I’ve been lucky enough to receive this Blogland award not once, but twice now in the last couple of months. The first time I received it was from the lovely Claire at Miss Simmonds Says during the internet blackout of February 2012 a.k.a When The World Stopped (we moved house…). This time I’ve been nominated by theblumenartgallery, a fabulous blog about a U.S. mum living in Germany. Many thanks to both ladies!

1.  I won a computer from The Big Breakfast when I was about 14. I had to guess the answer to a musical hangman. My head teacher announced it in assembly that day. I still had year sevens asking me about it when I was in the Sixth Form…

2. I like dressing up for fancy dress. In recent years I have made an owl costume for a British Sea Power competition, went as Balinese Girl by Tretchikoff at Halloween, been a zombie 80s bridesmaid, been Atomic Betty, been a zombified Scully…

That picture on the right with the twig in my hand – I spent a good 11 hours dancing with that, fairly tiddled, at Leeds Festival a few years ago. I had a little nap once in the middle of the Foals set, then carried on. My arms wouldn’t work properly the next day.

3.  I once came second in a world’s loudest voice competition. There were three rounds; I was winning all the way through until some thunder-stealing man beat me on the final shout. I still maintain I was the real winner: he couldn’t speak the next day. I could. This was held at the Tan Hill Festival put on by British Sea Power a couple of years ago. We won tickets with my owl costume and an amazing flag Aidan made.

4. I still haven’t passed my driving test. My second one is coming up soon…

5. We once won tickets to Glastonbury festival through WaterAid. The competition was to ‘dress’ your toilet. This was our winning picture (Aidan will kill me for this):

6. I love Stephen King books. I think I’ve read virtually everything by him now apart from ‘Gerald’s Game‘ and ‘Dolores Claiborne’. Currently, I’m to the sixth book in the Dark Tower series, ‘Song of Susannah‘. Unfortunately, even though I’m almost 100% positive that I have it, I can’t find it anywhere in our house. My favourite book is ‘The Stand‘ and ‘Stand By Me’ is by far the best film adaption, in my opinion.

7. I have a tendency to dye my hair varying shades of red and – occasionally – orange. Once I made the error of dying it bright red. It went wrong and to fix it, Aidan bleached my hair and then re-dyed it blonde. Except it went orange. I started a new job a few weeks later and in the first class I observed, a student kept saying in front of me, “Help me! The sun has burnt my hair!” You can see the faded version of it in the World’s Loudest Voice picture above.

My Nominated Blogs:

You’re supposed to pick fifteen blogs that have never been nominated before. I’ve got ten, but I’ve no idea if they’ve ever been nominated before. These are sites that I enjoy reading regularly, either for inspiration or to lust after the contents!

On Life and Lava – West German pottery, mid century style and living in Germany.

Vintage Design Cologne – Beautiful shots of West German pottery from Cologne.

Tusen Vaser – More West German pottery – use Google translate! I can never leave comments for some reason, but I love looking at the pictures.

Amazing Glaze and lots of Yarn – Pottery again… still enjoy looking at pictures of other people’s pottery. This one is a more recent discovery.

Pots and Pots – This is, ahem, a REALLY good website. Smiley face inserted here…

Troedelhaus – A woman after my own heart…

Super Ninon – Super stylish.

Walnut Grey Design – Style inspiration, presented beautifully.

Fears and Kahn blog – Check out their shop section and drool over the mid-century posters.

Obsessionistas – Amazing site featuring people’s unusual collections. Yours truly is even on there!

There are many other blogs I read regularly, but they’re quite ‘famous’ ones such as Conversation Pieces, Kay Loves Vintage and Vintage Vixen, which undoubtedly have been nominated before. Still worth a visit though if by some miracle you’ve not seen them.

Many thanks again to the people who nominated me. Hopefully, I’ve managed to entertain you with my random facts and given you something new to read blog-wise. Happy Easter!