I'd Like to Thank the Academy

Thank you to Chris at Campfires and Cleats for this delightful Liebster blog award!  What a beautiful surprise, and from a blog I very much enjoy visiting. 

Now I will pass along some info about this particularly fun award...

What is the "Liebster Award," actually?  The award is given to up and coming bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers.  From what I understand, liebster is German for: "sweetest," "kindest," "nicest," "dearest," "beloved," "valued," "endearing," and "welcoming."

(BLUSH)

Chris' other recipients can be found here, and I have to say that I'm in awe to find myself among them.  And this IS an especially fun award, so...let's just have some merriment! 

Here are the "rules" for The Liebster Award:

1. List 11 things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions that the nominator has posed for you.

3. Nominate 11 up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

4. Create 11 questions to ask the nominees.

5. Go to the page of each nominee and tell her about her award.

Ta da!  Here are 11 totally random things about me.  I'll try to stick to things you don't already know, and I'll say these without thinking.... 

1.  I often say things without thinking.
2.  I live in what some say is a library with a few pieces of furniture in it.  Books are my wallpaper of choice... in every. single. room. 
3. I like humor, good wholesome humor.  Old "Shoe" comics.  Carol Burnett's classic skit "Went With the Wind" (you know the one, where she glides down the staircase wearing a drapery dress complete with rod... "I saw it in the window and just couldn't resist"). 
4. I prefer overcast days to sunny ones, cool weather to warm.  I find gray skies much more "interesting" than blue ones with decorator clouds. 
5. I began college as an Art major.  I wanted to learn to paint like this....



 
.. BUT it happened to be a time when students were being told we needed to "get with the times" and express our "individuality,"
and we had to paint like this....








Which probably gives you some clue as to why I now happily fill blogs with things like this....  
 

 

6.  I love old, ticking clocks.
7.  I used to write poetry.
8.  If I could visit anywhere in the world, I'd head straight for Annecy, France.
9.  I don't like graham crackers.  Not even in S'mores.
10. I can sit beside the ocean for many hours at a time (like, all day), just staring into the waves, doing nothing else.  Even a book is distracting there.
11. One of my favorite sounds is that of a train rumbling in the distance.
12. I'm dreadful at Math, so have I counted correctly to 11?  

And now the fun continues!   Chris has presented 11 questions that I am to answer.  So here goes:

1. Where did you grow up?
     In the middle part of the USA.  Very all-American.  

2. If you could live anywhere, where would that be?
     1st choice:  where I live now.  2nd choice: perhaps Berkshire County, Massachusetts 
3. What is your favorite book?  
     Is it a dreadful cop-out to say "EVERY one that's on my blogger profile?" ?!

4. Favorite movie?
    "To Kill a Mockingbird."  For the story, the acting, the music, and "hey, Boo...."

5. Saint who inspires you?
    Francis de Sales.  Teresa of Avila.  Faustina.  Ignatius.
6. Hobby?

    Photography.

7. Why did you begin your blog?
    To have a more "out in the world" companion/link to the Cloistered Heart blog, which I 
    began at the same time.  But this one soon took on a "life of its own," and I LOVE doing it!

8. What's your fairy tale wedding like?
    Revelation 19:7-9. The REAL happily-ever-after we've all been awaiting!!!
9. If you could have dinner with a-n-y-o-n-e, who would that be?
     Pope Benedict XVI.

10. Louisa May Alcott or Jane Austen? 
      Harper Lee.   

11. Best spot for a relaxing dinner with the family?
      By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea...

And now for my own nominees for the Liebster award.  I tried to follow the rules, so generally left out (with maybe two exceptions) blogs for which I couldn't find the number of followers.  I don't know any way to tell except by the Google gadget.  And those sometimes appear and disappear from others' sidebars as well as my own (which is why mine is at the very bottom of my sidebar - 'cause when mine goes, it also takes out everything below it).

Drum roll, please, for these genuinely "sweet," "kind," "nice," "dear," "beloved," "valued," "endearing," and "welcoming" blogs! 

Journal of a Nobody

These Joyful Mysteries

My Desert Heart

The Beautiful Gate 

Beautiful Whispers of Catholicism 

My Cozy Nook

Daily Grace

Contemplative Homeschool

Praying for Grace 

Imprisoned in My Bones

Sue Elvis Writes

And now:  do we have another drum?  Here are the 11 questions I present to the above nominees:

1.  If you won a free trip to anywhere, where would you go?
2.  What is your favorite childhood memory? 
3.  What's your favorite season?
4.  Favorite kind of music?
5.  If you could spend tomorrow with one canonized saint, who would it be?
6.  What is your favorite Scripture?  (either chapter and verse, or a whole book)
7.  If you were dressing up for an elegant evening out, what would you wear?....
8.  .... and where would you like to go?
9.  Who has modeled the Christian life for you, or taught it to you, in an inspiring way?   
10. What is your favorite poem?  (if you don't have one, pick a favorite anything-else!)
11.  How do you like to relax and wind-down? 

And now... I finish this at exactly 11 minutes after one a.m.!  How's THAT for timing.  May anyone stopping in here at this ridiculously late hour have 11 good dreams...

Random Thoughts, Jewelry Edition

This might be a strange post, because it started with a strange thought... or at least a "random" one.  You know, one of those mental ramblings that drifts through your head while you're doing something mindless.  A from-nowhere thought, nothing useful about it, not all that worthy of a conversation and certainly not of a blog post.

Are you still reading?  Wow.  And just when I was feeling like one of those TV commercials that tells you much more about why you shouldn't use a medication than why you should. 

My random thought:  there are ideas and styles that come and go with no one remembering they ever existed.  It occurred to me that we who meet up here once in awhile are of varying ages and we live in different lands; so we've seen, among us, quite a number of things pop in and out of public awareness. Some were and are quite serious.  It struck me that we might be able to share memories of these once in awhile.

But for now, I have my mind on frivolities.  Really dumb ones, actually, but I think a bit of lightheartedness is good for the soul, and frankly, my soul could use that right about now.  Anyone else feel like a round of light blogversation while the world throws more craziness at us every day?

This is the "jewelry edition" of this nonsense, so DOES ANYONE REMEMBER...
Mood rings?  Spoon rings?  Friendship rings?
Little pins shaped like mice, made of mink?  Popular worn up on the shoulder, often.
Pre-engagement rings with teensy chips of diamond?
Bracelets that held little book-shaped rosary cases, in which there were tiny rosaries?
Boys' I.D. bracelets that opened to hold things?
Strands of pearls worn with sweaters and skirts to classes in high school or University?  I can just imagine someone asking "skirts?? To CLASSES??"  Yes.  And sometimes with pearls.  And yes, I am actually that old.

I suppose jewelry tells us something about who we are as a society (as do lots of other things, but those are for another "random post").   

"A pearl will shine in the midst of squalor, and a gem of the first water will sparkle in the mire."  (St. Jerome)

"The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant's search for fine pearls.  When he found one really valuable pearl, he went back and put up for sale all he had and bought it."  (Matthew 13:45-46)

Painting:  William McGregor Paxton, The String of Pearls, in US public domain

This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup Blitz