like they say... spread the blog love!!!!

1. Snackface Although I am new to this blog, Kailey is seriously the funniest person I have ever encountered. She is in college and dreams of having her own magazine one day. She is hilarious and loves...can you guess? Snacks! She is full of love and passion and really a gorgeous person. She also leans towards veganisim but still has fun.

2. The Hungry Yogini Courtney is also in college and is currently living in Paris. She loves healthy cooking, yoga, and takes amazing photographs. She is also very philosophical and I really enjoy her blog. (And am of course jealous of her life in Paris). She draws a lot of the same connects of yoga and real life that I do.

3. Smitten Kitchen Deb is a new mom living in a tiny apartment in New York. She makes the most incredible food and I have not been disappointed by one of her recipes. Her writing and photography is also fantastic. She has a long list of recipes, so if you are ever looking for something tasty, check it out.

4. 101 Cookbooks Heidi Swanson is a professional photographer and cookbook writer. Her blog is a collection of recipes, some her own, some from others, and always are accompanied by a story and photos. She also writes about San Francisco and surrounding areas, which brings me back to where I am from. I also have one of her books which is great!

5. The Inner Workings of a College Graduate Meghann is a typical 20 something that experienced college and post college wait gain. She realized she had to do something about it, so she started running like crazy and eating really healthy. She has lost weight, looks great and has a cute little dog. She makes weird food combinations and honestly when she starts talking about "spilts" and "garmin" I basically zone out. The one reason I come back to her blog is for her infectious optimism and happiness. This girl is so smiley and it seems very genuine!

6. Florida Coastal Cooking Dawn is also a new mom who lives in Florida and is into healthy cooking (her daughter has lots of food allergies) and making healthy cooking tasty! She has great photos and also loves yoga.

7. Eggs on Sunday  Amy is another new mom! Who hasn't been blogging since she had her baby!!!! Which is making me very sad. Amy is the person who introduced me to CSA's (Check out this site to find one in your area http://www.localharvest.org/ ) and also has amazing recipes and photos. She lives in New York and it was very cool to see the seasons change there via her food (we really don't have seasons in Southern California). I want her to blog again!!!!

8. 365 Days of Marcie Marcie is someone else I went to high school with. She lives in San Francisco and is a professional photographer. She is also a foodie! She is documenting her year through photographs. I love her photography and keeping up to date on the food scene in San Francisco.

9. Care to Eat This blog was once written by two cousins Erin and Andrea. Erin can't write anymore but Andrea still does and she is funny! She has her own language (of course) and writes about her adventures in making her own cheese, yogurt, and raw foods.

10. Carrots N Cake  Tina is fantastic. She writes for a number of sites, is writing a book, and is following her dreams into nutrition and writing. She also loves pugs as much as I do and is very upbeat. I like reading Tina's blog because she is very real and talks about her stress, etc. Sometimes I think people stick to more of the positives in life on the blogs, but Tina's realism makes her easier to identify with.

11. Pastries and Bacon I found Melissa via Amanda and immediately started following her blog. She makes great looking food and I find the most relatable part about her site is her ability to find balance between eating healthy but keeping her boyfriend's stomach happy too. I struggle with this...not wanting to eat meat anymore but having a hungry meat eating boyfriend. I also love Melissa's interviews of other people and her dogs!

12. Kath Eats Real Food Kath is into real food (obviously) and is really down to earth. She is very organized and is studying nutrition and working on opening a Great Harvest Bread franchise with her husband Matt. She eats so healthy but it seems so easy so I like to look at her ideas just to stay on track. She also is glowing with optimism and honestly, can't we all just use a little bit of that these days?

Thank you to all of these wonderful ladies for brightening my days and life with their blogs, words, food, inspiration and friendship, whether I know you or not! Yeah! I have bloggies!

Hugs and love,
Amanda