Pay It Forward Curation Contest. My nominees are....[win SBI and Steem-Bounty, whatever they are!]

Hey, guys! Happy Sunday :)

Well, its been a pretty exhausting few days for me, thus the absence from Steem...but don't think I haven't been doing a little happy dance every day over the last post's attention, lol. Stick with me, the nominations are below, just a few ramblings from me first! OH, and do think about posting a Pay It Forward post of your own - there's a few goodies to be won, but I don't know if I quite understand what they all are. Bounties and Basic Income...Just go read the contest page and enter, K? Its for a good cause.

Not only was I visited by @curie through the awesome @rasamuel, but a new Steemit friend @tonyr19 featured me in his Pay It Forward post (read it here: https://steemit.com/payitforward/@tony19r/pay-it-forward-curation-contest-week-5) So naturally, I want to #payitforward, too! It's a contest run by @thedarkhorse and @wolfhart to help posts get the attention they deserve. There are rules for nominating and they can be found here: https://steemit.com/payitforward/@thedarkhorse/pay-it-forward-curation-contest-week-5-win-sbi-and-steem-bounty

Let me first start by saying this was a lot harder of a challenge than I thought it would be! I'm in some really talented company with the @socalsteemit community group, and fortunately (but also unfortunately for my carpal tunnel) most everyone has a rep score of over 50 and one of the rules is that they must be below that. I also want to add that I made the rookie mistake of following literally anyone who followed me for the first few months of steeming, so now I have a trainwreck of a feed and the big purge is taking a hell of a lot longer than anticipated. So yeah, I get it. Great content is not easily found, and if it is - well those people are already being rewarded for being kick-ass contributors and not eligible for a nomination.

After a few hours of scrolling and unfollowing, I noticed a bit of a trend. A lot of people have cool content, but is it quality? Selfishly, I can't vote for someone who posted a photo they screenshot off someplace and took 34 seconds on their post when I sat here for hours on end only to have my first draft disappear. I poured everything I had into one post and then went to cry in the shower after I lost it. It took me a day to work up the courage to try to re-type it and the result was that last post that has been my most popular.

So...before you start thinking my head has blown up and I'm the greatest content writer of them all...I'm not. And it hasn't. I just want to point out that I appreciate even more what @curie, @thedarkhorse and others are doing to help the Steemit platform be the best it can be. Of course I'm jealous of those people making a ton of money off reposting something they found on google or youtube and I even thought to myself I need to keep posting to ride the wave of attention I'm getting but no. I sat down to write a few posts but nothing came to mind that I felt was worth it, and so I didn't. I appreciate people who are informative, putting out original content in their own words or whatever the medium and those who are dedicated to the positive growth of Steemit. And that is what I am basing my nominations off of this week.

My first nomination is for @socalsteemit. This is a community page aimed at helping the Steemians of SoCal grow organically and be as successful as we can together - both on Steemit and in life. One of my favorite things about this blog is the weekly highlights and cool posts from the Socal Steem members. Please read the most recent spotlighted posts here: https://steemit.com/socalsteemit/@socalsteemit/the-socal-spotlight-week-8
It's an awesome way to discover new people!

My second goes back to @tony19r and not because he nominated me, lol. What I really enjoy about Tony's posts is his approach to being helpful. He's got some good information and very helpful tips for newbies without making you feel like you're failing at blogging. Also, anyone dedicated to Pay It Forward posts deserves their own recognition - I'm sure he is doing a ton of reading and filtering to get to those people who deserve nominations. You can read his latest post on how to grow your rep score here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@tony19r/reputation-how-to-steadily-grow-yours

And last but certainly not least, a fellow SoCal steemian - @agirlis. Like me, she writes about a few different topics in her life which make for a great follow! (That was a subliminal message to go follow her now. I'll wait while you do that.)
I love her recipes and she's got a great mind for poetry. Here's her latest: https://steemit.com/writing/@agirlis/closing-april

And that's it for me today. I had a really successful event yesterday with my pots. Not so much selling, but the connections for future collaborations made sitting in 90 degree weather all day long worth it. I can't wait to tell you all about the workshops I'll be doing in conjuncture with safe houses for sex traffic victims and at risk teens in North County! Finally...a way for my art work to mean something more than just decor.

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend doing what you love! xo
Christie