We're "lovely"!!

The East to West Bakers have received their first-ever blog award: The One Lovely Blog Award! Yay!

We received the award from Stacy over at The Life of Mrs. A, who has a pretty lovely blog herself. Thanks, Stacy!!

So we're supposed to share 7 things about ourselves and pass the award along to 9 inspiring bloggers. Fun!

Since there are two of us, I will share 7 things about our friendship.

1. I knew Kristin was an organized person the first day I met her. I was taking over her old beat at the college newspaper, and she gave me a huge stack of papers: contact information for potential sources, story ideas, etc. I thought that was pretty awesome, being an overly organized person myself.

2. We were known for spending time together in college doing mostly one of four things: working out at the campus rec center, eating Chinese food, eating Dairy Queen, or drinking gas station cappuccino. (We hoped that the working out sort of counteracted the other three activities.)

3. We got engaged about five weeks apart, got married about six weeks apart and got pregnant about 5-6 weeks apart. Evidently, we enjoy sharing major life changes.

4. She is super crafty, as is evidenced by the burp cloths she just made and sent me (so cute!). I am not crafty at all, as is evidenced by the burp cloth I bought and sent her that inspired the homemade ones.

5. We both have annoying luck. Don't get me wrong - we both have good lives. Great husbands, good jobs, enough money to live a normal lifestyle, etc. But we are the queens of dealing with annoying situations. If a restaurant is going to charge someone three times for a meal, it will happen to us. If a bathtub in a condo complex is going to leak, it will be in the unit above us. If a dishwasher is hard to install, Sears will be leaving a brand new one sitting in the middle of our dining room. And then whatever problem we encounter will take weeks and countless frustrating phone calls to remedy. My mom refers to this as the little grey cloud that follows me around. It's not a dark cloud, per se... just a grey one. Cuz that's how we roll.

6. She is a Steelers fan; I'm a Browns fan. So every Sunday during football season, we don't like each other all that much. (Just kidding! Sort of!)

7. We work very opposite schedules, so phone conversations are hard to come by. We remedy that with very lengthy emails. And usually we have about 3 different emails going at any given time on the most random of topics.

And now, 9 inspiring bloggers!

1. Jaclyn at Snap, Crackle, Pop. Fantastic writer and even better person.
2. Kristal at Good Food, Good Friends, Good Life. I stumbled upon her blog right at the end of her pregnancy, and have enjoyed reading about her journey at becoming a mom, going back to work, and then quitting to stay home with her adorable baby boy.
3. Kelle at Enjoying the Small Things. Mom to two precious little girls, including one who has Down Syndrome. I love how Kelle finds the joy in the little things in life. She really puts it into perspective for me sometimes.
4. Mrs. P. at A Little Pink in a World of Camo. She's the widow of a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan earlier this year. She has an adorable little baby girl, and I find her strength to be amazing. I cannot fathom going through what she is going through, and her blog has made me appreciate the sacrifice of our service men and women so so much.
5. Nie Nie over at The Nie Nie Dialogues is a true inspiration. She survived a horrific plan crash in AZ and is still struggling through her recovery. But mostly, she revels in the little joys in life and in being a mom to some really cute kids.
6. Of course, who doesn't love Bakerella, queen of the cake pops!
7. And one of my new favorite baking blogs: Smitten Kitchen. Her stuff always looks So. Darn. Good.
8. Orangette is a huge winner, too.
9. And major yumminess can always be found over at Baking Bites.