That one time I was nominated for Funniest Sewing Blog 2015

Funny old thing, this blogging business. Business, as in "matter", not business, as in profit-generating (or losing) as I don't earn anything from writing in this space - yet. Unless it is in my dreams and then I do this as my full-time job with a six-figure salary affording me ample time to buy limitless amounts of fabric where I'll sit at my sewing machine bathed in golden rays of sunlight and beam beatifically at my immaculately-dressed children wearing outfits that I have made for them, who are busying themselves with their own crafts because they understand the importance of never interrupting their mother when she is creating.

I was looking through my stats page on Thursday night to see how many vampirestat.com robots or some other such spammy links had crawled around the internet to find me that week when I noticed a link that was quite suspicious by the very virtue of how normal it looked. So, I clicked on it and like an internet version of Narnia, a whole other world of sewing blogs opened up before me.

Somehow, I was nominated for a blog award that I had never heard of before on a blog that I never knew existed. I did make this announcement on Facebook, but I think it is worthy of its own blog post because, really, I'm still a little bit chuffed about it and it just serves to highlight how random blogging can be. Even when you think no-one is reading, somebody probably is.

Now, don't laugh - actually, you can laugh because I did. I ended up on the list of Madalynne's Best Sewing Blog nominees for 2015. Not only that, I was nominated in the Funniest Sewing Blog category, which, naturally, is the category everyone wants to win. Let that sink in for a minute. Come to my place to be entertained to disguise the fact that I can't really sew anything technically challenging. Maybe 'funny' has a different meaning in US English and it actually means completely delusional about one's creative talents combined with neurotic episodes - in which case, I am hilarious.

So surprised was I to see my blog on the list, I wondered if there had been a mistake. I even took a screenshot of the list of nominees in case I received an email apologizing for their mistake and I could wave it in their virtual faces and say "I was nominated for an award that nobody actually cares about that gets tacked on at the end of the awards ceremony when all the major winners have collected their trophies and are getting drunk at the bar and even the cleaners have gone home - I've got the proooooof!". I may even have printed out that screenshot and placed it in a sealed envelope for a time when I can reenact the winner's announcement - except this time, it's my name in lights.

So, no, I didn't win the category - but I was in some impressive company. I still can't believe somebody liked my blog enough to nominate me for this.

How many of you have heard of Madalynne's blog? I hadn't before Thursday night, and like many other new (to me) blogs on the awards list, I am in complete love with her whole blog. She makes bras and plays around with lace and elastic and other scary stuff. It's a visual symphony really so even though I was unaware of these awards, the list serves as a great reference point to discover other really great blogs. And, yes, it does feel pretty nice to be featured alongside some major players in the sewing world.

Thank you to that person who waded through all of the blogs on the nominees list and still had enough energy to click on my blog name otherwise I would have missed out on the biggest bellylaugh I have had in ages.

One thing that struck me about the Madalynne Best Sewing Blog Awards is that the Kiwi sewing blogs are a bit thin on the ground. I went through the entire list and found one other - two if you count the blogger who has a Kiwi husband. Now, I know there are plenty of amazing bloggers in our neck of the woods, and there were even one or two surprise international omissions (in my opinion).

I just want to acknowledge all the other blogs out there that I love and enjoy visiting (you know who you are because I leave comments) and that I think are worthy contenders to make such a shortlist so this non-award is as much yours as it is mine.

It made me think we need to highlight our own homegrown talent more. Which New Zealand sewing-related blog do you love to read and why? Feel free to leave a comment so others can find them.