Happy Valentines Day!
This post is long overdue. There’s a wonderful thing that happens in the blogging world when a fellow blogger sends you an award because they enjoy your blog so much. These awards are a great way to say thanks to someone you admire and also a great way to highlight some of your favorite blogs for your readers. I have met so many of my friends here because of these awards! Usually, an award is offered and you post about it. You post the name of the award and offer up a thanks to the blog that awarded it to you and then offer that same award to other blogs that you admire and love.
I am a failure at this.
I’m so focused on recipes and photography that I have back-burnered all awards offered to me. This post is my (belated!) attempt to show some love back to the wonderful blogging community around me.
All that said– if you are hoping for a recipe, this post will not contain one…but I promise to be back tomorrow with some cookie dough butter cream cupcakes!! (you’re gonna love them!) If you want to know a little more about who I am and the other baking and photography blogs I love….then keep reading.
The Leibster Award:
This award was offered to me by two blogs.
Sweet Twist of Fate and Sweets and Brains.
The requirements for accepting the award were entirely different from each other on the two blogs- even though it is the same award? So I’m winging it.
One blogger wants me to pay it forward to 5 new blogs– ones with less than 200 followers- that I enjoy. I love this idea, as half the battle of blogging is having people know you exist! Here are 5 blogs I LOVE with less than 200 followers. Show them a little love today:
I Sing in the Kitchen is a blog that pairs incredible recipes with music of many genres….such a fun idea!!!
Lemon Cake is a collection of cakes (and other yummy things) created by Farheen out of England. YUM.
Yorkes Girl is a blog out of Australia full of food, travel stories and incredible photography. Love it.
Devos by Chaps is written by a friend and mentor who is also a navy chaplain. Every post is incredible, thought provoking and encouraging to me. This is a blog to follow!!
Happily Ever After Cakes is a combination of amazing (I could NEVER make these!) cakes and heart-warming stories of family life and the ups and downs it brings. Love this family!!!
The other blogger asked a series of questions.
1. What are the 1st three things you think of when you see the color purple? Grapes. Bruises. and um…Grapes. Yeah. That’s how I roll.
2. What instruments do you play, if you could learn any what would they be? I play piano, flute, penny whistle and a variety of percussion instruments. I‘d love to learn guitar.
3. If your house caught on fire and you could only grab 2 things what would they be? My dog Casper and my laptop.
4. Pizza or pasta? Pizza!!!
The Sunshine Award
Presented by: Miss Marzipan
The requirements for accepting are to pay it forward to 10 of my favorite blogs and to answer the following questions:
- Who is your favorite philosopher? I do not have a favorite. I took this class in college and hated it passionately!
- What is your favorite number? 3
- What is your favorite animal? My puppy casper (coton de tulear)
- What is your favorite time of day? Morning
- What are your Facebook and Twitter? https://www.facebook.com/easybaked.net
- What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving (food, family, rest, football) and Easter (the very best reason to celebrate!)
- What is your physical favorite activity? Long distance walking. Did a mini marathon last spring and loved it…I also like long bike rides.
- What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink? Sweet tea!!!
- What is your passion? Only one? I have so many. Top of the list: God. Learning about him, building a relationship with him, helping others see him clearly…. then there is baking, photography, travel, friendships, design, overseas missions…. I might be a little too passionate about too many things 😉
- What is your favorite flower? Daisies. They are like smiles on a stem. I love them
My Blog nominations:
1. My Healthy ‘Ohana Maura writes this beautiful blog from her home in Hawaii and it’s a joy to read. ‘Ohana means family in Hawaiian and these posts speak on all things family- with lots of yummy recipes!
2. Clever Muffin Aimee is from Australia and she is one of the funniest food bloggers I have ever met. I’ve loved her food blog since the very beginning of mine. Beautiful food…great stories!!!
3. On Sugar Mountain The author of this blog, Jess is creative and fun and obviously loves life- her recipes and photos are just beautiful. I’m a recent fan and so glad I found her!
4. Inspire and Indulge Leah, from upstate New York, is my favorite Pinterest junkie blogger. Her wonderful blog is a collection of recipes and crafts and fun. Love it!
5. Wandering for Good This site will floor you. It is one of my favorite blogs ever. Stephanie is a friend of my friend Angie (we were both in her wedding). She is a world traveller who is convinced that if we all gave a little we could change the world. She started the #give10 campaign. Seriously, go check this blog out- you will love it. It will love you. Amazing stuff. Not food….but amazing.
6. Anna Shortcakes Beautiful food….beautiful photography….beautiful blog.
7. Cooking up a storm, dish by dish Felicia, the writer of this blog, will steal your heart with her stories of family near and far and intrigue you with all of her international dishes. Such a unique and heartwarming blog!
8. Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide There’s a special place in my heart for this blog. They were the 1st non-friend/family members of the Easybaked family and their support and comments in those early days always made my day. This blog is an incredible (almost daily!) collection of unique recipes. Incredibly unique…!
9. Just a Smidgen A shout out to Canada and Barbara (aka “smidge”) for her elegant collection of recipes, photography and art. Just a beautiful quiet place to settle in for a good read.
10. Hoof Beats and Foot Prints Not all of my blogging addictions are food related, I have a fair number of photography sites I love as well. Emily, from Bella Remy Photography captures everything from international travel to simple every day items in gorgeous photos. A picture says 1,000 words and Emilys speak volumes.
The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award
Given to me by: Happy Domesticity
My ten questions to answer with this award are mostly already answered in the previous award. Here’s whats left:
1. What’s your favorite color? Blue.
2. What’s your favorite pattern? The pattern of sunlight through palm trees when you lay by the beach on vacation with your eyes closed.
3. Do you prefer getting or giving presents? Giving.
4. Favorite day of the week? Sunday….rest!
5. Why did you start to write your blog? Because I was tired of writing out recipes for people and thought if they were all online it would make things easier.
More blogs I love:
Last, but certainly not least, the Addictive Blog Award.
This was awarded by my far-away friend Felicia from Cooking up a Storm, Dish by Dish
No questions this time. I’m supposed to tell you about how I got started in blogging, but I sort-of already did that…? I’m also supposed to share another 10 of my favorite blogs…but I’ve already shared 25 of them….so here’s what we are going to do. We are going to break the rules….ready?
Things I love about blogging: the people I meet, the challenge of thinking up something new and unique, the few days when my stats go through the roof, the way it is teaching me about photography, learning about other cultures and traditions.
Things I hate about blogging: when a recipe doesn’t work for someone, when people tell me cake mix is a mortal sin, when I publish a typo, when I think very long about how many of you are reading this (that is paralyzing!), when I don’t have time to post.
In the spirit of breaking the rules I am going to share with you just two more blogs.
The first is Kids Parties 1-2-3. The writer of this blog is Kit Bennett and to her I owe many thanks. She contacted me early on in Easybaked’s history and asked me to write for Ganz (of Webkinz fame), where she is editor. She offered, in return, to help me with blogging. She explained SEO to me and how to improve mine. She explained the concept of monetizing a blog and gave me much encouragement. She is a treasure- trove of information in all things parties and all things kids and her site is just wonderful. Thanks Kit!!!!
The second blog is Bon Bon Break. Kathy and Val connected with me and asked me to write some articles for them and I just fell in love with this site. This is an incredible collection of blog posts (new each week) and I just think it is a genius idea. The best part? You can submit to write for them too! Such a great way to get your blog out there and read. This site is truly worth checking out.
We are done. (whew!) If you made it all the way through, I’m impressed. If your blog was mentioned I think you can consider yourself nominated for the award and you can pass the joy on to others….you ummmmm– might want to look up the rules if you want to follow them more thoroughly than I did. Just visit the sites that nominated me and you will see exactly what to do. My approach was a little less organized than most, but I hope you all know how much I love and appreciate you and the incredible blogs you are publishing!
Happiest of Valentines Days to each of you! ❤ ~r
EASYBAKED 
Oh my goodness thank you so much!! Your kinds words made my day 🙂 I’m also terrible about these awards – if you don’t mind I may end up playing the copycat 😉 and doing a post like this as well to thank you and everyone else! Hope your having a lovely day and congratulations on all your nominations!!
You’re welcome Jess- I love your blog– and really- no worries about reposting anything. I just hope some new people get to see your beautiful site!
Wow, congratulations on all of your blog awards – they are COMPLETELY deserved. I love your blog and your photography! Thank you for nominating me as well – you’re so sweet. 🙂 I can’t wait for more of your delicious and delectable posts, Ruthanne!
Thanks Leah- of course I would nominate you- your blog is fabulous and the only reason I even know what Paleo is 😉
Thank you for the shout out! I am also one of those people who have done a horrible job of passing awards on, but this kind of summary post has inspired me. And I love your blog, one day my food will be as pretty as yours (or I’ll just keep up my current fun game of guess-how-the-heck-she-did-that).
I love seeing your list of people. Rufus was also one of the first blog-friends I met. Those first few people who comment do mean the world don’t they?
Yay! You’re welcome Aimee! You’re food is beautiful and creative and fun….no “one day” about it! It was actually fun to think about all the great people I’ve met blogging as I linked up to them- made me really appreciate all the encouragement in those 1st few months. Here’s my idea for you: open an ingredient import shop for Australia/ New Zealand. You could be rich and famous 😉 People *need* peanut butter chips.
Thank you so much for the love and the shout out! What a lovely surprise! I, too, am a bit terrible at passing on these awards, but I shall make an effort soon! I don’t think you can ever be passionate about too many things…far better that than the alternative! It just means that you might be busier than some! Hope you had a lovely Valentines Day and have a great weekend 🙂
You are welcome!! You deserve the shout out! You all are making me feel better about procrastinating so long on this post- lol! You have a good weekend to!!!! 🙂
Thank you so much for your recognition of my blog (and Canada, eh:D) I love following your blog and am always inspired by your recipes! xx
Congratulations my dear!!!
Thank you so much for the honor among all these wonderful people and their blogs.., including you!! I appreciate it so much 🙂
Ruthanne!
thank you for the lovely nomination! and congratulations to you too! your blog was among the first that I started following when I just started blogging, and it’s amazing how the blogging community has such a surprising way of bringing people all over the world together! so glad we’re blogging friends my dear!!
have a great weekend! 🙂
Oooh I just noticed this! Thank you so SO much for nominating me! You have brought a huge smile to my face 🙂 Very touched by your recognition 🙂