The Liebster Award

This award is bestowed upon fledgling bloggers by other bloggers and was created as a way to discover and recognise those of us who are new to the world of blogging. 

A huge thank you to Lori Smith Schaefer for nominating my blog for The Liebster Award.

I love what Lori has to say about herself.  She says she’s a: “Wife, mother, grandmother. Retired teacher, literacy specialist and Northern Nevada Writing Project teacher-consultant. Kindness advocate. Avid reader. Columnist for the Nevada Appeal. Member of Lone Mountain Writers. Aspiring novelist. Pretty bad writer. Pretty good reviser.”

Pop over and read what she had to say when she received this award: Won’t you be my Liebster?

I started this blog in July 2014 after my husband and I made the decision to take a trip around Australia.  At the time of accepting this lovely award in March 2015, I had a grand total of 65 incredible (WordPress) followers.

– ⋅ o ♥ o ⋅ –

The Award Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.
2. Display the award on your blog.
3. Answer the 11 questions provided to you.
4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. Create a new list of 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
6. Nominate and inform 5 – 11 blogs you believe deserve the award.
   (The blogs are to have 200 or less followers.)

– ⋅ o ♥ o ⋅ –

Answers to Lorie’s Questions

1. Why did you start a blog?
   Embarking on a ‘trip of a lifetime’ presents many issues – sell the house or don’t sell the house, what car to buy, what caravan, where to store our possessions, what to take.  The list goes on.  But the one thing I had no issue with deciding was how to keep in touch with our daughters, family and friends – Start a blog and keep everyone up to date in one easy action.
2. Have you published your writing elsewhere? Where can we find it?
   I have never been published, writing is rather new to me so long as you don’t count the plethora of Toastmaster Speeches I’ve written (and delivered), or the poetry I wrote when I was young and oh so impressionable.  I have another blog where I post creative writing so by all means stop by and see what I have to say over there: My Creative Cosmos.
3. Share an embarrassing moment.
   Life is full of them, but for me, most of them involve something my children have done or said like the day one of them had an accident while sitting on my lap when riding home on a bus.  I then had to walk three blocks looking like I’d had an accident.
4. What’s the best advice you ever received?
   Align your external rear view mirrors so that you can only just see the back of your car.  This gives you a greater field of view.
5. Do you have a secret talent? What?
   I’m not chef worthy, I could never cut the mustard on Masterchef, but I can take a few ingredients and turn them into a wonderful meal.  I like making up recipes and over the years have only had a few (minor) disasters.
6. Have you had to overcome some adversity or challenge? What or who inspired you?
   Sometimes (perhaps) we all find ourselves in situations where every day is or can be a challenge.  I choose not to dwell on situations that have dragged me down.  For now, travelling the country has to be as good as it gets, with no regrets, no issues and absolutely the most amount of fun we’ve ever had.
7. Who is your celebrity boyfriend?
   I don’t know that I have one celebrity that I drool over, but the dulcet tones of Sean Connery are pretty hard to go past.  Even though I don’t mind Daniel Craig, Sean Connery is still my favourite 007.
8. If you could invite anyone in the world to dinner, who would it be?
   My father, his wife, my brothers and their wives, my sister and her husband, together with all the children and their partners.  We all live so far apart from each other and we rarely get the chance to be together.  I’d cook a wonderful meal and we’d just sit and talk and be nice to each other.
9. What does a perfect day look like?
   Blue sky, sunshine, all the time in the world to do whatever I like.  Sounds pretty much like every day at the moment.
10. Do you have a mantra or favorite quote, something you repeat to yourself when stressed or confused or worried? Share.
    Everything happens for a reason, you may not know what that reason is – right here, right now – but sooner or later, you will turn around and know exactly why things happened the way they did.  You can read more about my (profound) philosophy here: Where Fate Intervened.
11. What have you crossed off your bucket list?
    The Great Ocean Road, The Blue Mountains, New York, New Zealand (but must go back one day), speaking in front of a room full of people, writing an award-winning speech, winning Metro Division Humorous Speech Contest (2014), helping others improve their speaking skills.  too many others to mention.
    What’s left? Win (any) District International Speech Contest (one day), see the rest of Tasmania before the end of May (2015), visit Uluru and photograph the sunset, visit Annie’s Lane in the Clare Valley and drink my favourite wine straight from the cellar, see South Australia, get lost in Western Australia (figuratively speaking of cause), climb the Eiffel Tower, visit County Clare in Ireland.  The list goes on and on and on.

    – ⋅ o ♥ o ⋅ –

Eleven Random Things About Myself

1. Dean is a choc-a-holic and he doesn’t know (or refuses to acknowledge) that, secretly, I am too.
2. I can cook, just sometimes I choose not to.  It’s how I found my husbands heart – straight through the other side of his stomach.
3. I can sew and when my girls were little, I used to make their panties – they were the best and never developed holes or saggy elastic before my girls grew out of them.
4. I love Cheesecake and have created some of my own, no bake, cheesecake recipes.
5. Actually, I’ve created many of my own recipes over the years including a fiery hot cheese ball that Dean loves to eat when drinking a beer.
6. As a result of my cooking, or perhaps genetics, I’m curvy and I am more than OK with that.
7. Actually, I take back No 4 above, I simply love food.  Good wholesome, home cooked, love infused, stick to your ribs kind of food.
8. Dean is my best friend and I cannot imagine my life without him.
9. My girls mean everything to me and I try my best to be a good mother to them.
10. Our second daughter was born when the eldest was three years old and I was amazed that the love within my heart was not divided between them, it was multiplied.
11. It was multiplied once again when our third daughter was born and, even though that was more than 26 years ago, my heart still brims to overflowing.

– ⋅ o ♥ o ⋅ –

Passing the Award Along

Are you a new blogger? Do you have less than 200 followers?

Would you like to receive The Liebster Award?

Then, this award is yours.

Congratulations on getting started and becoming a blogger.

All I ask is that you leave me a comment here stating that you’ve accepted the award and I’ll pop over to your blog and have a look around.  I’ll leave a comment to let you know I’ve done so and then update this page to include a link to your blog.

You can read more about my spin on Blogging Awards on my Policies page.

– ⋅ o ♥ o ⋅ –

Questions I’d Like My Nominees to Answer

1. Why do you find so alluring about blogging?
2. What keeps you blogging?
3. What was your first post about?
4. What is the one thing you love about the country you live in?
5. Where would you like to go for your next holiday and why?
6. If you could have a super-power, what would it be and why?
7. What is the one thing you remember about your favourite teacher at school?
8. What do you see as your ‘Dream Job’ and what makes it so dreamy?
9. Are you ‘Summer’ or ‘Winter’ or another season, and why?
10. What is ‘your song’ and what makes it so special?
11. Without revealing your actual name, what is the meaning of your name?

For example:  Everyone already knows my name is Clare which means ‘clear, bright, and shining’ and I love my name.