The Liebster Award - Getting to Know the Blogging World

So the author of one of my favorite small blogs Sarah @ Married to Med School just nominated me for something called a Liebster Award. Being that this blogging thing is new to me, there are all kinds of things like this that I am suddenly hearing about! Blogging really is a fascinating global society with it's own set of rules for communicating and all kinds of special social events. So here's to new experiences and learning how things work in the blog world.

According to Sarah's blog post, bloggers can nominate other bloggers whose blogs they enjoy for the Liebster Award. In order to be nominated your blog must have under 200 followers. The idea is that bloggers nominate other people with small blogs as a way to spread the word about some of their favorite small blogs and as a way for bloggers to get to know each other.

Thank you Sarah for taking the time to nominate me and thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my blog posts! I really appreciate all of your support!

Now that I've been nominated, in order to be eligible for the Liebster Award I have to do the following:
(1) post 11 facts about myself
(2) answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated me
(3) nominate 11 more people (which will be interesting since most of the people probably have never heard of my little blog)
(4) and ask 11 questions of the people that I've nominated

Whew...lets get started!

Part 1!
11 Facts About Me

(1) I love love love Jane Austen novels. When my sisters and I were little, my mom would make a tea tray with a pot of tea and little cookies. We would sit and sip our tea and spend hours watching Jane Austen movies. Before I could read I knew all of the Jane Austen characters like they were my older sisters.

(2) It took me a really long time to learn to read. When I was in elementary school I hated reading, not because I hated stories but because I wasn't good at it and I was very stubborn. It was only through the extraordinary effort of one very special teacher that I learned to read and to love reading. When the private school that I went to wanted to "ask me to leave" because I was so far behind the rest of my grade in reading, this teacher volunteered her time to stay after school with me almost every day to teach me to read.  I knew that I was one of her favorite students and she was the nice lady that taught me to read and always had snacks (Oreos and goldfish were the best!), but it wasn't until senior year of high school that I learned the rest of the story and why I had to take all of those extra reading lessons. It was through her extraordinary dedication to teaching and love for her students that I was able to graduate from such a wonderful school and write this blog post for you today. Thank you Mrs. Reid! (wow, I just realized how funny that is...)

(3) I spent 13 years at a small private, Catholic, All-girls school (kindergarten to 12th grade just to clarify) and I loved every minute of it. It was an amazing place and an amazing community.

(4) Two of my best friends are girls that I met in elementary school there and I can't imagine my life without them. They're the best!

(5) When I was a kid I loved Beauty and the Beast for two main reasons...(1) Belle was an awesome Brunette princess and (2) Maurice was a genius. I wanted to grow up to be an inventor just like he was!

(6) I'm an introvert. What this basically translates into for blogging purposes is that if we were sitting down and chatting over a cup of tea and you asked me about one of the crafts I made and posted about, my response would be something like this: "well...um..I made it. It was fun." Whereas, when I'm writing on my blog I can go on for pages about one subject. According to the book I'm currently reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain, that is because introverts tend to get very nervous in any situation where they feel like they might be appraised in some way and they are more comfortable expressing themselves through writing. Suddenly my entire life makes more sense.

(7) I really am not good at coming up with random facts about myself. Does that count as a fact? We're going to go ahead and blame that on me being an Introvert.

(8) I have a giant fuzzball of a dog (well, she's not really giant for a dog, she's just giant for a fuzzball). She is an Australian Shepherd and she is very sweet. Technically she's my family/my sister's dog. She says "hi", and also that she has to go to the bathroom even though I just took her out 5 minutes ago.

(9)  My boyfriend and I love to cook. When we first started dating (almost 4 years ago now), one of the first dates we had was baking peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses in the dorm kitchen. Now, after 4 years of cooking together we type up all of our favorite recipes and include a picture of one of us holding a plate of the finished dish and print them out to keep in a binder. It's always fun to flip back through the pages and see all of the funny haircuts and outfits I thought were a good idea throughout the years. Priceless

(10) I'm a huge Disney fan. Nothing gets me pumped up in the morning like listening to a new episode of my favorite Disney podcast, WDW Radio! If I could have any job in the world, I would be an Imagineer for the Disney Company.

(11) I'm a new blogger. I had toyed with the idea in the past of starting a blog, but I never really knew what to write about. I'm still figuring all of that out. Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read these posts. I'm really grateful to all of you! (that totally counts as a fact)

Part 2!
Now I have to answer 11 questions from Sarah @ Married to Med School

1. What is your favorite category on Pinterest? - "DIY & Crafts" - I love crafts!
2. Who is your favorite Disney princess? - Belle!
3. What's the best book you've read recently (or not so recently)? - I'm going to have to cheat for this question. I'm currently reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain (non-fiction, obviously) which is really good so far, but I've also gotten really into the Amelia Peabody Series by Elizabeth Peters (I'd call it Historical Fiction, but I'm no librarian) and the Vorkosigan Saga (another series) by Lois McMaster Bujold (Science Fiction).
4. Are you more Pottery Barn or West Elm? - I just googled West Elm. That was a poor decision because I now want to buy everything. So, I guess I'm more West Elm.
5. Do you prefer cold weather or hot weather? -  I've always been a cold weather kind of girl. The clothes are cuter and I love layers and I'm a huge fan of snow.
6. What is your favorite tv show? - Another tricky one. For the sake of avoiding listing every tv show I've ever watched, I'm going to go ahead and say Gilmore Girls. It's an old favorite that I love to watch over and over.
7. Audrey or Marilyn? - Audrey. She always seemed classier to me (but what do I know)
8. Were you in a sorority? Why or why not? - I was not. I thought about it and there were definitely times when I was jealous of people who were because it seemed like they always had such a huge tightly bonded friend group, but I just didn't feel like I had the time for all of the events. Also, the idea of all of the interview type activities involved with rush terrified me since I tend to be really shy around strangers.
9. If you could instantly learn any language what would it be? - I took years of Spanish classes and I'd love to be more proficient in Spanish (mostly because I really want to go to Spain), but recently I've also wanted to learn Japanese. I just find the culture fascinating! And EPCOT Japan is awesome.
10. Why did you start blogging? - My sister started a blog and told me I had to start one also. Just kidding! (a little bit) I wanted to start one for a long time just as a way to express myself. Being a naturally more reserved person, its much easier for me to share the things I love in writing than talking.
11. What food could you eat every day if you could? - probably bacon...or ribs!

Part 3!
Time to nominate! Check out these awesome blogs!

Sarah @ Married to Med School

Elisabeth @ Made for First Grade

Lex @ The Wunder Year 

Reese @ Reese Kistel
Katie @ DC Yogi
Adam and Andrew @ Disney Hipster Blog
Estelle @ This Happy Place Blog

OK, so that's not eleven blogs, but I don't know that many blogs. Also they might not all be under 200 followers. I can't figure out how to find out. So basically I just listed a bunch of the blogs I read on a regular basis. If I listed your blog and you're now saying "Hey wait a minute...I have way more than 200 followers! I'm offended!", please don't be offended. I only listed you because I think you have a cool blog!

Part 4!

Question time!

1. Why did you start a blog?

2. What do you want to be when you grow up? (you're never too old for this question)

3. What is your favorite food?

4. What was the last movie that you watched? Was it good?

5. What is your favorite movie of all time?

6. What is your favorite book of all time?

7. If you could be best friends with one fictional character, who would it be? Why?

8. If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go?

9. Do you / have you ever played any musical instruments? Which one(s)? Why?

10. Do you have any pets? What kinds?

11. What is your favorite hobby (besides blogging)?

 So... that's it... I think. Thanks again to everyone who's read my blog!