And the award goes to...

Hi!

A few weeks ago Holly at Naptime gave us the Stylish Blogger award and Katie from The Romantic Type awarded us the Great Blog Neighbor award.  Everyone should go check these blogs out now.  Seriously, I'll wait.  Thank you so much, ladies!  You rock!  :)

Rules for accepting the Stylish Blogger Award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award

2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Pass this on to 13 other great bloggers

4. Contact the selected bloggers and tell them about their award

7 things about Jake and Alison of Welcome Sunshine Home

1. Jake bakes cakes for me to give other people.

2. I decorate the cakes.  The fun part!

3. Then, no one does the dishes...until every fork and dinner plate in our house is dirty.  

4. Jake does household cleaning and maintenance stuff without being asked.  He makes an effort to help with laundry, sweeping, dog hair removal, window washing, yard care, etc.  No, you can't borrow him!    

5. I do my best and fastest cleaning when I'm upset.  Hmm, maybe I should get upset more often.

6. Jake can cook too.  He makes an awesome Chicken Parm dinner and is quite skilled in making breakfast.  

7. We've had dinner out almost every night for a couple weeks.  Our Maytag dishwasher was recalled for a faulty heating element and then in a bizarre twist of fate our Maytag electric range (oven and all four burners) stopped working while cooking breakfast one Saturday morning.  Both appliances were purchased brand new only three years ago and have been used infrequently gently used.

Thirteen blogs receiving the Stylish Blogger Award:

1. Luckiest in Love

2. Words by Katie

3. White House Black Shutters

4. Paint or Dig

5. A Latte with Ott, A

6. Nomie's Three Monsters

7. The Spunky Diva 

8. The Romantic Type

9. Mommy Only Has Two Hands

10. Outwardly Pleasant

11. 5 Minutes Just for Me

12. a and w

13. While He was Napping

Rules for accepting the Great Blog Neighbor Award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award

2. Pass this on to 10 other great bloggers

3. Contact the selected bloggers and tell them about their award

Ten bloggers receiving the Great Blog Neighbor Award:

1. Melissa at My Pet Blog - She's read 89 books so far this year and reviewed each one!  She's also a writer (and Jake's sister!) and is participating in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge right now.  50,000 words in 30 days! Click here to read more about that.

2. Kris at Not Enough Books - Plenty of book reviews and she's been taking part in 18 different reading challenges this year! 

3. Hazel Loves Design - Check out the book club she has going. 

4. Karen at Barefoot in Portland - Karen is the ambassador for Barefoot Books in my area.

5. Frugal Mom at Frugality is Free - Check out her book reviews, the The Book Lover's Blog Hop on Tuesdays, and her Book Giveaway linky list.

6. Cathy at Cathy Kennedy Stories - Children's books author

7. Tina from Book Couture - Young Adult book reviews and some author interviews.

8. Carol at Songberries - She has a review and cookbook giveaway going on now (ends 11/24).

9. Jennifer at Book Noise - She has tons of book reviews!

10. Sabrina brings us About Happy Books - Reviews, challenges, and author interviews!

Thanks again to Katie and Holly for the awards!  :)

Friday and Award

Friday is here!  We're getting ready to enjoy a nice, long weekend and hope you are too.  This week we're participating in New Friend Friday, Blog Hop Friday, and Friendly Friday Follow.  All comments and followers are welcome and we'll do all follow backs by Tuesday.  We're interested in all sorts of things so please don't be shy.  Leave us a comment so we know you were here! :)


This week at Welcome Sunshine Home...
1.  Jake shared a simple game for all ages here.  This is great on a hot day!

2.  You can see our sunset picnic at the beach here.  I love picnics!  :)

3.  We joined the I Heart Faces photo challenge for the first time here.

4.  The HGTV Green Home winner was announced this week.  You can find out who won and revisit our tour of the house here.  I loved so many things in this house but today I'm crushing on this recycled sunburst mirror.  I'm still thinking about how I can make a DIY version...

5.  I revealed our front porch makeover and gave an outdoor curtain tutorial here.  This is so much nicer to come home to after long days at the office.  What do you think?

***UPDATE: We're a semi-finalist in The Iron Crafter Sheets and Pillowcases competition!  If you like what you see, you can vote for us here until Friday at midnight (we're project #7).*** 

6.  We received a blog award that I'm announcing right now!  :)

Dania from Life As A Cuban Mama choose us as one of her five recipients for The Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :) Please take some time to stop over and visit her.  I love her button!

When accepting The Versatile Blogger Award you share seven things about yourself and pass the award on to at least 5 bloggers you've recently discovered and think are fantastic. Here we go...

Seven things about Jake
1. I am a die hard New England sports fan.
2. I was installing shelves in our bathroom during the Super Bowl this year.
3. My favorite birthday present ever is the plasma TV in our living room. See #1.
4. I enjoy speaking in TV and movie quotes.
5. My sister calls me a home wrecker because I split infinitives.
6. I plan to become Alison's personal driver when she moves far enough up the corporate ladder. We commute together daily now so it'd just be making it official.  See Alison's #6 below.
7. I put dirty dishes in the sink. Two feet from the dishwasher.  See Alison's #7 below to find out why.

Seven things about me (Alison)
1. I love sunshine! I want to be like all the retired folk (aka Snowbirds) that summer in New England and take winter in Florida.
2. Scrabble is my all time favorite board game and I like to win. Apples to Apples and Cranium are great fun too.
3. I bought two houses with my college sweetheart (Jake, of course, you silly heads) in the five years before we were married.
4. I love to have several projects going at once.
5. I crave spontaneity and can't find routines to fall into consistently at home (housework, cooking, exercise, etc).
6. My new 'corporate title' at work is Vice President.  I've worked my way up from being a part-time teller during college.  See Jake's #6 above.
7. I use whatever clean dishes I need straight from the dishwasher instead of unloading it. 

Now we have the task of presenting this award to several blogs who we've recently discovered and think are pretty fantastic. In no particular order:

Life Spent Wagging
5 Minutes Just for Me
Road Dog Tales
a and w
One Guy in a House of Girls

Remember...there are a few "rules" that come with accepting The Versatile Blogger Award (simply right click and copy image above):
1. Thank the person/people who gave it to you.
2. Tell seven random things about yourself
3. Pass the award on to 5-15 bloggers whom you have recently discovered and think are fantastic.  Don't forget to let them know! :)

Thanks again to Dania for choosing us! :)