I’m lucky to have been nominated for a Liebster Award which is for blogs with less than 200 followers.  I got nominated twice by two of my favourite blogs – applepiezucchini and LoverlyShe.  This is a great compliment to me because both blogs these are quite different.  The first is about food and cooking, and the second is about life and style on a budget.

The rules of the award are:

• Post 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer the 11 questions made by the person who nominated you.
• Create 11 questions for the bloggers you pass the award to.
• Choose 11 bloggers to pass the award to and mention them in your post.
• Go to their blogs and let them know that they have been nominated
• No tag backs.

Here are my 11 random facts:

• I once turned down dinner with the Queen
• I have a scar the size of my palm on my foot from a scald aged 2 (keep small children off your kitchen countertops!)
• I will listen to almost any kind of music, but I don’t like indie.  My husband pretty much only likes indie. Hence we listen to Radio 4 in the car!
• My favourite actress is Maggie Smith, ever since I first saw Sister Act.  I think we would all agree she made Downton Abbey and Cranford what they are: amazing.
• I haven’t yet found a craft I haven’t liked, with the exception that I hated technical drawing when I studied it as part of my degree.  I was really looking forward to it too!
• I love audiobooks.  I can listen while I craft or if I am having trouble sleeping.  My favourites are classics like Pride and Prejudice and Agatha Christie dramatizations.
• I have the worst handwriting.  It was bad; then I went to Uni and wrote in nothing but Greek symbols (badly) for 4 years.  Now I mostly type so when I try and write it is nearly illegible!
• Most exercise makes me tired and not happy.  But if there’s music I can dance all night!
• My favourite flowers are poppies.  I love the bold red colour, delicate petals and dark velvety centres.
• My parent’s nickname for me is also Poppy.  When I was learning to speak I practised the words ending in “oppy” a lot, and “poppy” stuck with me!
• When I was 7 I had trombone lessons.  The slider used to hit the floor when I tried to get 6^th position.

Here are the best of the questions set by my nominators:

1. What was the first thing you ever learnt to cook?  My earliest memory of cooking is making damson jam with my Nanny (the grandmother who inspired the name of my shop).  The first dish I ever learnt to make properly by myself was either lasagne or my chocolate mudcake, which has been through a few iterations to get it to its current optimised recipe!  If you come round to my house for dinner, there is a good chance you will be served either one or both of these dishes because they are both yummy (who doesn’t like lasagne?) and ready in advance, plus I can now make them with my eyes closed!

2. Where would your perfect holiday be?  That’s a tough one – depending on my mood it would either be with a good book in the Maldives, hiking the Inca trail (Machu Picchu), or a driving tour of east coast America and Canada.

3. Are you an early bird or a night owl?  Neither! I function best between 10.00am and 4pm.  But if I stay up past 10.30pm I tend to get a second wind, so I suppose if pushed I’m an owl!

4. What is the recipe that you’ve always wanted to make but have been a bit scared to try? It looks really easy on TV, but I would have to say mussels.  I think I’m worried about giving people food poisoning.  But I always order      them if they are on the menu when I eat out!

5. What is your favourite song / piece of music?  Stella del mattino by Einaudi.  I walked down the aisle to it because it is a beautiful, simple piece.  I was hoping I’d match!

6. Best ice-cream flavour?  Pistachio.  But in the absence of pistachio, Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food makes great comfort food.

7. Countryside or city?  I love both – I like busyness and shops.  But countryside is more peaceful and more likely to have nice views, so probably countryside.  Just not something in between!

8. Which chef do you admire the most?  Well I have been watching Delia since I was 6, and I love Rick Stein.  I tend to like chefs who make “real” food; I’m not into overcomplicating things for the sake of it.  I tune in to Saturday Kitchen fairly often, and I would not say no to many James Martin recipes!

9. Your biggest food dislike is?  Brussel sprouts.  An obvious one I know, I really taste the sulphur in greens so they are a bit of a no-no for me.  Which is a shame because they are a lot better for you than cakes!

10. What is the next cookbook on your wishlist?  Ah this question makes me want to shop! Two Greedy Italians by Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo has been on my wishlist for a while.

11. Hearty plates of food or michelin-style precision?  Hearty plates of food!  I love pies and casseroles.  The idea of someone putting blobs of pea puree around my plate or adding foam on top of my food just doesn’t make me hungry.  I’d love to experience dinner in a Michelin starred restaurant though; I’m open to becoming a foam convert!

Enough about me, why don’t you check out a few of these great blogs? Here are my nominations for a Liebster Award:

Helen Chandler – this is a great blog about everyday life and writing.  Her posts always make me laugh, it is worth dropping by!  See here for Helen’s first book Two for Joy.

The Little Koo blog – Jewellery, crafting and life in Hong Kong.  Rachel makes some lovely things and sells on etsy.

Linspired – A painting blog with photo’s as she paints.  This inspires me to get painting!

Stitchedupmama – Crocheting outside the box

Susie D Designs Blog – great sewing tips and lovely bag patterns

Joyfulwise – a blog about seeing beauty in the world (and a good amount of crochet content to boot)

Tulle and Tweed – A sewing blog with great “how-to” tutorials.

The Little Room of Rachell – I just found this crochet blog and I love it.

I know it says 11 but I tend to be a selective blog reader to make sure I read them properly.  Also I know a few of the blogs I read have more than the required 200 followers, so I can’t nominate them.  (If I nominated you and you do have more than this, feel free to ignore the award!)

Here are my 11 questions for my nominees:

What is your:

1. Favourite novel?
2. Favourite non-fiction book?
3. Favourite way of expressing your creativity?
4. Earliest memory?
5. Favourite outfit you’ve ever worn?
6. Guilty pleasure?
7. Childhood career choice?
8. Most important role model?
9. Craft you’d like to try but haven’t?
10. Shop you never leave without spending money in?
11. Best holiday yet?

Phew!  This was a long post.  It was harder to write about myself than I thought!  Let me know what you think about my facts and answers – I’ll bet some of you are wondering why I turned down dinner with the Queen? ;)