Weekend wrap-up: On my blog

The biggest change around Darkly Reading this week is the new blog design courtesy of Rachel at Parajunkee Design. I love the new design and I hope you do as well. It's pretty much spot-on for what I envisioned Darkly Reading to look like and I love the werewolf on the left side of the banner!

I also got a few blog awards this week - they are the first bloggy awards I've received and made me feel like running around chanting - "they like me, they really like me!" The first award I got (One Lovely Blog Award) was from Missie over at The Undead Reader. Make sure to go over and check out her blog - she is currently running a "Give Me Moore" reading challenge to read Christopher Moore's books and win a fabulous prize. Melissa from Spellbound by Books gave me the Beautiful Blogger award. Melissa also has a lovely blog designed by Parajunkee. Lastly, Angela, over at Dark Faerie Tales gave me the Kreativ Blogger Award. If you haven't checked out Dark Faerie Tales blog yet it has some great weekly features including Publishing News about books to watch. Additionally, the site hosts some great ARC tours. Check the bottom of the post for award winners!

One of the awards requires me to list 7 things about myself and since I have so many new followers this week I figure it's also a good way to introduce myself to my readers. So here it goes:
1. I play with Salmonella every day for my job.
2. Before taking up book reading again as a hobby I used to pretend I was a gardener and torture outdoor plants in the name of landscaping projects.
3. I have a Bassador dog - he's half basset hound/ half chocolate lab and all cute!
4. I got married on July 7, 2007 (7/7/07) and hubby even picked that date.
5. I'm addicted to dark chocolate and usually have at least one piece a night.
6. I'm not ticklish anymore though I used to be very ticklish as a kid.
7. I'm addicted to twitter and blogging - I think the hubby and dog are a little worried about me.

This week I was a little behind on doing my book reviews - only one review this week of Little Red and the Wolf by Alison Page. It was an interesting read, though not my favorite, and I recommend checking it out if you get a chance.

The Larissa Ione contest is ending today so if you haven't had a chance to enter yet and are interested in winning one of her books make sure to enter by midnight. The winner will be posted tomorrow. I have a few new features coming up this week on Wednesday and Friday (one with a contest) so make sure to check back and tell me what you think!

So on to the awards ceremony (fitting since the Academy Awards are tonight):

•Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
•Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
•Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award
Passing it on to:
Incident at Sordid Fantasy    
Lori at Escape Between the Pages
Lily at Liliums Realm             
Natalie at Mindful Musings
Brooke at Brooke Reviews

Here are the rules:
-Thank and link to the person that gave you the award.
-Pass this award onto 15 bloggers you've recently discovered and think are fantastic
-Contact said Blogs and let them know they've won
-State 7 things about yourself  Passing it on to:
Qwill at The Qwillery
Kelly at Demon Lover Book Reviews and More
Emily at What Book is That
Cecile at All I Want and More
Darlyn at dArLyN and Books  
Sarah at Sarah's Book Reviews

Rules: Share 7 things about you and pass on the award to 7 awesome bloggers.
Passing it on to:
K.C. at Smokin Hot Books
Mandi at SmexyBooks
Larissa at Larissa's Life
Natasha at Wicked Lil' Pixie
Fiction Vixen
Leontine at Leontine's book realm
Rachel at Parajunkee's view

This is just a small sampling of some really great blogs out there - make sure to go check them out.