I’ve been racking up a few blog awards recently and it’s time to acknowledge them, share a little bloggy love and pay it forward. I’m always touched when someone recognizes my blog and thinks enough of it to send me some attention. It’s one of the many reasons I love the community here on WordPress. Also, there was a period a few months back when life took over, so if you’ve given me an award and I missed it here, please forgive me.
I have turned into a bit of a rebel, so when it comes to blog awards, I really don’t follow the “rules.” After all, the point of these, I think, is to spread the love and learn about new blogs along the way, without creating a sense of obligation. So here’s what I like to do: recognize those who have nominated me, share a few unknown facts about myself and then nominate a few others who can accept some, all, or none of the awards that I’ve mentioned here.
The Liebster Award:
Lexa at modeljourney.com and Daan at ifkknrokk.com both nominated me for this award. Lexa is a fashion model and writes of her adventures in that world. Daan is a social networking expert and talks of his life in The Netherlands in his blog. Thanks to both of you for including me in your illustrious list of nominees!
The Reality and Shine On Awards:
My dear friend Crystal at crystalnuding.com sent these two awards my way. Crystal’s uplifting blog offers advice and insight to a life of enlightenment and happiness. Thank you, Crystal!
The 2012 Blog of the Year Award:
Mimi at WaitingfortheKarmaTruck.com nominated me for this award. Mimi’s blog is filled with love, wisdom, humor and an occasional music video. She sparks lots of wonderful commentary as well. Thank you, Mimi!
I encourage you to check out each of these great sites. And enjoy!
So to share a few unknown things about me (or things you might not know anyway):
- I am a foodie, gourmet cook and love great food.
- I hold a degree in Industrial Design and love color, design and graphics
- My favorite music is jazz, but I also love classical music and rock music
- I’m an avid reader and my favorite genre is historical fiction.
- I’m a shoe collector. Zappos is my best and worst habit.
- I love to ski, but also enjoy snowshoeing and I’m hoping we get snow soon!
- I would never jump out of a perfectly good airplane to skydive, but I feel very comfortable scuba diving 100 feet below the surface of the water.
Here are my nominees for any or all of the above awards. Take them and share or not:
modeljourney.com
ifkknrokk.com
crystalnuding.com
WaitingfortheKarmaTruck.com
onthehomefrontandbeyond.wordpress.com
theaurareader.com
clareflourish.wordpress.com
robincoyle.wordpress.com
notthehardestpart.wordpress.com
excitementontheside.com
addgrainonearth.com
There are so many others that I could include but I do encourage you to check these out. Now that I’ve been blogging for awhile, my “following” list has gotten longer and longer…
LargeSelf 
Wow, you are very interesting and very awardable! But I already knew that. Thanks very much for the nomination, I’m really flattered!
P.S. Do you collect snowshoes too, since that’s a type of shoe? 🙂
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You’re welcome, Jennifer. I only have one pair of snowshoes. They’re too big to store in the closet. 🙂
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Of course! I love your rebel spirit. I’m coming with you!
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By all means. Rebel is good!
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Thank you for that. Of the wide, attractive choice “Shine on” speaks to me. I am interested to look at the blogs you recommend, finding blogs which delight friends is one of the most delightful things about these awards.
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Oh, you’re very welcome, Clare. You can have more than one, you know. Any others for your collection? And I agree, it’s great to see who other people recommend. Hope you enjoy.
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Hey Cathy,
Thanks for awarding me back! 4 Awards at once, that’s mighty generous of you! 🙂
Regards,
Daan
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You’re very welcome. And thank you again, for the Leibster!
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Daan,
I messed up! I realized when I reread my post – I said you’re in Belgium, where I know you’re in The Netherlands. We have wonderful next-door neighbors who speak Dutch and are from the northern part of Belgium and I was thinking of them. So sorry. I am fixing it right now.
Cathy
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Fun to learn some things about you. Congrats!
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Thanks, Carrie. It’s kindof an interesting challenge to decide what to pick.
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Well Done Cathy, you deserve it!
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Thank you so much, Athena!
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I bet hanging out with Le Clown more often has led you to become more of a rebel…
So glad you got all these awards! Also, so glad you’re a foodie and that it was your number 1 on the list 😛
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Oh, I think being a rebel is actually a side effect for me of maturing (in a good way 🙂 )! Yes, I am truly a foodie. BTW, that crawfish looked mighty good on your post the other day.
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Oh yay! 😀
Thank yooou! Twas delicious! Tomorrow should prove to be equally yummy… 🙂
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A post or another restaurant?
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Tomorrow’s post! It will be the dessert edition of what went down on Monday. Little preview for you… 🙂
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Ooooh! Can’t wait. You could actually turn me into a dessert person, Vyv. It tend to prefer more savory, but chocolate? Yes, I can definitely do that…
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🙂 Wow! How exciting!!
Honestly, I used to have a strictly savory palate. I would politely turn down desserts so I could gorge on more dinner. Then something shifted after my time at UCLA. And now, I can’t get enough of it 🙂
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Some great pastry places at UCLA?
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Their dining halls are pretty intense. When I went there, I think they were #2 in the nation in terms of delicious dining hall food. Also, there was this place called Bruin Cafe that would serve up coffee/smoothies/sandwiches/soup/pastries until 2am. It was a study and late night munchies haven. Their pastries were just super yummy and ever since then, I’ve been hooked.
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You are one very interesting, adventurous and athletic girl! Ah,..I like to read and eat food and wear shoes–so we have that in common–and I like to read your blog–so we have lots in common. Want to thank you so much for nominating me–I am so honoured and flattered to be appreciated!
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Thank you, LouAnn! Yes, we have a lot in common! I’m so glad to know you – and I’m looking forward to the party on Saturday. I’m trying to decide what to bring…
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I am sure it will be festive
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Good for you, Cathy! And thank you for the honor. I’m all a twitter!
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Oh, you’re welcome, Robin. I so enjoying getting to know you!
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Congratulations on your well-earned awards! I also love historical fiction–it’s one of my favorite genres too!
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Thanks, Weebs. I’m a big Geraldine Brooks fan. Have you read all of her’s? “Caleb’s Crossing”, “March”, “The People of the Book” and “A Year of Wonders” all outstanding. Also Sena Jeter Naslund’s “Ahab’s Wife” is a favorite And right now, I’m reading the “Hangman’s Daughter” series – murder mysteries set in 17th Century Bavaria where the protagonist is the town executioner.
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I didn’t know that you have a degree in Industrial Design, but that makes sense considering your excellent visuals on this site.
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Thanks, V. When I studied Industrial Design (Georgia Tech), we learned graphic design as well as product design. Now Graphic Design is a separate discipline, but I’m grateful to have had that training. It’s amazing the improvements in the tools nowadays. Everything was hand-rendered when I was in school. Now, my Mac is my best friend.
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Where I work, as the essentially clueless managerial hack in the Design department since my background is film, we have both an industrial designer and a graphics designer. My boss is an accomplished interior designer, but she’s an old school fine artist that relies on others to do the drawings in Autocad and Adobe CS.
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I never learned Autocad or Adobe CS – really – we were “playing” with Fortran in those days, yikes! I guess that dates me…But nowadays, since I just get to play with design, I love Corel Painter and my Wacom Intuos 4 graphics pad. My blog has been a really fun place for me to be able to play with graphics, photography and design.
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Yes, that’s evident in your lovely visuals.
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I’d also think that your film degree would be a big plus in a Design department, V.
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You deserve each award!
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Thank you, Jen!
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Oh Cathy, I stretch the rules too – but it didn’t mean that you award back!!! 🙂 This is to be celebration of you, your talent and the delight you bring to us…Thank you so much, but the congratulations and attention should be totally on you
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Hi Mimi,
I probably did stretch the rules a little too much this time. No need for you to do anything here – since you just did an awards post. It’s just that I so enjoy your blog and the Shine On and Reality blogs are so apropos for what you bring to me. Just, thank you!
Hugs,
Cathy
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I am touched beyond words to think that those two awards especially resonate when you visit the karma truck. I think there is no award that trumps that notion..
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Congratulations!! And do you read Sharon k Penman (http://www.sharonkaypenman.com) – she’s my most FAVORITE historical fiction author…..if you like Medieval England/Wales for your historical fiction….
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Hi Denise,
Thank you! I haven’t read Sharon K. Penman. I’ll go check her site out.
Cathy
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She made me LOVE historical fiction – and she’s very awesome on Facebook –
Who are you favorite authors and what period of history do you like?
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I love Geraldine Brooks – anything she writes. One of my favorite HF books this year was “Ahab’s Wife” by Naslund, but I really enjoy any period if the story is well-told and well researched and I get to learn about the life and times of the people in that particular period.
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Sharon’s books average about 700 pages…her first novel “The Sunne in Splendour” about Richard III (who I came to love) took her many years to write, and the only manuscript was stolen from her car, she had to start the whole thing all over again – and the book is fabulous!
I’ll check out Geraldine Brooks. I’ve just gotten my first Stephen Lawhead book (well, he does Arthurian novels – so not really ‘history’ but also a favorite of mine) – I hope I love him b/c he’s got a lot of books!
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Brooks won a Pulitzer for “March.” It’s her fictional account what happened to the absent father of “Little Women.” I love books that take a creative twist and she always does this. Then there’s “The Year of Wonders” another fictionalized account of a small village in Derby, England that quarantined themselves when the plague came their way in the 17th century. It’s a true story that she shifted slightly to tell it in first-person narrative.
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I just put the plague book in my amazon wish list
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Let me know what you think, Denise.
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Always – I hope I love her – I love finding a new author! I also love Elizabeth Chadwicks ‘The Greatest Knight” -she writes about Will Marshall – who was supposed to be hung when he was 5 by King Stephen because Will’s father gave him up as a hostage for his good faith to King Stephen and he betrayed Stephen for Maud (She’s my favorite) and he said basically – hang him…but Stephen was soft-hearted (which I like) and couldn’t hang a 5 year old..and Will Marshall grows up and has a pretty amazing life ~
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Will put that one on my list!
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Congrats, Cathy! Oh, I’ve always wanted to learn how to scuba dive. That’s cool. I hope you get some snow soon in Colorado! I used to love to snowshoe when I lived there.
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