Welcome! Welcome to Julia's Fantastical and Phenomenal Awards Spectacular

Gather round, come in! Come in! I know it's starting to warm up and the birds are starting to sing, but we've got an awards show to get to. Let's stop for a second and let the paparazzi get their shots - better the red carpet ones than the up-the-nose ones through the windows of the limosine. Don't you hate those?













Let's go in, let's go in. Okay - let's check our tickets. Main orchestra, center. Ooo - great seats! Oh, I'm a little bit nervous. I know, I know, I don't look it. But I just need to take a deep breath. I really don't like getting up in front of people and speaking. Blogging - yes! Public speaking - *knees knocking*











The lights are going down to a quarter. We'd better get to our seats. Okay. The curtains open. Akelamalu strides onstage.

She's handing out the You Stand Out From the Crowd Award.

















"Our concern must be to live while we're alive. To release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade."

- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"This award is free to go to anyone whom the award recipient chooses," says Akelamalu. "For any reason!"

Oh, boy - time to head up onstage. Thank you, Akelamalu! ((hug)) I'm so pleased to receive this. You know, I've never been one to be shy about my individual nature. So this award means a lot to me. I'll be passing this along to other uncommonly distictive bloggers at the end of the ceremony.

Coming from you - whose blog Everything and Nothing always delivers on the first and completely lacks in the second - makes this award even more delightful. Though you don't think of yourself as a writer of anything other than your blog, your Friday Flash Fiction never ceases to blow me away. And your Saturday Wordzzles always take readers on a twisty journey of compact and accomplished writing. An average of 30 daily commenters can't be wrong!

Let's welcome Louise now, who's presenting the Let's Be Friends Award.










"She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."

- Toni Morrison

Louise invites VaBookworm from Confessions of a Bookworm to join her at the podium.

"This award goes to blogs which are exceedingly charming," Louise says. "VaBookworm, you're a perfect example. Your blog aims to find and be friends with other bloggers. And it's where Julia gets her fix of sword-swinging by watching your avatar."

"Louise," VaBookworm says, laughing. "You're a perfect example of a blogger not interested in self-aggrandizement. This award hopes that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Think of who you've already met through the Blog Improvement Project."

"Stop it," Louise says. "Julia - get up here already!"

((hugging Louise and VaBookworm)) Louise! Thank you so much. Your Lous_Pages is a place to lose oneself in your Egyptology feature, your abundant book reviews and your intriguing Wordless Wednesday posts. I also love your Weekly Geeks participation (a theme-inspired prompt) and Tuesday Teasers which gives us a peek at what you're reading.

And VaBookworm, your frank confessions of weirdness only endear you to all your readers. Because we spazz, too - over all the same stuff. At least you have an actual British longbow that you can shoot in your backyard while listening to Robin Hood or Braveheart soundtracks. I just write about sword swingers. I don't have a sword of my own...Yet.










"Help one another, is part of the religion of sisterhood."

- Louisa May Alcott

Dorte H now takes the stage. "I'm here to present the Sisterhood Award. I met Julia through my fellow Danish blogger, Louise. I feel we share the same sort of attitude and gratitude about the world. So come on up, Julia."

Here's a ((hug)) for Dorte H. One of the first things I remarked upon when I visited DJs Krimiblog were her beautiful tins which she used as a header for her Bait in the Box feature. 'Hidden' in the tins are excerpt clues from crime fiction, which she uses to encourage readers to guess the books they come from. I shared my collection of tins with her which she's now using for Bait in the Box, along with other submissions from sister bloggers. The beauty of our blogging sisterhood is the closeness we can share, even when one of us is in Denmark and the other in Canada.

VaBookworm takes the stage one more time.











"It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions."

- Charles F. Kettering

"The Uber Amazing Blog Award goes to bloggers who inspire you, make you smile and laugh, give amazing information, are a great read, has an amazing design, and any other reason you can think of that makes them uber amazing. Julia - come back out so I can give you this enormous pink bow award!"

One more ((hug)) to you, VaBookworm. Oh, my. I'm really touched - really. I enjoy blogging so much because of the creative outlet it gives me, because it's a way to share ideas with other bloggers and with readers who don't blog but who stop by and read. But most of all, I enjoy blogging because I've met so many wonderful, marvellous blogging friends. Thank you - all of you - for making this blog one of the happiest parts of my day.

Now, because this is a multi-awards presentation, I won't keep to the suggested amounts for passing them along. Most of them request 5 or 7 recipients. For this event, however, I'll keep all awards to 2 nominations each, except for the Let's Be Friends Award, since I received it twice - I'll pass along 4 of those.

The You Stand Out From the Crowd Award goes to:

Apprentice Writer
Travis

The Let's Be Friends Award goes to:

Bobbi
Heather
Nikita
Robin

The Sisterhood Award goes to:

The women at Romance Bandits
My fellow bloggers at Popculturedivas

The Uber Amazing Blog Award goes to:

Daily Mish Mash
Kim