Very Inspiring Blogger Award

The wonderful Sarah from Sarah’s Kitchen has once again honoured me with an Award. The Very Inspiring Blogger Award. This lady is such a sweetheart, always supportive and funny and now she has even given me another award. I’ve only been blogging since May and I keep thinking that this or that could be improved. My recipes could be better or my pictures, I should take more time to make everything look better or simply to avoid silly grammatical errors. I suppose I’ll always be the critic. But now one of my fellow bloggers thinks I am inspiring. That is sooo awesome. I can’t quite believe it, but Sarah wouldn’t lie, would she? 😉

Thank you so much Sarah, you have certainly be an inspiration for me too (a shame I can’t nominate you back).

very-inspiring-blogaward

In order to accept this wonderful nominations I ought to do the following:

  1. Thank and link to the amazing person who nominated you
  2. List the rules and display the award.
  3. Share seven facts about yourself
  4. Nominate 15 other blogs and comment on their posts to let them know they have been nominated
  5. Proudly display the logo on your blog and follow the bloggers who nominated you

So next up would be the seven facts about me. Let me think of something you don’t know yet (is there something left):

1. I like strong drinks. A schnaps after dinner? Anytime. Best of all: A good old Williams (pear).
2. If I could have a superpower I’d like to be invisible. Ooo all they things I’d see…
3. I haven’t got an awful lot of friends, but there are 3 ladies I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. Wanna meet them?

girls

The picture was taken this June at my birthday drinks get-together.
4. My favourite movie of all times is “As it is in Heaven”, a Swedish production.
5. I loooove myself a cup of tea. I have a big box with at least 20 different flavours sitting in the kitchen. At the moment I am hooked on Twinings Rasperry and Lemon flavours.. Ooo yes..!
6. I am a sloth and glutton all in one. An afternoon on the couch? Yup, that’s me.
7. You want to get rid of my at a party or just generally? Just offer me some coriander and I am gone.

I didn’t know they were so many facts about me. 🙂 But let’s nominate some wonderful ladies now:

Once again thank you so much for this lovely nominations.

Dragon’s Loyality Award

The lovely Vidya has honoured me with yet another two awards. The Dragon’s Loyality Award as well as my second Liebster Award. Thank you so much Vidya, I really feel honoured and blessed. I’ve only started this blog a bit over 2 months ago and I have been received so warmly by my fellow bloggers. It has been the most wonderful experience yet.

I am actually quite late replying as summer always brings back the busy lifestyle, the sun that I have to enjoy (otherwise I fell guilty eventhough I love to curl up inside), the walks, the lakes and pools, so other things in my life always take a step back. As I understand it, the Dragon’s Loyality Award is a thank you to bloggers that are supporting you and are frequent visitors to your blog and the Liebster Award is a virtual welcome to new bloggers. So thanks again Vidya for both of these. I shall write about the Dragon’s Loyality Award now and safe the other for later (let’s stretch the joy!) 🙂

Vidya is the creator of Traditionally Modern Food. I just love her blog because it’s different. To me anyway. Born and raised in Switzerland I haven’t had a vast experience with Asian or Indian food but I love to read about it and try it out myself. It’s delicious. So please, make sure you stop by her blog and say hello.

So let’s start:

dragon

The rules are simple: Nominate bloggers and tell them about it, add the log and give 7 facts about yourself.

So let me thank you guys for supporting me continiously and for being the lovely blogger community you are. Your blogs are simply amazing:

Sarah at Sarah’s Kitchen
Lily at Little Sweet Baker
Kristen at the Peanut Butter Jar
La Petite Panière
Tina at Mademoiselle Gourmande
Sylvia at Superfoodista

Okay now let’s have a look at 7 facts about myself:

1. I can’t sleep after watchin a horror movie. Nevertheless I go to Film Festivals where they are shown.
2. I am 31, but I still think I am 18.
3. I am addicted to my iphone, Pinterest, WordPress and the Sims (yes! I said it)
4. When everybody moans about the bad weather, I keep quiet. Because I love rainy days.
5. I got a prescpription for glasses, but I hardly ever wear them. So I do occaisonaly bump into door frames or glass doors…
6. I don’t like to drive a car in the rain, snow, hail, stormy weather, wind or night time. So I soldmy car a few years ago 😉
7. There is a picture of a elephant sitting on a park bench on my work desk.

So once again, thank you very much! Enjoy the weather (it’s raining here, yay)!

My Writing Process Blog Tour

A warm hello from a quirky little country, in the middle of Europe (can you guess which one?)! 🙂

Just before I went off to my holidays a few weeks ago, the lovely Sarah has invited me to participate in the “Writing Process Blog Tour”. Sarah has a wonderful blog Sarah’s Kitchen and be sure to step by and say hello. Don’t worry, she doesn’t bite, eventhough she creates Red Devil Cupcakes (which look divine, by the way), in fact you probably just get a very warm welcome and a virtual hug (no promises, but it looks good).

So, I say “thank you very much for considering me” and “yiipiii” at the same time (don’t try to imagine those two things together, it just blew my mind – oh my – it’s hot today – brainmelt). Anyway I just gave you a wonderful example as to why one should always redraft their posts. Otherwise you’ll have the same jibber jabber in your blogs than I have in mine. Oh dear.

Let’s move on.

As I understand it, the rules are fairly simple, I answer 4 questions and then nominate 3 people. So these were the questions for me and are subsequently the questions for my 3 nominees:

What am I working on?

I just introduced the “British Weeks” as I used to live there a while and was just back a week ago. I don’t need to have a theme, but it challenges me to try recipes I have never cooked before and to really think about food. Where does it come from, what makes it so unique and most importantly why is it so loved. So I am already thinking about Italian or Swiss Weeks. But hey, that’s thinking way ahead into the future.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

This is a difficult one.. Apart from the “British Weeks”, I generally have not much of a plan. I just fancy something, bake or cook it and then post it on my blog. I admire the well-coordinated blogs. Mine is quirky and straight from the heart. I am still getting used to all the do’s and don’ts in the blogging world.

Why do I write what I do?

I am not sure. My process involves “doing” rather than thinking. I work with intuition rather than strategy concerning what I write. This whole blog though, has been a wonderful experience so far. I needed a bit of a lifeline back when I started as my life was and still is upside down in so many aspects. The blog has given me a routine and something I can hang on to. Writing and sharing about my experiences in the kitchen has not just awarded me with new friends, but also allows me to shut off reality and just be myself for a few minutes. I can only recommend it to everybody interested.

How does your writing process work?

I generally just scribble everything down as soon as I finished baking. So there is not much thinking ahead of this. But if time allows it, I write a few drafts as to avoid grammatical errors (there will always be some errors though as English is not my mother-tongue) or weird syntaxes. This process of rewriting also allows me to rethink what I have just written and change or add a lot. I am doing some Open University courses simultaneously and if I have learned something there, it’s to always draft and re-draft everything I have written.

So, the three lovely ladies that I nominate are:

Ngan at Ngan made it

Karen at My Skinny Sweet Tooth

Jennie at Scarletscorchdroppers

So I shall see if I can find something to cool me down. Looking forward to reading your posts girls now.

Wonderful Team Member Readership Award

wtrma

Just before I was packing my bags for my holiday, Lori from Creating Beautiy in the Kitchen and Sarah from Sarah’s Kitchen have awarded me with this wonderful award. Again this came as a complete surprise and I am very grateful in return for those two ladies who also support me so lovingly. Please do check out their blogs if you haven’t yet. It is well worth it.

The wonderful Lori makes every ever so grumpy soul giggle their socks off. Her blog is not just entertaining and interesting but also very personal and I really appreciate this. She makes her readers feel as though we’ve known her forever.

The lovely Sarah creates unbelievably mouthwatering bakes and all with a touch of humour.  Oh and have you seen her recent post concerning the Word Cup? I just love the picture with her dad! 🙂

So let’s have a quick look at the rules for this award:

1. Just give the award to all the people you wish to (at least 14)
2. Mention the person who gave it to you, and
3. Don’t forget to include a picture of the Award.

So here are the people who I consider part of my circle and who have been very supporting in the past few weeks (I haven’t been blogging for much longer..) and whose blogs I just love and adore:

Kristen from The Peanut Butter Jar
Ngan from Ngan Made it
Vidya from Traditionally Modern Food
Lily from Little Sweet Baker
Prudy from Butter, Basil and Breadcrumbs
Olga from Ocean View Kitchen
Gayatri from the Desserted Girl
Michelle from Giraffes can Bake
Jhuls from The not so creative Cook
Melissa from The Glen House
Sophie from Sophie Browns
Naina from Spice in the City
Callie at Flour and Fancy
Sabrina from Ein H(a)eppchen GlĂźck

Thanks so much for supporting me through the past few weeks. I really appreciate it. You guys are THE BEST!

Liebster Award – Wow!

I am still a little gobsmacked at receiving this award. First of all I didn’t even know such things existed in the blogging world and second I’ve only been blogging a couple of weeks now.  I must say though, the community has been so welcoming and warm that I was recently wondering why I hadn’t started a long time ago. But everything has it’s time I suppose.

So I am really happy about this and thank you so much Lori for nominating me. She is the heart, typer, photographer and brain behind Creating Beauty in the Kitchen. She was one of the first bloggers to extend a warm welcome to me when I started and I have been adoring her blog ever since. I once even spent a whole afternoon (work was veeeerrrryy slow that day) reading her old posts, which are so personal. I just love that.

So the way I understand this, is that I will be nominating 11 fellow bloggers with less than 1000 followers, let them know I nominated them, share 11 facts about me, answer Lori’s 11 questions, create another 11 questions for my nominees and link all this back to Lori. Good, let’s get started then.

11 facts you didn’t know about me
1. I LOVE elephants. Seriously, is there a better animal? If I had the space and it was allowed and wouldn’t harm the poor thing, I’d get a pet elephant. I really would.

2. I don’t actually like sweets that much (uproar). Yup, I am more a kinda salty snacky person. BUT I love to bake sweets and dislike baking salty stuff. Weird right?

3. If I could and it wasn’t so far away, I’d buy me (if I had the money in the first place) a small house with lots of land in New Zealand. Potter my life away doing this and that, gardening, baking, creating, travelling. And of course lots of animals. But hey, maybe one day!

4. I love rainy days. If there is a week witout rain, I get edgy.

5. I get addicted to games very easily. As a child I spend days playing PC games. But as soon as I discover a new game the old one is totally forgotten (short attention span).

6. I have never had surgery (lucky).

7. I currently also study English and Literature with an University in England. It’s a long distance course, so I can live wherever I want.

8. When I was a child I was a very fussy eater (it’s all better now, I promise and I do love brussel sprouts now). I wouldn’t eat brussel sprouts or certain meats, never ate fat on meat and so on. But I have always eaten liver and black pudding.

9. I grew up in an old farmhouse with lots on unused rooms and plenty of space to roam in the garden. My brother and I had a little adventure every day exploring the grounds.

10. My favorite colour is green.

11. I am claustrophobic and until a few years ago I would not use an elevator.

Loris 11 questions
1. What is your favorite part of the day and why?
I am not sure if I have one. It really depends on my mood. On a day off, when a long walk is planned or before I go on holidays, I love to get up early and enjoy the morning sun. But when I work I prefer the evenings to bake or relax.

2. How has your blog turned out different than you expected?
I honestly didn’t expect that I could connect with so many people all over the world. I just love that. I suppose I didn’t have any expections other than sharing my thoughts and bakes.

3. Tell us something unique about yourself.
I once slept for 16 hours straight.

4. Do you have a favorite t.v. show? What is it?
Well now, there is a soft spot. I sooo enjoy watching t.v. shows. I rather watch t.v. shows than just turn on the t.v. at random. My top 3 at the moment are:
1. The Sopranos
2. Lost
3. Person of Interest

5. Use three words to describe yourself.
Short. Quirky. Open.

6. Who has influenced you the most and why?
Hmm… tricky. I always tried to me myself rather than looking up to others. I guess I always thought that they were only human too. But to pick one person it probably had to be my partner Ste. He’s made me a lot calmer in the past few years and at the same time he has tried to challenge me to become the person I am today. I wouldn’t want to miss any of that. Thanks luv.

7. What is your favorite thing to do when you want to relax?
Read a book. Sometimes I don’t read for weeks or month and then I devour a 500 page book in two days. Diving into a fantasy world issomething utterly relaxing for me.

8. What is your least favorite household chore?
Cleaning the shower. Yes, you’re right, it’s not cleaning the toilet. The shower has just so many chalk stains and they are sooo nasty and hard to get rid off. Really dislike that.

9. What inspires you?
A walk. Whenever I feel down or depressed I go out for a walk. I am lucky to live very close to a city but still right next to the countryside as well. I guess that’s Switzerland for you. It’s so small that everything is really close together. So just walking the bad thoughts off and letting the good ones in, inspires me.

10. How do you want to be remembered?
As a kind person who tried to be herself.

11. Do you have any pets? If so, what kind?
No, unfortunatley not. I grew up with cats and now we’re longing to get a dog. But we’re living in a small apartement so it is not ideal. We’ll have to save for a bigger place first and put our roots finally down.

These blog’s are really worth checking out and therefore I nominate:
– Emma at Crumbs and Tea her blog is so neat with the most adorable pictures.
– Kristen at The Peanut Butter Jar she blogs about overcoming her eating disorder. It is admirable what she does and she does it with a very honest blog.
– Bunny at Eat Munch Love the foodie adventures of a bunny and her friends
– Olga at Ocean View Kitchen believs in eating in moderation but does not exclude any food from that. I like this and her belief shows in her blog.
– Jenni at Scarletscorchdroppers about the culinary adventures of an English Girl in Hong Kong. You should check out her latest Baileys Cupcakes recipe, awesome.
– Naina at Spice in the City definitely an Ode to food.
– Himanshu at The White Ramekins it’s so rare to see men blogging about food and baking and this one really knows what he’s doing.
– Janine at The Quiet Baker enjoy the evreyday food adventures she whips up.
– Sarah at Sarah’s Kitchen her passion is baking and I can tell you, it looks gooood.
– Selma at Selma’s Table has a wonderful blog and is one of the first people I virtually met here. Please check out her blog.
– Melli at Melli’s Kleidersalat yes, this isn’t about baking and yes, this isn’t in English. But Melli loves to sow and she creates the most wonderful things for her children and herself who model on the pictures. It’s fantastic!

And here are my 11 questions for the nominees
1. What is the most exciting thing you have ever done?
2. Why do you blog?
3. If you could do anything in the world, what would you do right now?
4. Which is your favourite plant?
5. Who is the dearest person in your life?
6. Coffe or tea?
7. Which is your favourite fairytale?
8. What makes you want to scream with joy?
9. If you could have any pet (with adequate animal housing) which would it be?
10. What makes you, you?
11. What is your guilty pleasure?