I was lucky enough to be awarded the Sunshine Award a couple of weeks ago by Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise. Doesn't the badge just scream sunshine. I can tell you in need that brightness and cheeriness today!
The award is supposed to go to bloggers whose “contagious positivity and creativity inspire others in the blogging universe.”
Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on the blog within your post.
2. Pass the award on to 12 bloggers.
3. Link to the nominees within your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received the award by commenting on their blogs.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.
Now the hard part - choosing only 12 bloggers to post it on to. Here's the start of my list at least
I don't know about you all, but I tend to be a bit of an unofficial librarian to my friends. When we meet up, they return books that I have lent to them, and I bring them new books to read. For the most part this is an arrangement that everyone is happy with and given that they are pretty reliable at returning the books to me eventually I don't mind lending them out. Most of the time, my biggest issue is trying to remember who has already read which books!
Last night my friends and I went for cocktails at the local casino which is on the river front in Melbourne. One of those friends returned five books to me. Another friend borrowed two of the returned books meaning I was left with a carry bag with three books in it.
The casino was one of the places where there were big celebrations as part of the Chinese New Year. While we were having cocktails, there were dragons dancing through the casino, food stalls on the riverbank and lots of Chinese lanterns everywhere, with people in costume and drummers and lots of people around, so much so that it took us a several attempts to find a restaurant where we could eat before 11 o'clock at night. Fortunately we got into the seafood restaurant where we have eaten before and all enjoy, and once again the food was awesome! Some time spent in the casino playing roulette was followed by some time in the sports bar listening to live music and spending time out on the balcony with my smoking friends. And all the while I am still carrying around the bag with my three books in!
Thinking about it, the characters of two of the books might have felt right at home on a girl's night out (Jill Mansell's An Offer You Can't Refuse and Miranda's Big Mistake) but I am not sure what Bess de Montacute, the main female character from Susan Higginbotham's Hugh and Bess would have thought of it all! Life in 21st century Melbourne might be a little different than 14th century England.
Do you find yourself carting books around no matter where you are and what you are doing? Maybe the question should be where don't you take a book? And for another question, should I buy a whole bottle of Peach Schnapps just so I can make Bellinis occasionally?
On another note, Bookwordlover from Booklover Book Reviews has very graciously awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award! Thanks so much!
I have been lucky enough to receive a new blogging award this week, which I am very grateful for! Thanks to Cat at Tell Me a Story who awarded me the Prolific Blogger award.
Receiving this award means:
A Prolific Blogger is one who is intellectually productive… keeping up an active blog that is filled with enjoyable content.
1. Every winner of the Prolific Blogger Award has to pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. Spread some love!
2. Each Prolific Blogger must link to the blog from which he/she has received the award.
3. Every Prolific Blogger must link back to this post, which explains the origins and motivation for the award.
4. Every Prolific Blogger must visit this post and add his/her name in the Mr. Linky, so that we all can get to know the other winners. (Click here for the Mr. Linky page.)
I am going to pass this award on to the following bloggers:
You would think that given that my January wrap up post was so long, I couldn't possibly have anything else to add to it, but that isn't the case.
The first thing is that I forgot to say thanks for an award that I was given by Miss Moppet from the excellent blog, The Misadventures of Moppet. Here are the award details:
This award is for those followers who are the most loyal and give bloggers joy by commenting regularly and giving their support. Pass it on to 3 to 7 followers who are as loyal as dragons.
In turn I am passing this award on to some bloggers who have starting commenting on my blog relatively recently, to thank them for sticking around! My thanks to:
and thank you to everyone who keeps on coming back to visit me!
The other thing I needed to add was yet another challenge that I am signing up for. Thanks to Serena from Savvy Verse and Wit who posted about it, I have just found out about the 2010 Vampire Series challenge, and I of course am in thrall to vampires so am going to have to join in! There are four different levels available for this challenge. I am signing up for the third level:
Level Three: Vampire Enthusiast ~ Read 6 books from any series featuring vampires as key/main characters. This can be a mix of different series, or you can read all 6 books from one series, or whatever.
The challenge runs from January 1 to December 31. You can find out all the details, and sign up to participate, over at MizB's Reading Challenge blog.
I have read two books already which would qualify for this challenge (being The Awakening by L J Smith and Shadowfae by Erica Hayes), but I am not sure if I am going to claim them for this challenge yet. I am pretty sure that I will be able to still meet the challenge without claiming those two books, but I reserve the right to change my mind on that decision!
It's been a very emotional week for me! I mentioned briefly that I have resigned from my job. When you say it like that it's very matter of fact, but I have been with my current employer for just under 10 years, and I have a connection with them that goes back to when I was 14 years old. I started with them with the idea of doing a couple of weeks of data entry and here, I am, only just leaving now. I have moved locations several times, including a move from Adelaide to Melbourne, and I have moved through several different systems as well.
Whilst I was excited to hear that I got my new job and very relieved, it is also hard because I have worked with some of these people ever since I moved to Melbourne. When I resigned I cried (and so did my boss's boss), and there is a 100% guarantee that I will again on my last day. All the staff who work for me are calling me all sorts of names (mostly traitor), and assuring me that I will be back again, but I really don't think I will. We are still waiting to hear the final funeral details of my colleague as well. Hopefully that will happen next week.
This move has been on the cards for a while now. When I did my reading goals past at the beginning of 2007 I adjusted down the number of books that I was aiming to read for the year because I was hoping to reduce my commute time down. At the moment my commute takes up over 3 hours each day. When I start the new job it will drop down by just over an hour. Still not 5 minutes from home, but definitely more reasonable.
I was also very excited this week to find out that this blog has been nominated for several BBAW awards and so was Historical Tapestry.
I was very amused to see that both were nominated in the same category. It will be interesting to see what happens in that category because I read quite a lot of really great historical fiction blogs who are also nominated. Speaking of historical fiction and Historical Tapestry, we have got a huge week lined up over there on Monday, so if you like historical fiction with a medieval setting, or would like to try some, please be sure to pop over there during next week as there will be lots going on!
Can I just say that I am so thrilled to be nominated to Most Chatty. Over the last couple of years in particular I think that the content on my blog has changed quite a lot, from being only book reviews and book related posts to being lots of book things, but also a bit about my life, a bit of craft and a bit of whatever else I fancy. I have not always been sure that that change has always been welcomed, but it has enabled me to continue to feel enthusiastic about blogging. I have been doing this blogging thing for quite a while now, so you would think that I would feel relaxed about what happens here, and I do enjoy it very much still, but like everyone, every now and again I have my doubts!
I was also pleased this week to be given the BINGO award by Allie from Histfic Chick for being N(eighbourly). Allie is a relatively new blogger, but we share a passion for historical fiction. Thanks Allie!
I would like to pass this award onto the following people:
Beautiful : Alex from Le Canape, not only for her own blog, but also the work that she has done on other's blogs like Aneca's World and Historical Tapestry. Have I mentioned that I am thinking about revamping my template Alex?) *wink*
Informative - Reading the Past - Whenever Sarah posts, particularly the seasonal previews, I always end up adding lots of books to my TBR list!
Neighbourly - Aarti from Booklust. I have known Aarti for a long time now, and have always enjoyed her blog. Just recently she has also started the excellent new series, Rosie's Riveters. Besides, if I suck up enough, maybe she will smuggle me in her suitcase when she goes away!
Gorgeous - Michele from A Reader's Respite. You can really see Michele's personality shining through in every post!
Outstanding - Literate Housewife - I love visiting this blog and seeing what is going on there! And Jennifer is so creative as well!
Oh and in completely unrelated matters, I was very excited to see that Girl who Kicked a Hornet's Nest, the third book in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson is going to be released here in Australia in October. Not sure about the cover though. I know that the second book has only just been released in the US and don't get why the published dates are so different, but I am happy for me at least!
Almost final thing...I signed up for a LJ Smith reading challenge earlier today but didn't copy the link down before I closed the page. I know who I think is hosting it, but I can't find it on the blog! The idea is to read The Vampire Diaries and watch the TV series. Anyone know who is hosting this challenge?
Really final thing...I changed the title of this post just so it made sense to put this video up! If you can imagine it, I am totally dancing in my chair while this is playing! An oldie, but a goodie!
Not a bad reading month this month. The number of books read was down a little, and I am not really sure why, but overall I have been reading less all year so that just continues the trend.
The books I did read this month were:
Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham 4/5 Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas 4.5/5 The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon 4/5 The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee 4/5 Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn 4.5/5 Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts 4.5/5 Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich 4/5 The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod Eagles 4.5/5 Chosen by P C Cast and Kristin Cast 4/5 An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James 4/5 Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters 4.5/5 The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella 4.5/5
Of the challenges that I have not yet completed this year, I didn't make any progress on the Art History reading challenge, but I have borrowed a couple of books that will fit the theme, so hopefully in the next couple of months I will make some progress.
I read two books this month for the War Through the Generations challenge - The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee and The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella. I think I have one more book to read to complete this challenge.
At this point I have read 86 books that I started this year and so not long to go before I finish the 100+ reading challenge.
This month I joined in the Period Drama Challenge, which isn't about reading at all, but rather watching period dramas. Last night I watched the last quarter of North and South (again) so now I will probably watch the whole thing again and then that will be one down for that challenge as well.
I did mention last month that I was thinking about joining a couple more challenges, and now I am officially joining both the Harry Potter reading challenge. Whilst I have read the first four books in the Harry Potter series, I didn't ever get around to reading the last three. My brother is supposed to be giving me the audio version as read by Stephen Fry so I will most likely listen to that in order to complete this challenge.
The other challenge that I am signing up for is the Reliquiae Challenge because I really can't resist paranormal books! I am going for the highest level (Haunted Nights). My first three books are going to be Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur, Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris and City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I will work out the other three books in due course.
Finally, a big thank you to Gina from Book Dragon who has awarded me the Kreativ Blogger award. Thanks Gina!
I want to give a big shout out, and thank you, to Nicchic from Obsessed with Books (my kind of girl with a blog title like that) who has given me the following award:
Another award, this time from Susan at You Can Never Have Too Many Books (another truth if ever I heard one!). Susan has been convinced that she needs to not only watch North and South, but own it as well! We love it when we share the North and South love!
And a belated thank you to Alaine from Queen of Happy Endings who bestowed this award on me. Well actually, she said it was to Marg from Historical Tapestry, but I figure seeing as this is me and it was to me, it can be posted here!
Speaking of Historical Tapestry, it's a big week over there this week! On the weekend we had a guest post from Anna Elliott whose debut novel Twilight of Avalon is released today. On Monday we had a guest post from CW Gortner, author of the excellent The Last Queen, and on Friday we have a guest post from Christine Blevins, author of The Tory Widow, and there is going to be a giveaway as well!
Once again this week I picked up more books than I returned, but only by 1 so that's okay right? Right? I need you to enable my library addiction people! The books I picked up were:
The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari - Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise recently reviewed the third book in this series and gave it a seriously good review! Because I can not possibly start anywhere other than the beginning of a series, this is the first book!
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong - New series + Kelley Armstrong = No brainer!
Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin - Whether this author is writing under her real name, Diana Norman, or this name, I really enjoy her writing, and I am looking forward to catching up with Adelia Aguilar and her friends again.
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan - A couple of years ago I read The Arrival by this author and absolutely loved it! I had every intention of reading anything I could find by him, but that kind of hasn't happened. This is his latest book which came out last year.
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I mentioned Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise a bit earlier in my post. A couple of days ago, she was kind enough to award me The Grasshopper Award:
1) display the grasshopper award on your blog knowing you have touched someone you may never meet IRL.
2) pass this on to any fellow bloggers who have taught, inspired or entertained you.
When I was thinking about who I might pass this award on to, it came to me! With this award I want to honour those people who host weekly memes that I participate in, thereby influencing my content regularly. I am therefore giving this award to:
Raidergirl3 from An Adventure in Reading, who each week asks the question "It's Tuesday, Where are you?. I tend to answer this one in the comments on her blog but I do participate regularly in the meme, and it is one that I look forward to each week.
I was very honoured to be awarded another Premio Dardos award today. This time it was from Melissa from Remember to Breathe. This is a totally new blog to me, and Melissa emerged fro lurkdom to let me know that she had awarded this to me, which I think makes it all the more awesome! Hope you stick around Melissa, and thanks!
I was also lucky enough to receive the Zombie Chicken Award twice in the last couple of days, once from Sharon at A Bookworm's Reviews and also from Sheree at The Eclectic Reader. I must confess that opening my emails to see a comment saying about the Zombie Chicken award made me smile first thing in the morning. It's not a phrase that you see often!
The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all...
I don't want to risk the wrath of the zombie chicken so I am passing this award onto
Aarti from Booklust has awarded me the Proximidade Award. Thanks Aarti.
"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."
Thanks to Margo from Margo Treehugger for the "Where Life Hands You Lemons" award award:
Thanks also to Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise has awarded me the Sisterhood award
Both of these awards ask us to:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post. 2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude! 3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. 4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. 5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.
It is late in the weekend here, so I am going to cheat a little and name ten blogs, three for one, and seven for the other. For the Sisterhood award, I nominate my fellow Historical Tapestry girls:
Misfit is a relatively new blogger, but I have known her for a while now through a couple of forums. If you enjoy reading historical fiction in particular, then you might find her blog an interesting one to start spending time reading!
Over the last couple of months I have been terrible at acknowledging the awards that I have been given. It's not because I don't appreciate them, because I really, really do, but just that I never have had time to finish off the posts. I even started more posts going into long stories about finding the perfect awards dress, shoes and jewellery but never quite finished those either. When I receive an award I either save the post in Bloglines, or start a post here, so doing this tonight has the effect of having a bit of a clean out of drafts and saved posts, which is a bit overdue!
So here is a list of the awards that I think I have received over the last couple of months. Sorry if I have forgotten anyone.
Thank you so much to the following people for giving me blog awards:
"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."
Started by the blogging team at Jane Austen Today the “aim of the Excessively Diverting Blog Award is to acknowledge writing excellence in the spirit of Jane Austen’s genius in amusing and delighting readers with her irony, humor, wit, and talent for keen observation. Recipients will uphold the highest standards in the art of the sparkling banter, witty repartee, and gentle reprove.”
Like a lot of other people there are times when I do wonder about blogging and whether I am talking to myself or not. In fact, today over at Despair.com I saw a new poster that could almost sum things up for me in the mood that I was in for the last few days. **Going off on a tangent here, but have you all visited Despair.com. They have some very funny demotivator posters over there!**
Don't get me wrong. I love blogging, I love visiting everyone's blogs, but sometimes I watch groups form of people who are obviously becoming close friends and I wonder if and why I sit on the peripheral of all that - a question that I often ask myself in real life as well! A sign of where my head is at I am sure!
But then, just as I am about to engage in a full on pity party, along came three blog awards to show me that I am may well be wrong! Michele from A Reader's Respite gave me the I Love Your Blog award. She also awarded it to Historical Tapestry which is awesome! And then I got that same award from Books and Other Stuff and Teddy at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time too. Thanks so much to all of you! I would love to give the award back to each of you, because I do love all of your blogs, but instead I am going to try and give them to a few different people!
The rules for this award are that you need to:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog 2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you 3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs 4) Add links to those blogs on your blog 5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!
Amy from Passages to the Past - another HF fan, and she has a really great template as well. Looks great Amy!
Bobbi from Bobbi's Book Nook - Recently she has been reviewing one of my first mystery series, which included my first literary crush. Jim Frayne, you rocked my world!
Kailana from The Written World - It was a bit quiet for a while over there, but appears to be back now. Besides, it's her birthday, so here's your present Kailana!
Raidergirl3 from AnAdventure in Reading - every Tuesday she asks 'Where are you now' - such a great question! I love hearing what books other bloggers are reading and where those books are set!
One final thing for this post, Bethany from B&b Ex Libris is starting a movement to Kill Word Verification. I must confess that mine is turned on, just because I assumed that I would get spammed without it, but I am willing to turn it off and see what happens. If I do start getting spammed, then I will turn it back on.
Now, I want to pass it onto to some super commenters msyelf! I love checking my blog every day to see who stopped by and left a comment. Gives me a thrill every time...especially lately given that my blog has been a little light on content for the last couple of weeks! I have been spending lots of time getting Historical Fiction Online up and running, but I think we are getting there now, so I should be able to start posting more regularly here!
Anyway, on to my seven nominations (which is the one rule that goes along with this award - pass it on to at least seven people):
Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise - not only is she a super commenter, she was also fun to meet up with in real life last week during the Melbourne Writer's Festival.
I am so pleased to have been nominated for several blog awards over the last couple of weeks. I have been meaning to post about them to say thanks for a while now, but realised today that I hadn't yet done it!
First off, thanks for Literate Housewife who awarded me the E for Excellence blog award.
1. Put the logo on your blog. 2. Add a link to the person who awarded you. 3. Nominate at least seven other blogs. 4. Add links to those blogs on your blog. 5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blog.
I would love to award this back to those who nominated me as I really enjoy all of their blogs, but instead I will onto some other people, and I am trying to nominate some people who I don't normally tag so here goes:
Nymeth from Things Mean A Lot - Whilst she does read a lot of different books to me, when we do have books in common I think that we react to them pretty similarly.
Danielle from A Work in Progress - I really enjoy reading all her lists and reading plans!
Stephanie from Stephanie's Confessions of a Bookaholic - We have known each other through various groups for a very long time now. I love reading her posts because they are usually so full of energy and enthusiasm. J. Kaye's Book Blog - Lots of reviews, giveaways, and challenge that are either being participated in or hosted. What more could you ask for!
Alex from Daemonwolf Books - I guess I have been reading Alex's blog for about six months now, and find it very interesting.
Clare from Blue Archipelago - Currently hosting the Book Blowout challenge (which I am doing terribly at, but more about that later I am sure!) and always has good stuff on her blog.
Zeek from The Way I See It - a good mix of books, movies and whatever else she thinks of!
