Liebster Blog Award – all the excitement!

So yesterday my day was made by a notification which popped up with a comment from the lovely Ileana from Sometimes I Wear Tiaras (an awesome blog about best friends, style and sparkle, all things very close to my own glitter-loving heart).  She had nominated this wee blog for the Liebster Blog Award.

I squealed with excitement.  It was a little awkward as I was in a very long and drawn out meeting at the time and I was pretending to check my phone for important messages.  My colleagues must’ve wondered what exactly was so awesome about a work-related email.

This award is passed on by bloggers to other writers in the exciting growing stages of their blogs.  For me, it was such a honour – as well as being a brilliant reminder of the power of the internet to shrink the globe and make connections, as Ileana is based in NY, and here I am in little Auckland, approximately 14,200km away.

As part of the award, nominees answer 11 questions, which is always fun!  And these are great ones.

1. If you could be any famous person (past or present), who would you be?  Hmmm, this is a tough one.  Possibly Channing Tatum’s wife?
2. What colour best describes you?  It depends on my mood I guess, but I’d like to think whatever the colour, it’d be glittery.  That also means there’s more potential for even more colours, as glitter changes depending on the light direction.  Decision-making isn’t my strong point, so I like to keep my options open!
3. If tomorrow were your last day to live, what would you eat for your final meal?  My Mom’s Mac n’ Cheese.  It’s an old school favourite.  Comfort food at its finest.  Dessert would have to be a pie made by my domestic goddess of a friend, Cush.  Preferably cherry.  But I’m not picky.
4. Who do you ask for advice?  If it’s a practical question, the Southern Man.  There’s very little he doesn’t know, in fact.  And if he doesn’t have the answer, he can make it sound as though he does.  For work, direction, career or management concerns, my dad.  Same reasons as above!  For matters of the heart, my mom and my girlfriends, all of whom I couldn’t do without.  And for existential ponderings, a bottle of rosé.
5. What is your favorite place?  The beach.  Just about any beach will do.  If I were to choose a favourite, any of the West Coast beaches around Auckland.  Particularly on a blustery winter’s day.  Rugged and wild and totally beautiful.  Whether it’s the ions from the sea or the horizon or the salty air, it never fails to ground me.
6. Weather-wise: hot or cold?  Much to the Southern Man’s discomfort, I’d have to say hot.  I love the sun (in a sun-smart way, obviously).  He would love to live in a climate where the annual high was in single figures.  I’d spend all my life wrapped up like an Eskimo, moaning about my cold feet.  We’re heading in to summer here and I could not be more excited.
7. If you could have any animal as a pet, what animal would you choose?  I was going to say we already have the best, most amazing pet in the entire world, but to be truthful, I sometimes think we are her pets, her minions in fact, rather than the other way around.  Mrs Podgely could not be any more perfect.
8. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?  My first ‘proper’ job out of Uni.  The job itself was OK, PR and marketing for a magazine.  But the working experience?  Beyond bizarre.  Short version – the owner was having an affair with the doctor based next door.  The husband found out.  There was much destruction of office property and general madness.  There was even picketing outside the doctor’s office with a placard reading “Dr *** f#cked my wife” and much shouting… For a new entrant into the working world, it was quite the eye-opener.  Then the boss discovered she was pregnant…oh, the scenes!  On the plus side, I wasn’t alone, there were two of us newbies – I can’t imagine how much worse it would’ve been without Lisa there to share the total insanity.  And even though it was a shocking start to the Real World, I am grateful to this day for the experience as it brought her into my life and we’ve stayed close, 15 years on.  Bonds forged in war and all that!
9. What is your favorite Disney movie?  Brave.  Mostly because I wish I had Merida’s hair.  And she’s a princess who can really kick some butt.  What’s not to love?
10. Mac or PC?  PC, but only because I’m more familiar with them.  Would love a Mac!
11. What is your favorite holiday?  Either a tropical island escape with my girlfriends, with cocktails on tap, all-day swimming, bikinis at breakfast and lazing on recliners as the sun sets in a million different shades of pink, or a break away with The Southern Man, with no phones but lots of books and wine and time to catch up.  Doesn’t matter where, as long as he’s there.

 

And on to 11 random facts about me:

1. The first concert I attended without my parents was UB40. I am not proud of this fact in the slightest and am still confused as to how this occurred.
2. I have a freckle at the back of my right eye. It amuses me to know this.
3. Manatees are one of my favourite creatures. I seriously considered taking a year off to volunteer in Florida with a rescue organisation. Then I remembered I had no money – always a limiting factor.
4. If I’d been born a boy, my parents were going to name me Gordon. Yet another reason to be grateful I’m female.
5. In my humble opinion, Frasier is one of the funniest shows ever produced.
6. When picking up a product I will always go for the one behind the front one. Never ever the front choice.  Just can’t do it.
7. I have a fear of downwards-moving escalators. It requires serious concentration and focus to step on.  A weird mental block.
8. Pretty sure I could live on pizza.
9. I wanted to be a vet when I was younger.
10. Stand-up paddle-boarding is on my bucket list. I plan on ticking it off this summer.  (Bridge, I’ll repay you with sangria if you’ll take me out xxx)
11. Favourite city visited so far would have to be either New York or Istanbul.

 

To pay it forward, there are a number of great blogs I follow, and I wish I could spend more time browsing as there are so many funny, smart and inspirational voices out there.

Four of my faves just at the moment though:

• Keira’s blog, which I linked to a few days back.  This girl blows my mind.  www.themusingsofamovingmarfling.wordpress.com
• Tarryne at Change One Woman is inspirational, authentic and not afraid to challenge socially-constructed thinking and ask the tough questions.
• I’ve only recently discovered Frock and Roll but it’s lovely to read!  Corrine and I are both online members of a NZ blogging group (how I love Facebook for such things!) but I’ve never made it along to any of the meet-ups (it’s on my Must Try Harder list), so I’m looking forward to heading along and meeting her and the other awesome Auckland bloggers making their mark and sharing their energy and wisdom along the way.  I recommend you check out this cool blog this weekend!
• Ponies And Martinis.  Hilarious and sweet.  And another recent find.  I’m pretty sure she’s already been nominated but I don’t think it’s an once-only option.  And at the risk of being cyber-stalky, I actually think we could be excellent Real Life Friends.  Ponies is a bigger blog so hope I’m not breaking the rules, but I do think it rocks.

 

Questions for nominees to answer:

1. If you were a superhero, which one would you want to be?
2. What did you want to do when you grew up?
3. Favourite number?
4. If you could live in another era, which one would you pick?
5. Fruit or vegetables?
6. Who’s your hero?
7. If money, training and experience wasn’t an issue, what would you choose to do as a career – would you change what you’re currently doing?
8. What’s your TV-viewing secret shame?
9. What musical instrument would you like to be able to play?
10. Entrée or dessert?
11. Would you prefer a camping vacation or an inner-city urban break?

*The Official Rules of the Liebster Blog Award (From the wonderful Wording Well website):

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. Display the award on your blog (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. Nominate 5-11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have fewer than 1000 followers.
6. Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
7. List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.)
8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

A huge thanks again to Sometimes I Wear Tiaras for thinking of Glitter Is My Favourite Colour, you truly made my day.  It’s been great to be part of this ‘pay it forward’ concept, and fun to answer the questions!

Happy weekends, lovelies!