In the past couple of weeks, I have been given two awards by some wonderful bloggers!

However, I have been horrible at actually thanking you all for the nominations AND doing all that the awards require of me! Sorry. 😉

Anyway, five super bloggers – Madison of Eating 4 Balance, Liv at Life As Liv, Jess over at Jessie Bear What Will You Wear?,  Bethany of The Joy of Being Alive and Mai-Lis at A Sunshiny Day – all nominated me for the Liebster Award! Thank you so much, ladies!

I was also nominated for the Inspiring Blog Award by Live Blissful!

Of course, there are some rules that come along with being nominated for each. I’ll start with the Liebster Award:

Here are the rules:

• Write 11 random facts about yourself
• Answer 11 questions given by the person who nominated you
• Create 11 new questions
• Nominate 11 bloggers
• Thank the person who nominated you and tell the people you’ve nominated

Random Facts:

1. I think Samantha Brown of the travel channel has the best job. Getting paid to stay in top notch hotels, eat amazing foods, and travel the world? Sign me up!
2. It is one of my life goals to visit and explore each of the 50 states of America.
3. The first blog I ever read was Carrots ‘N’ Cake, which inspired me to take hold of my health and get into exercise and eating well. I don’t really know how a blog was able to inspire me, but it sure did! So thanks, Tina! 🙂
4. I have moved six times in my life, and lived in seven different houses. That doesn’t even include my study abroad move or college dorms and apartments!
5. No matter what I’m doing, I need to make a list. I need to be organized (it’s a personality quirk), and I love the feeling I get when I can cross something off!
6. I am absolutely hopeless at math. I know plenty of people say that for attention or laughs or whatever, but in my case, it is 100% true. I always end up finding a backwards way to the problem and, even though that way makes sense in my head, it’s never correct. (I think that’s my literature/language brain coming through…) When I learn the “right” way, I get so confused and frustrated. It’s awful. High school math was utter torture!
7. When we were little, my brother and I used to go around our backyard and video tape ourselves “hosting” a nature show. Good memories.
8. It drives. me. nuts. when people compare One Direction to the Beatles. Oh my gosh. Yes, they’re British. Yes, they’re a group of men. But beyond that, there are zero similarities. Actually, in general, the fame many “bands” get these days bother me – most of them don’t even write or perform their own music! I just think it’s ridiculous.
9. One of my favorite TV stations is HGTV (Home and Garden). I’ve liked it since I was probably about ten years old. My favorite show is House Hunters, but recently, I’ve really gotten into the Property Brothers!
10. Whenever I drive over bridges, my knees get all tingly. It’s really weird. It doesn’t impact my driving (probably should have started with that point…) but I’ve just seen so many movies and had nightmares about my car going out of control and plummeting off a bridge into cold water. Yeek.
11. My favorite Shakespeare sonnet is 116, and my favorite play of his (that I’ve read) is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I also loved The Merchant of Venice.

Now, I’m going to answer some questions from each blogger that nominated me:

From Madison:

1. What is your favorite brand and style of jeans? I like skinny or fitted jeans from American Eagle. They’re my attempt at being fashionable! 😉

2. Do you prefer hot or cold beverages? Definitely cold! I even prefer my coffee iced!

3. What was/is your favorite class in high school or college? In high school, I loved orchestra and creative writing, and throughout college I’ve loved most of my literature classes.

4. What is your favorite “secret” guilty pleasure tv show? Say Yes to the Dress. 😉

From Liv:

5. You can go anywhere in the world right now. Where would you go? Someplace warm, like Puerta Vallarta, Mexico…

6. If you had a million dollars, what would you do? I’d do a few things: I’d invest a lot of it, send my parents on a nice trip, get my Master’s degree and Ph. D., and donate a lot to various charities or establishments, like St. Jude’s hospital, animal shelters, Share Our Strength, cancer research, and retirement homes.

7. Write down the last song you listened to? Songs from the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas album!

From Jess:

8. Would you rather go out and eat or stay in and cook? It depends – more often than not, I’d rather stay at home in my comfy clothes and cook, but sometimes it’s nice to get dressed up and go to a fancy restaurant. 🙂

9. Do you prefer sweets or salty foods? Usually sweet, but in the evening when I’m watching tv or a movie, popcorn or crackers always hit the spot!

10. If you could be given another talent or ability, what would you want it to be? I would love to be able to paint. I have done a bit in the past, but I’d love to be amazing at it! 🙂

I did these a few years ago.

11. If you could dine with anyone dead or alive, who would it be? I’ve thought about this a lot, actually. I would love to sit down to a meal with J. K. Rowling. I think some very interesting conversations would result! Or Paul McCartney. I have a few questions I’ve always wanted to ask him, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy. Other than them, I think it would be so interesting to have dinner with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Shakespeare, or Jane Austen. Can you imagine what they’d think of the world today??

From Mai-Lis: (I was actually in the middle of writing this post when she nominated me, so I’ll toss in a few of her questions, too! 🙂 )

12. What is your dream car? A red mini-cooper! I think those are so cute!

13. What’s your favorite season? Summer, bar none. A love the weather, the vacation, the trips, the holidays – everything about it! Spring and fall are beautiful, too, but as you all know I hate winter.

My nominees, in no particular order!:

Lucy, of Lucy’s Friendly Foods

Greta, of Coffee Addict Greta

Madison, of Eating 4 Balance

Liv, of Life as Liv

Liz, of I Heart Vegetables

Live Blissful

Bethany, of the Joy of Being Alive

Jessie, of Jessie Loves to Run

Mai-Lis, of Sunshiny Day

Sunnie, of Modern Girl Nutrition

Jess, of Jessie Bear What Will You Wear?

Sarah, of skrumdiddlyum (<–welcome to the blog world!)

^ For those of you keeping count, I nominated 12 of you. 🙂

Allll right, now you all get to answer my questions!:

1. What is your favorite kind of sandwich?
2. When you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
3. Did you become that, or did you change your mind over the years?
4. What is your favorite city?
5. What is your favorite sport to watch or play?
6. Would you rather have breakfast for dinner, or dinner for breakfast?
7. Milk, dark, or white chocolate? (Dairy-free counts too! 🙂 )
8. What is your favorite drink?
9. Would you rather have a Harry Potter movie marathon, or Lord of the Rings?
10. If you could learn a language, which one would it be?
11. What is your favorite Christmas decoration?

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Annnnnd now for the Inspiring Blog Award!

Rules

1. Display the award image on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. State 7 things about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers and link to their sites.
5. Notify the bloggers that they have been nominated and link to the post.

Nominations:

Will you all be mad at me if I use the same list of nominees as above?

If I’ve forgotten you (it’s very possible!) just let me know, and I’ll be sure to include a link! 🙂

7 Things about Me:

1. I use Blistex medicated lip balm on a daily basis – actually, more like every-other hour. In 4th grade, I asked Santa for makeup, but instead was delivered Blistex, verrrry pale pink blush, and powder concealer that was pretty much unnoticeable. I guess “Santa” wasn’t ready for me to start wearing makeup yet. 😉 Either way, I’ve been using that type of Blistex every since. I am honestly addicted – as in, my lips feel weird if I don’t have it on!
2. One of the best and weirdest food combos is potato chips in sandwiches. Try it, you won’t regret it!
3. I love roller coasters so much, but they don’t like me! There is one at Cedar Point that always makes me black out. It has something to do with the pressure in my head, I think…

4. My favorite magazine is InStyle.
5. To follow #4, being in London for just three months utterly changed my style (for the better, I think). I love Londoners’ styles, and try to replicate it as much as possible!
6. I have misophonia in that I hate the sounds that peoples’ mouths make. Unless I’m eating (or otherwise making noise) I can’t be around people when they’re eating, chewing gum, drinking, or breathing through their noses (and it’s whistling). It drives me insane!
7. When I got my wisdom teeth out, I was not completely put under – as in, I was still kind of awake during the procedure. I gave the doctors a good laugh when I started freaking out that they forgot to take out the fourth tooth – I was convinced they missed it!

My story isn’t as bad as this poor kid’s, though…!

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THANK YOU again to those six bloggers – you all made my day when I saw your nominations on my page! And thanks to all of you who give me such fun blogs to read!

Have a wonderful day! 😀