Laura Venturini has very kindly nominated my blog for this Blogger recognition award. I am truly grateful to her for bestowing this honor on my blog.

As a result of this post of Laura, who had nominated Di, of Pensitivity, she also gave a shoutout to my blog. Thanks a lot Di for your kindness.

I was also nominated by Beckie of Beckie’s Mentalmess for this award. A huge thanks to you Beckie as well.

AWARD RULES:

• Thank the nominator, and publish a post on your blog about receiving the Blogger Recognition Award. Make sure to provide a link to the nominator’s blog in your post.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
• Nominate 10-15 other bloggers for this award, and inform them of their nomination.

How it all started;

I had a friend who started to blog and to read her posts, I had to make a WordPress account. Every time I would open my account to read her posts, the app would urge me to start my own blog. So one day I did it! I had not thought this through and had not made any long term plans but when I started to write, something miraculous happened and it became my new passion or hobby. It is so rewarding to write what others read and like. It truly is a humbling experience but at the same this it is exhilarating too! I want to thank all my friends here in this blogging world who have given me tremendous support.

My advice;

1. Just write. Write on things which are your passion. Write about things you are knowledgeable about and write with sincerity. And don’t give up writing if it is your passion.

2. Be grateful that people are willing to spend time on reading what you write. Never lose this as otherwise you will become arrogant and the process of blogging will not be a source of enjoyment for you. (And always accept awards😜)

My nominees;

Dr Tanya of Salted Caramel

Calmkate of Aroused

Tanvir of Beauty lies within yourself

Britchy of Brichin in the kitchen

Anitashope of For the love of

Kim of I tripped over a stone

JP the wide eyed wanderer

Len of Lensdailydiary

Willow of Patience of a willow

Tom of Slumdog Soldier

My sincere thanks once again to Laura for the gifting of this award.

The blogs I chose for the award are really great ones. I hope that the fact that writing award posts are a time consuming process will not deter you from accepting this award. To my mind being nominated or given an award is a great honor and a way to bond with the community. So please try to pay it forward.

Thanks

#keepitalive

#awardsandnominations

Beckie of Beckie’s Mentalmess has nominated me for Mystery blogger award. Thank you so much Beckie for giving this award to my blog. Beckie has a marvelous blog. If you haven’t read her posts, do head over to her blog, Beckie’s Mentalmess and I promise that you will find very interesting and valuable gems there.

What is Mystery Blogger award?

“Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. –Okoto Enigma

Rules for the following are:

• Put the award logo/image on your blog.✔️

• List the rules.✔️

• Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.✔️

• Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well.✔️

• Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.✔️

• You have to nominate 10-20 people.🔜

• Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.✔️

• Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question.✔️

• Share a link to your best posts.✔️

Three Things about me;

1. I love reading historical romances.

2. I am pretty good at fixing things around house. DIY projects and improvising to make things work is one of my favorite things to do.

3. I love my blogging experience and I am very thankful to all my blogging friends who support me here in blogosphere with their encouragement and wonderful comments.

Link to my favorite post:

Advice ( on Mother’s Day)

Ambiguous words

Sunny Disposition

Beckie’s Five Questions:

1. What’s the first thing you do in the morning?

Grab my coffee and have breakfast. I am one of those who cannot function properly on an empty stomach. So caffeine fix and food are the first order of the day.

2. What is your favorite hobby?

Right now, it’s blogging! My passion and hobby combined. When I had time on my hands, I would knit, do DIY and even embroidered. Another favorite hobby was playing games on my phone, but I have other use for my phone now ( blogging)

3. Junk Food Junkie or Health Nut?

I would call myself carb junkie. Not so much junk food or health food but the love of my life are carbs. Which can also be called bane of my life as I gain weight rapidly on a carb diet.

4. What’s the funkiest food you ever ate?

I had a very interesting meal at a Moroccan restaurant once. I have forgotten the name but it was a chicken dish with a lots of nuts and something sweet in it. Served with rice. Very yummy.

5. Do you favor writing during the day or the evening?

I will write whenever I get the time. Mostly it’s evening but mid day works too. Right now it’s whenever the babies or the new moms don’t need my help.

My Questions;

1. Have you every been surprised by your own achievements?

2. A surprise holiday is granted; What will you do?

3. Have you ever kept a diary or maybe a food diary? If so can you tell us something about it?

4. Jack and Jill went up the hill to…………..? (Funny, if it’s not apparent already!😜)

5. How do you think your input has made a difference in the world around you?

I think I have followed all the rules, except for the nominations.

And here they are:

Suze of Suziland

Paula of Light Motifs

Rory of A Guy Called Bloke

Kenza of Caramel Caramelo

The bag lady

So there you go guys!

I hope that the bloggers who I nominated feel able to accept the award and pay it forward.

Keen to hear back from you all.

#keepitalive

#awardsandnominations

Rory has asked what do we think about awards

To be very honest, I love getting an award ( nomination ). It bolsters my self confidence and encourages me to write more and write better.

The awards pros and cons, according to me are;

Pros;

1. Getting an award is going to boost the bloggers spirits.

2. With an award displayed on their home page, the blogger gets more traffic and maybe more followers.

3. It increases the interaction between different bloggers and forms connections.

4. The overall community spirit gets a boost, when one blogger nominates 5-11 new/ other blogs for the award.

5. They get to know more about each other through the questions asked or when you have to write down about your love of blogging, as per the requirement of some awards.

Cons;

1. Some bloggers find these awards time consuming and tedious. They don’t want to go to the trouble of drafting the whole blog posts.

2. The selection of nominees/ blogs to gift the award is sometimes too difficult, with a lot of them not acknowledging the gift, or refusing on the grounds that they don’t do awards or sometimes they are not even aware of the gift/nomination.

3. Since no criteria exists for these award gifting, people feel that this doesn’t signify any great honor to receive the award.

4. There are times when multiple types of awards are given to one blog simultaneously and that makes it difficult for the recipient to respond properly.

Conclusion;

If there was a fixed criteria for the awards and there was someone in the position to judge and give the awards, this could mean more to the recipient. But since WordPress is not going to perform this function, we have to go by our personal choices in giving, receiving and paying it forward regarding different awards.

#keepitalive

#awardsandnominations

Kristian of The Tales from the mind of Kristian and Beckie of Beckie’s Mental Mess have very kindly nominated me for Versatile Blogger Award. Then there was another surprise nomination by Julie B of One pound at a time.

Please spare a few moments to check out the blogs of these wonderful bloggers. Kristian and Beckie have been blogging for some time now and you will find great posts at their blogs. Julie B is our new friend here at blogging family. Please welcome her and show her some love. These lovely bloggers have really overwhelmed me by their generous gesture. Thank you so much, Beckie, Kristian and Julie B.

The Rules

1. If you are nominated, Congratulations you have been awarded the Versatile blogger award!

2. Thank the person who gave you the award and includes a link to their blog.

3. Select 10 -15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.

4. Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.

5. Tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

My nominees;

Lisa of All About Life

Crimson Prose

Alethea of Not Tomatoes

Beth of I didn’t have my glasses on

Riddles from the Middle

Fandango Of This That and the Other

Top of JC’s Mind

Hugh’s Views and News

Paula of Light Motifs II

Li of Tao-Talk

Stoner on a roller coaster

Tom of Slumdog Soldier

Seven Things about me;

1. It’s been almost seven months since I have been blogging.

2. Blogging for me was an impulsive decision but I am enjoying it extremely.

3. I love watching animated movies

4. Agatha Christie and Georgette Hayer are all time favorite authors of mine.

5. When my grandson was learning to read, I used to read Dr Seuss to him and I fell in love with these books which have a lot of life’s messages in them.

6. I try to walk daily and it helps me to think up new ideas for my writing!

7. I am very grateful to all my friends in this blogging world for their support and encouragement.

I am hoping that all these wonderful people who I have nominated for the Versatile Blogging Award will find some time for accepting this award and paying it forward.

#Keepitalive

#Awardsandnominations

Mel of Crushed Caramel has awarded me this Solidarity Blogger Award. And Sanah, of a pause for Nature has also nominated me for the same award.

https://apausefornature.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/the-solidarity-blogger-award/

What Is The Solidarity Blogger Award?

SIWO (Success Inspirers’ World) is an International Friends Blogging Forum. The idea is to encourage team work and to blog together as a community. As an international friends blogging forum, Success Inspirer’s World provides an opportunity that every blogger is looking for – the opportunity to get more exposure and find more followers and readers.

The Rules:

1. Write a post on your blog thanking the person who nominated you
2. Paste the award in the post.
3. Provide a link to the blog of the person who nominated you.
4. Tell Success Inspirers’ World, SIWO what you think about solidarity blogging. Is it worthwhile?
5. Nominate 10 bloggers for the award and inform them.

My views about solidarity blogging;

Blogging is a community endeavor. A blogger can write by himself/ herself but needs others to read what he/ she writes. Without the community the blog has no meaning. In this blogging world, we support each other and hence this community is formed. There are some of us who are doing more for the blogging community than others. But we all are doing our own bit by reading, commenting and interacting with others. The Solidarity of Blogging world is apparent by the way we support each other. So though we are not working as a group or have any common agenda, we are a coherent family like community.

I am nominating five bloggers for this award.

Nirant Gurav

Calm Kate of Aroused

Blue Bird of Bitterness

Laura of Riddles from the Middle

Thoughts for change

It is your choice, if you want to pay it forward or pass. No offense.

#Keepitalive

#Awardsandnominations