The Liebster Award

I have recently been nominated by the lovely Clare at the fabulous Super Mommy Club for the The Liebster Award.

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What does this mean? Well I have to share 11 random facts about myself, then answer some questions posed by Clare. Then I get to tag some other lovely bloggers to do the same! So here goes, 11 random facts about me.. (sorry if you’ve read some of these things before, I’m not that interesting!)

  1. I have 2 tattoos on my back, one I love, one I love less. I would like more, I just never get round to actually doing anything about it!
  2. Hubby and I got engaged after 5 weeks of knowing each other – I know it sounds mental, but when you know, you know 🙂
  3.  I am not a pet person. Not sure if this was influenced by the 4 pet cats we had growing up, but I seem to be the only member of my family who doesn’t love cats. thankfully hubby isn’t a pet person either though!
  4. I’ve been dying my hair since I was 15 and I’m not really sure what it would look like if left to go natural. Dark brown though I think!
  5.  I once ate the leg of a deep fried spider when I was in Cambodia (after a lot of wine and I could not bear the thought of eating the rest of it!).352552620080314
  6. I have a bicornuate uterus which means I am more likely than most people to have breech births as baby gets stuck in one side.
  7. I slept in a hammock in the rainforest in Belize for 3 weeks when I was 21
  8.  I have done a skydive and a bungee jump!DSC03486
  9. I’ve been to Glastonbury Festival 3 times and would love to go again, though it is slightly less practical with a toddler.267672_10150210378581199_684421198_7487872_4294420_n
  10. I once spoke to Bruce Forsyth on the phone at my old job, and got incredibly star struck. (Not that he knew of course, I was the consummate professional, I just wrote a huge sign and started waving it around the office during the conversation :))
  11. I love to read, all sorts really, but I have a particular love for fantasy and post apocalyptic stories. That and WW2, not sure why but it fascinates me.

And then here are the questions I need to answer:

1. When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a fashion designer! I had a little A5 ringbinder FULL of drawings and designs. I also created personalities for the models and there was real stories going on between them lol. I loved that thing and wish I still had it! I was also always writing so would have loved to be a writer but was put off by disparaging comments at school. Shame really!

2. Cereal or toast?
Cereal

3. What was your favourite book as a child?
This is tricky as I’m sure there was lots. I loved George’s Marvellous Medicine so that was probably my favourite, though I also adored Olga de Polga and Melisande.

4. What movie have you watched more than three times?
Ummm, thousands! I watch movies over and over and over regularly. Not even sure which ones I’ve watched the most TBH. Fave films are Crash (though it makes me cry), The End of the Affair (ditto – the most beautiful film ever), the Sex and the City movie, Underworld (I like vampire films) annnnd my new found love is Frozen, I am a huge Disney fan!

5. Why do you blog?
Mainly to stay sane and keep my brain cells ticking over. Plus it’s nice to have a place to record my thoughts and proud mama moments without boring all of my facebook friends (lots of whom are not parents and are totally uninterested!)

6. What was the make of your first car?
A Ford Fiesta, H reg in a delightful mint/sage green colour. It was built like a tank and seriously heavy, but I loved it 🙂

7. Have you ever made a mix tape?
Oh thousands! Many a Sunday afternoon spent as a teenager recording songs from the chart show on the Radio! Then as I got older (and got a CD player in my 2nd car) I had a collection of fab CDs I made to listen to to and from uni, depending on my mood!

8. Apple or Android?
Neither, Windows Phone all the way 🙂 Preferably of the Nokia variety!

9. Twitter or Pinterest?
I’m a bit rubbish with Pinterest, it’s a fab idea but it needs to be easier to publicize on it that it is currently then I would use it more. I never liked the idea of Twitter pre-blogging but now I do like it.

10. If money was no object where would you most like to go on holiday?
Ooh sooo many places! I would love a safari in Africa though, that would probably be top of my list!

11. What was the best gift you’ve ever received?
Oh blimey I don’t know, I have so many wonderful and thoughtful gifts that it is seriously hard to choose!  Though I did love it when my Mother In law bought me a dustbuster, that may sound daft but honestly it was amazing and hugely appreciated. It seriously made a positive impact on my life! That’s all I can think of right now :S

Phew glad that’s over!

Right my turn to nominate some lovely bloggers. Here goes!

Sam at Then The Fun Began

Becky at 3 Princesses 1 Dude

Katrina at Cool Bananas

Emma at BrummyMummyof2

Jane at Ethans Escapades

Lisa at The Life of Wife

And here are the questions you lovely ladies need to answer!

1. Did you always want to be a mum?
2. What is your favourite room in your house?
3.What would you tell your 20 year old self?
4.  Favourite kid’s movie ever?
5. Favourite Outdoor Activity?
6. Holidays in the UK or Abroad?
7.  Run or Walk?
8. What was your favourite childhood toy?
9. Why did you start blogging?
10. Which celebrity would you most like to have dinner with?
11.  If you could choose any time in history to live, when would it be and why?

The rules of the competition are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.

2.Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

6. Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

All About You Link & Pin Party

The Theme Game – Glass

I am loving the theme for The Theme Game this week, it’s all about glass.

My immediate thoughts are about reflections. I love reflections, particularly on water. Here a couple of my favourite pictures of reflections, with a few I took while travelling…

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…and a couple that I took last week.  I love reflections, even in muddy puddles!

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A reflection I like less is the reflection of me – some days. Some days I don’t mind what I see in the mirror, others I like it a lot less and turn away (often depending on how much make up I have put on or if I have done my hair!). Some days I think that the reflection in the mirror is ok, and then I see a reflection of myself elsewhere and I recoil. I can look in a mirror and be semi-satisfied – but then see myself through the lens of the camera in a photograph taken by a friend and wonder who that person is. Is that how people see me? Do I really see myself so differently to how others see me?

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Other times it is reversed and I hate what is in the mirror, yet a photo of me surprises me in a positive way. Which is true or is neither true? Glass not only reflects but it can distort depending on the angle you take.

Glass also provides transparency. A way to look inside, so on that note I will end with a little window into my world and a few things you may not have known about me.

1. I studied Television Production at university and actually worked as a TV Producer for a short while, I decided to change career for many reasons…. and many times I have doubted that it was the right thing to do, but I am happy where I am now so overall no regrets.

2. I travelled the world solo for a year.  In 12 months I visited 19 countries, flew on 19 flights and slept in 189 different beds. It was busy but amazing and I made some of the best friends of my life.

3. While travelling I did a skydive, a bungee jump and a canyon swing. It’s bizarre that I now get heart palpitations at the thought of messy play!

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What does ‘glass’ make you think of?

Linking up with The Theme Game, and as this post is all about me I am linking up with the lovely ladies of All About You

The Reading Residence
Mother.Wife.Me