Blogtipping alert:  a new way (to me) to honor favorite blogs that you want others to enjoy, brought to you by Business Blog Wire – and here, by Tammy Vitale

I was kindly blogtipped by Jacqueline Berl of  Ascender Rises Above.  I visit her site every day because she posts every day:  amazing art – very eclectic and diverse – with a snippet or full poem or quote.  Definitely my cup of morning tea.  When I’m feeling down or uninspired, a quick visit to this prolific blogger always jazzes me up and reminds me that what I post may do the same for someone else.  And getting ready to post this, I discover, in addition to being all that, she does graphic designs, advertising and marketing and business plans (I’ll bet she never sleeps).

If you go to the blogtipping home page you will find that the ingredients to this are 3 compliments and a tip for each of your favorite blogs.  Since I have no intention of writing a book here, I will continue Ascender’s choice of 3 for the tipping. And I will draw them from my longest favorites.

That said, 3 is far too few, so I will just throw in newer favorites (some of them).  This isn’t exhaustive.  Be sure to click on my blog roll (which I want to update soon – I keep many of my favorites in "favorites" instead of on this blog – and I realized I should list them all – even if you have to scroll forever to read them.  Joining things like Finding Water doesn’t help – there are always more blogs to read.  Have I mentioned I’m falling seriously behind?)

1.  Leah of Creative Every Day has to be my number one mention.  I met Leah during Art Every Day Month (AEM) November 2006, her creative creation.  She is a generous and talented blogger who changes lives through her willingness to host and participate in on-line community events.  You can get to know her here.  She is also currently 1/2 of the hosting team for Create a Connection where for one Creative Sunday Challenge she taught us all how to make muvees (picture videos).  She makes beautiful art.  Tip:  Leah:  hugs and kisses.  Keep on Bringing in the Beauty.

2. Karen of Art in the Garage, met through AEM, introduced me to the kindness of bloggers when she sent me a lovely collage package of goodies after I drooled over her picture of her work space which was crammed full of collage supplies.  She’s already raising her daughter to be a blogger and artist.  Her daughter is participating in Finding Water too!  She does Photoshop in addition to wonderful collages (I love this one because it’s so quirky), and quilts (to name just a few of her talents).  Get to know her here. Tip:  Keep on teaching – you do it well!

3.  Terri at Tinker Art is artist,  writer and party-giver.   She holds wonderful drawings for prizes, and generally creates a warm and inviting community of bloggers that encourage all to come on in and chat a while (just check out her comments).  She, too, is part of the Finding Water community. Tip:  Keep on posting.  How could we ever make it without your HeARTworks?

Those are the three I have been going to longest and most regular.  There are others of course that I would list had I the time.  Here are some great new ones (to me):   A Murder of Crows;  Emerald Eyes; Violettes Folk Art; The Havens; and Artful Adventures.

And here are some favorite old ones:  Live, Love, Laugh…Art at home; Jana’s Journeys; Metaphor Bling; and Caro’s Lines.

Finally, two more daily posters who add zing to my morning tea when I need it (or afternoon, or evening or whenever I finally make my way to their sites for a dose of inspiration):  Ink in My Coffee, and Woolgathering.

Okay – I know someone’s going to put because I’ve forgotten, but I don’t drink coffee anymore, gang.  No caffeine, not even decaf.  So be kind.  And gentle.  And know that each and every one of you helps me to continue my own artist’s path.  Love and hugs and many thanks to all of your in this grand and widening community!

thought for the day:  Sometimes the message that women cannot or should not be artists is very open; indeed it takes the form of advice from the specialists who treat problems in living.  Anais Nin was told by her psychoanalyst, Otto Rank:  "When the neurotic woman gets cured, she becomes a woman.  When the neurotic man becomes cured, he becomes and arist…to create it is necessary to destroy.  Woman cannot destroy."…Cultural messages can obliterate even the concrete evidence of femal experience recorded by female artists…Here is Adrienne Rich:  "all those poems about women, written by men:  it seemed to be a given that men wrote poems and women…inhabited them.  These women were almost always beautiful, but threatened with the loss of beauty, the loss of youth…Or they were beautiful and died youn…Or..cruel…and the poem reproached her because she had refused to become a luxury for the poet…" Joanna Russ, How to Suppress Women’s Writing

[note:  but that was then.  Now we have blogging.]