So, excited, I am nominated for an award!

 

 

Yippeeee!!  My sweet friend Paula over at Smidgens, Snippets & Bits nominated me for the Liebster Award!!  It is an award for small blogs, with less than 1000 followers.  Thank you so much Paula!!! I am so excited!! Now let me see if I can figure all this out!  I feel very honoured to receive this!!!!

 

Here are the rules:

 

*Thank the blogger who nominated you for the award and link to their blog.

*Display the Liebster award badge on your blog.

*Answer 11 questions about yourself, which are provided by the person nominating you.

*If you want to, share 11 random facts about yourself ( I love doing things like this!)

*Nominate 5 or more bloggers with less than 1000 followers, who you believe deserve this award.

*Create a new list of 11 questions for your nominees to answer.

*Notify your nominees.


Okay....so let's start with 11 random facts about me!

1.  I have a brown/ black belt in karate, Shorin Ryu.  I am one stripe away from my black belt, but after we moved from my dojo in Ontario, I have not found a dojo with my style here.  I love karate!

2.  I can make a three leaf clover with my tongue.

3. I hate coffee.  I love the smell of it, but I cannot stand the taste of it.  I am a tea drinker, and have tea every morning, and before I go to bed ( decaf usually).  When I drink flavoured tea, my favourites are Nova Scotia Blueberry, and Monk's Blend, as well as Lady Hannah's fruit tea.

4.  I am a homebody and don't really like to travel.  I love it here in my own little corner of the world.  My favourite places I have been are here ( haha!), Manitoulin Island, Muskoka ( both in Ontario) and Tewkesbury, England.

5.  I play guitar and sing.

6.  When my daughter got married, I cried for 2 weeks straight before her wedding day.  We are very close, and I was so happy for her, and love my son in law, but really felt like I was losing a part of me!  I am happy to say not only did I gain a son in law, but a wonderful grandson as well!  And my daughter and I are still very close!

7.  I love hot baths, and will stay in the bath until I am wrinkly and pruney!  I like to make my own bath concoctions, and really like Bath and Body Works.  A nice hot bath before bed is so nice, with lots of bubbles.  ( When I was a kid, I would use my mom's bubble bath, and fill the bottle up with water, thinking she didn't notice it was getting used up very quickly. I recently noticed my youngest son has been doing this to me, lol! 

8.  I have had an anxiety disorder since I was a child, I just didn't know what it was until about 7 years ago.  It was a relief to find this out and not be thinking I was broken all the time.

9.  Some of the best friends I have ever had are blogging buddies, many of whom I have never met, but sure would love to!

10.  When I was about 8, I was chased down the street by a little dog names meatball.  A tiny little ankle biter, who loved to chase people.  I was on my bike, and he ran out at me, and I got scared, and my bike tire hit the edge of the sidewalk and I went careening and almost hit a tree.  I was scraped and bleeding from head to toe!  A lady came and cleaned me up and sent for my parents.  My dad took me to this dog owners house to show them what had happened to me, and then took me to the hospital, where I was bandaged from my shoulders to my ankles.  I was off school for a week.  I was very afraid of dogs after that.  Thankfully, I am not scared of them now. ( wow, that was a random thought!)

11. My dad died in a car accident when I was about to turn 13.  For years and years I had his old watch, a dollar store watch which he had on at the time of his accident, and that stupid thing worked for YEARS after!  I thought by holding onto it, it would be a remembrance of my dad, and it was, but it was of the bad memories of losing him.  So a couple of years ago, I took that watch and sat at the look off at the sea shore, and I threw the watch into the ocean.  That very instant I felt free of all those horrible, scary memories, and felt free again, free to remember the GREAT memories of my dad!


Okay, now to answer 11 questions that Paula provided.......

1.  What inspired you to start a blog? 

      Hmm, I think a lot of people were doing it, and it looked like it was fun.  I started off on homeschool blogger, and met a lot of great friends. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, and wish I had saved all those posts from homeschool blogger, as they are gone now.

2.  How did you come up with the name for your blog?

     I love honeysuckle, and I thought the name just was sweet, and just fit.  When I moved here, I dug up and brought my honeysuckle with me, and we live in a little hollow, so it definitely fits now!

3.  What is the biggest challenge when it comes to your blog?

     Finding the time to write all that I want to write without it being overwhelming is a challenge.  I would love to write everyday, but just don't have the time.  I also find it challenging to get to visit other bloggers,  and comment, as I find them all so interesting and have so much to write in my comments!

4.  What is the best and worst meal you ever made?

     Oh goodness.  A lot of the roasts I made when we were first married were burnt offerings as I just could not get used to cooking with a gas stove!  Crunchy is not a great word to describe a prime rib!  My best meal, would be lasagna, but I can't think of the best one I made, they generally turn out fairly well, thankfully.  My dh loves lasagna.

5. Where do you find the inspiration for your posts?

     I find inspiration from my family, from my personal experiences, how I feel ( happy, sad, anxious or anything in between), from my walk with God, from photos that mean something to me.  What I write comes from my heart.  I am pretty transparent really.

6.  What do you do when you try a new recipe and it doesn't work out?

    Panic first!  Then get frustrated that it didn't turn out.  Listen to the complaints about how awful it was.  Delete recipe from Pinterest or make a note in the cookbook I got it from.  Eat peanut butter and jam instead!

7.  What regional food do you enjoy cooking the most?

     I suppose I would have to say Italian!  It was great when we lived in Ontario, everyone who lived on my street were retired Italian couples.  Some were retired mafia!  I got some great cooking tips from them!

8.  What 3 words describe you best?

      Funny, caring, emotional.

9.  When you dine at a restaurant do you order something you would like to make or an old favourite?

      I order my favourites, I am a creature of habit!  It is usually something I don't often make, as if I can make it, I might as well stay home and make it myself. I am not adventurous though, I stick to things that I can pronounce and I know what they are.

10.  When you have a bad day, what normally makes you feel better?

      Spending time with my husband, going to the seashore and watching the waves roll in, cutting down and trimming trees in the forest, blogging.   A cup of tea and a hot bath.  And reading my Bible, but sometimes I feel so overwhelmed I put that last.  I am working at putting that first!

11.  Other than blogging, what is your favourite hobby?

       I love to go out and collect sea glass and beach treasures, drift wood, etc.  It is so relaxing and you never know what kinds of treasures you will find.  Coming home and sorting it and looking at each other's haul is really fun!

Are you still with me here?  Okay next part....

Before I make my questions..... I am nominating the following.....  And if I know not everyone likes to participate in things like these, so I will not be offended if you do not wish to participate! 

1. Amy at SO THIS IS ME.  Amy is so sweet and inspires me, I feel like we have many things in common.

2. Alana at ALL IS AMAZING.  I love Alana's blog

3. Jodi at MY LIFE AS MAMA JODI.  Jodi is super creative and talented and her blog showcases some of her creations.  She loves purple.  I love purple too!

4. Amanda at HEART THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS OF A MOMMY. Amanda is a very dear friend of mine who I am blessed to know in real life!  She is just starting her blogging journey.

5. Connie at SUN VALLEY HOMESTEAD . Connie is a wonderful, dear friend, who I met through a swap on a blog.  She is a person I very much want to meet in person, she and I are kindred spirits!


Okay my 11 questions....


1.  If you could get rid of one of your habits, what would it be?

2.  What sound do you hate hearing?

3.  What is your favourite fragrance?

4.  What is your favourite season and why?

5.  Name 3 things you want to learn how to do.

6.  What was your favourite toy as a child?

7.  What character traits do you value most in people?

8.  What is your favourite dessert?

9.  If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

10.  Do you have a favourite saying?

11.  What is your favourite flavour of ice cream?

Okay, I am off to contact my nominees!!  And try to add the badge to my sidebar!  Thanks again to Paula for nominating me!!