Woo-hoo!
I am the proud recipient of The Liebster Award, an award that goes to bloggers, like me, from other bloggers, like those dear inspiring ladies who nominated me! You can only nominate someone if you, yourself, have received the award, which means that my nominators are quite distinguished blog writers.
I’d like to give a huge thank you to Caro Ness of the Caro Ness Author blog, whose poetry exudes wit, charm, and beauty, and she is always generously highlighting the work of others. Her own work is a marvel and a delight, and you will have to check it out for yourself!
Another giant and sincere thank you goes to Amy Young Miller of The Vomiting Chicken, (don’t you just love the name? You’ll have to check out her blog to learn where it came from). Amy writes wonderfully entertaining stories about life in Nebraska, raising six kids, as well as chickens, ducks, and geese, and growing much of their own food. Did I mention she produces an annual musical melodrama? I haven’t yet discovered anything she can’t do. But she does get car sick, so at least we have that much in common.
Ok, moving on to the rules of The Liebster Award:
1. I have to write eleven things about myself. Wait… what?
2. I have to answer eleven questions about myself. Hold on…. is this some kind of cruel joke?
3. I have to nominate eleven up-and-coming and/or inspiring blogs for The Liebster Torture – oh, I mean – Award.
4. I have to come up with eleven questions for those I nominate.
Oh, and lucky for Caro Ness and Amy Young Miller, it’s against the rules to nominate those who nominated you.
(All kidding aside… I am very excited to have been given this award by such inspiring people).
Ok, eleven things… (no one said they have to be interesting):
1. I once fainted in the middle of a wedding ceremony. Thankfully, it was not my wedding, but sadly, much of it was caught on video. I keep waiting to find it on Youtube.
2. I am currently experiencing my mid-life crisis. This might be a generous term for it, since I am 48 and I don’t expect to live until I’m 96, so I guess I would call it a mid-to-late-life crisis. I think this means it should be over soon (the crisis, that is, not my life).
3. One day, when I was ten, my sister, some friends, and I made prank phone calls in which we mistakenly called a narcotics hotline. A police officer showed up and wrote down each of our names, addresses, and phone numbers and told us we would never get jobs because this offense would be on our permanent records. We were all crying uncontrollably by the time he left. Needless to say, we were sure to use the phone book for any future prank calls… no more of that crazy random dialing of numbers.
4. Since that fateful prank-call day, I have worked as a salad girl at the Flaming Pit Restaurant, a monster at the Brigantine Castle, a Wa Wa sandwich maker, a hostess, a waitress, and a bartender in numerous establishments. I was a DJ in college. I’ve worked in accounting, recruiting, and admissions, all prior to my first graphic design position at the South Bend Tribune twenty years ago. So, take that Mr. Prank-Call-Police-Officer!
5. In 2006, I opened Red Barn Artworks, where we artistically enhance photographs and print the outcome on a variety of custom gift items. It has been a wonderful experience with many challenges, ups, and downs. My favorite part is the art created from special memories. My least favorite part is selling… it makes my palms sweat. I am not kidding. They are sweating now just thinking about it.
6. I love animals enormously. My giant cat, Ralph, is sitting (and purring) on my lap as I write this. Ralph is not giant because we overfeed him, of course… he is just big-boned. We also have a small Beagle, Wilbur, who is about the same size as Ralph. We got both beloved animals at the Humane Society.
7. I have two teenage children and sometimes I wish I could stop time. My oldest is heading to college in the fall and I am trying to imagine our household without him on a daily basis. He is on a twelve day exchange program in Spain right now, so I am getting a pretty good idea of what it will be like. Sniff.
8. I married my best friend over 20 years ago. It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed and he’s still my best friend. I know I am very lucky.
9. Oh God. Three more things. This is hard. Ok… It’s very rare that I share my dessert.
10. I’m trying to learn Italian from an online podcast.
11. I try to meditate and exercise daily. I am very aware of how these practices help me both mentally and physically.
YES! I did it!
Now… eleven questions for me to answer, can you believe it? How can I have any more information left to give? Since I was nominated by two people, who each gave me their own sets of eleven questions, I thought it would be best if I picked eleven from the two sets (rather than answering twenty two questions… none of us could handle that).
1. What is your favorite meal?
Zucchini rice gratin… I just made it for dinner last night. I love risotto with mushrooms as well. Mmmmm.
2. Do you believe in space aliens? If so, how would you describe them?
Sure, why not? I suppose they could look like us. Who knows? They could be everywhere and we don’t even know it.
3. Do you own a grand piano? Do you play an instrument?
We have my in-law’s gorgeous grand piano. I took lessons for 10 years as a child and still remember a few things.
4. How will you spend your birthday this year?
I have a neurology appointment on my birthday, so I hope my family treats me to dinner afterwards… hint… hint.
5. What are you reading right now?
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
6. Have you an ambition you still want to complete?
A far-out dream of mine is to have an animal sanctuary for injured and abused animals. But I have no expertise to draw on for this.
7. What is your favorite book?
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Although it’s been years since I’ve read it.
8. Do you have a phobia about anything, if so what?
I have a phobia of panic. I went through a period of panic attacks and that is one of the worst experiences I can remember.
9. If you could choose to travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Galapagos Islands. I’ve always wanted to help save the baby sea turtles there. There just has to be a way to get me there that doesn’t involve small aircraft and boats.
10. If I could wave my wand and grant you a wish, what would it be?
Peace. Everywhere. Please.
11. If you could be the hero of a book or film, which would it be and who would you be?
Elastigirl from Disney’s The Incredibles.
And FINALLY, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! My nominees for The Liebster Award are…
- Ann Mullen of Media-Ann-Such
- Gina Marie of So…Let’s Hang Out
- Tammy Bleck of Witty Woman Writing
- Francene Stanley of Francene–Blog. Year 2013
- Muriel Jacques of French Yummy Mummy in London
- Sophie Bowns of Planchette
- Patricia Swanepoel of Living Life My Way One Lemon At A Time
- Tana Bevan of Tana’s World
- Bill Gelwick of HomeBiz4uNow
- Loran Hills of Loran’s Heart
- Tasha Huebner of The Thigh Master Route to Kona
Should you choose to accept this honor, please follow the rules mentioned above and answer the following 11 questions:
- How do you handle stress?
- Who is your favorite music artist?
- Do you have any fears or phobias?
- What is your favorite hobby if you have one?
- Do you consider yourself a pessimist or an optimist (or something else)?
- Where is your favorite place that you have been?
- Where would you like to visit if you had the opportunity?
- Who would you like to meet (that is still alive) if you had the opportunity?
- What is your favorite movie or TV show?
- Who is your favorite comedian?
- If you could have any talent in the world, what would it be?
I very much look forward to learning a bit more about the above bloggers! And I thank you for indulging me by reading this very long blog. And thank you again Caro Ness and Amy Young Miller!
Until next time,
Red Barn Artworks... A small company with a big passion to create meaningful art from everyday photos.
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