Two Award Nominations … Thank You …

It’s award time!

Eyes to Heart has been nominated for two awards — one just this week and the other, I’m embarrassed to say, almost a year ago. Today I’m acknowledging both. Hold on to your hats!

It’s an honour to be recognized by your blogging peers. Not just with awards either, but with every visit, “like” and comment that pops up in the notification thingy-ma-jig up in the right-hand corner.  My thanks to everyone who has taken the opportunity to visit and respond to my posts. In our helter-skelter world I know what it means to grab some precious time to check out blog posts. I try to visit the blogs I follow as often as possible.

Now to the awards …

What a lovely surprise!

Esmé at littlehiddenplace has nominated Eyes to Heart for the Liebster Award. Thank you, Esmé.

Another lovely surprise, a nomination for the Versatile Blogger Award from JG Burdette at Map of Time. I hope there isn’t a statute of limitations on accepting such an award … but even if there is I’m going for it. 😉

Life got in the way of a lot of things in 2012, and following through on this award was one of those things that got bumped. So, I’m going to do double-duty in this post and share the love to a bumper crop of wonderful fellow bloggers whose creativity and heart inspire me.

The Liebster Award …

When receiving the award, recipients must:

• post 11 facts about yourself and answer 11 questions posted by the person who nominated you
• pass the award onto 11 other blogs and ask them 11 questions (you must make sure you don’t nominate the person who nominated you!)
• select blogs with 200 or less followers (there must be some wiggle room here as I have a little more than 200 followers. We’ll go with it.)

Eleven facts to know about me:

1. I was born in Vancouver, British Columbia
2. I grew up in London, England
3. I have a love/hate relationship with opera
4. I’m writing a mystery novel set in the world of opera
5. Horses have been my passion forever
6. I was an animal portrait artist for a few years
7. Gerard Manley Hopkins and Shakespeare are my favourite poets
8. I rescued two kittens last May
9. I sang soprano in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (the city’s symphonic choir) for 12 seasons
10. There’s a jazz singer in me busting to get out
11. After 12 years of trying each other on for size my sweetheart and I are finally marrying in May. 🙂

Eleven questions to answer:

1. Name a stereotype about the country you come from? Canadians are nice, eh?

2. How many languages do you speak? Only one, with a smattering of poor French courtesy of my French ‘A’ level.

3. What is your funniest travel experience ever? French Toast (you know, bread dipped in eggs and milk and fried to a golden perfection and served with syrup 🙂 ) was on the breakfast menu of a small cafe across the street from Notre Dame in Paris. Because I thought it would be cool to have French Toast in France I ordered it and gleefully awaited its arrival. Imagine my surprise when the waiter deposited a plate with a cold, dry piece of regular toasted bread and a side of jam and butter in front of me (with a small glass of orange juice for a cool 8 Euros!) Say, what? Bon appetit!

4. Which food do you cook best? Home made chicken soup. Yummy and nourishing. 😉

5. Your favorite song? Almost impossible to choose. I’ve been surrounded by an eclectic array of music all my life. But, if I had to choose I’d say … nah, forget it. I could dedicate an entire blog to this topic. Let’s just say I’m a big fan of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss, Verdi, Mozart, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Ella Fitzgerald, John Denver, Earth, Wind and Fire, The Doobie Brothers  … oh boy, see what I mean? …

6. Which place do you recommend me as a Must-See? The Canadian Rockies.

7. How do you spend your time in transportations while traveling? Reading or watching movies.

8. What is a global issue that you worry most about? Worrying is unproductive. I spent a sad and significant portion of my life worrying about stuff beyond my control and made myself sick with it. Since waking up, courtesy of a few wake-up calls and the supportive wisdom of people like Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, my amazing partner and my therapist, I choose not to consume my energy with worry but prefer, rather, to focus on promoting ideas within my circle of influence (including my blogging community) that are uplifting and positive. … Obviously, however, there are things about which to be concerned. For instance, I wish we could legislate against stupidity. Seems to be a lot of that going around on a global scale. … Just saying … 😉

9. Your favorite blog post? I remember a long time ago interviewing the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s rehearsal accompanist of 30 years for an article I was writing about his tenure. When I asked which of all the great choral works was his favourite his answer to this impossible question was, quite simply: “The one I’m working on at the time.” So, with that in mind I would have to say this is my favourite blogpost. 😉

10. What is the last restaurant you have been to and how was it? A little, local Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall. We go there almost every week before grocery shopping. I order #V6 — noodles and veggies and spring rolls, oh my! … Tasty food and inexpensive. Highly recommended for a quick lunch.

11. What do you want to achieve this year? I want to finish my awesome novel, find a good agent and get the wheels turning for its publishing. I want to take my horse to a clinic and maybe a horse show. I want to go to London. Most of all I want to continue to regain my strength after spending the past two years or so battening down the hatches to heal from adrenal fatigue.

Enough of me (for now …)

11 Questions to my nominated bloggers for the Liebster Award:

1. What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?
2. What are three things on your bucket list?
3. What’s your occupation?
4. If you had a chance to dine with a celebrity, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
5. What’s your favourite way to spend an unexpected afternoon off?
6. Do you have a personal anthem? If so, what is it?
7. When was the last time you walked in nature and where were you at the time?
8. Which travel destination has delighted you most unexpectedly?
9. If you were a colour, what would you be?
10. Can you name five sports beginning with the letter “S”?
11. What book, fiction or non-fiction, have you read that has changed your life for the positive?

And my 11 nominees for the Liebster Award are (please pay them a visit):

1.  Nigel Borrington
2. Darkest London
3. Food 4 the Soul 93
4. My Favourite Westerns
5. A Little British Pea
6. Collies of the Meadow
7. Maleko’s Art
8. Cheryl Andrews
9. Simply Marvellous Horse World
10. Stuff and Nonsense
11. Words of Compassion, Creativity & Knowledge

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Now to the Versatile Blogger Award

With The Versatile Blogger Award comes the responsibility of sharing a little information about yourself and paying the award forward:

• Display the Award Certificate on your website
• Announce your win with a post and link to whoever presented your award
• Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers
• Drop them a comment to tip them off after you’ve linked them in the post
• Post seven interesting things about yourself

Seven (more) things to know about me:

1. Porridge is my favourite comfort food
2. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel
3. My favourite book genres are mystery and historical fiction
4. My favourite choral works (and I’ve sung them, many more than once, with the TMC) are the Requiems by Brahms, Verdi and Mozart, Handel’s Messiah, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and anything a cappella, including the horrendously challenging (think tuning for 180 voices) Agnus Dei — the vocal version of Samuel Barber’s transcendent Adagio for Strings. When you have a few minutes have a listen and let the music wash over you. This is a lovely version from The  Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge.
5. Monday night is chicken soup night

Now the fun part … blogs I nominate for The Versatile Blogger Award. I hope when you have a moment you’ll take an opportunity to pay them a visit. These blogs have moved and inspired me each in their own way, and while I’m not always able to visit on a regular basis to show my appreciation for their creative expression, passion and versatility, by this nomination I salute them.

1. Vastly Curious
2. Jump for Joy! Photo Project
3. Walk With Me
4. Valerie Davies
5. Mike Hardisty Photography
6. conorcullen
7. Serendipity
8. The Other Side of Ugly
9. Energy Medicine and Chronic Illness
10. Crazy Train to Tinky Town
11. Taking to the Open Road
12. Travel With Laughter
13. Walking with a Smacked Pentax
14. Pondering About …
15. Milner’s Blog

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Thanks for visiting …

Dorothy 🙂

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Copyright Aimwell CreativeWorks 2013