The Liebster Blog Award!

"The Liebster Blog Award is an award given from bloggers to bloggers that are small to medium in size or up and coming in the blogsphere. Liebster is German for "favorite." The award is a way to give beginning bloggers some worthy attention, make connections and let readers learn a little more about you."

I woke up to the lovely surprise of having been given this award this morning, despite my very long absence. It came from one of my dearest bloggers, Sabrina from Pouffia. Please go and visit her blog if you haven't already. Her posts are fun, smart and witty and I love to visit her site with a warm cup of something yummy and settle down for a little read now and again :) - also the description came from her page, I decided to repost it since it's quite sweet. 

So here are the rules:

1. Answer the 11 questions

2. Give 11 facts about yourself

3. Nominate 11 other lovely bloggers

4. Post 11 new questions for your new nominees

Here are Sabrina's questions for me:

1. Why do you blog?

When I was 19 I applied for a place at university for a degree in Scandinavian Studies. I hadn't done very well in school - I'd had a difficult couple of years and as a result I didn't get very good grades. I worked for two years for a travel company, dealing with foreign currency and fraud detection, but I wasn't happy there. My absolute dream was to study the Nordic region and to learn one of the languages. It was all I could think about. I would search the internet for information, read and read and read both novels and textbooks about the region, it was my only true passion. So I decided that I would apply for a degree in Scandinavian Studies, despite nobody believing in me or even supporting the idea. They thought it was too random, that it would lead nowhere and one of my teachers even told me I had no chance of getting into that particular university. I applied and was rejected. I was absolutely devastated. I cried for a couple of days and then I picked myself up and, more determined than ever, I rang the university and literally begged them for an interview. A couple of hours after the interview, I received my acceptance email. 

One thing I remember telling them, in answer to why I'd like to study that particular subject was: "because if i could inspire just one other person, if I could make one other person in this world feel the way that I do about the Nordic region, then I would be happy". That's precisely why I decided to start this blog. To find that one person and to give them the gift of determination to reach their dreams and to fall in love with a subject so deeply that they'd do anything to be allowed to study it. To inspire passion, I guess.  

2. When you feel sad, what cheers you up?

Cuddling with my little brother. He seems to sense when I'm feeling sad and comes and puts his arms around me and kisses my cheeks :)

3. If you could go back in time, what would you say to yourself?

I'm a worrier, so I would go back and tell myself not to worry, because everything so far has turned out relatively fine.

4. What should a perfect city include?

I was thinking of saying something like an area of undisturbed nature because I think that every city needs that - somewhere peaceful and beautiful to escape the busyness of the city, but actually I'm going to say this: Sleep Pods. I commute for university and I sometimes catch a lift with my neighbour. We leave the house at 5:30am and arrive in London around 7. I sometimes don't have class until much later and therefore have to sit in a cafe and consume as much caffeine as possible to keep myself from falling asleep. Sleep pods would be the.most.amazing solution to that. 

5. Who was the last person you hugged and why?

You guys, virtually, for sticking with me even though I abandoned you for three months!

6. Would you choose money or fame?

I wouldn't choose either because I strongly believe that neither can make you happy, but if I had to choose, I'd choose fame if it meant I could inspire and help people.

7. What's your number one rule in life?

That even when it gets hard, keep trying. 

8. Who is your white pony?

I don't know what that means :/ and when I looked it up, all kinds of weird definitions came up...

9. If you could be anything, anything at all, what would you be?

A magic princess elf, who could shape-shift into something cool, like a bear and could teleport whenever I wanted and have skills like healing and potion making. Obviously. 

10. Do you have a favourite stand up comedian, and if so, who?

I'm not really sure. There is an English stand up comedian called Michael McIntyre who is quite funny :)

11. What of your country, town, or culture do you really think people should try/see/do [fill in the blanks]?

When people contact me asking where in England they should travel to, I often respond telling them to go to a small, countryside village or town because there is often so much history and beautiful landscape there. Where I grew up, even though it was the middle of nowhere, there were such beautiful woodland areas and lots of ruined castles. There were a lot of sites where the old queens of England were executed, most famously, Mary Queen of Scots - there is a hotel where you can apparently see a dent in the banister of the staircase. The dent is said to be of her ring, because she was holding on so tightly on the morning of her execution. Of course there are lots of stories like this that are just myths and so on, but I think it's far more interesting than just walking around London for however many days :)

Facts about me:

1. Like Sabrina, I'm terrified of spiders. Every night before I go to sleep I have to do spider patrol, even though I know it's winter now and they're probably not around. I check under my pillows, shake out my duvet, then shine my torch (yes, you read that correctly, my torch) down the sides of my bed, both from above and the sides to make absolute sure there aren't any nasties sneaking around down there. I even wake up during the night, paranoid that they've crept in somehow and shine my phone on the walls and ceiling to check. Weirdo-alert. 

2. I don't believe in fate. I used to, but if you start trusting luck or fate or those kinds of mystical, magical things, you forget to trust yourself and your own judgement and actions. 

3. During my little absence, I went on a four day trip to Helsinki and I'm going to post about it very soon! 

4. I'm like a kid. I love children's literature, eating candy, collecting cute and pretty things and the colour pink. My boyfriend teases me very often about it, but I can't help it, childish things are much more fun than boring grown up things! 

5. I'm not very confident in myself. One of the reasons for my long break from blogging was that I just felt kind of silly and that I was too boring to keep anybody's interest. Your comments, therefore, have made me so happy, because I felt so welcome here! 

6. I absolutely love christmas

7. I'm suuuuuper ticklish. If someone even accidently touches my sides, I get ticklish all over, very intensely and all of a sudden and nobody is allowed near me because I get all giggly and tickly. 

8. If you rub the top of my nose, the space in between my eyes, I fall asleep almost instantly. It's like this odd, sleeping button. 

9. I have the best grandparents in the world. They are my heros and idols. They are so kind and sweet and cute and they are the two most in love people I have ever met. 

10. I'd love to be a writer someday, but don't know where to begin. I'm not very good at writing essays so I'm trying extremely hard at university this year. 

11. I had a really hard time coming up with these facts for some reason! Also, I should be studying but I'm so determined to blog more regularly that I'm doing this instead! 

Finally, time to nominate some of my favourites:

It's so hard to pick just 11 of you, I love all of your blogs dearly, but these are the 11 I'd like to nominate today:

1. Dana - The Daily Dose - Dana is one of the loveliest ladies I've met here. She's one of my best blogging friends. Every friday she posts funny pictures and videos and during the rest of the week she posts little snapshots of her life. I can't remember how we 'met' but I'm so glad we did :)

2. Laura - My Baffling Brain - Laura is another dear friend of mine. For the A - Z challenge in April she wrote about fairytales, so please go and have a look at her posts from that month as they make a lovely little collection of fairytale facts. 

3. Anna - Hindustanka - Anna has a lovely and interesting blog and often posts great pictures to go alongside her writing. I'm really grateful to her for sticking by me when I was away, sending a little comment to check I was ok and visiting me so regularly. Thanks Anna!

4. Haze - Moon-Lore - I adore everything about this blog. It's so simple and beautiful, every post is so inspiring, Haze is a kind and beautiful girl who I'm very thankful to have met. Please go and visit her blog, it's just perfect. 

5. Cherie Reich - If you love books, then pop over to this blog as soon as you can. It's full of little things to explore, she does book reviews as well, so it's a really inspiring place to be :)

6. Gail Gails Great Atlantic Northeast - Gail is another of my very dearest. I love her blog, she posts about a variety of things, as well as little glimpses into her life. She is so sweet and friendly and I'm very glad to have met her!

7. Jojo - Tahoma Beadworks - a wonderfully crafty blog, again with another friend behind it - I'm so happy to have made these friends here! She also posts beautiful photos so go have a look! 

8. Sara - Bichinhos Na Cabeca - another sweet girl with a very crafty blog. She's just put up a christmas post which I'm very excited to have a look at as soon as I've finished this post! I've missed you Sara!

9. R. Ivory - Rivory Chateau - A beautiful blog filled with wishes, thoughts and beautiful photos and music. I've known this lovely girl since I started this blog, long ago. Please visit her, you won't regret it!

10. Debra - Dream Weaver - Debra is like my American blog mummy. She's been away a little bit too, but her blog has always inspired me and taught me things and made me think. She's a very lovely, warm-hearted lady whom I've been missing! 

11. Like I said, there's too many of you to pick just 11 so I wanted to dedicate this last nomination to anybody who would like it, you all deserve it. 

My questions for you:

1. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

2. What did you actually grow up to become/what are you actually becoming?

3. Why do you blog?

4. If you could have any super power, what would it  be?

5. Which moment in your life so far are you most proud of?

6. Is there a book you think everybody should read?

7. Do you remember what you were doing on this day last year?

8. 1 year from now, where would you like to be?

9. What is your favourite country you've ever visited?

10. Do you have any sweet family traditions?

11. What is your favourite song at the moment?

Thank you again Sabrina for the award. I'll be amazed by those of you who made it all the way down here - I think this might be the longest post ever. 

If you have twitter, please follow me over there @nordiccabin, it's going to be a bit lonely talking to myself otherwise!

Have a beautiful weekend everybody, 

the little nordic cabin

x