Wowza.  I have been Nominated for 5 different blog awards recently, and I feel so incredibly honoured to be recognized by my fellow bloggers.  This is an amazing little love-fest we’ve got going on in the WordPress community.  Since I get overwhelmed easily, I’m going to combine them all into one big adventure.  I’m using the spreadsheet I have for all things blogging to try to make up for my brain being not very on the ball, but if any of what follows gets jumbled and makes no sense, it’s the brain’s fault, not the spreadsheet’s  And the take-home message in all of this is please check out the blogs I’ve linked to in this post, because they are all fabulous.

It’s always hard to figure out who to nominate for awards, and a lot of it comes down to who happens to be at the top of my WordPress feed when I happen to be working on the post.  I try to mostly nominate people who aren’t already in my spreadsheet as blogs I’ve nominated, but I’m generally pretty discombobulated.  If I haven’t mentioned you, it’s not because I love you any less!  And for those I have nominated, please feel free to ignore the nomination, accept it and leave it at that, or join in and do your own award post…  whatever feels right for you.  I know these award posts can take a lot of work, so no pressure to take that on.  And on a side note, if anyone’s not familiar with pingbacks yet, if you link to a blog’s website (not the blog’s page in WordPress reader), the blogger will get a pingback notification that you’ve linked to their their blog.  It definitely took me a while to figure that whole situation out.

Alright, time to dive right in!

VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD: 

The lovely Sweet Summer Online has nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award.

The rules:

• Write 7 interesting facts about yourself

• Nominate 15 amazing bloggers for the award.

7 Facts about me:

1. I have 5 pet guinea pigs, 3 girls and 2 boys.
2. My middle name, Leia, comes from my great grandmother rather than Star Wars.
3. My ancestors are a hodgepodge of English, Scottish, Danish, and Lebanese.
4. I am a plant killer extraordinaire, but I have a prayer plant beside my bed that’s doing well and does a lot of moving around, which is cool.
5. Dance has always been my favourite form of exercise, and I’ve done everything from ballet to ballroom to hip hop.
6. The only famous person I’ve seen up close was Penelope Cruz in Cannes.
7. My favourite book is a tie between Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) and Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens).

My nominees:

• Deby blogs
• midnightdemons7
• Motivation against depression
• One blog, one day at a time
• Threw Mikes Eyez
• You are enough

MYSTERY BLOGGER AWARD

I was nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award by the fabulous Hyper Child Chill Mom.

What is the “Mystery Blogger Award” ?

It’s an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging, and they do it with so much love and passion.  It appears to have been started by Okoto Enigma

Rules

• Put the award logo/image on your blog.
• List the rules.
• Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well.
• Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
• You have to nominate 10 – 20 people.
• Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.
• Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question (specify).
• Share a link to your best post(s).

Questions:

1. What is the weirdest scar you have and how did you get it?  I have a round indented scar between my eyebrows from chicken pox.
2. Shark diving, bungee jumping, or sky diving? I’ve already tried bungee jumping and sky diving, so next up would be shark diving.
3. What is one of the weirdest things you used to do as a teenager? I was a geek and had a pretty tame life in high school.
4. In your opinion, what is the best Disney movie to come out since Disney’s Golden Age?  I’m not so up on my Disney and don’t actually know what the golden age was, but I’m going to say Lion King.
5. What is your favorite Wikipedia article? I don’t think I have a favourite, but I do use Wikipedia a lot.  A few years back I went through a phase of doing a lot of Wikipedia article editing (which, by the way, anyone can do).

My nominees: I pass on to all of you the same questions I was asked by Hyper Child Chill Mom.

• By my own admission
• I may or may not kill myself
• Journey with DID
• Me and my mental health matters
• The Narcissist’s Daughter
• This takes courage

LIEBSTER AWARD

I was nominated for the Liebster Award by the very cool former Rude Girl in an Aspie World, who’s now blogging at Discovering My Authentic Self.

The Rules:

• Write about your blog and thank the person who nominated you. Share a link to their blog and write a little something about their blog too.
• Display the award on your blog
• Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel would enjoy blogging about this award.
• Answer the questions provided.
• Make a new set of 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
• List these rules in your post
• Inform the people/blogs that you nominated.

The Questions:

1. What inspired you or why did you start blogging? (This could also be related to writing. You choose)  I was looking for something to give me a bit more sense of purpose, and I think it’s really important to talk about mental health.
2. What is the reason behind your blog name and/or url?  It was something I’d had in mind as a potential name if I start a private nursing practice at some point down the road.
3. In your personal opinion, what is your favorite blog or best blog you have posted so far and why?  I honestly don’t have a favourite, because they’re all about topics that matter to me.
4. What are some of your favorite tips for new bloggers? Write about what moves you.
5. How has blogging changed your life? It has absolutely changed my life, making me feel much more connected to the world.  Plus it means I’ve always got something productive to do with my time.
6. Do you like music? If so, what are some of your favorite artists or songs etc?  I like to crank up the tunes while I’m driving, but I’m not really that attached to any particular artist.  Favourite song tends to rotate based on where my head is at.
7. Do you read? If so, what are some of your favorite books or authors?  I do like to read.  I used to read more fiction, but for the last while my concentration hasn’t been that great, so non-fiction is easier.
8. What are some of your hobbies? Blogging and being a guinea pig mom.
9. What places do you really want to see, experience or visit? I really want to visit Lhasa in Tibet.
10. If there was one thing (anything) in humanity or the world you could change without question ifs or buts, what would it be?  I would make people more compassionate.

My nominees:  I pass on to you the same questions as I was asked by Discovering My Authentic Self.

• All the family
• Beauty and the Borderline
• Chloe Bellerby on Mental Illness
• Laketra BFF
• Mental Health & You
• MMM – Kindness is my religion
• My anorexia battle
• Peace within the borderline
• The time is now

SUNSHINE BLOGGER AWARD

Functioning in my dysfunction and Little Lost One Blog nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award.  Interestingly enough, I discovered both of these lovelies through the award post nominating them on Scarlett’s BPD Corner.

RULES FOR THE AWARD

1. Shout out to the blogger who nominated you with a link to her/his blog.
2. Answer questions given by the blogger.
3. Nominate 11 bloggers for the sunshine award, with links to their blogs.
4. Don’t forget to notify your nominees.
5. Come up with your own questions and tag 11 other bloggers nominating them to do the same.

Questions:

1. What is your favorite animal?  Guinea pigs – I have 5.
2. You’re streaming Netflix, what are you watching? Lately I’ve been watching true crime stuff.
3. What’s the biggest goal you want to accomplish this year? I’ve got a paper about bullying that’s almost finished that I’ve been to nervous to submit to an academic journal because I worry about negative feedback from peer review, but I’d like to move forward with that later this year.
4. If you had the chance to travel the world, what’s the first place you’d visit? I think my next trip will be to the former Yugoslavia area.
5. What’s your dream profession and what made you choose it?  My dream profession is being a nurse.  I love my work, I just don’t like the politics and the crappy management that tend to go along with it.
6. Who is your biggest role model? I don’t have one in particular, but there are a lot of amazing people out there.
7. What are the top 5 songs on your playlist? Right now I’ve got a couple of John Legend songs in heavy rotation.
8. What do you do for fun?  Fun?  What’s that?  …. Unfortunately, I don’t really remember.
9. Why did you start blogging? To add to the conversation about mental health.
10. What keeps you focused?  My meds.
11. What do you hope people take away from your blog posts?  That it’s ok to talk about difficult things.

My nominees: I pass on to you the same questions that I was asked.

• Art of Becoming
• Blue sky days 365
• Breathe Underwater
• Caterpillars2butterflies
• Light project stories
• Reflecting on well-being

BLOGGER RECOGNITION AWARD

I was nominated for this award by my dear name-sister Ashley at Practicing Imperfection.

Here’s how the award works:

1. Post the Blogger Recognition Award Rules.
2. Use Blogger Recognition Award badge on your website.
3. Share the reasons why you blog.
4. Share two tips for new bloggers.
5. Nominate other bloggers for this award and notify each of them about this nomination.

Why I blog

The more we talk about mental health, the better things will be for all those of us living with mental illness.

Tips for new bloggers:

1. Decide on an intention or purpose for your blog, and bring yourself back to that regularly, because it can be easy to get swept away.
2. Write about what matters to you, and don’t limit yourself with what you think you can’t or shouldn’t say.

My nominees:

• Girl with the paw print tattoo
• Insights of a Bipolar Rambler
• Marie Abanga
• Revenge of Eve

If you’ve made it to the end of this epic post, good for you!  This post is all about spreading the love, so I hope you’ll check out the blogs I’ve mentioned.  Thanks again to the wonderful bloggers that nominated me – hugs to all of you.