Awards

At the end of a very difficult week, I needed something to put a smile back on my face and lo and behold the wonderful Relly Rambles (a fabulous blogger whose beauty posts I love) had nominated me for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award! Such a lovely thing to be awarded from a fellow blogger especially after all the extra posting I’ve been doing lately and after branching out to cover new topics such as my film reviews. I’ve had such a lovely reaction to all this that I’m definitely carrying on in the same vein for the foreseeable future and hope you all will continue to read, enjoy and comment on my posts.

The Rules:

Share the rules with your nominees so they know how it works.
Give your nominator a big shout out and link to their blog.
Share seven facts about yourself with your followers.
Nominate fifteen bloggers of your choice.

Seven Facts about Me:

I love quiche. There’s no denying it! But it HAS to be home-made and full of flavour. My mum makes the BEST quiches, especially when she makes individuals using up all the Christmas cheeses – although smoked salmon and broccoli is always a winner.
Apparently no-one seems to think I’m 23-going-on-24, anyone who speaks to me over the phone thinks I must be older while those who meet me seem to think I’m 19. I get ID’d everywhere I go and yet a woman in Tesco took one look at me the other day and said “You’re definitely over 25 aren’t you” in a very sarcastic tone.. Cheers love.
I live for Converse. They are the best shoes I have ever bought and they go with every outfit, plus they are so damn comfy for dancing all night in.
I swear by olive oil and tea tree oil – between them you can perfectly balance your skin, plus they can be used on hair, nails, lips etc.
Despite not considering myself a “girl’s girl”, I actually have more girlfriends now than I have ever had in my life and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’ve managed to find the most amazing friends who also are not “girly girls” so we can all be lads together!
Music is a huge part of my life and that’s one of the main reasons why I love festivals so much – I love the fact that you can see so many different types of music in one place. My favourite song of the moment is Mr Probz – Waves (Robin Schulz Remix) – talk about getting me in the summer mood.
Linked with the above – I love to dance. I’m definitely not very good at it and I am not one of those girls who looks hot on a night out, I’m usually the one silly dancing with her mates and in hysterics at what we look like, capturing it all on video. I love those nights out where you just dance all night with amazing friends.

My Nominations:

Any Girl Friday
The Little Blog Of Life
To Marry Completely
Miss Erin O’Hara
Darling Lovely Life
Day To Daydreamer
Jenny In Neverland
Letters to Antoinette
Gingerbread Buttons
Lara’s Story
Darcy Mae
Molly’s Gap Year Blog
Confessions of a Nomad
Eat Like A Girl
Life Ever Changing

These are in no particular order and all very talented, beautiful and such intelligent bloggers – I adore all of your posts and all of you brighten my day in one way or another. I’m so happy to count you all among my blogging friends and to have you all to look up to when I make my own blogging goals.

The Sisterhood of World Bloggers Award

After a week of shopping and eating my way around The Big Apple, I was excited to get back to blogging, ready to share all my pictures and experiences with you all particularly after seeing all the lovely comments that were waiting for me. Including one very special comment from Shaz at For The Love Of Sass that said she had chosen to pass on the wonderful Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award to me! What a lovely thing to come home to and it has certainly given me plenty of reason to get writing a load of brilliant new posts for you to enjoy. This one is a big thank you to Shaz for thinking of me when she was given the award, it really is such an honour to be given awards from my fellow bloggers, and for all her lovely posts, which really brighten my day.

Here are the rules:

Link to the blogger who nominated you and say thanks.
Nominate blogs that you find a joy to read.
Link to the nominees and tell them about the nomination.
Include the award logo in your blog post.
Answer the ten questions listed below.

My answers:

1. What is your favourite colour?

Purple or gold, it’s a tie!

2. What is your favourite animal?

It has to be the elephant – they are just so intelligent and wise, you can tell that they have a lot of understanding of the world around them, they don’t just survive, they live and love.

3. What is your favourite non-alcoholic drink?

I’d have to be really boring and say water – I drink the stuff all day long and never get bored of it and I’m just not really one for fizzy drinks or sugary substitutes. If I fancy something fruity, I would go for a pineapple juice or something with raspberry in it.

4. Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter?

Definitely Twitter, Facebook is great for sharing photos and talking to close friends or those travelling, but through Twitter I have made so many friends who are all over the world and it just seems so much more useful. Those on Facebook usually seem to use it as a format for complaint or stalking people and their lives – bit unhealthy. Twitter is great for sharing interesting reads, communicating with other bloggers and learning/finding out news.

5. What is your favourite pattern?

What a random question, I guess it would have to be the cutie-pie patterns of Cath Kidston – I love all the floral, ditsy patterns, they are just so cute and we have loads in our beach hut.

6. Do you prefer getting or giving presents?

Always giving, I love finding something really special for a friend or for family, something I know they will love and seeing their faces as they unwrap it. I got some tickets to take my Grandad to see the West End show Dreamboats and Petticoats and it really made his Christmas – it was so hard to keep them a secret for months though! I’ve had some bad experiences with receiving presents in recent years, mainly experiences or tickets to things that have turned out to be awful and ended up being ruined by something or other, so I think that has affected how I feel about getting gifts.

7. What is your favourite number?

I really don’t have one and although a little bit suspicious, I have never had a lucky number either. To be honest, after how much I hated maths at school, numbers are not one of my favourite things full stop!

8. What is your favourite day of the week?

It has to be Friday – I just love that Friday feeling and having the promise of a weekend to come, packed with fun and time spent with good friends and family.

9. What is your favourite flower?

I love daisies and daffodils – they are just so cute and pure, when you look at roses and lilies there is just so much hidden intention or meaning, but these are just so free of all that. I love that that they just grow wild in the fields near my home and by the roadsides because they are just so pretty and always remind me of making daisy chains when growing up, or when at festivals.

10. What is your passion?

Writing. It doesn’t matter whether it is at work for the newspaper, for my blog or for the festival website – I just enjoy watching the words flow and forming a story that I can share with the world.

My nominees:

Thanks for being you, and always sharing yourself with us.

Jenny In Neverland

Molly’s Gap Year Blog

Life Ever Changing

Suzie 81 Speaks

Jody’s Scribbles

Worrellwind Adventures

Enjoy checking out some of these great blogs!

The Liebster Award

I’ve now had a total of three nominations for the Liebster Award which I am so grateful for – especially as the third came on the day when I hit 200 followers! What a success! Thanks to the beautiful Meli and Becca for my second nomination – check out Chick Chat here. My third award, and the last was just a few weeks ago so I am over the moon! Check out my answers and nominations for the award below.

If you haven’t heard of this before, here are the rules:
– You must link back to the person who nominated you.
– You must answer the 11 questions given by the person who nominated you.
– You pick 5-11 nominees with under 200 followers to answer your questions.
– You cannot nominate the person who nominated you.
– You must tell the nominees that they have been nominated by you.

Questions:

1. Why did you start blogging?

I first started blogging as Absolutely Lucy just a few months ago – I already work as a journalist for a newspaper and an editor of a festival news website, but I wanted to create a space that was all mine creatively. I wanted to write on topics I felt passionately about and to have a little piece of the world that was all of my own. I felt that blogging would give me complete freedom to write what I really wanted to instead of conforming to journalistic styles and writing someone else’ words all the time.

2. Any advice for other bloggers?

My advice to other bloggers, as a relative newbie, would be to keep doing what you love. Remember at all times, no matter how many views or how much notoriety your writing gets, to keep your feet on the ground and your head out of the clouds. Never forget what and why you started writing, once you lose that, you lose your readers. Also, never be afraid of writer’s block – it happens to us all and when it does, put down the laptop, get out and live, get some inspiration, don’t just give in to it!

3. All time favourite movie?

I’m going to be really boring and say I don’t have just one favourite movie – I love so many different types of film that I simply couldn’t choose just one. I love the classics like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Pretty Woman and Notting Hill – anything with Marilyn Monroe is a winner. But I also love comedies – anything with Will Ferrell (especially Blades of Glory and Stepbrothers) has me hooked. I love anything with Natalie Portman, Naomi Watts or Rachel McAdams, or equally, Ryan Gosling, Robert Downey Jnr or Christian Bale – all gorgeous and incredibly talented. The most recent film I have seen that I loved was The Great Gatsby and I really need to see Wolf of Wall Street before it disappears – Leo is such a great actor. I could talk all day about films that I love (and this may be another blog post in itself) but my one steadfast is loving any Disney movies – especially the ones with princesses, and my recent love of unknown indie movies – I can’t resist a coming of age tale!

4. If you could only have one bit of make up what would it be?

I’m so picky about make-up because I find it so hard to find colours that match my skin tone when it comes to foundation etc but the one thing I really could not live without has go to be my Benefit They’re Real mascara – I’ve just never found another mascara that compares.

5. What is your favourite item of clothing that you own?

I think the best item of clothing I have ever bought has got to be my Asos leather jacket – it was expensive but worth every penny because I have never worn anything as much as this. It goes with everything and I can wear it in all weathers – I just love it. Even though I have had it a while, as soon as I put it one it just makes me feel fabulous and always completes an outfit.

6. Where do you see yourself in ten years time?

I have absolutely no idea – and that is really bloody exciting! I have recently decided I’m upping sticks next year and going travelling with hopes of working abroad for some time. This has totally changed my life plan and means leaving behind my boyfriend of eight years. Up to this point, if you asked me this I might have said in 10 years we will be settling down, have our own place in a city, perhaps a child or wedding on the way and that I would be working for a marketing/pr company or writing freelance – or even blogging full time (that’s the dream!). But now my change of plans means I don’t know what will happen between us, I may end up staying abroad and working there, I may return and move to London, I may change my career entirely. I may go away and meet someone else and settle down with them. Who knows? But I really like how up in the air things are at the moment – utter freedom!

7. If you could recommend one place that everyone should visit, where would it be?

Oh god there are so many places I don’t know how to choose! I would definitely recommend Mauritius as my father’s home country – it is truly beautiful and a tropical paradise. Words simply cannot do it justice. But for those who cannot afford it, I would also recommend London – there is so much more to London one you get off the tourist trail and it really is a beautiful city. I’m just not so keen on all the rubbish attractions, I’d rather walk around and discover crazy little neighbourhoods instead.

8. Top 3 qualities you look for in a person?

Always – honesty, sense of humour and thoughtfulness – I love genuine people who really make an effort to be friends rather than just expecting things from you all the time, and they have to have plenty of intelligent banter.

9. What is your ideal night in?

My perfect night in is sometimes spent blogging and writing in front of the TV, watching Downton Abbey and eating chocolate with scented candles. Other times it is eating a massive Chinese, drinking wine and gossiping over episodes of Mistresses and Sex & The City with my best friends. Other nights it is cooking an amazing meal with my boyfriend and watching coming of age movies while snuggled up in bed. It chops and changes every day, but each is an amazing way to spend an evening.

10. Your favourite free thing to do?

Hmm well as a reviewer and writer I often get lots of free tickets to shows and gigs which is great – I love to share these with my family and friends and I would say my favourite free thing would be just spending this quality time with my loved ones and friends. I love just those days where you don’t really do anything but just have lots of fun with your parents, your boyfriend or your mates. Days spent sunbathing with friends, hanging out with my tortoise or just going for a run are the ones that stick in my mind.

11. Who do you find the most inspiring/successful person in the public eye and why?

I’ll be honest, I don’t tend to keep up with celebrities and I don’t tend to look at those in the public eye as someone to aspire to be – mainly because I prefer to look at those around me as inspirational – real people, not just people who have been thrust into the limelight because of their looks or reality TV. I don’t know if I can include them, but the people I write about in the newspaper I work for (I suppose they are then in the public eye) are the ones who inspire me. Real people who suffer real hardships and make real differences as a result – the ones who have lost their daughters, mothers, brother and grandfathers but who have set up charities and done amazing works despite this. I interviewed one guy earlier who despite breaking his hip and suffering extreme back injuries continues to cycle and walk for charity and has raised more than £85,000 for Macmillan in less than 15 years in memory of his parents. That’s real inspiration right there.

Nominees:

Sarah Hardman Travels

Emma Victoria Stokes

The London Scrapbook

Tales of a Travelling Photographer

Yes I Have A Blog

And my questions for you guys:

1. What has been your favourite blog post to write and why?

2. If you could travel to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

3. What’s your day job and how does it link with or fit around blogging?

4. Which blog really inspired you to take up blogging?

5. What was your happiest memory from the past year and who were you with?

6. Are you planning any trips? Where are you heading to next?

7. What is the worst and best thing about where you live?

8. Favourite book and why?

9. How would your dream man/woman sweep you off your feet?

10. What was the best thing about the nineties?

11. What was your most embarrassing moment?

The Lighthouse Award

I have to apologise for the delay in posting on this but for some reason I couldn’t find my nomination! I want to thank Gozza Bear for the lovely nomination for the Lighthouse Award, which is a great motivator and just what I needed at the moment. It’s wonderful to know, in what has been a pretty dark time for me, that my writing and my blog is something that “brings light to a dark world” – it has inspired me to persevere and to keep writing.

The accompanying rules and guidelines for this award are:

✓Display the Award certificate on your blog.
✓Write a post and link back to the blogger that nominated you.
✓Inform your nominees of their award nominations
✓Share three ways that you like to help other people.

My nominations for blogs that have brought light into my life are as follows:

All of these blogs have put a smile on my face, given me great advice, made me dream of far off shores and even encouraged me in my own travel or future plans – I appreciate their writing and think you will too.

I like to help people by using my skills and advantages to further their careers and work, by giving them the boost they need to achieve the very best for themselves. I like to offer a listening ear, so much that my job depends on it, and to offer my help wherever I can.

The Versatile Blogger Award

A particularly stressful day in the office was completely offset when a notification popped up to tell me that a fellow blogger, the lovely Anna Roberts, of The London Scrapbook, had nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. What an honour, from a blogger and writer whose work I already loved, and to receive it after just a few months of blogging was an amazing feeling. It reinforced everything I’ve been working towards and really made me realise that my writing is worthwhile. It was lovely to hear her feedback and I thank her for that.

The award requires us to:

Thank the person who gave it to you, and include a link to their blog.
Tell the person who nominate you seven things about yourself.
Then select fifteen blogs that you’ve recently discovered or regularly follow, and nominate them for the award.

So, thanks Anna (and on a sidebar, I do hope you don’t stop blogging after your move!), I love your posts, particularly the ones about afternoon tea and the one about trying to get in with the Royals! Here are seven things about me:

I’ve always loved reading and writing and would wear my parents out by always wanting to read to them and be read to. When I was old enough to read by myself, I started ploughing through any book I could find, I would go to the market and buy 20 books at a time for 10p each, I would go to the library and take out the maximum books. Then I would build dens at home and sit in them reading – sometimes if my younger sister would not leave me alone I would lock myself in the bathroom and read.
When I was a toddler, I created my own language and would speak what sounded like complete gobbledegook but my mum swears she could tell I was actually talking about, that she could recognise the verbs and actual sentence structure.
At university, my crew were known as House of Boobs around the campus and we christened our little house with the same name.
I met John Newman at Secret Garden Party festival in the summer and we snuggled after his set.
I was on BBC Real Rescues around two months ago, and Nick Knowles actually managed to pronounce my name right!
I can stack the leg press at my gym and some of the weaker guys called me the ‘chick with a dick’ because they’re a wee bit jealous…
I have made a firm decision that in the next 12 months I will either be leaving my current job for a new one or will be going travelling – either way I need a change.

My nominations go to (in no particular order):

Journograds – This blog is great for up-and-coming journalists, those in training and those already working in the field. It provides great advice with guest posts by those in the know, and gives daily updates with great jobs for you to apply for.
Debt and the City – Natalie’s account of the life of a graduate living in New York and trying to pay off her mountains of student debt gives great advice for handling your money and making ends meet – useful for anyone feeling the pinch!
Life Ever Changing – A great blog with a range of healthy living tips, recipes and dietary advice from someone training to be a dietician. Particularly liked her most recent post about teaching kids to use tools.
Ginge and Juice – A good friend from home, but that’s not the reason for my nomination. Although Claire has only been blogging for a few weeks, every single post she has written has had me hooked to the end. I’ve enjoyed every one of them and she covers a great range of topics from student life and graduate problems to working at festivals.
Boom and Thenix – One of my favourites! These two are blogging on a trip around the world. I am fascinated by their travels and the yoga posts really encourage me to keep at it and try new moves. I really enjoyed the post about using local food stalls.
Flux and Flow – Jasmine’s blog is a wonderful source of positivity. Her posts are cheerful and full of life. The one about the importance of a daily dose of laughter made me smile in total agreement.
Write Meg – Meg has her own unique blogging style and it obviously works because her blog is so popular. I thought it was lovely the way she wrote about her wedding and the pictures were beautiful.
Fricking Vikki – Another pal, this one writes about the local music scene in West Norfolk, reviews local gigs and music events elsewhere. With a very similar taste in music, I trust her opinion, because this girl sure knows what she’s talking about!
The Irony Kid – Because, without meaning to be patronising, I catch glimpses of myself, three or four years ago, in her posts. I wish her luck with her career in journalism and look forward to reading about it..
Words By Annie Rose – I like her no-shit attitude to blogging and particularly identified with her Fuck Cancer post in relation to suddenly realising you’ve reached adulthood.
A Little Living – This blogger has a real way with words and a lovely way of writing. I have found myself reading her posts to the very end even when I have no interest in the topic – her use of language is lovely.
Homemade With Mess – The recipes and pictures make my mouth water and if that isn’t good enough reason to nominate someone, I don’t know what is!
The Travelling Graduate – I really enjoy the posts on this blog, but wish they would come more frequently.. Hopefully this award will encourage the blogger..
Kartel Music Society – I absolutely love Norwich’s Kartel club, and was so excited to see that they have a blog where they are posting fab playlists that give me my music fix mid-week!
Journalist on the Web – This blogger starts really interesting debates for those interested in the rise of online journalism, that have certainly had me posting comments.

Enjoy checking out these blogs, I recommend following them all, and if anyone has any others they would suggest, I am always looking for new ones to follow!