Liebster What?

I have apparently been nominated for the Liebster Award, by both Mia and Manda (two fun ladies whose blogs you should check out, fyi). ‘Liebster’ means dearest in German, and the chain-letter-esque blog award is meant to showcase blogs with less than a certain amount of followers (some quick Googling revealed that number to be anywhere from 200 to 3,000 – quite a range). It’s got murky origins and there’s no official database of award recipients or anything, so it’s more just bloggers telling other bloggers ‘hey, I think you’re cool.’ So, that’s kind of cool. Thanks, ladies. 🙂 Aside from answering their questions (below), I’m supposed to list 11 things about myself. But I’ve already done that and other random ‘about me’ posts besides, so I’ll skip that step as I can’t think of 11 more things right now. I’m also going to skip nominating other blogs for now, as I’ve got a bit of a hectic work schedule today.
 

Questions from Mia:

1. What is your ideal day like? A nice lazy morning where I don’t have to get up early or rush to get ready and be somewhere. Hanging out with my boyfriend and puppy most of the day. Some time for reading a good book. Going out to dinner. Curling up to watch a movie. If I lived near a beach, there’d be some beach time in there as well.
2. What is your favorite thing to drink in the wintertime? Hot chocolate.
3. What is your favorite feature about yourself? Physical feature? Probably my eyes. They’re hazel, and the green-to-brown ratio changes.
4. If you had to pick one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Pasta!
5. Who is your favorite super hero or villain? Why? I’m not big enough into superheroes/villains to have a favorite, but I guess I’ll go with Iron Man because Robert Downey Jr’s version of him is hilarious.
6. Do you have any blogger friends? That I meet up with in real life? No, sadly. There’s some bloggers I keep in pretty regular touch with through our blogs, Twitter & email. I don’t have any super-close blogger friends, though. I’m not that effusive with my affection and am terrible at/can’t stand small talk, which can be a bit of a barrier. That’s not to say I wouldn’t love to have some close blogger friends to chat with on IM/phone or meet up with in real life; I guess I’m just not sure how to go about that.
7. It’s your birthday! What do you ask for? This changes a bit every year, but generally books and gift cards are safe choices. I keep running wishlists on ModCloth and Amazon as well, so anything from those is always welcome.
8. What’s your favorite holiday? Why? I like Christmas. I love decorating the tree, and giving presents (and ok, receiving presents, too) and baking/eating holiday treats. Plus it’s one of the few times my family all gets together, and it’s nice to see everyone at once.
9. Which city is your favorite? I’m a pretty big fan of Austin. If we go international, Sydney and Barcelona are also cool.
10. What are your hobbies? If you have a lot (like me!), pick your top three. Screenprinting, reading a lot of books, writing.
11. Do you prefer the sunrise or sunset? Sunset, for sure. I am NOT a morning person.

Questions from Manda:

1. Did you have any pets growing up? What were they, what were their names? Yup. A big German sheepdog named Grizzy, a German shepard-husky-wolf mix named Nugget, a tortoiseshell cat named Pepper, a boxer named Roxanne, a fat orange cat named Copper, a white cat named Aspen and a black mop of a cockapoo named Ozzy (he still lives with my mom).
2. What is your favourite summertime activity? Are you a beach gal or more of a sit for hours in the A/C type? If I lived near a beach, I would definitely be a beach gal. When I lived a 10-minute walk from the beach in Australia, I was there ALL the time. Me, a book, a sketchbook, and the ocean. Good times.
3. Do you collect anything? What do you collect and for how long? (bonus non-existent points for pictures!) Books, haha. There are never enough bookshelves. I used to collect a lot of things, but they’ve all kind of fallen by the wayside (rocks, shells, knives/swords, etc.).
4. If you could keep any animal for a pet (without worrying for your life) what would you get? A tiger, for sure. Ever since I saw Aladdin as a kid, I’ve wanted my own Raja.
5. What would be your ideal life? (Job, Location, etc) I’m living pretty close to it now, working for myself from home. I would like to travel more, and I do feel like I’m kind of getting burnt out on running my own business, though. Eventually, once I’m married and there is a kid on the way/here, I’ll likely taper that off a bit and focus more on being a mom.
6. What kind of phone do you have? Is is a fancy smart phone or something else? Do you like it or not? I have an iPhone, and I love it.
7. What kind of relationship do you have with your family? Are you super-close or the only-see-you-on-the-holidays type? I talk to my mom every week, and my younger sister about as often – I’m very close with both of them. I’m not as close with my older sister, we probably talk every month or two. I see my aunts and uncles and cousins on my mom’s side probably once a year. My dad has been deceased for many years, so his side of the family isn’t really in the picture anymore. My youngest and very troubled sister has deliberately cut herself off from us, so she’s not in the picture anymore either. So it’s kind of a mixed bag.
8. Best concert you’ve ever been to? Damien Rice.
9. Tea or coffee? Or are you a sucker for both? Or none? Tea. I can’t stand coffee.
10. What was your favourite tv show/movie as a kid? There were a few: The Gummi Bears, Rugrats, Doug, David the Gnome, Mr. Dressup, Under the Umbrella Tree… that’s all that comes to mind right now.
11. What are your favourite internet haunts? (Tumblr, Facebook, etc) Twitter is probably the most frequented/used.