Monday, March 1

Posted by Laurel Garver on Monday, March 01, 2010 31 comments
I'm thankful to be the recipient of so much blog love lately. It's rather overwhelming, really. Here are some of the kind surprises I've received.

I received the Sugar Doll Award from Carol at Carol's Prints. She is an insightful reader, a stunningly talented writer and shares my love of word play. Thanks, Carol!

Since it is Lent, I'm going to half the recipe here, and share five things about me and pass to five blogging sweeties. You all are welcome to go for the full ten if you wish.

Five completely random things about me:

1. If I had the financial means, I would buy a marimba and a horse.

2. I am the youngest of five kids and my siblings are 5, 15, 17 and 19 years older than I am.

3. I got really terrible TMJ after having my wisdom teeth out at 13 and had to wear a night guard appliance for years. I named it “George.”

4. In high school, I dressed up one Halloween as the headless horseman, got my pal Sue to be the grim reaper and we spent the evening jumping out from behind bushes scaring little kids.

5. I toured one summer with a music ministry team from college. We decided it would be a great idea to adopt some kittens, and keep them in the van while we drove around all summer.

I pass the Sugar Doll award along to the following sweeties:
Amber at Musings of Amber Murphy keeps me young with her zingy humor and won't stop calling me "adorable." (blushingspice!)
Elle at Elle Strauss, author has been a consistent voice of kindness and support and I'm thrilled to my toes that she recently signed with an agent!
Jemi at Just Jemi takes proverbial Canadian niceness to new heights.
Shannon at Book Dreaming is always inspirational and a super-sonic encourager.
Tricia at Talespinning pairs poetry and photos with writing tips and keeps me in touch with all things lyrical.


I accept with thanks the Quillfeather Award from Jemi at Just Jemi, who is one of the coolest chicks in the blogosphere, IMO.

This one comes with a handsome rooster that reminds me of my farmy childhood. They are vicious critters, chickens, if you ever happen to get closely acquainted with them. You really don't want to watch them establish pecking order. Nor see a flock of chicks feed from a round dish instead of a long, skinny one. Not pretty.

The rules for this award are to share how you like your eggs cooked and pass the award on to some other cool chicks.

I like my eggs sunny-side up, with the whites nice and crispy. After a quick steam at the end to finish the top whites, serve with a buttery English muffin to dip in the yolk. (This is my supper most Sunday nights. Yum!)

I pass it along to the following cool chicks:
Aubrie at Flutey Words site is always piping up with a tuneful note of encouragement or praise.
Kristi Faith at Random Acts of Writing plays Mad Libs on her blog! Too kewl!
Nisa at Wordplay, Swordplay mixes funny kid stories with tales of valor.
Tess at Tess Himlo is full of inspiration and goes wild with fun font faces.


And thanks to Mediea at Mediea Sharif for the Creative Writer Award! Her YA novel The Bestest Ramadan Ever, due out in 2011, looks fascinating.

I hereby bequeath this award to the following creative souls:
Karen at Novels During Naptime always has some fun going on, whether nostalgia for 80s TV or snippets from her playful writing.
Mary at Play off the Page has journal prompts with every entry--a wonderful idea-generator when you're feeling stuck or burned-out.
Nicole at One Significant Moment at a Time knocks my socks off with teasers of her work every Tuesday.

These are no-pressure awards. Pass them along as you see fit. Just know I appreciate you all!

The anticipation builds for my Eleventy-one contest celebration. Part 1 includes a random drawing--all you have to do is be a follower. The first 111 automatically get two entries. Come join the party! I'll announce all the details once I hit eleventy-one followers.
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31 comments:

  1. Congrats to you! Fun awards there. A marimba, i had to look it up but sounds pretty cool.

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  2. Aw, that is sweet, thanks, and congratulations to you for all that love. You want a marimba? That is fascinating and I'd love to the know the story behind that.

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  3. COngratulations on all the awards Laurel! We do have a wonderful blog community- I feel so blessed.

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  4. Wow, thanks for the award! I've never seen this one before and I'm so excited to get it.

    You said you were in music ministry: did you sing or play an instrument?

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  5. GWOE: Hee hee. It is an obscure instrument for sure, and as expensive as a piano! If you can find sound clips, you'll see why I love it. So lovely and mellow.

    Tricia: You're welcome! We had an awesome student teacher for band my senior year of HS who brought every imaginable mallet percussion instrument to my school. I started learning to play with 4 mallets (VERY hard) and fell in total love with marimba. It's sort of how I imagine Ents would make music--woody and resonant.

    Tamika: Thanks! Hope the links lead you to some new friends.

    Aubrie: You're welcome! The college music ministry thing was singing (soprano II). I was in band in high school--a mallet percussionist.

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  6. Congrats to you and the winners! I can't wait to check out these new links!

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  7. Thanks, Laurel! You are awesome and I truly love your blog. :-)

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  8. Oh, how fun! Thanks, Laurel.

    And your 5 random things have me rolling on the floor laughing. :)

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  9. Congrats! And thanks for not passing the Sugar Doll award on to me. :)

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  10. Bethany: Thanks! Have fun making new friends!

    Shannon: You are a super-sweetie. Thanks for just being you.

    Karen: You're welcome. Yes, I have a bad mischievous streak--part of the territory of being last-born.

    I just can't understand Philadelphia's rule against keeping farm animals in the city. A horse would fit very comfortably in my detatched garage. I suppose the neighbors would complain about the manure since our property is only 18 feet wide and our houses are all attached. LOL.

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  11. Simon: for you, I think we'd need to invent a new award. Something macho and Hemingway, perhaps.

    BTW, you did win my superior shout-out award for the blogfest. If you'd like, you can use the 10-page crit as a prize for your own blog. Looks like you'll hit 200 followers soon.

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  12. You are getting so close to eleventy-one! Yea! Congrats on all the awards and thank you for thinking of me! I haven't seen the Quillfeather Award before. Hope you're having a great Monday!

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  13. aw, thanks! I am a font-a-holic.

    and, love love 'George'. You MUST work that into a novel somewhere. It's painful and and so funny all at the same time.

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  14. Nisa: You're welcome. Have fun with it.

    Tess: I always feel your enthusiasm and fun-ness in every post. You bring wonderful energy to the blogosphere.

    "George" came about because I got sick of saying the 3-syllable "appliance." I ripped the name off from the Loony Toons Abominable Snowman who constantly says, "I want to hug him and squeeze him and pet him and call him 'George.'" LOL.

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  15. Awards are fantastic!! Congratulations! Well deserved!

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  16. Congrats on all the awards. I had to look up what marimbas are, and I wouldn't mind having one either.

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  17. Congratulations on all the deserving blog awards! Thanks for thinking of me for the sugar doll. That's so sweet. (pun intended :)

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  18. Congrats on all the lovely awards. :) Very cool for you.

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  19. Thank you so much. You are sending creative sparks to ME!

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  20. Congrats on all your awards! They will look lovely in your sidebar. Especially the Quillfeather Award :)

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  21. Thanks so much Laurel!! :) You're a sweetie to think of me.

    Congrats on these awards! Well deserved.

    I hope the kittens enjoyed their trip in the van!

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  22. Congratulations to you and the new winners too!
    Have a happy week! :)

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  23. Jen: Thanks so much.

    Mediea: Thanks again for the Creative Writer. Marimbas are the smooth dadddy of the mallet percussion world. :-)

    Elle: You're quite welcome. Hope your March Madness is wonderfully productive.

    Sarahjayne: Thanks, dear!

    Mary: Creativity begets more creativity, right?

    Wendy: Such a lovely one you created. I remember admiring handsome guys like your award badge rooster at the country fair. My family raised really boring, mean-spirited white chickens that laid brown eggs. Bleh.

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  24. You are so kind. Thank you for the lovely words. You are most deserving of all these awards, so congratulations! And how fun would a marimba be! Very cool. My daughter is a talented piano player--I wonder how well that would transfer to the marimba. It seems laid out almost like an organ.

    And just for the record, I find it hard to believe that you spent a Halloween scaring little kids. This seems so unlike you! Oh my word! Laurel!!! ha! I guess you just never can tell what to expect from a person. But if you tell me you spend your Friday nights t-peeing houses, I think I'll still have to be a little stunned.

    Those eggs sounds DEEEEEEELicious.

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  25. Jemi: you're most welcome. Would it please you to know my hubby has been singing "O Canada" constantly for the past 2 days? (Um, yeah, he's American. Though we have vacationed up there several times. And we have a niece in Ottawa and one in Montreal.)

    The kittens got a lot of love, though keeping pets on the road is tough. Especially when they got fleas! And we suspect it was TOTALLY against the school rules to have animals in the college van. Call it harmless Christian kid hijinks. :-)

    Karen: Thanks so much! It is a nice way to begin the week. Happy March to you!

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  26. Carol: Um, we totally went out TP-ing houses. Are you kidding me? I grew up in boring nowheresville. Pranks were the highlight of our weekends, especially because I was otherwise an honor-roll, youth group, straight-edge goody-goody. The Halloween thing was pretty harmless, really. Not like we stole the kids' candy. It was just funny to make 'em scream. I have a very deep mischievous streak--part of the territory of being last-born.

    Your daughter could pick up mallet percussion fairly quickly--same layout as a piano. She'd just need an instructor to teach her how to use the mallets. I learned xylophone in a few months after several years of piano. The malleting skills transfer to any of the keyboard instruments: xylophone, bells, glockenspiel, marimba and vibraphone.

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  27. Aw, sug. You deserve every blog award ever created.

    Thanks for passing the sugar doll award my way. You are too kind.

    Zingy humor? Now I am the one who is blushingspice!

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  28. Congratulations to you! Thank you for stopping by. I'm so happy you did! Good luck with your writing. I look forward to checking in often. Oh, and thanks for sharing your story of your cat. I love it!

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  29. Amber: Thanks and you are most welcome. I plan to do the tag thingy Saturday.

    CTM: It was great to find you. Thanks for following, and best wishes for your writing also.

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  30. Congrats on the awards. How many kittens were in the van?

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  31. Southpaw: Two cuties, a tabby and a tiger. We tried to leash train them, which was hilarious. I think we had them with us for just the last three weeks of the tour, then they went to one of the alto's homes to live.

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