Friday Linky Love + Announcing My Giveaway Winner

This week was special for me. For the last (almost) four years, my family and I have been working on obtaining our Italian, dual citizenship. Hours of gathering paperwork, translating naturalization papers English to Italian, flying and driving to the consulate for meetings and three rejections later, my darling momma crossed her fingers, took her stack of paperwork to the Chicago consulate earlier this week for one last try. I left my phone on my desk at work, anticipating her phone call. I didn’t even tell anyone I was waiting for it, for fear of jinxing it or being let down…

We were accepted!! The next day, Earth Day, was my mother’s birthday making it one of the best gifts ever. I’m elated (and yes, will definitely live in Italy or anywhere in the EU for that matter) – I will receive my Italian passport and dual citizenship in the near future as the approval paperwork goes through. Just goes to show, you shouldn’t give up if you want something. You just shouldn’t. Ask my mom, she’s a feisty Italian and doesn’t take, “No,” for an answer.

The Winner:

Last week, I asked for feedback about Small Hands, Big Ideas to my dear readers. I got a myriad of feedback, ideas, encouragement, thoughts and improvement points – all of which, I have taken to heart. Some were longtime friends, some had just visited my blog for the first time. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking a moment to read, listen, and offer feedback. It means so much to me and I learned a lot! Expect a post in the near future with updates and what I’m doing with your feedback. Through Random.org (and some Gracie fairy dust) the winner was:

Ruby Ku!

Ruby was one of my first friends I met through blogging, back in 2008 even when I was on Blogger. I love this. Ruby, expect an e-mail then sweet morsel package from me of all things Boulder. Thank you!

Back to our programming:

• Business Week: Why Boulder is America’s Best Best Town for Startups

Boulder now has the highest concentration of software engineers per capita in the nation. It’s second only to Silicon Valley in percentage of workers employed in tech, according to the American Electronics Assn. Best-selling author and urban development expert Richard Florida says it has the greatest concentration of the “creative class”—scientists, artists, engineers, and the like—in the U.S.

• OpenForum.com: Six Ways to Encourage Creativity With Your Workspace
• Love Letters to the Future Touching, if you haven’t checked this out yet, do so.

Photo: The famiglia, in Roma