The lovely Ana Sofia from S is for Sewing nominated me for The Liebster Blog Award.   What is the Liebster Blog Award you ask?

The Liebster Blog Award is an award given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers, most of whom have less than 200 followers (or have been blogging for less than 6 months). It is to show newer bloggers that they are appreciated, and to help spread the word about new blogs. It was created to promote appreciation and recognition among the blog world. Liebster translates to “dearest” (or favorite/best) in German. It is also known as the Love Blog Award.

But, as most things in life, there are a few rules to follow though I sort of changed them

The Rules:

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.

3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

4. Choose new blogs you love and link them in your post.

5. Please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you!

So, here’s what I have to say 

11 Random Things about me

1.  I'm 36 years old and routinely can not remember that.  That's really bad I know.

2.  I learned to sew as a kid but didn't sew regularly till I quit work 6 years ago.  Has it really been that long?

3.  When I was a kid I wanted to live on a farm, now I love in an urban neighborhood in a city.

4.  I crocheted afghans in college as a stress reliever. 

5.  I listen to my daughter's music (Taylor Swift, Adele, Lady Gaga, Miranda Cosgrove) when I run because I can't run to the music I listen to (Vienna Teng, She and Him, Sarah McLachlan).

6.  We have a dog, Shadow who is a Lab mix but I really want to adopt two Basset Hounds.  

7.  I always finish a project before I start a new one.  But I almost always have one sewing project, one knitting project, one quilting project, and one stitching project going.

8.  I wish I had more time to weave on my loom.  

9.  When I am not sewing/crafting, I love to cook and read and walk by the river.

10.  My favorite thing to sew is clothes for my kids.

11.  I am a very structured person.  I clean in the morning, sew in the afternoon, and knit or do hand work in the evening after the kids are in bed.

11 questions from Ana Sofia

1. When did you realise that blogging was an important part of your life?

I actually started blogging when my facebook account was hacked into and locked by facebook.  I like sharing my life with family and friends.  As I've written in my blog, I recently have much less time to blog and I miss it.  But every time someone comments on my blog I feel encouraged to blog more. 

2. What’s your favorite blog post (from you or others) ?

My most favorite blog post from someone else comes from Posie Gets Cozy

http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2008/06/imagination-vs.html

Every time I read this I laugh so hard I cry.  

3. What do you see yourself blogging five years from now?

I hope I am still blogging  about my life in 5 years.  Who knows what I'll be into in 5 years.  I imagine I'll still be sewing and knitting and cooking.  But life is crazy like that so you never know.  

4. What’s your favorite childhood memory?

I have a terrible memory but I would say playing with my older sister Anne.  Anne is less than a year older than me and we a great time together growing up.  

5. What did you wanted to be when you’re growing-up?

I wanted to be a teacher and I accomplished that.  I also wanted to be a Mother and a wife of a farmer. So out of my 3 dreams, I've accomplished 2 out of 3.  Not bad.  I don't think I'll ever be the wife of a farmer as Brent is just about the furthest thing from a farmer.

6. Do you have a favorite life quote?

Yes I do.  I actually have it on my blog I like it that much.   "Out of clutter, find simplicity.  From discord, find harmony.  In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity."  Albert Einstein said that.  Smart man.  

7. Are you a morning person (or a night owl)?

Without a doubt I am a morning person.  As soon as the alarm goes off I am up and running.  Although I've been known to stay up too late knitting.

8. What do you do to “feed” your creativity?

I get a ton of inspiration from the flickr groups I belong to.  I made some wonderful friendships there.  My sewing has gotten so much because of the support there.  Thank you ladies!  But besides that I find it necessary and helpful to "crash" every once in a while.  I usually crash after an intense bout of productive crafting that maybe went on for for weeks or months.  But when a crash comes I can feel it coming and I just give into it.  So instead of sewing I recharge by reading, surfing the internet or napping instead of sewing and crafting.  I used to hate the crash but now I like it.  When I crash it usually only lasts a few days to a week or so.  But I find it so necessary.

9. Name your favorite fabric designers/collections ever?

If you read my blog regularly you'll know the answer, Oliver +S.  

10. What’s the best advise you ever got?

From my Dad, "put your head down, just keep going and when you think you can't go on anymore, you can."  This was given to me as I was preparing for my first Rachel Carson Challenge Hike which is an 18 mile endurance hike over some of the biggest hills I've ever seen on the Saturday closest to summer solstice.  He also told me "you can't get any wetter than wet" when I was worried about if it would rain during the hikw.  I find these pieces of advice can be applied to life in general.  

11. What do you expect to accomplish in 2013?

I hope to learn how to knit socks.  I tried a couple of years ago and failed miserably at the heel. I've become such a better knitter since then I think I can do it.  

I also want to garden the little brick patio space outside my basement door.  It's a shady space so it will be a challenge.  But I love to garden so much and this is the last space left.  Because I live in a row house in a very urban neighborhood, I have 3 separate gardens that are not really connected to one another.  The little garden in front of my front porch, the back garden (which is the biggest space) and then the little brick patio between my house and my neighbor's house.  I've planted both the front garden and the back garden but have not done much with the brick patio besides pulling up some bricks and putting in ferns and as wells as doing some flower pots.  This year I want to get flower boxes for the 3 windows back there as well as a trellis for around the door way.  

I am supposed to nominate other bloggers but most of my friends have already been nominated so I am going to be a rule breaker on that one. 

Thank you so much to Ana Sofia for nominating me.  It's an honor!

Thank you for reading!