Shortlisted for National UK Blog Awards

03 Monday Feb 2014

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I woke up this morning to an email from the National UK Blog Awards 2014 telling me that this blog has been shortlisted in the Arts & Crafts category! Whoo-hoo! What a way to start a Monday?!

I’m so extremely happy and grateful to each and every one of you who took the time to vote for my blog. Getting shortlisted can only happen if the public voted for you – no amount of smooching judges or even luck, can make it happen: you guys voted for crochet and made it happen! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So what’s next? The ten blogs in each category will by judged by industry experts from 4 to 24 February. In the Arts & Culture category those experts are Claire Barlow, Regional Manager at Arts & Business North West and Richard Moss, Editor at Culture24.

Below are the other nine blogs in my category. They cover really interesting topics ranging from urban culture, to unsung musical heroes to Victorian literature. I’ve already signed up to follow two of the blogs. (Before you ask, no it has nothing to do with “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”, the blogs are just really interesting. Honest!)

The Secret Victorianist http://www.secretvictorianist.com
The Glamour Cave http://theglamourcave.blogspot.co.uk/
Sci-Fi Drama Queen http://www.scifidramaqueen.com
The Taylor Trash http://www.thetaylortrash.com
Simon’s 10 Q Interviews http://www.simonduringer.com/blog/
Interesting Literature: A Library of Literary Interestingnesshttp://interestingliterature.com/
Skyliner http://www.theskyliner.org
The Music Manual http://laurenmusicmanual.blogspot.co.uk
Urban Kultur Blog http://www.urbankulturblog.com

Good luck to you all, fellow shortlisters. I know it’s corny and lame but I’m going to say it anyway: I think it’s a huge deal and great accomplishment just to be shortlisted. Well done everyone!

My first ever blog award

06 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

≈ 7 Comments

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award, blog award, Liebster

Thanks to the wonderful Christelle of Haak-en-stekie, I received my first ever blog award today: a Liebster!

Christelle and I are joint administrators for an Afrikaans crochet page on Facebook, called OnsHekel (it means “We Crochet”). I think Christelle (probably) feels the same, but I would consider her a friend, even though we haven’t met in person – that’s the wonderful word of blogging and Facebook for you: shared passions link people together that would otherwise not have met. (Well we haven’t met face to face, but you know what I mean.)

Christelle’s blog (Afrikaans for “hook and stitch”) is written in both Afrikaans and English so don’t let the Afrikaans title put you off, and it’s full of lovely photos and inspiration. Please pay a visit and add it to your blogroll.

As I am now the (very proud) recipient of a Liebster, I have to follow the rules and give the award to five other blogs with less than 200 readers. By the way, Liebster is German for “dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome'”.

The full list of rules are:

Rule #1. You must acknowledge the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
Rule # 2. Give this award to 5 other bloggers. Please let them know through a comment on their blog.
Rule #3. Post this wonderful award on your blog.
Rule #4. Bask in the glory bestowed upon you and appreciate all the amazing bloggers out there.
Rule# 5. Enjoy and spread the good vibes around.

So here goes. My list of five blogs with 200 or less readers that I find “liebster” goes to:

Maudi Made: http://www.maudiemade.com/
Skyscrapers and String: http://silkelf.wordpress.com/
Little Messy La: http://littlemessyla.wordpress.com/
Not your average crochet: http://notyouraveragecrochet.wordpress.com/
Unbound: http://bonniejames.wordpress.com/

I don’t want to give summaries of these blogs – I want you to visit each and every one of them to see what they’re all about. I can however tell you that they are all creative, informative, interesting, personal and just a downright pleasure to read. Definitely deserving of a Liebster.

For the rest of the day I will be diligently executing rules no. 4 and 5.

Thanks again Christelle, you’ve made my day 🙂