So this was a lovely thing to wake up to on my Sunday morning! A super special THANK YOU to Mary from Mary’s Completely Average Adventures for the nomination!

The Award
The Liebster Award is an award given to new bloggers as a way to recognize them and to discover other new bloggers and welcome them to the blogosphere.

The Rules
1. Thank the person who nominated you and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. Display the award on your blog
3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers.
6. Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
7. List these rules in your post
8. Inform the blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster Award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

First things first, I’d like to nominate the following blogs. I’ve enjoyed them for quite a while and I think others should enjoy them as well!

Picture This Book – A lovely blog all about picture books! What more could you want?

Middle-Aged Martial Arts Mom – Follow this strong woman through her career as a martial artist and a mom.

Becca Basics – A blog my friend writes. Not only is it entertaining, it’s informative as well!

Your Health Matters – Fitness for your life!

Madman Extraordinaire – A somewhat out of date blog that I happen to know (on good authority) will soon be revisited with new direction and enthusiasm.

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Now I must answer questions about myself and then come us with questions for the fine fellows above!

1. What’s the first thing you do in the morning?
Press the snooze button! Contrary to what my followers may perceive to be true, I am not a morning person. Why do you think I have a double espresso every morning?

2. What is your favorite object in the whole world?
Very good question. My mother calls me a pack rat, though I’m much better at not keeping junk around than I used to be. I get attached to objects, what else can I say? Thus, as an answer, I’d say my favorite object could be my memory box. I actually have a few, one for every couple years or so, and they hold some of my dearest memories.

3. What is your favorite book?
Another good question! I rarely have an overall favorite (I read a lot, when I can) though there are two that I consistently recommend to people. Invisible Cities by Italio Calvino and A Glory of Unicorns, a compilation of short stories, are my two favorites. One is a fantastic journey across a world of dreams and reality– the other is a collection of touching stories, with a take on unicorns you might have never expected. My favorite story from those short ones is Tearing Down The Unicorns by Janni Lee Simner.

4. If you had to pick a famous person to be stuck with on a desert island who would you pick?
Leonardo Di Vinci for three reasons. First being that he is just awesome and I love him. Second– he’s a genius who would help me find a way OFF the island. The third reason is that he was a vegetarian and, if we were not able to find a way off, I wouldn’t have to worry about him resorting to cannibalism to survive.

5. Coffee or tea?
I do love both, though this IS a blog inspired by coffee so…. espresso!

6. What is your biggest dream/aspiration?
I want to become a world famous children’s book illustrator!

7. What is your best memory?
That’s a very tough one. I have a pretty awesome family so there are a lot of memories to choose from! I think, for the purpose of this post, I’ll go with the time I first realized I was actually living in Italy for four months. I had been there about a week before it finally hit me like a waterfall. The rush of joy and excitement I felt then frames one of my best memories.

8. What’s something you really want to do but you’re afraid of doing?
I really want to move to Boston and seriously start my career as a children’s book illustrator, though I am very apprehensive about doing so.

Don’t get me wrong, I WILL do it. I am just nervous about it.

9. What’s one blog you always look forward to reading and why?
My friend Bettina has a blog about her adventures living in Europe. It’s a personal journal only for family and friends though, so I didn’t nominate it here. I miss her greatly and love being updated.

10.  What’s the best thing about blogging for you?
I love it when people tell me how much they enjoy it. I do try and keep things heartfelt and/or entertaining, and it just makes my day when I find that people not only read it consistently, but really enjoy it as well!

11. What is your biggest pet peeve?
Haha, we’re ending on a sour note? I think my biggest pet peeve is when people use Times New Roman on things like fliers, or websites. It wasn’t invented for those purposes and makes things more difficult to read. Also, I’m a font nerd… So there’s that :p

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 11 facts about myself, huh? Here goes!

1. I am a competitive sailor during the summer! My position is foredeck.

2. I’m actually working on climbing the ranks of my second martial arts style. My first one I had to quit because I moved away (I was SO CLOSE to black belt!).

3. I am a critter person! Grew up with dogs, birds, guinea pigs, fish and, for a short time, tadpoles. Now I have a cat!

4. My cat has only one eye, is black and was a rescue animal! His name is Specter.

5. I don’t get a double espresso every morning. My doctor told me to cut back on caffeine so lately it’s been apple juice or camomile tea.

6. I enjoy chocolate up to 95%. My favorite is about 80%.

7. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design and Illustration, and a marketing minor.

8. I like pigeons. A lot. I think they’re adorable creatures.

9. My day job is working for my family’s company. We’re a proud family business 21 years old this year!

10. My favorite band of all time is Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

11. I’ve seen Bruce in concert 5 times and counting!

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Ooh, I get to come up with questions now, yeah?? BE AFRAID!

1. What is your favorite color and what do you think it says about you?

2. Do you think it’s cheating that I asked two questions and counted them as only one?

3. What was the last thing you did that scared you?

4. What do you do to de-stress?

5. Favorite food item? (could be a beverage as well)

6. What was your goal when starting your blog?

7. If you could give one piece of advise to your ten year old self, what would it be?

8. If you had the ability to go back in time and change one thing, would you?

9. Hot or Cold?

10. Do you have a business card for your blog?

11. Tell us your greatest accomplishment so far!