What's The Best Compliment You Can Receive? - A Third Liebster Award

Now don't go hitting that back button quite so quickly ...

yes, I know you're very probably sick of hearing it from me by now ...

 just give me a chance to explain!

I've been nominated again for a Liebster Award, I know it's my third time but I don't care, I'm truly delighted at the compliment so I'm accepting it very graciously and saying a big 'thank-you' to 

Nati @Nati's little things

So - here's the rules:

1) Provide 11 random pieces of information about myself,
2) Answer 11 questions posed by the person that nominated me;
3) And nominate 11 other blogs and pose their own questions.

but you'll be pleased to know I'm not going to do 1) and 3) but I am going to answer the 11 questions that Nati's asked me, cos that's kind of interesting for me to think about and you can get to know me a bit better that way too:

 1. What is your most bought craft item?

 After the obvious fabric and thread and books then I'd have to say straight pins - I sew over my pins (don't all shout at me at once) and my Bernina is incredibly forgiving and copes admirably with them, seldom breaking a machine needle but if it does hit a pin then its guaranteed to bend it.  I keep all of my bent pins in a separate pin cushion and still use them for work that can tolerate bent pins.  However, when I'm piecing I use perfectly straight pins as I don't want the pin to allow the fabric to move out of place which a bent pin would.

2.  If you looked at your fabric stash now, which colour do you have more fabric of?

Blue, I have all my fabrics stashed in clear plastic boxes by colour and I have only 1 box for each colour apart from blue which currently needs at least 3 boxes and could be pushing 4!!!.   

As I was typing this it made me wonder just what this says about me so I did a bit of colour blue personality research and I can tell you my jaw dropped at what I discovered - it's like someone got right inside my head and wrote down everything they learnt about me, SCARY!!! 

3.  Which is your favourite place to work on your craft?

 I worried about this one when we moved to a 2 bed city apartment from our large country house.  My work area is now at one end of our living room rather than me having my own work room and I find this suits me surprisingly well as I can sew around the clock yet still be part of family life.  Flicky did suggest that I move everything into her bedroom when she goes off to Uni but I'm going to leave it all where it is because if I move out of the living room Simon and I may never see each other again.  On second thoughts maybe Flicky's on to a good idea!!!

4.  Do you rather iron or clean?

 Iron - only quilting fabric obviously, Simon does the rest!

5.  If you had a magic wand, what would you fix?

 My daughter's eye sight.

6.  How many countries have you visited? Do you keep count or did you have to think hard at this question?

Seventeen - I don't keep count so I started going through them in my head then had to write them down!

Balearic Islands/Belgium

Canary Islands

England

France

Greece

Iceland/Ireland/Italy

Jamaica

Malta

North America

Puerto Rico

Scotland/Spain/Sweden

Wales

7.  Apart from crafting, what is your favourite thing to do?

Meet up with others to read books and watch movies and then discuss them

I'm a member of the JC Book Club, currently reading Just Kids by Patti Smith 

and The International Crime Book Group currently reading Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage 

and I'm also involved in The Stanley Kubrick Meetup currently watching and reading A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

 

8.  What is your favourite flower?

 White Lilies

9.  What is the most striking, funny item in your wardrobe?

 I can honestly say there's nothing.  When we emigrated to the States in August 2011 we knew there was no room in our new apartment for anything other than essentials so everything that you hang on to over the years, all those nostaligic, sentimental items and pieces that could be great to use for fancy dress, etc were all thrown away, given away or sold. I've now got the most functional, organised wardrobes ever, even down to sorting all my clothes by type, sleeve length and colour!

10.  Do you speak any foreign languages?

 Yes French and Latin - though for some reason most French people I know prefer to talk to me in English and there's not much call to speak Latin these days.  However, in the last 20 months I've become fluent in American English and I am currently working on my American twang ;) 

11.  Who is your favourite person ever?

 Each of my 3 children knows that they're my favourite!!!

So do you think there might be a Super Liebster Award for the most nominated blog?  I really hope so but more than that it would be great to think that people continue to enjoy my blog enough to keep nominating me!

Thanks again Nati :)

If you're crazy enough to want to read about my other Liebster Award experiences you can check them all out here: 
My Liebster Award Experience

Not An Oscar, More Of A Liebster

This post is all about awards, namely the Liebster Award, but I didn't want to put the Liebster Award logo up at the top of the post, instead I decided to share with you this photo from almost 3 years ago of me with my middle son, Joe when I received the Alan Guyatt (Adult) Achievement Award - presented to a mature learner demonstrating outstanding achievement, sponsored by The University of Winchester in recognition of my work for my Art & Design Foundation Degree.

Today I received an email from Sonia @Fabric & Flowers who I've met up with doing the Skill Builder BOM.  Imagine my surprise to discover she's nominated me for the Liebster Award - wow, and after I did so much complaining about it last time!!!  Actually Sonia said that she knew I'd been nominated before but still wanted others to know all about me - how nice is that?

I thought I'd use the opportunity to share with you all again my original Liebster story - which comes in 3 parts!  Back then I took the whole thing waaaayyyy too seriously, being pretty new to blogging I thought there was some sort of Liebster police who'd come and arrest me for not following the rules to the letter - oh dear, how naive and what a long way I've come since.  

My Liebster Award Experience

Somewhere along the way the award has now changed and seems to have incorporated elements of the 11-11-11 game which I took part in last year also.  I thought this was a good time to share that story with you again too.

A Bit Different - Mine's an 11-22-11-22

So how am I going to handle my latest Liebster award?

I'm going to say a very big thank-you to Sonia for nominating me and I'm delighted to accept.  I'm not going to nominate anyone, instead I'm going to share with you a list of my own Google Followers who have active blogs with no more than 100 followers (at the time of posting) and are deserving of our encouragement.

Why not grab a cuppa, take a seat, have a look around and maybe award them by becoming their latest follower?

Ann @Bright Side Of Balance

Anna @Pink Padme Designs 

Anne @SpringLeaf Studios

Barbara @Pointless Quilter 

Calico Mermaid 

Carin @Ullharvan 

Carla @Dancing Moon 

Catherine @My Life In Binding 

Cynthia @A Quilter By Night 

Erin @The Lazy Quilter

Foster @Foster Reviews It

Gertie @Quilting For England

Gillian @Red Raspberry 

Helen @HelenNoBlog

Jackie @Blissfully Imperfect
Jo @CReate the poinT 

Julie @Thimble Fingers 

Kati @Kati's Quilting and Sewing 

Kim @Crafternoon Delight 

Leo @Strandkorbtraum 

Jackie @Blissfully Imperfect 

Lin @St Victor Quilts 

Linda @The Quilting Violinist 

Lisa @Hilltop House Creative Works 

Lisa @The Red Headed Mermaid 

Maren @The Agitprop Quilter

Maria @la aguja de oro y sus costuras 

Marelize @Stitch by Stitch 

Mina @Kinda Quilty 

Rachel @The Floral Suitcase 

Rosemary @The Knitting Quilter 

Silvana @Celebrate Quilts and More 

Sonia @Fabric & Flowers

Sarah @Quilt Candy

Sarah @Sarah Sews Quilting Blog

Sue @Sue W Sews 

Tiffany @Always Sewin' Somethin!

My Final Two Liebster Stories

I am now in a position to add the final 2 Liebster stories to my blog.

Story 4

The fourth recipient also, like my husband, feels that the Liebster Award, and other awards like it, are a chain letter putting the receiver in a position where they spend a significant amount of time sorting and choosing recipients only to put them in that same position.  She prefers to let people know how wonderful they are by visiting their blog and leaving comments.  

She hopes there's no hard feelings on my part as she doesn't want to upset anyone - and, of course, there aren't, I appreciate her honesty and her values :)

Story 5

I have received a thank you note from the fifth and final recipient.  She said that it was thoughtful and had brightened her day.  As yet she hasn't written about the award on her blog or, to my knowledge, passed the award on and, to be honest with you, after all this I'm starting to hope she doesn't and that maybe all this ends here.

I think that if I'm ever lucky enough to be awarded a Liebster again (because, I do still consider it a privilege and honour to have been chosen by Tara), I'll just thank the person who thought my blog special enough to deserve the award, probably announce it on my blog and leave it at that!

Other related posts:

Liebster Award, A Big Thank You and Pass It On 
The Angst Continues ...

The Angst Continues ...

If you follow my blog regularly you'll already know that two days ago I was the lucky recipient of the Liebster Award from Tara Knight of Happy Momma Quilts.  You'll also remember that I made quite a meal of the process of picking 5 lucky bloggers to pass the award on to.

Today, I thought I'd share with you a few short stories about how some of those recipients have felt when they too have discovered they are Liebster winners ...

Story 1

 I gave the award to my daughter and her friend for their blog about One Direction, the British Boy Band.  This was the only award that I made to a blog outside the quilting community but, although she was delighted, she said "take it back though Mum cos you don't do stuff like that on Tumblr".  I told her to keep it and  just not do anything with it!

Story 2

 Another recipient's initial response was "Wow! How sweet of you", swiftly followed (after reading the rules) by an email expressing concern about about how busy she is and asking can she delay in handing it out to her 5 chosen bloggers. 

I told her not to get herself in the pickle I did over it, as I don't think that's what Tara was wishing for me when she passed it to me and it's certainly not what I was wishing on her so to leave it until she's ready.  Having done all my research I'm guessing there's no Liebster Award police out there to come and get her.

Story 3

This morning I received an email from a third recipient.  She wanted to own up to having already won a Liebster and on receiving my award and reading my post had realised that at some point, probably during a page reorganisation, she's accidentally deleted her side bar button.  She said that she was "very touched and grateful" but, based I guess on my criteria for choosing recipients, she asked that I took the award back and passed it on to someone else and apologised for making my task more difficult.

I quickly replied telling her that in my searching I'd seen lots of others that had won many times and that I'd just used that as a criteria to try to make my list shorter, it didn't change the fact that I love her blog so I asked her please to keep the award and owned up to the fact that I couldn't face going back to my possible recipient list just now.

I explained the stories from the two other recipients (without naming names - apart from my daughter!) and she then shared with me her own Liebster experience, which was just as difficult and funny as mine.


So this has all set me off thinking again ... 

• how must she have felt when she read my post and realised her award button had disappeared yet she'd already been given a Liebster?
• how did the recipient feel when she was pleased but so busy?
• and how did my daughter feel having to tell me she can't/won't use it on Tumblr?

and all this alongside my angst at who to give it to in the first place and concern at appearing ungrateful to Tara, who presented me with the award, and the ungracious manner in which I've accepted it with all my blogging about it when actually I'm still really delighted that she thought to give it to me. 

I haven't heard from the final 2 recipients and, who knows what they are feeling right now ... I do hope they are simply basking in the glory and thrilled to have been chosen - I'm sure that's what the award's really all about, isn't it?

I'm slightly amused wondering how much difficulty the award causes others or if, as my daughter says, it's just me!? Then again, my husband's first comment when I got it was "urgghh, that's a chain letter", more food for thought! 

 If anyone out there in Blogland has a story they'd like to tell about how receiving this award has affected them, I'd love to hear it.  I can't offer any advice or counselling but maybe we can all laugh about it together :)

But for the rest of today, I'm just going to do some quilting!!! 

  

Other related posts:

Liebster Award, A Big Thank You and Pass It On 
My Final Two Liebster Stories

Liebster Award, A Big Thank You and Pass It On

I'm thrilled to tell you that yesterday Tara Knight from Happy Momma Quilts gave me/my blog the Liebster Award.

If you search the internet you'll quickly discover that no-one is terribly clear as to the origins of the award, it seems to have been around the internet now since 2010 and the idea is that if you are lucky enough to receive the award then you can pass it on to 5 of your favourite blogs (Liebster being German for favourite) as long as they have less than 200 followers.

The award is accepted with the following rules attached:
 

1) Thank the person who presented you with the award on your blog.
2) Link back to the blogger who gave the award on your blog
3) Copy and paste the award on your blog
4) Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 other bloggers with less than 200 followers
5) Let them know you've chosen them by leaving a comment on their blog.

Being so excited to receive the award I quickly started to think over who I could pass it forward to.  Where to start?  

I went through my list of favourite blogs; blogs that I comment on; bloggers who comment on my blog; bloggers in my guild; bloggers in my linky parties; bloggers in my blog hop.  That's a pretty long list all told - so straight away out go blogs that have over 200 followers - but, well, it's still a pretty long list.  

No problem, I'll get rid of anyone who's already received the award - not as easy as it sounds - not everyone posts their award button on their side bar, in their labels or has a 'search this blog' option, so you have to do a fair bit of stalking to try to discover if they're already a lucky recipient and, who knows, you may still have got it wrong.  

This took me into the early hours of the morning and guess what - it was still a long list so by this stage I just had to be ruthless.  So do you reckon by now I had my list of 5?  Oh, NO!  I suddenly remember that I also have friends and family that blog - but not quilt related blogs - so I hadn't even thought about them, now I had to reassess again!

 By this afternoon I knew I was over-thinking the whole process, instead of enjoying receiving the award and being able to share it with another 5 bloggers, I'm worrying about all the bloggers that I'll disappoint.  "Only you could be like that Mum" said daughter, F, laughing (at me not with me).  So here goes, firstly I'd like to say how sorry I am to all the fabulous bloggers out there that I'm friends with but I just didn't have enough awards to go around and if I'm ever lucky enough to be given this award again I have a very long list of deserving blogs I'm just waiting to pass it on to.  

And finally, after much thought this is my final list of 5 blogs that I've chosen to receive the Liebster Award:

Bethany - make me a quilt

Carol - Just Let Me Quilt

Catherine - Knotted Cotton

Flicky and Maud - WE HEART 1D

Nicole - Patchwork Duck Designs

A very big thank you again to Tara for passing the award on to me, I truly am delighted and now I can sit back and enjoy my award properly :D

Other related posts:

The Angst Continues ...
My Final Two Liebster Stories