A Very Proud Recipient

I am one lucky gentlewoman – the lovely Rowenna of Hyaline Prosaic has very kindly awarded me with my very first blog award … and my second!

Wow.  Thank you so much, Rowenna!  Though your other great winners have now added considerably to my blog-reading list – I don’t know how I’ll find time to, y’know, actually do stuff! 

Anyway, the rules for both awards are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!
4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

I don’t think I read enough regularly-updated blogs to be able to pass the awards on to fifteen others, so instead I want to pass these awards to 7 blogs that haven’t yet received them, but that thoroughly deserve them:

1. Mesmered’s Blog – A fellow masquerade-loving stitcher/scribbler.  She never ceases to amaze me with her constant curiousity about the world around her, her readers and the craft of writing.  To top it all off, this wonderful woman has a great way of drawing a reader in.
2. American Duchess Apparel – OK, so I’ve mentioned her regular blog (which has received the Versatile Blogger Award) a few times now, but I feel that her fabulous clothing line deserves some attention, too.  I recently ordered one of her funky-pretty graphic tees and cannot wait for it to arrive.  And, I love grey and pink, so I REALLY can’t wait for her Autumn collection, which promises that very colour combo – huzzah!
   

   Grey! And pink! Divine! (c) 2010 American Duchess ApparelTM

3. From one Duchess to another: The Duchess of Devonshire’s Gossip Guide to the 18th Century and
4. Marie Antoinette’s Gossip Guide to the 18th Century: these twinned blogs were some of the first I found when I began seriously researching the 18th century high life and I’ve been enjoying the words of these two gentlewomen for over a year now.  They combine 18th century historical research with modern nods to that favourite century – versatile and lovely indeed!
5. Now, ‘lovely’ is probably not a word my next blogger would use to describe her own blog, indeed, she describes herself as a ‘crabbit old bat’, but a person can be more than one thing and quite simply, Nicola Morgan’s generous writing and publishing advice means that she and her blog are lovely, whether she likes that or not!  Any writerly types out there who don’t already read Help! I Need a Publisher should start.  Now.  I mean it!  While I doubt she goes for the blog award type things, I’ve included her blog because it really is invaluable knowledge Nicola offers on her blog and will soon be turning into a book – another one for my shelf, methinks!
6. Quaintrelle Life – Vivcore is a lady both lovely and versatile, beautifying our bodies with her clothes and her home with her keen eye for vintage detailing.
7. Or perhaps you’d just like some pure and simple vintage sewing porn?  Great, because that’s what my final pick Sew Retro is!  And the versatility comes from the fact that the blog is updated by literally dozens of stitchers, all working with retro, vintage and sometimes historical patterns.  Lovely!

I hope you’ll enjoy these blogs as much as I have!

And as for me, well, we know I like lists, so here’s that list of seven things about me:

1. I apologise if I ever say ‘lol’ (or hahaha/hehehe, etc) too much on here, but, you see, I do laugh a lot.  Fairly often it’s with a kind of gallows humour, but I like to think it’s a good thing to be able to laugh when the chips are down.
2. I am a good liar.  Now I suppose some people might think of this as a blessing, but it’s also proven to be a curse: when you know you can do it so it believably, it’s far too easy to just lie yourself out of situations and responsibilities.  Many years ago I made a conscious decision to not lie anymore; these days I only tell little white lies (“no, dear, I’m not hiding something from you in this drawer”/yes I am, it’s your Birthday present!) or bluff, which brings me to …
3. Poker.  I’m not a bad poker player.  We used to have poker nights when I lived in Portsmouth and I’m trying to institute them amongst our friends in Nottingham, and I would generally come in the top three (beating guys who play the game a lot more than me, much to their annoyance! ).  I put this down to the above bluffing skills being quite lucky with cards!  Which brings me to …
4. Luck.  I seem to always have either extraordinarily good luck (playing Lord of the Rings Risk the other week, I rolled something ridiculous like seven sixes in a row!) or really terrible luck.  There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.
   

   I am loving this Turkish Nazar Boncugu scarf - plus it's a lucky symbol!

5. I nearly never existed.  I suppose this kinda comes under luck, as well.  When my Mum was very little, she was involved in an accident and almost died in hospital (it was looking so bad that they Christened her then and there.  Thankfully, she pulled through – love you, Mum.).  And, to cut a long story short: as a teenager, my Dad was visiting the village in southern Cyprus where his side of the family is from and nearly got shot as the troubles flared up between Greek and Turkish Cypriots – later he even went back and got the bullet that had grazed his ear out of the wall.  Luckily the neutral UN soldiers arrived in time to point out that as he was a British citizen, the Greek militia could not detain him (that’s what I call timing!).  Thanks to the UN and Red Cross, my father was kept safe and eventually pretty much smuggled back to the UK: for this reason I have nothing but support and admiration for those two organisations.  One day I plan to do a proper interview about this with my Dad and write a short story about it.  But, yes, I very nearly never was!
6. I have an extra set of sinuses.  Unfortunately they do not grant me the power to breathe underwater, give me superhuman hearing or do anything useful, except for make me susceptible to ear infections and similar problems, which obviously isn’t useful … so, no, they do nothing useful at all!
7. I love folding fans, but I am too much of a wimp to use mine when I’m out and about as I suspect I might look like a pretentious plonker.  How foolish is that?

How pretty is this 18th century fan currently for sale on ebay??? Shame it's £230 - ouch!

And that’s it for a little list of me.  Many thanks again, Rowenna, and also to my other readers – I value all your comments and those page-view statistics make me smile.  Thank you.