Well, that settles it! About a week ago, I received a nomination for the Versatile Blogger award, though I haven’t had much time to do much about it lately. Then another nomination popped up in my inbox this morning. They say the third time’s a charm, but I wouldn’t want to to just leave the lovely ladies who nominated me hanging, and so today, instead of a quote because I’m feeling on the lazy side of things still, we’ll tackle this award.
The Rules:
1. Thank the award-givers and link back to them in your post.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass this award along 15 or 20.
4. Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.
Number One: My utter thanks and appreciation goes to miq at Three Descriptors and to Fallon Brown for the recent nominations! Thank you guys so much for considering me and deeming me worthy! I know I don’t always have enough time to get to all the blogs I like to follow, but these ladies are awesome and have always supported me immensely in my own blog. So please check them out, follow them, love them as I do, and you will not be disappointed! I’d easily award them with the honor if it weren’t for the fact that they’ve already got it! 🙂
Number Two: The “easy,” fun part! Seven things about myself that may or may not be interesting:
1. I have a weird rule-of-three thing when I go to the store to pick something up, be it because I need new shoes or because I ran out of coffee, milk, or sugar. I have to buy three items. This doesn’t include when I’m buying groceries and stocking up on more than three things, but let’s say I need paper towels….I go to the store and I have to pick up two other things, too. It’s weird, and I don’t know where it came from, but it’s sometimes like a game to hunt through the store for the two other things that’ll help me stay in my budget, and it’s also helped me try a lot of other new things (I’ve got item one and two…let’s try this as the third thing)!
2. I had delicious pesto asparagus pasta with peach green tea for breakfast, and it was awesome.
3. One of my favorite things about spring time is getting to open the windows and watch my cats curl up on the window sills to enjoy the fresh air.
4. I’ve lost two people in my life named Brian: a brother who died when he was an infant, and my fiancé who died from complications with chemotherapy after contracting lymphoma.
5. One of my favorite beers is Stella Artois. But it has to be either in a bottle or in one of the fancy Stella glasses. There’s actually a restaurant here in Clarendon Hills where I won’t order Stella because they don’t put it in the fancy glasses. It’s a travesty.
6. I’m ambidextrous, but I’m not double jointed.
7. I love being in a larger second storey apartment so much more than a garden level one, for so many reason, but I do miss the garden level if only because I know I can play Just Dance in the morning without disturbing anyone living on the floor below me!
Number Three: Nominations! I’m absolutely rubbish at this part of the award, I easily admit. Most of the people I follow usually already have the award, so I definitely don’t do the full 15 or 20. I usually just do a handful of newer blogs I’ve just started to check out, and so here’s my handful this time, all blogs that I have particularly been enjoying lately (of which there’s be more of if I had more time…!)
–Blance Through the Lens, a great site by a fantastic photographer. Beautiful photographs with inspiring words. It’s just lovely.
–brain splats, mr. brain splats here is always awesome about commenting on my blog and I always utterly fail to comment on his, which is a damn dirty shame because he’s always posting interesting things worthy of attention and thought
–conscience nonsense, who makes me realize that, like Robotic Rhetoric, I love you crazy Brit kids.
-Anne Woodman at Writing by the Numbers, another person who constantly makes my day with her great, encouraging comments despite the fact that I don’t get a chance to check out her stuff nearly as much as I should like to
–Belle of the Mountains, another fantasinista who brightens up my day with her comments and her thoughtful posts
There you have it! I’m off to leave these great bloggers messages pointing out that they’re great, and then off to try to write, write, write some more. Thanks again to miq and Fallon for the honor and the opportunity to babble about myself a little bit more than I already do.
L.S. Engler 
Thank you very kindly for your nomination, I shall try do my participation later in the week. I wasn’t sure where I was going with the blog when I started it, other than to see what came out (hence the title), but I’m glad some people are enjoying it, or at least parts of it. I try to keep up with the blogs that I “follow” and yours is one of those I enjoy reading.
As an amusing aside to your point 5, in England, Stella used to be referred to as “wife beater”, because at the time it was cheap to buy, and was drunk by (amongst others) I’ll say, “undesirables”. In the last decade it went through a huge marketing rebranding exercise to reposition it as a classic french beer, one to to be desired. Some of the commercials were both amusing and clever (and worth a look on youtube). It was pretty successful and resulted in the current designs on bottles and glasses. It meant people could drink it again with less of the stigma. The funny thing is it had little to do with how it tasted, which I recall might have been a little different to how it tasted in France (although I could be wrong). You’re quite safe drinking it now though, and you’re not the only person who recently remarked they like to drink it.
Oh yeah, congratulations on your own nominations!
Thank you so much for the kind nomination- that means a lot to me! I’m thrilled for you that you’re getting so much encouragement from others as well. Congrats & way to go! Keep doing what you’re doing and dreaming how you’re dreaming. I thoroughly enjoy your blog & your unique style 🙂