Fashion Beauty Friend Friday - 04.15.11 - delayed to 5.20.11

Gratitude – These were the questions from the one-year anniversary of FBFF! So ModlyChic wanted to do something about gratitude. We each have so many people in our lives and in the blogging community who have helped us along the way. It’s time to shine the spotlight on them and give credit where credit is due.

1. When it comes to me personally – I owe a lot of who I am to:
My mom. She is incredibly independent, intelligent, strong, capable, & creative. She took me across the country & raised me by herself, while going to school & working. She worked on an advanced degree, she became an amazingly respected person in her field, & she put me thru college (& one of the finest institutions in the world, too). She instilled in me a love of reading, the Beatles, social justice, & making things with my hands, among other things. She's the most awesome woman on the planet!

Dropped my MacBook cord down one night & this is
how it landed.  Honest, I didn't arrange it!

2. When it comes to me professionally – I owe a lot of who I am to:
The U.C. Berkeley English Department & Live-105 radio personality Alex Bennett. Seriously. At Cal, I honed my critical thinking skills, I learned about research, & I was forced to write under extreme deadlines (aka, essay tests & those damn blue books). But it was when Alex Bennett started talking about this "Internet" thing on his morning show in the early 1990s, how he built something called a "webpage" where he posted funny stuff, well, I knew I had to get one of them modem thigmajigs asap. I did, & soon I'd taught myself to make webpages. And the rest is, as they say, history.

3. When it comes to the art of blogging, I’m grateful to these people for helping me through some rough spots:
Well, not so much 'helping me thru rough spots,' but I'm grateful for the fine example set by fashion bloggers like Sal of Already Pretty, Shelia of Ephemera, Vanessa of Big Girl. Small Budget. Tiny Town, & Angeline of The New Professional. These are some of the blogs I read every single day & always get something out of due to their combination of writing, fashion, photography, & personality. In fact, I'd like to see my blog as someday becoming a perfect combination of all these, through a gothic lens.

4. One blogging challenge I’m grateful happened because it made me stronger was…
My continuing challenge is taking photos, & I haven't quite conquered it yet. I'm able to get up in time (mostly ;-), but getting good lighting + a pose that doesn't look super-dorky continues to stump me. UGH.

5. To my readers, I’d like to say...
Thank you!!! I'm always amazed when I get comments (particularly if it's not someone I already know offline, heh). I wish I had more time in the day to reply to everyone. But I really do appreciate & value your feedback. It's encouraging & makes me feel like there's a tiny point to blogging other than my already-documented narcissism!