COUNTRY LIVING MAGAZINE and ME

I feel just like Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life... 

I do...

...or as close to what I can only imagine, George Bailey must have felt like...

....as he joyfully ran down the snow-covered streets of Bedford Falls, calling out to his beloved Bijou theater and the Building and Loan...  Hello there....   Hello....

I feel like that tonight.  I feel overjoyed. So touched. Grateful.

So many wonderful friends and family have reached out to wish me congratulations and well wishes on my latest blogging milestone... and it is so exciting to share this adventure with each of them... and now with each of you.

This past September, I visited the Country Living Fair in Columbus, Ohio.  Which --by the way, I highly recommend,  -- it is an outstanding event and such a great way to spend an afternoon with friends.  I wrote a post about my time there, but one post can hardly do justice to the amazing day and fabulous finds that make up everything that is: the Country Living Fair.  Here is the post from September: Country Living Fair Post

While at the CL fair, I had an opportunity to meet the editor of the magazine, Rachel Hardage Barrett. She's lovely. Rachel was so kind to me... Me, being a completely new and very unknown blogger...

I shared with her  a little about my fledgling blog... my baking successes and the name of my blog "Blue Ribbon Kitchen" was a tiny part of our very brief conversation.

Long story, short, ...or at least shortened... Country Living Magazine liked the name Blue Ribbon Kitchen so very much, they wanted to use it to rename the food section of their magazine.

...And they did.

County Living Magazine now has a section called, Blue Ribbon Kitchen... just like me... just like this blog. Blue Ribbon Kitchen is now not only my blog it's also the name of a section of their magazine.

I am still me, just a more overjoyed and deeply touched, version of me... and the blog, Blue Ribbon Kitchen, is still it's own space...we just happen to share the name and the inspired idea of what blue ribbons really mean... We know how exciting it is to have showstopping, prize-winning recipes to share with our friends and family.

In the December/January 2015 issue, Rachel gives me an nod for being the inspiration behind the name change in the magazine... (thank you Rachel!)

And just like that.... I got to see my name, printed in one of my very favorite magazines...of all time.

...Pinch me.

I was telling my kids tonight, when I was about 10 years old, I remember my grandma would peruse the latest Country Living Magazine, while the Lawrence Welk Show was on...it's just something that always stuck with me....
.... and tonight a very old rerun of the Lawrence Welk Show was on and I was in the Country Living Magazine... it was a little surreal and also very thrilling.

(Confession: ... the Lawrence Welk Show, it's a favorite of mine (gasp). I really do love it.  In all it's throw-back, retro style glory... and those outrageous costumes... It was, in a lot of ways, much like the 'Dancing with the Stars' of the 1960's and 70's.... (IMHO)
...please don't judge me too harshly for the LW Show affection--it may be hereditary anyway)

So, a great big thank you to Country Living, I am super excited that Blue Ribbon Kitchen means as much to you as I does to me.  I am so appreciative of this connection to such a great magazine; I am absolutely thrilled and genuinely excited for whatever comes next...

Thank you to all my dear friends and readers of this blog.  You will never know how much your support and encouragement has meant.  Thank you for celebrating this fun milestone with me!

It's a wonderful life!

Dear George:—Remember no man is a failure 

who has friends.
Thanks for the wings!

Love

Clarence.

Thanks for the "wings" friends!

Love 
Karri.