Top Ten

 

The only reason I started a blog was because I signed up for a scrapbooking class with Shimelle and I needed a blog in which to share pages that I made.  Naturally I toyed with the idea a lot before I actually did it - I mean, come on, who was going to read my ramblings?  Little did I know that starting that blog, this blog, would introduce me to so many lovely people who would end up inspiring me in so many ways.  The whole scrapbooking thing has gone by the by now but the blog keeps blogging!

It's hard to pick the top ten blogs that I follow because there are far more than ten on my following list and I've debated how to display those I choose because I don't want to feel that I am rating them by the order in which I share them!  So I think I'm going to just choose at random.

Obviously I follow Cate's blog. She's the reason I'm blogging every day in May!  My goodness how I've seen Cate's family life change over the years and I really admire how she adapts and copes with changes.  Her blog is full of varied subjects and I have a naturally affinity with her as we share the same birthday!

I've followed and joined in so many projects that have been the brainchild of Sian. She has some fabulous ideas and a way of getting so many people to join in her memes.  I love her style of writing and I imagine that if we weren't divided by the Irish sea, we might just become friends in real life. 

Someone who does live closer to me, yet we've never met is Ruth. Again, her blog is never the same two days running and I love the way she mixes snippets of her life with scrapbooking pages and tales of her family.  A keen sender of 'Happy Mail' she is a thoughtful and genuine person.

Let's hop across the pond for the next blog.  Here we find Deb, my namesake, who is affectionately known as Deb Turtle!  I've been fortunate enough to meet her in real life even though she lives in Arizona and she was every bit as sweet and interesting as her blog led me to believe! Her blog has shared some very different subjects over the years and led to the formation of Team Teal when her mum was fighting cancer.  She's inspired me on many occasion and her love for yoga at the moment makes me wish I had a better sense of balance so that I could experience the peace and relaxation of a yoga class.

If you're looking for a quirky, original style of blog, look no further than Julie. I've joined in with a few of her memes too, although I've fallen off the My Month in Numbers recently.  Her series of 'The Push Up Bra Approach to Blogging' was fantastic and one of those things I could easily read over again.

The youngest blogger that I read is Abi. I am thoroughly enjoying my patchwork and it was Abi who inspired me to have a go.  So, indirectly she's also responsible for my friend Mandy being obsessed with patchwork as she came round to see me one day when I was sewing and she was hooked too! Abi manages to mix a variety of crafting around a busy university life, and also introduced a series of memes like 'One Photo in Twenty Words'.

So while we are discussing sewing I need to share Fiona's blog. Fiona contacted me just over a year ago to ask if I was interested in joining in with a Friendship Quilt and I absolutely loved that project.  She's not just a talented lady with a sewing machine though, pop over and see for yourself.

Have you ever popped over to see Alexa's blog? I love her style of scrapbooking, even though I have never tried digital work myself, seeing her lovely pages makes me wish we had photoshop on our computer!  She was behind the 'Simply a Moment' meme which had us all taking a moment out of a busy day to share the little things that we were seeing, feeling, hearing at that moment. 

I guess many of us Brits have a dream of living in the sunshine in a relaxed, European way of life and I enjoy reading Alison's blog. Life in the Slow lane really does sum up that part of the world. 
I end with my dear friend Denise. Who introduced me to scrapbooking, suggested I take the Shimelle course and made me start my blog.  She's someone who I have to tell off from now and again as she doesn't update her blog as often as she should!  She's so talented with her scrapbooking and card making - to the extent that she demonstrates her work on the TV channel Create & Craft. 
I hope that you may find a couple of new blogs in that list although I suspect that many of these are already on your own reading list.  I found it hard to choose just ten so apologies if I haven't included yours - I tried to choose a variety of blogs working on those updated most recently! I'm looking forward to finding some new ones through reading posts linked to this meme!