Hug-A-Blogger Award

hug a blogger

Congratulations to those who have won this Hug-A-Blogger award. The HaB site at http://hugablogger.blogspot.com has been watching blogs that have special characteristics that make them a great example of blogging at its best. The HaB site is set up to teach people skills in blogging and allowing bloggers to share their stories of having formed connections with other bloggers, showcasing their blogs in the process. If you'd like to be part of HaB's featured blogs, please contact us at psychic62@hotmail.com

This award comes with no special hoops or deeds. If you wish to proudly display the symbol on your blog, you may. We simply wanted to let you know that we like what we see on your blog!

My list of fab blogs that I want to acknowledge this time.  Sharon and I will be bestowing this award on other great blogs in the future.

Dr.Heckle

AdelesSpOOkyArt

MyOwnPrivateIdaho

HeartCenteredPsychic

GhostStoriesandHauntedPlaces

OctoberFarm

MonkeyMan

ABeerfortheShower

Hug a Blogger: a Social Site

hug a blogger

January 2010, the Pioneer Cemetery, Phoenix, Arizona, Sharon (who is known to everyone in the blogger world as Autumnforest) and I met in person at Debe's workshop.  From then on we hit the road together many times in search of abandoned places and old cemeteries around the state.  Those abandoned places inspired our book we coauthored: Abandoned Places: Abandoned Memories. (Look on the sidebar for links to the book for sale on Kindle and Nook.)

We got the idea for hug-a-blogger after we met another blogger, Devin (MyFavoriteMonsters).  It started as an idea for a book.  We would hit the road and meet other bloggers we were following.  Bloggers who had the same interests but had their own uniques paranormal stories. This trip was going to be documented by us by blogging a post, tweeting game questions, and showing pictures or videos on facebook.  Sharon pitched the idea to a publisher but no one wanted to take a chance financing a couple of unknowns.  Basically we posted a few things to the blog, twitter and facebook, but it stayed inactive for a few months.

Just recently Sharon came up with an idea to revamp the Hug-a-Blogger blog and concept.  Here is what she posted on her blog:  http://autumnforestghosthunter.blogspot.com/2011/03/hug-blogger-blogging-social-site.html

Check out the blog and become a follower:  http://hugablogger.blogspot.com/

Click the "like" button on facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hug-A-Blogger/142464939105709?ref=ts

Become a follower on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/hug_a_blogger

Hug-A-Blogger Award

hug a blogger

This award is to be bestowed upon a blogger whom you are so appreciative of, you would like to meet and hug this person in real life. Perhaps their blog makes you smile, gives you great advice, or they are supportive, warm and welcoming hosts/hostesses to their visitors.
The recipient of this award is to:

Tell of their most memorable hug ever.

Explain who they want to give the award to and why they want to hug that person.

I want to tell you about my most memorable hug. My Dad is someone who I looked up to and admired. He was the strong one, the protector of the family. After he went through two years of heart surgery, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer disease. We started noticing him not paying attention to the things we said to him, and looking like he was spaced out. He slowly became a shell of the man he once was and it was hard to watch. My Mother was helping him do most of the everyday things we take for granted. If you hugged him, he didn’t respond with a hug. After several months, his doctor recommended a new medication for the disease. They decided to give it a try. Immediately he showed improvement. He was back to doing the everyday things he used to do and didn’t need his cane to walk with. The best thing was that first hug afterwards which was strong and so full of love. I had my Dad back. Sadly, it was only for a few months, but I will always treasure that special moment we shared.

To narrow it down to one blogger I want to meet and hug was tough. I want to hug all my followers. I decided on two blogs that I enjoy reading. My first blog is Dr. Heckle, http://www.drheckle.net/. He posts the craziest pictures and has everyone make a comment. Sometimes the comments are funnier than the pictures and I am always guaranteed a laugh when I check out his posts. I haven’t seen another blog acquire over 500 followers in such a short time.

The next blog is one I found thanks to Brian of Photographing the Dead . The blog is The Digial Looking Glass and created by Tara. Tara take us to incredible cemeteries and photographs the amazing headstones, carvings, statues, and other exciting areas of the old places in her neck of the woods. She even gives us enjoyable stories about the history of these places while her camera captures the marvels. Take a look at her blog and become a follower too.

Hug A Blogger

hug a blogger

I just wanted to post a reminder about our Hug-A-Blogger blog ( http://hugablogger.blogspot.com/ ) and road trip that Sharon (Autumnforest, Ghost Hunting Theories ) and I will be taking. The proposal is now up along with a bio about us explaining why we are interested in the paranormal, what brought us to starting our blogs, and what we got out of blogging that we didn’t expect. So far we have two buttons at the top right of the blog linking to Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to follow the blog, and them as well. Later, Sharon’s son Alex will be adding a button for videos and another for other items. He is designing T-shirts for us and they will be on sale as soon as they are ready. He also designed our logo.

Here is what we are up to as of now. While waiting for a publisher, we are going to get together in a week and a half and map out our trip. We want to be prepared and ready as soon as we get the go ahead. We will video tape the strategy of the trip in our own zany way so be sure to look for that. Not only are we visiting the seven bloggers, but we will be making stops along the way and sharing them with you as well. We will be looking to you for must see places for us to stop at. We have other games that we will play using twitter and the blog during the trip. There will be lots of picture and video taking not only for the blog but for the book as well. We are hoping to hit the road by late September or early October if all goes well.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to have the opportunity to not only be a part of an interesting book, take photos of all the wonderful places along the way, but to be able to share it with someone as nice, fun, witty, and smart as Sharon. Who would have thought that I would be doing this a year ago, certainly not me?

Thanks for all your support,

Julie

The Three Blogateers

hug a blogger

One of the dreams that I share with Autumnforest (Ghost Hunting Theories) is to visit as many of our blogger buddies and give them a hug. We had a long talk about many of you on our trip to Globe. Were your ears ringing? Before we left on that trip, we stopped off and visited another AZ blogger, Devin. He has a wonderful blog called My Favorite Monsters. We have all read each other’s blogs for over a year now and added comments to the posts. From his comments and blog posts, we got a sense that he was sweet, kind, intelligent and well verse in several topics. He loves to read and has his favorite writers and poets. He shares their writings in many of his posts.

When we arrived, Devin was waiting to greet us. We were finally able to each give him a long awaited hug. He walked us to his condo where Clementina, his cat, peeked around the corner of the hall, scoping us out. She finally realized that we were nice people, came in the room, and greeted us in her charming kitty way. We spent a couple of hours talking, laughing, sharing, and it felt like we had known each other for years. When it was time to go, we made plans to meet again, hugged and said goodbye to our “little brother”, Devin.  Be sure to read his blog, you will love it.

The trip to Globe and our stay at the Noftsger Hill Inn was a fun ghostly adventure. For an account of some crazy things that happened while there, I will link you to three of Autumnforest’s posts. She did a funny video of Dale the Doll called, VIDEO: The Doll Hangover; Dales’ perspective on the trip, Dale The Doll: Don't Listen To The Human; and finally a recap of the trip, Noftsger Hill Inn. Check them out. Meanwhile, I added some miscellaneous pictures from our trip.