The Liebster Award

I got a blogging award!  Wahoo! Thanks to Lilias from Fresh Mama for nominating me :)  She has a great blog with delicious recipes - including those granola bars that were so amazing - and she was nominated for the Leibster Award.  This is an award that is given to new bloggers, and can help them get more followers (you know, so maybe more people than my mom, aunts, Anne and Laura will read my great recipes ;)  ).   The cool thing is that you have to be nominated by a previous winner, which Fresh Mama is, and I was one of her nominations.  Go Bridget's Year of cooking! :)

The rules for the Liebster award are simple: 
1. Thank the blogger that nominated you
2. Answer 11 questions asked by the blogger
3. Provide 11 random facts about yourself
4. Nominate 5 or more bloggers
5. Let all of the nominees know they have been nominated
6. Write 11 new questions for your nominees

Now, the problem is that I don't follow 5 or more new blogs.  In fact, I just follow one.  Let me make this clear: just because my cousin Kelsey is the only new blogger I follow, does not mean I am nominating her because she is the only choice!  I am nominating Kelsey's Bohemian Dreamer because she is awesome.  She's a fashion student who not only tells you how to get the looks from music videos and TV, she tells you the details about her outfits, makes her own clothes (don't get me started on her knitting) and even makes movies.  She's a true fashionista.  Congrats, Kels :)

So, here are Fresh Mama's questions:

1. What is your favorite color?
cerulean blue... the exact blue you will see on my bridesmaids in 3 weeks!

2. What do you find to be the most difficult part of writing a blog?
Simply finding the time to blog is the hardest part for me.  Then again, I just bought a house and am planning a wedding.  This has been the hardest couple months to blog because of everything else going on!  Hopefully things will get a bit easier after July :)

3. What is one part of the world you hope to visit someday?
Italy.  I've always wanted to go to Venice!

4. What has blogging brought into your life that is unique and special?
Blogging has let me write again, which I always loved to do.  It has also brought me a real appreciation for the "legit bloggers," the ones I follow and drool over their photography and try out their recipes!  I like to think of myself as an amateur blogger (even though I've been at it for almost 2 years),  and I am so impressed by the real deals.

5. Do you have a habit that drives your loved ones crazy?
Probably just the fact that I cook vegetarian!

6.  What is one food you eat as often as possible?
Potatoes.  In any form.  Mashed, fried, baked, roasted, etcetera. 

7. What life experience has impacted you the most?
I can't pick just one.  There are way too many.  I think that everything in someone's life makes them who they are.

8. Do you have a hidden talent?
You know, this was a question I asked my fifth graders on the first day of school last year as a fun little quiz: How Well Do You Know Miss Tucker?  And they all knew that I could sing.  So I guess saying that singing is my secret talent is kind of a lie because everyone knows about it.  So I will say this: my hidden talent is that I can cross one eye.  Is that a talent or just a deformity?

9. If you could have lived in a past era, what would it be?
Definitely not the Middle Ages due to my recurring nightmares about Middle Aged wars with arrows... I'd say maybe the 60s because of the great music?  I'd prefer to avoid wars of any kind, now that I think about it.  I almost said Revolutionary times because I find it so fascinating but on second thought, that's too scary.

10. Name one blog which inspires you the most.
Ooooh that's tough.  Do I choose the one I try to emulate most now, or the one that got me blogging in the first place?!  How about I just give a shout out to both.  Annie's Eats - which I have mentioned thousands of times - was the first food blog I started following.  I have read every single post of hers for years.  She makes everything seem easy and doable.  And then there is A Couple Cooks.  They're a husband and wife team who mostly cook vegetarian.  They are into eating healthy and local, and their recipes are always awesome.  Either one of these blogs will not let you down if you feel like cooking a new recipe.

11. What is your middle name?
Haley - just like 90% of the Compounders :)



11 Random Facts About Me
1) I am getting married 3 weeks from yesterday to my BFF.
2) One month ago today, I closed on my dream home.  And now that I have a garbage disposal (thanks Pat!) it is truly perfect.
3) The giraffe is my favorite animal, but the basset hound is my true love.
4) I've never had On Demand before and it is pretty dangerous.  I've been known to binge on reality TV of all types (Bachelorette, Big Brother, Survivor, Amazing Race, Dance Moms, etc.)....
5) This next school year, my first class of students will graduate high school!  I'm getting old!
6) I love to read and used to have a yearly competition with Anne to see who could read more books :)
7) I wear contact lenses.
8) I didn't get my ears pierces until I was 18, and it was a bad scene.  But now I make up for lost time with earrings.
9) I do not iron. But Mark does.  This is good.
10) I hate the feeling of shoes touching my feet, unless they are flip flops.  Hence me Peds addiction that I am ridiculed for!
11) I hand-raised a baby mouse and today is his 3rd birthday :) Love you, Neely!


Now here are my 11 questions:
1. What are your top 3 books?
2. What is your favorite vacation location?
3. What made you decide to start blogging?
4. What strange jobs did you want to have as a child?  I wanted to squeegee at gas stations...
5. What TV show are you embarrassed to admit watching?
6.  If you could suddenly become fluent in another language, what would it be and why?
7. What is your most irrational fear?
8. How many tabs of Safari/Firefox/Explorer etc. do you have open right now?
9. Are you scared of bugs?
10. What song is in your head right now?
11. What app do you use most often on your phone?