Friday 10 August 2012

Liebster Award

Another award!  This is the Liebster Award (German for favourite) and I was tagged not once, but THREE times! Thank you so much to Jane at Hen's Nest, crimsonsoulfire at So U Nails & Such, and to Robin Sparkles at Robin Sparkles Blog.   



For this tag, you need to do the following:
1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must also answer the 11 questions the 'tagger' has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.
4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.
5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag backs.
This is going to be long!
11 things about me:
  • I like languages. I was brought up in a very Welsh-speaking part of Wales, am fluent in French, and have pretty good - if a bit rusty sometimes - Spanish and German. Over the years I've also dabbled in Swedish, Hebrew, Italian and Russian.
  • I watch snooker
  • My favourite Doctor is the Fifth, Peter Davison, and my favourite Tardis team was Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough.
  • My cat Patty is actually called Kirkpatrick, after world-renowned melodeon and concertina expert John Kirkpatrick, who is fabulous.
  • My other cat Mickey is named after Mickey from Doctor Who, because initially he just hung around being annoying, but stuck around until I ended up loving him.
  • My favourite Springsteen songs today are Glory Days, Prove it all Night, Backstreets, Cadillac Ranch and Sherry Darling. I will probably have an entirely different five tomorrow.
  • My favourite European city so far has been Vienna.
  • I drove 2500 miles across the American midwest a few years back, and loved it. My favourite memory was a girl waitressing in a tiny town in Nebraska who was all 'oh my GOD!!! You're from ENGLAND?? Why on earth are you in CROFTON??? And have you been to Chicago?? It's my dream to go there!'
  • I won a goldfish at the fair once, and he lived for over 15 years. He was called Michael.
  • I taught gold medal winning heptathlete Jessica Ennis for a while when she was in Year 7 (age 11-12) and she was lovely. She won everything at the school sports day.
  • I did ballet all through my teens, and miss it a lot. 
Robin Sparkles Questions
1. What/who inspired you to start blogging about nail art and where do you get your inspiration for nail art from?
 I had been reading blogs for several months, and started to feel that I wanted to get involved. Inspiration comes from other blogs (I read lots) and from my imagination - sometimes from copying my clothes, or things I see round and about in my daily life.

2. Do you blog about anything other than nail art and how long have you been blogging for? 
I have a Live Journal blog for real life stuff, which is Friends Only. I've had a paid account on there for YEARS - just checked, and I started in 2004!

3. What is the top thing on your "wish list" you would want if you could be given one thing for free today? 
I'm not sure I understand the question - if you mean a free item, then I'd be happy with anything, a cake, bottle of wine, nail varnish, coffee... If it's an imaginary wishful thinking type thing, then longer legs, curly hair, endless money, that sort of thing. Oooh wait! Tickets to Springsteen at Wrigley Field in September please!

4. Favourite nail art technique? (Water  marbling, stamping, gradient etc.) 
I haven't really tried any of these. Well, I tried water marbling once and found it difficult and messy, and I'm not keen on the look anyway. Stamping is something I've never tried, and gradients look pretty on some people but again, I've never tried. I tend to like just painting my nails. Although I do like using tape.

5. What are your favourite 3 nail polish colours & brands at the moment? 
Currently Barry M (especially for cremes), China Glaze, and Nails Inc.

6. What are your hobbies other than nail art blogging? 
I do (well, I do when I'm not injured, currently I have a poorly foot) modern jive dancing and some tango, I like walking, I read a lot, and I like cooking and Bruce Springsteen.

7. What software do you use to edit your pictures before uploading them to your blog? 
Adobe Photoshop Elements - mostly I just crop and resize a bit.

8. What software do you use to watermark your photos before uploading them to your blog?
I don't.

9. How often do you paint your nails and how do you keep them in tip-top condition? 
Not always every day, but usually at least every other day. My nails seem pretty healthy. I use OPI Nail Envy as a basecoat all the time, and I love China Glaze peppermint cuticle oil.

10. What is your favourite design you've blogged? 
I don't know... maybe my Crucible theatre doors.

11.  What is your favourite film and favourite book of all time?
That's crazy, I can't pick one! Although having said that, I'm not much of a film person, I much prefer books. Favourite films today would include The English Patient, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, The Breakfast Club and Strictly Ballroom, although I'll think of loads of other good ones later. Favourite books would include Winnie the Pooh, The God of Small Things, Persuasion, Cold Comfort Farm, Lord of the Rings, Sophie's World... 

Crimsonsoulfire's Questions:
1. City girl or Country girl?
Country girl! I grew up in a very very rural area, and spent my time climbing trees, playing in fields and round streams and so on. It was great when it snowed! It was a bit of a pain as a teenager, with a lack of cinemas, chip shops or other teenagers, but I am really grateful for it now. I have lived in cities, and they were fun for a while when I was younger, but I prefer somewhere more rural now. Where I am now is perfect, because it's not as remote as where my parents are, and I do have things like shops and takeaways, and it's not far to Manchester airport, or Sheffield for the snooker, but I can also get to the countryside very quickly.
 

2. What is your favorite color?
Depends! I couldn't say I had one really. For nails - maybe gold. For clothes, maybe black or red. For hair - red!  
 

3. What is your favorite scent?
I am currently alternating between Jo Malone Pear & Freesia, and Jo Malone White Lilac & Rhubarb.  
 

4. What is your favorite sound?
The opening chords to the opening song at a Springsteen concert, and the huge roar of 60000 people around me who recognise them and know all the words.
 
5. If you won one million dollars, what would you do with the money?
*checks* Apparently this is about  £637,000. I'd hire some financial advice. Pay off my mortgage, make sure my parents have plenty. Give some to my old primary school, especially if they'll spend it on a library, give some to the Observatory in Dundee (I have fond memories) and get my kitchen done. And hire someone to mow my lawn.
 
6. What is your favorite wild animal, and why?
Um... Weasels are cute. 
  
7. Briefly describe one of your favorite memories?

hm... I'm struggling with this one to be honest. I have lots of great memories, but like strangers' dreams, they're probably not very interesting to other people.
  
8. If you could pick one language that you were fluent in, what would it be and why?

Swedish, so that I could read the Wallander books in the original, and watch Krister Henriksson without needing the subtitles.
  
9. If you won a trip for two to Floston Paradise, would you go?

*googles* Nope, still none the wiser, sorry.
 
10. Who do you consider to be your hero, and why?

I don't consider anyone to be my hero, to be honest. There are lots of people I admire, but I wouldn't say any of them was my hero.
  
11. What is your favorite architectural style?

I like buildings! I really like weird buildings. Style wise I suppose I lean more towards modernist - I have really really liked the Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier buildings I've seen, but then I also really liked some of the Gaudi buildings in Barcelona (not so much the crazy ornate bits, but the plainer, simpler ones) and I love the look of the Calatrava buildings like the art gallery in Milwaukee. But then again, I loved the Hundertwasser buildings in Vienna, and there's nothing simple or plain about them. So another concise, clear answer there, sorry.

Jane's Questions:


1. How did you get into nail blogging, and why do you continue?
I've mostly answered this above, I think.

2. Whats your favourite brand of nail polish and why?
Barry M do great cremes, very pigmented and glossy and smooth, and last well. And cheap. I like China Glaze a lot too, especially their shimmery/glittery ones. 

3. How do you get a perfect manicure?
I don't! Not by a long way!
 
4. What 3 products (nail/beauty related) could you not live without?
I could live perfectly happily without any of them. But I would like to have Seche Vite topcoat, Opi Nail Envy and a glass nail file available.
5. What 3 other material items could you not live without?
Apart from the obvious such as air and food and a large glass of wine at the end of day, I'll say a decent bra, my camera and my mouse, Petit B'lin.
blin midi 7

6. If you could create a colour what would it be like?
I think all the colours already exist, don't they?? Unless you mean a nail varnish colour, in which case... no, they all already exist! My imagination is a bit mad, but it's not that good!
 
7. What colour polish do you have most of in your collection?
GOLD!
8. If you were an animal, what would you be?
Something lazy I suppose, like a cat.
 
9. What inspires your nail art?
It can be anything. My own imagination, bits of stuff I see around in daily life (there was a pretty cool vandalised wall I saw yesterday, dark blue matte paint with shiny black gloss paint spattered all over it, and I thought it would look good on nails), my clothes (I quite often do stripes to match my tops, I do love stripy clothes!) and of course, other nail blogs.
 
10. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?
PEANUT BUTTER M&Ms!!!
 
11. What tips would you give to nail bloggers starting out?
Take better photos!  No really - unless you're The Nailasaurus or Scrangie or Nihrida, you need to take better photos! And I include myself in that. But don't hold your hand like a claw, don't show the mess on your bedroom floor in your photo, please crop out all the wasted space, don't put up photos that look as though you've just dipped your fingers straight in the bottle! Make sure the light is clear enough to see the actual nail varnish, and make sure your photos are in focus!   
Then, don't spam all the other blogs! Follow lots of blogs, and actually read them and comment, join in debates. If people keep seeing your name, they will click on and to your blog. Don't just drop links to your blog on other people's blogs though, because they'll either get deleted or ignored. 

I definitely recommend this post by Sammy at The Nailasaurus, as well as this one and this one by Kayla Shevonne.

So finally I need to tag people - but everyone I know has already been tagged I think! So if you're following me and would like to have a go, drop me a comment here and I'll tag you with some questions! 

1. Not a nail blogger, but I'm tagging my lovely friend Lorraine at Squeaky Baby. She blogs about STUFF THAT ISN'T NAILS!! :o but is also a nail polish ninja and keeps finding dusty hidden stashes of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in bargain basements. 

11 questions for you:
  1. New York or London?
  2. Salad cream - work of the devil or not?
  3. Celebrity chef of your choice to call round later today and cook you dinner, and will also stay and eat it with you - who do you choose? 
  4. You spill food all down your front but have to go out - change your clothes and be late, or go out with beans stains?
  5. Cats or dogs?
  6. Are baby elephants the cutest things on earth?
  7. Best bit of the Olympics this year?
  8. Maple syrup on bacon - genius, or evil?
  9. You can have a free holiday to anywhere on earth, but you have to go tomorrow and on your own - where do you pick?
  10. How well would you cope if you were stranded on a desert island?
  11. If you could swap part of your body, but only part, for anyone else's, which part and who's would you swap?
 
  


 



6 comments:

  1. *cough*

    *is not a nail blogger, but even so.*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will get onto it this evening, once a small menace is asleep and I have inspiration/gin.

      Delete
    2. No hurry! Small menaces come first.

      Delete
  2. Hi I have tagged you for the liebster award :3 I apologise since you have already done one :)
    http://justtalknails.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-liebster-award.html

    This is such a cute mani too :3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooh thank you! And a new blog to investigate, thank you! I might not do this immediately, work is manic busy this week, but I will do it. :)

      Delete

I absolutely love comments! But please don't spam me with links to your sales website here!.

If you have a blog that you'd like me to check out, then I'm more than happy to do so - just drop me an email. Thanks!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...