Tuesday 14 January 2020

Special Blog Award

Many years ago, getting to know other bloggers was just what people did. They commented on posts, spoke through posts to each other, and told their families the stories as if those people they only read about were real, actual people.


Then social media exploded in our faces, and changed all of those things. We didn't interact with people the same way, we stopped writing blog posts to each other, we started hanging out and scrolling through social media every day, every hour.


But, like my friend Melissa from Suger Coat It says, I think that is getting ready to change.

People want to get back to slow, they want to be scrolling their phones less (although I never understood the attraction of a phone, the screens are so small, give me an iPad at least!), and lots of people want to rebuild those relationships and community.

One of the things we used to do as bloggers and story tellers was to share memes. As words, instead of images, those memes helped us get to know the people around us. If you nominated a blogger to answer the questions, then they invariable did it and nominated others. The Google Gods loved it, because we all linked to each other, inadvertently sharing google juice and providing each other with backlinks before we even knew what it meant.

So, in the spirit of actually writing, my friend Jillian from Feed My Family Blog tagged me and asked me to answer a great bunch of questions. Jillian and I met about 6 years ago, when Sophie was tiny, and I was desperate to feel seen.

We met at a blogger meetup, and have followed each other on social media for those years. A couple of years ago, she reached out to me and we met up, and have been meeting regularly ever since (we now book our next catch up as we're leaving our last, so we both know it's locked in.)

Award Rules


1 - Thank the blogger who nominated you

2 - Answer the questions you're asked

3 - Create 10 questions to ask your nominees

4 - Nominate at least 3 bloggers for the Special Blogger Award

5 - Leave a comment on each blogger's most recent post, telling them you've nominated them

6 - share the love

My Answers


1 - What's your favourite main meal?

Anything I don't have to cook myself. But if I'm doing the cooking, I still can't go past a potato bake with crumbed steak, pure winter comfort food (and not a vegetable in sight)

2 - What's your favourite dessert?

I've always thought of ice cream as being a dessert food. I tend to eat cakes more as a morning tea, visiting with people, type food. My favourite ice cream would still be Connoisseur Cafe Grande (although Cookies and Cream is a close second). My favourite cake indulgence would be my Sticky Date Cupcakes. I don't get to make them very often, because the kids don't like them.

3 - What sort of exercise do you do?

Walking has always been my exercise of choice. When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to participate in running sports at school because of my childhood history with asthma, so I never quite figured out how to run without hurting myself (or my feet).

4 - What's a great book you've read recently?

I read "where the crawdads sing" by Delia Owen for my bookclub next month. Even 3 books later, it's still lingering in my mind.

5 - What's your favourite board game?

I've never played many board games. The obligatory Monopoly as a kid, Risk and Game of Life a few times, I can move a chess piece around the board but don't really understand the game. But I love a good game of Canasta.

6 - What's a must see movie you'd recommend?

Despite having Netflix, and Foxtel (cable TV), I don't actually watch many movies. A couple of years ago I started writing down the names of movies I watched, and the list is dismal, right up until Christmas, when I love binging Christmas movies.

A stand out funny movie from last year would have to be "Instant Family" but my favourite Christmas movie was "Let It Snow"

7 - What do you like to do in your spare time?

Spare time? What is this mythical creature you speak of?

But seriously, I've been terrible with boundaries in the past, so any spare time has been taken up with sitting on the couch, scrolling Pinterest, or binging Netflix. What I like to do, and what I actually do, are two totally different beasts.

8 - How do you let others know you care about them?

My Love Language is Acts of Service. I tell others I care by doing for them. Baking, volunteering for all the events, saying yes to everything I'm asked, even when I know I can't actually do it. See above re lack of boundaries.

9 - What do you do to take care of your soul?

I have always believed in Spirit, however you find that in your life. For me, right now, I find that through the tarot cards, learning about them, and reading them for myself.

10 - What are you grateful for, right now?

For my unexpected visitors this week. It's been amazing, to sit and talk to my daughter, in our home, and get to know her as a young adult.

My Questions


1 - What is one things you did well in 2019?

2 - What is one thing that was challenging in 2019?

3 - What is one thing you could do differently in 2020?

4 - Do you use a diary or planner?

5 - If you could only have one for the rest of your life, would you choose summer fruit, or chocolate?

6 - When did you last pick up the phone and speak to someone, just because?

7 - When did you last do something by yourself? (go to a movie, sit in a coffee shop, try on clothes, etc)

8 - Do you have a hobby?

9 - What's your favourite Netflix series?

10 - What are you grateful for right now?

My Nominees


My go-to gal for all things blogging and parenting stress, Toni from Finding Myself Young.

Because I want to read her answers to my questions, Denyse from Denyse Whelan Blogs.

And for a different perspective on the questions, Melissa from Suger Coat It blog
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3 comments

  1. I miss the days of blog awards and sharing through the blogs. There is a timelessness about maintaining a blog. It is a memory closet when facebook tends to be very transitory. I still find myself going back through my blog to find information about something I've stitched.

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    Replies
    1. I am constantly looking up my own recipes :) and reading through my archives is a great way to remember that small people grow up!

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  2. Thanks for answering the questions Cate! I'm glad you've had a visit from your daughter.

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