The Liebster Award!

Well, this is a pleasant surprise!  I was nominated by Jill at Crazy For Red for the Liebster Award.  Thank you, Jill! I’m really honored and excited, and hope the bloggers I nominate will feel the same way.

The Liebster award is given from bloggers to bloggers. To qualify, the blog must have less than 200 followers or be less than 6 months old. Once the award has been bestowed upon you, you may accept it and pass it along by writing a post with the following things:

1. List 11 random things about yourself.
2. Answer 11 questions posed by the nominator.
3. Choose 11 blogs to pass the award on to and link to them in your post.  You’ll need to notify them too, probably by a comment on their blog.
4. Create 11 questions for those 11 bloggers to answer.

 
My 11 random things:

1. I was once frisked by Dan Quayle’s Secret Service agents.  It doesn’t get much more random than that.
2. I was born in the Netherlands.
3. Both my parents were philosophy and history majors.  My mom was also an English major.  My dad has an earned doctorate in Theology.
4. I am a preacher’s kid and a blonde, and I’m on a lifelong quest to prove both of those stereotypes wrong.
5. I am a fourth-generation teacher (at least), following in my mom’s, her dad’s, and his mother’s footsteps.  Some stereotypes you just can’t fight against!
6. I have taught Latin to middle school students at a classical Christian school for 13 years now.
7. I have an irrational fear/dislike of talking on the phone.
8. I have a completely rational fear and dislike of snakes.
9. I am weirdly stubborn and tenacious.  Case in point: the Liebster award.  I thought I should trace it back to the great blogmother of all Liebster awards, but I kept hitting dead blogs and getting caught in infinite loops of YA teen paranormal romance book blogs.  I have discovered that the number and rules vary slightly: some people only nominate 5 blogs and don’t do random facts or questions. I’m not giving up, though.  The origins of the Liebster award meme are now my personal holy grail of blogging.
10. I am obsessive about some things.  Case in point: knitting.  I began knitting more than 10 years ago, and at first I said to myself, “it’s just the pregnancy hormones.  I’ll make a scarf or two and get it out of my system.”  Shortly after that I bought my spinning wheel and it has snowballed ever since.  My Ravelry queue has nearly 1500 items on it.  I don't think it's out of my system.
11. I aspire to be a polymath.  That means that I can’t stick to one subject, and my blog has what some might call multiple personality disorder.  I prefer to think of it as “eclectic.”  I aim to be the only blog in the universe that regularly posts on the subjects of knitting, quilting, spinning, book reviews, Down syndrome advocacy, politics, theology, history, classical education, grammar, literature, recipes, and Celtic folk music.

My 11 questions from my nominator:

1. Cat or Dog?  Definitely cat.  I have three.

2. What is your favorite TV show?  Probably Project Runway.

3. What color are the walls in your living room? “Butter”.  In fact, yellow is a theme in several rooms of the house.

4. What is the largest quilt you have made? I’ve made two king-sized quilts, one a Double Wedding Ring that was 104” square.  Here it is, a blast from 1998:

5. What are you listening to right now?  The dishwasher, and my 16-year-old son humming.

6. Do you use a mac or a pc?  A pc.  I am not wise in the ways of Apple.

7. How many states/countries have you lived in?  Let’s see: the Netherlands, 3 different houses in Ohio, Pennsylvania for college, 3 houses in Virginia, 2 houses in Colorado, and now Washington.  That’s 6 different regions and 11 different houses.

8. What is your favorite book?  Hard to pick, but my fallback is always The Lord of the Rings.

 

9. Who is the teacher who most influenced you and what did he/she teach?  Dr. Leon, my college French professor.  She made grammar fun, as I hope I do for my own students.

10. What is one thing you would stay up late to do?  Um, blog?  (It’s 11:18 as I type this).  I also stay up late to read a good book, sew or knit, or play a game or puzzle if it’s got my attention.  Basically, I like to stay up late because the house is quiet then, even if I pay for it the next day!

11. Did you play any sports in high school or college? If so, what?  I’m almost completely unathletic, but I do play a good game of ping-pong.

And now my 11 questions for my 11 nominees:

1. What do you like to blog about?
2. How did you get started blogging?
3. If you had a time machine, when and where would you go?  (You may assume for the sake of the question that no unfortunate paradoxes will be created by time travel if that makes you more comfortable!)
4. What is the next color that you would choose to paint a room or the exterior of your house?
5. Name a favorite fiction book.  Or two or three if you can’t pick.
6. Name a favorite nonfiction book.
7. What is your favorite genre of music or your favorite musician?
8. How many states/countries have you lived in?
9. A favorite teacher?
10. Favorite color?
11. Where would you like to go on vacation, if you could go anywhere?

My nominees are (drumroll, please):

Copperlight Wood
The Spinning Shepherd
Knittybutton
Hearthside
Blackberry Rambles
Life in Wotring Woods
Domestically Aware
The Elliott Homestead
Carpe Quiltem
Weekend Wisdom

Dee’s Doodles

Have fun, everyone! I don't mean this to be a high-pressure obligation, so no worries if you're unable to pass along the award.  Or if you take a couple of weeks to write the post, like me!