Wednesday, July 1, 2015

One Lovely Blog Award

Well, I am getting back into the swing of things after having a lovely "stay"cation with Mr. 123quilt last week. We stayed up late, we slept in, we ate fancy brunches. It was good. Plus, now I don't have my annual sunburn from the beach. So there's that.

Even though I wasn't terribly active online last week it turned out to be a productive and exciting quilting/blogging week. I have two new secret sewing projects and some more pattern reviews/testing on the to-do list. I want to share more details, I really do, but you'll have to wait! What I can tell you is... I was nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award!


When I saw that Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs nominated me, I squealed like a pre-teen girl at a Justin Bieber concert. (Is he still popular?) Then I walked around with a dopey smile on my face for the rest of the day. Seriously though, I'm honored. Cheryl is a awesome pattern designer, a fantastic blogger, and a wonderful mentor. She is one of the leaders of the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop and my New Bees Hive leader.  

2015 New Quilt Bloggers Group   New Bees Hive Page

Perhaps you've seen the One Lovely Blog Award popping up around blogland. I know I've seen a few. The idea is to introduce your readers to blogs you love but they may not know about. It's a great opportunity to discover new blogs and make new friends. 

The Rules:

1. Acknowledge the lovely person who nominated you and provide a link to their site.
2. Share 7 random, funny, or little known facts about you. 
3. Nominate 10 blogs for the award. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule. You can nominate more. You can nominate less. Whatever moves you.

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Seven Things You Might Not Know About Me

1. Growing up my favorite color was red. I wanted red everything and you better believe I was the red piece in any board game I played, except Monopoly for obvious reasons. Somewhere between growing up and "taking a left turn at Albuquerque," my favorite color changed to green. It's still green but for some reason I gravitate toward teals and yellows in my quilting. Oh, and I love colors that are named after foods (e.g. mustard, eggplant, cheddar, etc.). How could you not love that?

2. I love trivia. Trivial Pursuit doesn't have a red pie so I had to settle for the pink piece. As a kid I used to read the cards for fun and because nobody ever wanted to play. I learned a lot though; like the fact that Alan Shepard hit the first golf ball on the moon. That was also a recent question on Jeopardy. Which, incidentally, I watch every day; cause, you know, I love trivia.

3. I also read every day. I love that books can take you on a fantastic voyage all from the comfort of your home and your yoga pants. Currently I'm re-reading the Stephanie Plum novels. They are quick, fun reads and my go to when I want something, I don't know, light and fluffy? My favorite genres are historical fiction, mystery, biographies, sci-fi/fantasy... I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I also read a good deal of YA (young adult) fiction.

4. I love the beach. It's my favorite place and I'd live there if I could. I can spend hours walking up and down the beach looking for beach junk. Maybe this is why I get that annual sunburn. Every few months or so I try to convince Mr. 123quilt that we should buy a house in the Outer Banks and that his commute to work wouldn't be too bad. I don't think it's working. Someday though, I will live right on the ocean.

5. Another fun thing to do on the beach is lounge around and do logic puzzles. I love solving puzzles and problems. I particularly enjoy Japanese logic number puzzles. The current favorites are Extreme 16-grid Sudoku, Kakuro, Futoshiki, and Tsunami. Just to be clear tsunami puzzles on the beach = fun; tsunamis on the beach = disaster.

6.  With every quilting finish I quote Hannibal from the A-team. "I love it when a plan comes together." Every. Stinking. Time.

7. Lastly, I really enjoy baking. Or maybe dessert is my favorite meal. One of the two. Cake is known as the "C-word' in my house. I've taken a few culinary courses but nothing serious because, let's face it, my waistline can't handle it. I'd eat everything! I enjoy caking, cookie decorating, and baking in general. Also, I'm constantly on the lookout for a good butter cream recipe. If you have one let me know!

Here is a mosaic of some of my cakes because it doesn't feel right to have a post without a picture.

Clockwise from top left: chocolate kahlua sabayon, carrot cake with marzipan carrots, bananas foster and chocolate mousse sponge, playing with fondant, strawberry lemonade with fresh strawberry chantilly cream filling. 

Okay, now I want some cake and all I have on hand is a pop-tart. Dang. Moving on.

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I follow a lot of great blogs. A lot! So many that I don't have a blogroll on my sidebar because the list would just drag on and on and on. Can you see my dilemma yet? How am I supposed to narrow it down to just 10 nominees? Well, I spent a lot of time going through my list and eliminating people who have already received the award. It helped but not enough. My list was still pretty hefty. So, I went with the time-honored tradition of picking names out of a hat. 

In no particular order, here are the nominees:

Sarah @ Saroy 
Anja @ Anja Quilts
Felicity @ Felicity Quilts
Ashley @ Crafty Ashley B

and lastly... Sweet Sugar Belle 
(a cookie blog that I can read for hours on end)

Please take the time to look at some or all of these blogs. You won't be disappointed!







5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the nomination, Sarah! We have a lot in common - I love trivia and I adore reading. Loved the Stephanie Plum novels and I read (and enjoy) a lot of sci-fi and YA too. (Have you read Station Eleven? Do it!)

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  2. What a wonderful post, I enjoyed learning more about you. Your cakes are just beautiful! I like the Stephanie Plum books too, have you ever read the Sookie Stackhouse novels? They are also a favorite of mine.

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  3. Thanks for the nomination Sarah! Your cakes look (and sound) amazing! Now you've got me dreaming of cake for breakfast!!

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  4. Thanks again for the nomination, Sarah. Don't be embarrassed about YA fiction, there are some great writers in there. I read a lot of it too :)

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  5. You and I have a lot in common! The beach (I live on one now, always always was my dream), I, too, read every single day. And (wee-ooh, wee-ooh, à la Twilight Zone music) I just finished yesterday the first Stephanie Plum novel! A well-read friend of mine recommended them as light, funny, escape reads, and they are, something I needed after the heavy, but so informative and readable Bill Bryson tome I've been reading, and have taken a short hiatus from. I also love to bake, dessert is a food group, right? Your cakes are absolutely DIVINE. Wow. Great post. :-)

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