Awards!

Yay for awards! Thanks so much for passing them my way, everyone, and I'm sorry for hoarding them for the past few weeks. I have more to pass on but I'll do this lot for now. Thanks for the wonderful tags, too -- I haven't forgotten!

Let's get started!

I got the Soulmates award from the wonderful Roxy at A Woman's Write. For this award, you must say outrageous things about the people you're passing it on to. And so I'll hand it over to India Drummond, who loves haggis and has a sheep farm; and Al at Publish or Perish, who hates travelling to any site with stairs.

I received the Oh My Blog Award for the wonderfully named Creepy Query Girl. This goes out to some people on my side of the ocean: Fran, Jayne and Lindsay.

Alyson from May Day Writer passed the Beautiful Blogger Award my way. Sticking with more Europeans, I shall give this to Ellen, Mia and Brigid.

TJ Carson gave me the A for Awesome Award. This goes out to Theresa Milstein, Bossy Betty and Crystal Cook.

Right! Next batch!

I received the Sweet Blog award from the wonderful Shelley and The Muse 30. This goes to Aubrie, Anne from Piedmont Writer and Kim Franklin.

Kayeleen gave me the Happy 101 award. I'm going to give this one to Lisa of Notes from Nadir. Lisa, you would make us all very happy if you would just SNOG GORDON!

Southern Princess Courtney passed on the Sugardoll award. I am going to pass this on to all of my wonderful blogger buddies! Thank you so much for reading my drivel and for all your support!

Lindsay and Susan Fields gave me the Prolific Blogger award. This goes out to Laura Marcella, JJ Beattie and the Alliterative Allomorph.

And finally, Ann from Inkpots and Quills passed the From Me to You award on, where I must reveal 7 true things about me.

So here they are!

1. I used to be able to perform up to 15 back handsprings in a row. Age and cupcakes have now caught up to me.

2. I once got fired from a spa after I was outed as the author of anonymous blog.

3. I like to dress in layers (a lot of them!) even in summer. I hate being cold!

4. My husband is Egyptian and when we went there shortly after our wedding he failed to correct my Arabic, resulting in me telling everyone how beautiful they were, instead of expressing how beautiful the scenery, etc, was! I could still kill him. His excuse? It was fun!

5. I hate the word 'panties'. Makes me cringe.

6. I don't like beer. In fact, I hate it. Strange, I know!

7. If I don't have to let out the top button of my trousers at the end of the meal then I haven't eaten enough.

This award goes out to Elle of The Seventh Circle of Elle and Bish Denham.

Thanks again, everyone!

The Winners!

It's time to draw for prizes in my Great 1-1-2 Mate Giveaway! Thanks to everyone who mentioned the contest and to all the new followers for dropping by.

We're all winners, right? But sadly, in this case, there are only three prizes to give away -- I offer the rest of you a choice of virtual cupcake, sticky toffee pudding, Cadbury's Creme Egg or banoffee pie. Enjoy your feast!

To recap the prizes:

1. Your choice of unique paraphernalia purchased from the infamous Portobello Market, worth around £10 OR an Amazon gift certificate worth £10 (or approx $20 US/ Cdn).

2. Whatever gift the first winner didn't choose OR a copy of the wonderfully funny chick-lit romp Naked in Knightsbridge by Nicky Schmidt, generously donated by Prospera Publishing.

3. Whatever prize is left! :)

So, without further ado, chosen completely at random...

Winner Number 1 is Mel Chesley! Mel, please tell me what your choice is!

Winner Number 2 is Julie Dao! Julie, I'll let you know what your choice is once Mel has chosen.

Winner Number 3 is Old Kitty!

If the winners could email me at talliroland AT gmail.com to let me know their addresses, that would be great.

Thanks to everyone for following!

Sweet Sunday: Banoffee Pie

Yeah, baby. BANOFFEE PIE! Juicy bananas, cream and a crumbly toffee base! If you don't love banoffee pie then you've clearly burned each and every single taste bud in your mouth -- or you're dead.

It's so popular it was even featured in one of my all-time favourite films, Love Actually, when Juliet (the wife of Mark's best friend and the woman of Mark's dreams), goes round to ask for his video of her wedding day.

Juliet: Banoffee pie?
Mark: No, thanks.

Juliet: Thank God. You would've broken my heart if you'd said yes.

Mark: Oh, right. Well, lucky you.

Life just wouldn't be the same without it.

And on other sweet notes, I got some awards this week! Yay!

Thanks to the lovely Amy Saia, who gave me the Bold Faced Liar award. Since I've already had great fun at lying, I'm going to pass this on to:

Office Girl from Tired but Writing

Aubrie from Flutey Words (check out her 100 followers contest!)

Jaydee Morgan and Jon Paul of Sky Meets Ground were so kind as to give me the Prolific Blogger award. Thanks, Jaydee and John Paul! I'm going to give this one to:

Alexandra from the Publication Follies of Alexandra Shostak
Alyson from MayDay Writer


Have a great weekend everyone!

Awards and Contests, Oh My!

It's Saturday (and not raining - that's for you, Tamara, because really you are dying to know!) and time for some awards! Thank you so much to everyone who's given me an award this week. I really appreciate it! I'm sorry that some of award photos are missing; my computer kept crashing when I tried to upload them. I'm going to stir its noodle in a second, grr!


I won the Silver Lining Award from the lovely Ann Elle. This goes out to:

Straight From Hel - love her great advice.

The Alliterative Allomorph - new to me but I can't wait to read more!

Craziness, College, and a Little Creativity - really enjoyed her recent poem.

Michelle Teacress - another new one to me.



Thanks so much to Christine for the Blog Buddie Award! She's recently reached 100 followers and I think she's now over 120! Yay Christine.

Thanks, too, to Nicole at One Significant Moment at a Time, who also gave me the Blog Buddie Award. I love the very title of Nicole's blog, and her posts are filled with great tips and advice.

This one goes out to:

Just Jemi - She seems so lovely and friendly.

Pink Tea and Paper - I love the title of her blog - it just makes me feel good - as do her comments and posts!

Coming Down the Mountain: From Reclusive Writer to Published Author - Karen's generous with her comments and I really looking forward to her posts.

...And This Time, Concentrate! - Because I don't like looking at saggy body parts at Wal-Mart either!

Unedited - Jen's friendliness and enthusiasm just leaps off the page. And she just finished her first draft! Yay!


The hilarious Lindsey at Dangerous with a Pen recently gave me the Soulmates award. The rules:1. Choose five followers/commenters that 'get' you. 2. Write something fake (preferably not too mean) about them. 3. Link to them, and link back to this post to comment your receipt of the award.


This one goes to:
Aubrie at Flutey Words, who really wanted to play the tuba but didn't have enough wind.
Patricia Stoltey, who is secretly Alfred Hitchcock's long-lost daughter.
Anne of Piedmont Writer, who lives solely on pine nuts and Tang.
Tamara Hart Heiner, whose coming baby will be the next president of the US.
Kim Franklin, who wants to move to Fiji and live in a beach hut with her pet chicken (sorry Kim, my brain is in slow-gear today!).


Giant thanks to Aching Hope who gave me the Creative Writer award. You must tell six lies about you, and one truth. This is a great one to do and since I've already had the pleasure, I'm going to toss it out to anyone who fancies giving it a go! Go on, you know you want to.









The lovely Mia at Literary Jam and Toast gave me the sunshine award (much needed; thank you!). And speaking of sunshine, I got a very nice sunshine award for supportive comments from Tara of Feel of Something New. Thanks, Tara!


I'm going to take a short-cut here and pass these both on to the following bloggers, because supportive comments give me sunshine inside! So these go to:

Old Kitty

E Elle

Joanne - click to see the cutest photo of Easter chicks!



Last week I also got the Prolific Blogger Award from the wonderful Sarah Jayne Smythe. I just love her pithy comments and her posts! Thank you!





This goes to:

Patrick Tillett
Crazy Jane
musings of amber murphy
Inkpots n’Quills
Southern Princess

Phew! Thank you SO much for all the awards this week; I am loving it!

And a quick recap and shout-out to for the following amazing contests:

Roxy at A Woman's Write is celebrating 200 followers. Head over to enter the Blogging Buddies Give-Away Contest. Way to go, Roxy!

Christine Danek at Christine's Journey has reached 100 followers - enter her contest to help her celebrate!

Laurel at Laurels Leaves is holding an eleventy one contest (writing contest), ending soon!

Soul, Mate

Happy Saturday, everyone! It's not raining here... yet, despite the weather forecast. I'm listening to Chopin while eating toasted sourdough bread with copious clumps of melting better. Yum. Hope your weekend is off to a great start, too.

I got some more awards this week! I love getting awards -- it gives me one more reason to have a celebratory glass of wine. (I should interject that I'm not an alcoholic, by UK standards. I need to have a least a bottle night to even get close to that.)

First up, the lovely Tara at Feel of Something New has awarded me the Soulmates award. Rules are simple: Five Recipients. Make up something (not too mean) about the people you give the award to. Link to the people you give it to. Link back to the original award post here.

And this goes out to:

B. Miller, who scaled Mt Everest last year wearing a strapless cocktail dress. Well done!

Jen at Unedited, who recently tamed and trained an anteater to clean her flat.

Nicole at One Significant Moment at a Time, who won first place in the skeleton bobsled at the Vancouver Olympics and is now skeleton bobsledding down the Matterhorn.

Joanne, who has sampled lattes in every city around the world but prefers herbal tea.

Tahereh, who is secretly an heiress living in a castle in the Scilly Isles wearing lots and lots o' plaid.

I've also received the Prolific Blogger Award from Jen and B Miller. Thanks so much, ladies! Here's where I need a little bit of award etiquette help. If I've received this before, do I pass it on to seven new people again? I'd love to, just not sure what (or if) there's an 'etiquette' for this.

Help! :)

Revelations

That word strikes fear into my heart, conjuring up images of doom, gloom and a world without cupcakes. However, today the revelations will be of my own making as I unveil the one truth hidden in a forest of lies. (The thought of Revelations has made me think in pseudo-Biblical language!)

Anyway, back to sweetness and light:

1. I went to a posh all-girls' school in Kensington but was 'asked to leave' after writing a series of anonymous articles exposing how much profit the school cafeteria made -- the headmistress found me out.

False. I went to a state school and was annoyingly well behaved.

2. I have never driven a car, relying instead on Tubes and cabs. Who needs a car in London?

False. Unfortunately, I have driven a car in London and I very quickly developed a severe case of road rage. Parking was the worst: it's in high demand in my borough and you have to develop a vulture-like mentality just to survive. I sold my car a few years ago after a change of job meant I didn't need it any longer. Good riddance!

3. I can see Buckingham Palace from my window.

False. I'm pretty close to Kensington Palace, though.

4. On my way to a job interview, I tripped down the stairs of the Tube, sliding to a stop at the bottom. People just stepped over me.

True. I'm sad to say that this statement is the truth. My heel caught in the cuff of my trousers as I went to take the first step down into the Tube station, launching me head-first into a wall which broke my fall as I slid. I tumbled about ten steps, and people just stepped right over me. (And, even though I went to the interview with a giant bump on my head and a scraped wrist, I didn't get the job. That was definitely not my day.) Sad, so sad, but true.

5. I once fell asleep on the Tube, got my wallet stolen, then had a nice bus driver drive me home on his double-decker, all the way from Canning Town.

False. But although this didn't happen to me, it did happen to a friend of mine! Thanks goodness for nice bus drivers.

6. I'm going to run the London Marathon next month.

Wahahaha! Enough said.

7. My husband is an Hon. with inherited wealth.

False. Oh how I wish it were so. But I married for love, of course.

Coming up tomorrow: Writing with Music: Yea or Nay?

Trivia Tuesday: Liar, Liar

Thanks so much to E. Elle at Writer's Funhouse for passing along this award to me! It's a great one, too: I have to divulge six lies and one truth about myself while you all try to guess which one is true. I'm going make them all London-related... just because I feel like it.

1. I went to a posh all-girls' school in Kensington but was 'asked to leave' after writing a series of anonymous articles exposing how much profit the school cafeteria made -- the headmistress found me out.

2. I have never driven a car, relying instead on Tubes and cabs. Who needs a car in London?

3. I can see Buckingham Palace from my window.

4. On my way to a job interview, I tripped down the stairs of the Tube, sliding to a stop at the bottom. People just stepped over me.

5. I once fell asleep on the Tube, got my wallet stolen, then had a nice bus driver drive me home on his double-decker, all the way from Canning Town.

6. I'm going to run the London Marathon next month.

7. My husband is a Hon. with inherited wealth.

Good luck guessing! I now pass the award on to the following creative writers (and my apologies if you've received it already!): Jai Joshi (born in London!); Patricia Stoltey (because her posts just make such good sense); Carol Burnside (because I love that she spilled wine on her computer! Wine!) and Susan Fields, because she loves coffee!

Thanks again to all the new followers and to everyone for all the lovely comments!

Friday Awards!

OK, so these awards aren't really because it's Friday, but I figured Friday is a great day to celebrate! This two-week-old blog won two awards this week and I'm very excited. Thanks so much to everyone who has welcomed me here and taken the time to comment. I really love being a part of the writing/ blogging community!

Special thanks to Crystal Cook, who gave me the Sugar Doll Award. Perfect, because I love sugary things - especially cupcakes!



I'm going to pass this along to:

Christine Danek
Just Jemi
Ann Altman
Kit Courteney
Theresa Milstein

because... you're all sugar dolls!


Thanks also to Sarah Jayne Smythe for the Prolific Blogger Award! Yay!

"A Prolific Blogger is one who is intellectually productive...keeping up an active blog that is filled with enjoyable content."

The rules for this one are as follows:
1. Every winner of the Prolific Blogger Award has to pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. Spread some love!
2. Each Prolific Blogger must link to the blog from which he/she has received the award. (see above).
3. Every Prolific Blogger must link back to this post, which explains the origins and motivation for the award.
4. Every Prolific Blogger must visit this post and add his/her name in the Mr. Linky, so that we can get to know the other winners.

So, I'm going to pass this one on to E Elle of the Writer's Funhouse, Roxy of A Woman's Write,
Karen Jones Gowen of Coming Down the Mountain, Anne at Piedmont Writer and Nicole at One Significant Moment in Time.

I know many of you may have received these awards before, but I humbly offer them to you again! Happy Friday!