Awards and a kreativ meme

It is the weekend. Time to relax, pour yourself a cuppa and join me in some navel-gazing. I have had two bloggers – Elle and Cakelaw – who were kind enough to show their appreciation for my blog with awards recently and asked me to share some random things about myself. It seems I am constantly sharing random facts but here we go.



Some time ago Cakelaw, of Laws of the Kitchen gave me three awards: Kreativ Blogger, Honest Scrap and Happy 101. Then more recently Elle of the Bread Bakers Dog (and Feeding my Enthusiasms) gave me the beautiful blog award. Both Cakelaw and Elle are wonderful bakers and I encourage you to check out their wealth of recipes and ruminations.

Both awards came with the instructions to list seven random things about myself and then pass the award onto seven bloggers, let them know etc etc. Time being precious, I have rolled the awards into one for the sake of the meme and passing them on. As I feel like I have shared a lot about myself on this blog, I thought I would give myself a little focus and write seven random creative things about myself.

1. My sister-in-law HH is amazing with her crafting. Her creation that I love most is the cross stitch sampler she made for E and me when we got married, and now hangs in our bedroom.

2. My mum taught me to knit when I was at school and I loved it. When I was a student I knitted myself a few jumpers and was so obsessive about it that I used to knit on the tram on my way to work, before knitting became trendy. I have recently started knitting a scarf for Sylvia but it is slow going.

3. When I was at school, I once latch hooked a cushion cover with a picture of Grover from Sesame Street. I don’t know what happened to my latch hook but I wish I still had it to put tassles on Sylvia’s scarf if I ever finish it.

4. I hate sewing but I love my sewing box that I have had since I was a kid. It has an unfinished tapestry and an unfinished placemat in it, a felt scissors holder I once made, and lots of needles and thread for sewing buttons back on clothes.

5. I dream of painting a mural on a wall, preferably with a giraffe in it. Maybe one day. Meanwhile, the closest I get is plastering Ikea stickers on the bathroom wall.

6. When I was a child we always joined up with another family to perform a Christmas play for our parents. When we were young my little brother was often baby Jesus in the nativity scene. As we got older we started writing more complicated plays such as how Christmas was celebrated in different part of the world.

7. As a student I once won (a paltry amount of) money in a poetry competition. However, it was never published in the student newspaper because there was some sort of strike.

I am passing on the Kreativ Blogger and Beautiful Blogger awards to these seven food bloggers. All bloggers are creative but I chose these seven for the way they demonstrate just how creative food blogging can be (NB I excluded anyone whom I had given an award recently):

• Astra at Food for Laughter has such a joie de vivre and is always inspiring in the way she adapts recipes to be healthy even when baking the most decadent chocolate creations.
• Hannah at Wayfaring Chocolate not only makes thoughtful and amusing comments but she also has such a novel angle on food – the chocolate she meets on her travels - I have never read such involved descriptions of chocolate before!
• Jules at Stone Soup is constantly posting great lists that enlighten and entertain, whether on how to store vegetables or the must-haves for a minimalist kitchen. I love lists and every time I see a new list on her blog I know it will be a great read. (And she is having a vegetarian May so I am loving her recipes even more!)
• Katie at Apple and Spice has lots of appetising food but I am constantly marveling at her cakes. She often inspires me with her wonderful ideas for presentation and her decadent baking.
• Lisa at Bake Bike Blog is a new blog on my radar but I wanted to mention her here because I just love her idea of her mystery box. She has a box filled with ingredients written on pieces of paper and regularly pulls an ingredient out of the hat to inspire her to try different things. Such a great and creative idea!
• Nic at Nip it in the Bud has a lovely eclectic blog with delicious recipes, gardening, crafting and even a sunflower giraffe. She originally connected with me because we love giraffes and our cats.
• Wendy at a Wee Bit of Cooking has a gorgeous blog. When I started reading her blog I loved her banner with a giraffe on it but now she has a girl and her dog which is really fitting. Not only does she have wonderful recipes but she posts the most beautiful photographs, mostly of her corner of Scotland.
  

Lastly, it seems an appropriate moment to also let you know that I was included in this list of 100 blogs leading the food revolution.

I'll be back with more food soon (well as soon as Sylvia stops wanting to climb on everything in sight!)