Wednesday Hodgepodge 2/9/15

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at 

 From this side of the pond

Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add your blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post.

Have fun!

1. What's on your September calendar? Anything fun? 

Hopefully a holiday but I have a theatre trip booked, and hopefully a couple of meals out. 

2. You might be described as a natural born peacekeeper?

3. September is National Courtesy Month...what one act of courtesy would you most like to see more of in your home, town, or the world at large? 

Disposing of litter – we live opposite an open space that is used by many, the majority of whom are considerate and take their rubbish away with them.  Unfortunately there is a minority that don’t!

4. Eager beaver, chicken out, clam up, or let the cat out of the bag...of the phrases listed, which one have you related to most recently? 

Well I’ve been an eager beaver and gone shopping today for some material to make bunting for my jumble trail stall at the weekend.  That might be a bit optimistic given the time frame so I could be chickening out on that.  I also bought some Christmas themed material to make some for then too.  (Ssshhh – don’t tell my cousin – I don’t want her to think I’m planning ahead this early in the year! She’s really into Christmas and always reminding me of how many days to go (not enough!) and I can be a bit of a Grinch.)  I’m fairly good at keeping secrets so hopefully won’t be letting any cats out of bags.

5. What's your movie theatre snack protocol? Do you chow down on snacks during the previews or wait until the movie begins? Do you buy snacks or refuse to pay those kind of prices? What's the last movie you saw in a theatre? How many thumbs up would you give it?

It’s been so long since we went to the movies I can’t remember what we saw – how sad is that?!  I’m not big on the snacks though, especially as they usually are expensive.

6. Henry Ford is quoted as saying, "Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind." Agree or disagree? Why?    

I’d disagree about it having to be work.  I’m not working now but I keep myself busy and hopefully my mind isn’t getting warped.  If I start posting gibberish please let me know!

7. What's the last job you completed or task you performed where you had to 'work like a dog' until it was finished? 

Last Sunday – I cleared the front garden of weeds.  It was hard work but I wanted it done before it rained again.

8.  Insert your own random thought here. 

It was so nice yesterday (Tuesday) not to be heading back to school at the start of a new year.  I hope those who had to (or have been back a while) had a good first day back.

Liebster Award

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my fellow blogger, Lorrie Goldin of Shrinkrapped, nominated me for the Liebster Award, which was developed to recognize bloggers and help others get to know them. I was tickled pink so thank you Lorrie.

The idea is to pay it forward with the official rules being:

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.

2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

Well I’ve thanked Lorrie, and got the pic on the page so now to the questions.  Lorrie kindly didn’t give me 11 questions but she had answered more herself on her own Liebster Award post so I’ve combined them as follows:

1. What’s YOUR ultimate guilty pleasure?

Having a lie in either reading or doing nothing productive on my iPad

2. What’s on your bucket list?

I don’t actually have a bucket list but if I did have one I think top of my list now would be to live long enough to see any future grandchildren my kids might have.  With one already married, another tying the knot in October and the final one planning a wedding for next year hopefully that’s not going to take too long to achieve.  I also think making a bucket list should be on my to do list.

3. What are your favorite blogs?

Well obviously Lorrie’s.  I really enjoy reading her posts which are always interesting and have depth.  Judy who writes at Edwina’s Episodes is a regular poster on a range of topics and she has a great sense of humour.  I really love doing the Hodgepodge on Wednesdays which is hosted by Joyce at From this side of the pond and a blog that I’ve followed almost since I started blogging is Life on the Ledge.  There are a few other posters on the Hodgepodge that I enjoy including Mary-Anne at Breathing Life and a couple that I found doing the A-Z challenge (Wendy of the Rock and TheWitty Ways of a Wayward Wife)

4. What makes you happy?

Being with my kids and our extended family.  Just watching them all interact with one another.  It’s a nice feeling when you look at them all and see how they’ve grown up into good people and know that you’ve been a big part of that.

Being out in the fresh air is also good.  Either walking or just sitting somewhere nice with a book to read.

5. Why did you start blogging?

That’s easy.  I followed my cousin’s example.  Jill is more like a sister to me than a cousin.  We’re the same age, just a few months apart, (despite whatever her current claim to age is!) and we’ve always got on well.  I hadn’t even heard of blogging before she introduced me to it but I was soon hooked and was a regular poster.  Then, as often happens, life intruded and we both seemed to lose our impetus.  Changing from various platforms didn’t help – we started on yahoo, migrated to multiply and then having tried a couple of other sites settled here on blogger.  Jill is an enthusiastic crafter with her own online etsy shop so her blogging has dropped off.  Mine took off again when I gave up work.  I haven’t yet managed to set up my crafting space so I’m making time to blog as regularly as I can.

6. What is the best thing anyone has ever said about your blog?

Well I don’t have a huge following so I’m not swamped with comments but I had a few nice things said during the A-Z challenge and of course anyone flagging you up to other people the way Lorrie has done is a real compliment.

7. What is one piece of advice you would offer or one saying you live by?

Never sleep on an argument – something my parents practised and what I advocate to my kids.  Life is too short. 

8. What is one product or service you cannot live without?

Tea – plain old fashioned English tea (although of course it’s actually Indian tea) none of your fancy flavoured or perfumed concoctions!

9. What is your favorite U.S. destination?

I’d have to say Vermont, a) because it’s beautiful and b) it’s where our daughter-in-law comes from and where her parents still live.

10. What two countries make you the happiest to visit? 

France, as my sister-in-law lives there.  The second would be anywhere I haven’t already been.

11. What is your dream destination?   

Somewhere not too hot but with sunny weather.  By the coast so I could laze on the beach or take a slow stroll but with enough going on to keep hubby entertained.

Phew, that’s the 11 questions done, now to the 11 random facts about me:

1) I’m right handed

2) I love freesia and roses but don’t like the smell of lilies

3) I learnt to tap dance when I was younger

4) I love salsa dancing

5) I love chocolate

6) I hate avocado

7) I always thought I wanted four kids until I’d got three and didn’t have enough hands

8) I don’t like wearing glasses but I don’t want the bother of contacts

9) I’m not very good at blowing my own trumpet or accepting compliments.

10)  Apparently I snore.

11) I think I’m very easy going.

But Enough About Me! Paying the Liebster Forward

I’m going to nominate the following:

Well this is the hard part!  Of the people who do visit my blog on a regular basis I’m not sure how they would feel about being nominated.  One has already been nominated.  Another has made her position on awards known.  Some are at busy times in their lives and may not want to take on this challenge.  (It has taken me a while to complete.)  Some may see this as a blogging style chain letter and ignore it on principal.

So not wishing to put anyone on the spot, IF I’ve given you a mention in this post and you want to take part, please feel free to let me know and I'll compile you a list of questions.