Awards, Oh My

The fabulous Brinda Berry awarded me not one but two awards. Be sure to check out her site and blog where she blogs under the tag: YA Fiction, hang on for a wild ride. If you’re looking for a summer read be sure to check out The Waiting Booth (Whispering Woods) followed by Whisper of Memory (Whispering Woods). I don’t think you’ll regret stepping into Mia’s world.

Brinda, thank you for the awards!

The Sunshine Award

Is You Are My Sunshine playing in your head? Or is that just me?

• Favorite color: I don’t really have a favorite but I do gravitate toward greens for the house and corals for myself.
• Favorite animal: I’m an animal lover in general. In the wild, sea otters, they are so playful. For pets, definitely dogs over cats.
• Favorite number: I’ve got a thing for even numbers but can’t say I have a favorite.
• Favorite drink: As much as I love my coffee, TEA.
• Facebook/Twitter Locations: Facebook / Twitter
• Favorite passion: Reading. I’ll read almost anything and love escaping into other worlds.
• Giving or Receiving: Giving, definitely.
• Favorite pattern: I have to agree with Brinda on this answer…Toile. There’s just something elegant and romantic about it to me.
• Favorite day of the week: Sunday.
• Favorite flower: Tiger Lily. It was my grandmother’s favorite. According to her it meant ‘wealth and pride’ and she always said we were family wealthy and country proud. I don’t know if she was right but it struck a cord that remains today.

Fabulous Blog Ribbon

Five fabulous writing moments:

1. Having the amazing Joely Sue Burkhart take me under her wing and meet me D&E every morning.
2. The spark of a new idea.
3. When it all comes together, like a jigsaw puzzle not missing any pieces.
4. When the right word comes without help from the Thesaurus.
5. Writing “the end” on a first draft.

Five things I love about writing…

1. Brainstorming a new idea.
2. Characters who won’t shut up.
3. Getting in the zone and not being able to stop.
4. The fabulous writers I’ve meet online!
5. Learning something new with each draft.

Five things I hate about writing…

1. Characters who won’t shut up.
2. Revisions.
3. Not finding that missing piece to the jigsaw puzzle.
4. Edits.
5. Oh, and more edits.

I’m going to take a page out of Brinda’s book and award both the Sunshine Award and the Fabulous Blog Ribbon to five writers. And because she says it so wonderfully…

Why? Because these writers certainly spread sunshine with their words. Their blogs are wonderful, and they are Fabulous Blog Ribbon worthy. They are welcome to indulge us with answers to the questions above if they like. Please go visit these bloggers and see why they are so special!

Natalie Hartford
Melanie Macek
Nadja Notariani
August McLaughin
Claire Hennessy

Beautiful Blogger Award: More Randomness About Moi

The lovely and talented Melanie nominated me for this award.

Melanie Macek
May 06, 2012 @ 12:43:56 [Edit]

…Oh, I nominated you for the Beautiful Blogger award! Stop by Tuesday to get the deets.‎

Thanks so much Mel!

The rules are:

The Beautiful Blogger Award is for those blogs that are creative, original and add to the blogging community. You’re supposed to bestow it on seven people and here’s the “rules:” I say, no worries if you’re a rule-breaker, then just put the award on your blog.

• Link to the creative, beautiful genius that bestowed it upon you.
• List seven random things about yourself.
• Send said award to seven (or how ever many you want) other creative, beautiful geniuses.
• Tell those lucky people that you’ve done this and give em’ the rules.

Oh boy, more random facts to come up with, bet I make you hungry this time

1. You will never see me eat one of these –
   

   source

2. I’d much rather have this –
   

   Chocolate Saucepan Brownies

   Maybe not the whole pan in one sitting And because I love you guys the recipe is below.

3. Tea, in any form, is probably my favorite drink.
4. That’s not a cheese…
   

   source

   THAT’S a cheese…

   

   source

5. This is one of my favorite dinners –
   

   Chicken Enchiladas

6. BBQ is also pretty high on the ol’ list of favorites, which That Man is doing right now as I type and schedule this post. The smells drifting up to me are drool-worthy.
7. Pie is, by far, my FAVORITE dessert. (Also on tonight’s menu…yum.)

Chocolate Saucepan Brownies

4 squares of unsweetened baker’s chocolate
2/3 cup oil
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt chocolate in saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Add oil. Beat in sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each one. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt, blending well. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour into greased 13X9 pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Cut into squares immediately. Then cool.

Wee Beastie Rating:

Since y’all are beautiful to me, tag, you’re it

Tea Time

Yesterday we talked pie. Today we’ll talk tea.

I come by my love of tea honestly, heck, it’s probably coded in my DNA. It is all that Scots and Welsh blood flowing through the veins. Even the wee beasties developed a love of tea at an early age. Nothing beats a cold morning like a warm cuppa.

Do you enjoy tea?

To brew that perfect pot of tea:

It’s easy. Even if you use :shudder: a tea bag. LOL, no I’m not that bad. Close

1. The kettle is what you boil the water in. The pot is what you steep the tea in, then pour from.
2. To properly prepare the teapot, you want to fill it with hot (as hot as you can get from your tap) water, to warm the teapot, while you boil the water.
3. Heat water to appropriate temperature in a tea kettle. Teas steep at slightly different temperatures. A White or Green tea at about 175 degrees; a Black or Oolong tea at 195 degrees; and an Herbal at around 200 degrees.
4. If you aren’t using tea bags, you’ll want to have a steeping ball or strainer basket/infuser for your teapot. Don’t worry if you don’t have a strainer basket or steeping ball, you can use a hand-held strainer as you pour to remove the leaves (unless you plan to read the leaves but that’s a whole other post).
5. Measure out your tea. On average, you need 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of loose tea per 8 oz of water. If you’re making an entire pot, don’t forget to add a teaspoon for the pot. (Remove the warming water before adding the tea.)
6. Pour the hot water in your teapot and steep for the recommended steep time.
7. Longer brewing does not equal stronger tea…just bitter tea. If you want a stronger tea add more tea. Teas steep for slightly different lengths of time to avoid bitterness. (Yes, I have the secret.) A Green or flavored White only needs about a minute. Black or Oolong need 2 to 3 minutes. A non-flavored white or herbal need 4 to 5 minutes.
8. And if you want to get fancy you can cover your teapot in a tea cozy, or place on a teapot warmer, to help keep the tea warmer longer.

How you drink your tea is up to you. A little lemon. A little honey. A little milk or cream. A little sugar. Some combo?

Now, don’t you just want to curl up with a slice of yesterday’s Apple Pie and a cuppa tea?

Believe it or not, brewing a cuppa was not the original plan for this post. This Tea Towel was.

I grew up with a very English Nana, Grandpa’s second wife, and despite what I said at the beginning of this post I owe my love of tea to them. My parents are coffee drinkers through and through, only breaking out the teapot when Grandpa and Nana came to visit. Nana’s kitchen displayed a number of printed Tea Towels. Some she’d picked up before WWII. Decorated Tea Towels and England just go together in my mind. All because of Nana.

But I’d never owned one. Strange when I think about it. I was in London and surrounding areas, yet failed to pick up one as a souvenir.

Then my beautiful mother-in-law sent me this one! Aw, she knows me so well

It is now hanging above my desk. I look at it and smile. I smile for my Scottish ancestry. I smile for the memories a printed Tea Towel invokes.

Curling my fingers around a warm cup of tea and listening to stories from another generation’s childhood/young adulthood. Grandpa’s cherry tobacco as he puffs away on his pipe. Nana puttering around in the kitchen, canning the best Pickled Beets and Bread-n-Butter Pickles from the veggies Grandpa grew in the garden. Gathered around their kitchen table, staying up late, so they could teach me how to play Bridge, a skill sadly gone rusty since they passed. I owe my teapot collection to Nana too, but perhaps that is a post for another day