I don't write blog award posts any more because . . . well . . . 56.
But on the occasion of my nomination for a 57th award, I've decided that at this moment in time, I have something to say about it. About ideal inspiration, past and present. In this current climate, I think it's appropriate, urgent even, that we acknowledge each other, put voice to what encourages us, sustains us.
Although I don't write a post each time I receive an award, it's not that I don't appreciate every one of these awards, I do. As I said in my 3rd award post "most of my friends know how I feel about Blog Awards. I love them. They're similar to a virtual hug, given by people who know how challenging blogging can be. That means a lot." I felt that way then and I still feel that way now.
But here's my history with blogging awards:
Just a few months after I started blogging, I was honored with my first, a Liebster Blog Award from my very first blogging friend Michele, of Follow Me Home. I gladly accepted and wrote the post. Two weeks later I wrote Really, 11 Things about Me, Too? Liebster Award, Take 2, Final Take after receiving 3 more awards, stating this would be my last post of this type, as there are only so many similar posts you can write. I updated this post every time a new honor was bestowed upon me over the next 8 months, mentioning all new awards and linking to the blogger to whom I owed thanks.
Then a whole new group of awards came my way and I wrote yet another acceptance post called A Whole New Crop. Awards received after that were added to this post, which I updated close to 20 times.
I did eventually write a few more, including the Triumph Trophy. A friend, Kristi, left me a blog comment on one of the award posts saying "You should also get an I Didn't Kill My Teenager Award today as well." Yes, I should. And so should many others, so Kristi and I developed our own reward, The Triumph Trophy, and started passing it around.
That was pretty much the last one, I was done, after all, 56 is a pretty big number. So is 57, right? So why am I writing this one?
Because now.
A few months ago I initiated a multi-blogger post to celebrate National Pink Day. I considered it the perfect opportunity to acknowledge, as I said at the time, my fellow humans of the female persuasion for stepping up to the plate during this Covid-19 nightmare.
Ideal Inspiration:
Ideal connotes excellence, perfection. Inspiration is not just about motivation, but evoking enthusiasm. Just as National Pink Day inspired me to honor women in general, this award inspires me to recognize a subset of them, bloggers, and all we have done and continue to do to reach out to each other, to support each other, and to inspire each other. Especially now.
For the rules (which I always, always bend, btw):
Rule #1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
~ Thank you, Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings, for the honor and for your friendship.
Rule #2. Display the award (see above) and link to the creator.
~ The Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award was created by Rising Star of It's All About Inspiration.
Rule #3. Answer your nominator's questions:
Q: Who is your favorite writer and what is that person's best book in your opinion?
A: All of my friends' blogs are my absolute favorite reads.
As far as books go, I'm an avid reader but mostly read for amusement. My genre of choice is mystery and as a subset of that category, I gravitate towards a humorous mystery, or one in which the protagonist is a chef or baker.
Q: Are you more inspired to write by what you hear in conversation, what you see, or what you read?
A: I have developed and administer 8 monthly multi-blogger writing challenges. The participation in these challenges provide the vast majority of my inspiration. As for the rest of my blog calendar, I have learned to view everything I hear, see, and read as possible fodder for a blog post.
Q: When are you at your best, mornings or evenings?
A: Evenings. Don't talk to me before my coffee. Or my shower. Or the clock hitting the noon hour, for that matter.
Q: What is your favorite thing about blogging?
A: The people, the connections, the friendships and fierce support.
Q: What is one cuisine you have never tried but want to?
A: Authentic.
Yes, I know that's not a cuisine. Through my travels I've had the local cuisine in Israel, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, England, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Korea, St. Lucia, and many of the United States including Hawaii. So although I've had French food, I've yet to try it in France. I've had Italian food but not in Italy, and enjoy Greek food but would love to try it in Greece.
Rule #4. Nominate up to 9 other bloggers and ask them 5 new questions.
~ Here's where I'm bending the rules. There is no way for me to choose, among current bloggers, which provide me with ideal inspiration more than others. You all do, in one way or another, at one time or another. If I'm the friend that I hope I am, you know who you are and you know how I feel about you. My heartfelt thanks for being in my life and making my blogging world a better place.
So . . . I'm going to nominate 9 bloggers but ask no questions (oops). These are mostly women in my original blogging tribe, back in the day, who are no longer (or very rarely) blogging. They may have moved on from the blogging community, but the friendship, the support, the late night laughs, the inspiration, it's all still with me. They continue to hold my heart and my admiration:
Michele of Follow Me Home
Ashley of Sorry Kid, Your Mom Doesn't Play Well With Others
Bonnie of A Little Unhinged
Rhiannon of Happy Little Feet
Melissa of Home on Deranged
Stacy of Stacy Sews and Schools
Erin of Searching for Sanity
Vicky of The Greek Housewife
Jenn of My Daily Jenn-ism
I ❤and miss you all.
But here's my history with blogging awards:
Just a few months after I started blogging, I was honored with my first, a Liebster Blog Award from my very first blogging friend Michele, of Follow Me Home. I gladly accepted and wrote the post. Two weeks later I wrote Really, 11 Things about Me, Too? Liebster Award, Take 2, Final Take after receiving 3 more awards, stating this would be my last post of this type, as there are only so many similar posts you can write. I updated this post every time a new honor was bestowed upon me over the next 8 months, mentioning all new awards and linking to the blogger to whom I owed thanks.
Then a whole new group of awards came my way and I wrote yet another acceptance post called A Whole New Crop. Awards received after that were added to this post, which I updated close to 20 times.
I did eventually write a few more, including the Triumph Trophy. A friend, Kristi, left me a blog comment on one of the award posts saying "You should also get an I Didn't Kill My Teenager Award today as well." Yes, I should. And so should many others, so Kristi and I developed our own reward, The Triumph Trophy, and started passing it around.
Because now.
A few months ago I initiated a multi-blogger post to celebrate National Pink Day. I considered it the perfect opportunity to acknowledge, as I said at the time, my fellow humans of the female persuasion for stepping up to the plate during this Covid-19 nightmare.
Ideal Inspiration:
Ideal connotes excellence, perfection. Inspiration is not just about motivation, but evoking enthusiasm. Just as National Pink Day inspired me to honor women in general, this award inspires me to recognize a subset of them, bloggers, and all we have done and continue to do to reach out to each other, to support each other, and to inspire each other. Especially now.
For the rules (which I always, always bend, btw):
Rule #1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
~ Thank you, Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings, for the honor and for your friendship.
Rule #2. Display the award (see above) and link to the creator.
~ The Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award was created by Rising Star of It's All About Inspiration.
Rule #3. Answer your nominator's questions:
Q: Who is your favorite writer and what is that person's best book in your opinion?
A: All of my friends' blogs are my absolute favorite reads.
As far as books go, I'm an avid reader but mostly read for amusement. My genre of choice is mystery and as a subset of that category, I gravitate towards a humorous mystery, or one in which the protagonist is a chef or baker.
Apple Cinnamon Ring
I read light books predominately but not exclusively. This past winter, for instance, I read the entire Mueller Report, and even wrote a blog post, Book Review: The Mueller Report.
Q: Are you more inspired to write by what you hear in conversation, what you see, or what you read?
A: I have developed and administer 8 monthly multi-blogger writing challenges. The participation in these challenges provide the vast majority of my inspiration. As for the rest of my blog calendar, I have learned to view everything I hear, see, and read as possible fodder for a blog post.
Q: When are you at your best, mornings or evenings?
A: Evenings. Don't talk to me before my coffee. Or my shower. Or the clock hitting the noon hour, for that matter.
Q: What is your favorite thing about blogging?
A: The people, the connections, the friendships and fierce support.
Q: What is one cuisine you have never tried but want to?
A: Authentic.
Yes, I know that's not a cuisine. Through my travels I've had the local cuisine in Israel, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, England, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Korea, St. Lucia, and many of the United States including Hawaii. So although I've had French food, I've yet to try it in France. I've had Italian food but not in Italy, and enjoy Greek food but would love to try it in Greece.
Rule #4. Nominate up to 9 other bloggers and ask them 5 new questions.
~ Here's where I'm bending the rules. There is no way for me to choose, among current bloggers, which provide me with ideal inspiration more than others. You all do, in one way or another, at one time or another. If I'm the friend that I hope I am, you know who you are and you know how I feel about you. My heartfelt thanks for being in my life and making my blogging world a better place.
So . . . I'm going to nominate 9 bloggers but ask no questions (oops). These are mostly women in my original blogging tribe, back in the day, who are no longer (or very rarely) blogging. They may have moved on from the blogging community, but the friendship, the support, the late night laughs, the inspiration, it's all still with me. They continue to hold my heart and my admiration:
Michele of Follow Me Home
Ashley of Sorry Kid, Your Mom Doesn't Play Well With Others
Bonnie of A Little Unhinged
Rhiannon of Happy Little Feet
Melissa of Home on Deranged
Stacy of Stacy Sews and Schools
Erin of Searching for Sanity
Vicky of The Greek Housewife
Jenn of My Daily Jenn-ism
I ❤and miss you all.
Apple Cinnamon Ring
©www.BakingInATornado.com
Ingredients:
2 apples
3 TBSP melted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tube refrigerated biscuits (8 count)
Directions:
*Grease a bundt pan with non-stick spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
*Core, peel, and slice the apples to about 1/4 inch thickness. Fan over the bottom of the pan.
*Whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside about 2 TBSP of this mixture.
*Drizzle about 1/2 of the remaining mixture onto the apples.
*Open the tube of biscuits. Take the top approximately half of the layers of each biscuit off and add into the pan over the apples.
*Drizzle with the other 1/2 of the butter mixture and gently spread around. Top with the remaining bottom halves of the biscuits, and drizzle with the 2 TBSP of the butter mixture you'd set aside.
*Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and inverting onto a plate.
2 apples
3 TBSP melted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tube refrigerated biscuits (8 count)
Directions:
*Grease a bundt pan with non-stick spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
*Core, peel, and slice the apples to about 1/4 inch thickness. Fan over the bottom of the pan.
*Whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside about 2 TBSP of this mixture.
*Drizzle about 1/2 of the remaining mixture onto the apples.
*Open the tube of biscuits. Take the top approximately half of the layers of each biscuit off and add into the pan over the apples.
*Drizzle with the other 1/2 of the butter mixture and gently spread around. Top with the remaining bottom halves of the biscuits, and drizzle with the 2 TBSP of the butter mixture you'd set aside.
*Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and inverting onto a plate.
