The Versatile Blogger Award.

Well, my sister has gone and awarded me another blog award – The Versatile Blogger Award (what are sisters for?!). Sarah is one of those people who spreads love wherever she goes – its a honour to receive a blog award from her. Thank you Sarah! Her blog has gone from strength to strength over the past few months, and every time I have a look at her blog it has something to inspire and and keep me going through the day. I might be biased, but I think she’s an excellent photographer and general curator of happy, beautiful things. Go have a look if you haven’t already!

So, according to the award, this is what I have to do:

RULES

As per the rules of a nominee adopting from the Versatile Blogger Award, I will:

1. Add the Versatile Award photo on a blog post

2. Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.

3. Share 7 things about myself.

4. Pass the award along to 15 favorite bloggers.

5. Contact the chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.

7 Things About Myself:

• I’m a feminist. I believe that men and women are equal human beings and that women have a right to equal pay, equal rights and to not treated as inferior beings. This doesn’t mean I think women are the better sex (neither are men) – just that I would rather be considered as a whole human person, with all my faults and weird habits.
• I love trying new recipes – in the past two weeks I’ve cooked a new recipe almost every day – Irish Stew with Dumplings, Mee Goreng (an Indonesian beef noodle dish), Chicken Risotto, Chinese Greens with Chinese BBQ pork…I’m having fun trying as many recipes as possible this year!
• I love baking cupcakes and cakes – proper ones with real flavourings from fruit and other things (like peanut butter cupcakes, yum).
• Interior design – I love it! Dan and I only have one room to decorate until we have our own place, but it’s definitely a place where I feel creative and have lots of colourful books and objects and notebooks around me to make me feel inspired when I’m feeling rubbish.
• I collect books about writing – everything from Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, to The Creative License by Danny Gregory, to Listography: Your Life in Lists. I’m running out of space, but it’s an addiction and I know that when I hit a block, I’ve got all these books to keep me working.
• Like my sister, I adore pasta – its one of my childhood favourites and I love it with anything, whether tomato and basil or something more extravagant.
• One of my dreams is to open a shop selling cupcakes, books, photography and jewellery – all made by my sister and I. It’s a dream of ours – she wants to sell our jewellery and her photography, and I want to sell books, cupcakes and jewellery. I think it would be a cool space for workshops too – writing, baking and jewellery workshops. So a kind of creative hub!

I’m tagging these people:

1. Definatalie – she is an inspiration to me – a brilliant illustrator, a fat acceptance activist, someone who has been through so much and blogs thoughtfully about everything. She also creates radical and beautiful jewellery and is a stylish outfit of the day blogger!

2. Pocket Rocket Fashion – Lauren is one of the first blogs I started reading when I got into the plus size fatshion scene. She blogs about all kinds of fashion and plus size related issues – and calls out the industry on their lack of choice for plus size men and women. I find this spurs me on to keep challenging those stereotypes that fat men and women can’t be stylish and have their own sense of style.

3. Aw, Diddums – again, a brilliant blog full of insights into different things – and often hilarious and astute meditations on life. I started reading this blog way back when, and its just one of those gems – with a lovely author!

4. The Literary Mom – this blog is full of excellent advice for writers. Especially inspiring is that she’s finished a few manuscripts and is working one day at a time to achieve her dream of being a published writer. I love her take on being a writer and a parent and how they use the same skill set. I always feel heartened and determined after reading her blog, because it reminds me that many people are going through the same thing.

5. Caorthine – another budding novellist, who recently got freshly pressed! She just started blogging this month. I always feel like there’s something to celebrate when I read her blog – whether its celebrating my love of reading, cats or photography.

6. The Silent Soul – this blog makes me think and appreciate things in life. She truly is a versatile blogger, and is equally at home writing book reviews as she is with writing about her life. I love her ponderings – she is a brilliant writer!

7. Sound Bites: The Ramblings of Amelia Pontes – I’ve been reading her ramblings for a long time. I love her style, her outlook on life, and reading about her writing journey. Every time I read one of her posts about being grateful, she makes me feel grateful too. She also loves lists as much as I do!

8. Charlie Swinbourne – a deaf journalist, scriptwriter and director from London. He also writes a column for The Hearing Times. He recently became a stay at home Dad, and has started blogging about his experiences. He is combining that with being a Freelance journalist – this is inspiring to me as I’m just getting started on my Freelance writing journey!

9. Milly’s Wonderland – Ramona is a dear friend, and although she’s been busy with her dissertation and hasn’t had that much time to blog, I love when she does post – her thoughts and photos make me smile! She also has a tumblr which she uses to post about inspirational artists and work that inspire her artwork.

10. Jackie Evans – a hilarious take on life, the universe and everything. A must read!

11. The Phoenix Plains – I love this blog so much – what she writes about I can relate to and although I don’t comment much (sorry!), I always read her posts. She makes me think, and makes me empathise with others better. Inspiring stuff!

12. Sh*t My 6 Year Old Says – Jack has recently turned 7, so really it’s Sh*t My 7 Year Old Says, but this blog is brilliant and makes me marvel at how weird and wonderful children are. The dialogue is hilarious in this ‘you couldn’t make it up’ way!

13. Books and Bowel Movements – I only just started reading Cassie’s blog, but I love it already! Its great when you discover new blogs – I can’t wait to get stuck into the archives…

14. These Things and Me – her blog tagline sums it up: musings about the minutiae and magnificence of life. You can’t read this blog and not come away feeling happy or amazed at the amazingness (yes, that’s made up) of life.

15. Aspire. Motivate. Succeed. – one of those blogs that does exactly what it says on the tin – helps you to feel you can aspire to great things and your dreams and helps to motivate you. When I’m not feeling all that great, this blog is an excellent source of inspiration.

So there you have it – sorry if I’ve missed anyone out, it was hard work compiling a list of 15 links, but it was worth it to spread good karma…