Liebster Award nomination

So last night the lovely Natasha from Kissmet Beauty, nominated me for a Liebster Award. Thanks so much to Natasha for the nomination and since I’m all for spreading the love, I will make sure to spread the nomination love to some other lovely bloggers. Plus if you’d like to find out a few personal facts about me, then make sure to read this post.

Before I was nominated, I didn’t really know what this meant. I have been blogging for 3.5 years and I had heard of this award, but was unaware of what it entails. So the idea is that you follow a set of rules and it’s a way for smaller blogs (with fewer than 200 – 500 followers) to gain some more exposure. The rules have changed a bit over time, but if you’d like some more information about the concept, you can find those here. The rules I’m following are:

• Make a post about the Liebster Award & thank the blogger who nominated you
• State 11 interesting facts about yourself
• Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you
• Nominate 5 – 11 new bloggers with 500 followers or less (make sure you tell them they’re nominated!)
• Write 11 new questions for your nominees

1.) 11 random facts about me:

1. I’m a wannabe bibliophile. I love books, but I have too little time to read. So I end up buying books, which then sit on my shelf for years before I actually get around to reading them. It’s not like I don’t like to read, it’s just that it takes a certain mindset before I pick up a book. And once I pick one up, I NEED to finish it before I can start anything else.
2. One of the reasons I get around to reading so little, is because I am a huge music junkie. I know, everbody likes music, but I tend to play music every waking moment. It helps me to focus and I love finding new music. Be it old gems I didn’t know about yet, or some wacky indie electronic extravaganza: if I don’t know it, I’m happy to try it. Hence I have an extensive music collection (50,000 songs and counting) which keeps on growing.
3. Dance is my life. I have been taking dance classes since I was 6 years old and miss it the minute I can’t make it. It makes me feel free and it allows me to do something with my body that is so completely different from day to day things. It helps me to relax, forget about life for an hour a week and work muscles that you don’t work out when you’re going to a gym.
4. I didn’t become interested in make up and beauty products until I had graduated college. I found that waking up at 6 AM wasn’t beneficial to the bags under my eyes and thus started wearing make up to cover up my puffy dark circles.
5. My preferred sleeping position is on my stomach with my arms and legs sprawled out. I sleep in a kingsize bed all by myself and manage to take up 2/3 of the space. I swear if you’d trace my outline, it would look like the outline of someone who jumped off a high building to commit suicide
6. I’ve been a teacher for 8 years and I’m not even 30 yet (I will be in July though! Yikes!). I’ve always had paid jobs and started as an NT2 teacher (Dutch for Foreign nationals) when I was still a student. I then worked as an English teacher at a secondary school for 2 years, then another 3 years as an English language skills teacher at a college and I am currently working at a teacher trainer course where I teach anything from English Skills to Linguistics.
7. I crave knowledge to an extent that is not healthy for a single person. I love learning new things and I get bored the minute I know how things work or starts to become a routine. It’s why I put myself through university one more time from 2010 to 2013 while working a 32 hour job on the side.
8. I am quite adventurous. I not only love to learn new things, I also like to do new things, meet new people and go to places I haven’t been to before. And preferably I do all that by myself too. Hence my 30 day trip around the US in 2008 which took me to 6 different cities and had me do things I had never done before. Like what? Take a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon, ride a quad through the Nevada desert and hike up to the Griffith Park Observory in LA.
9. I am a very sociable person. I can talk to anyone at any time about anything. In order to be able to do that I require a lot of me time. As bubbly and energetic as I may seem when I’m around people, the more laidback I am at home. My perfect Friday or Saturday night is me, my couch and a big pot of tea. Throw in some music, a movie or a book and I am one happy bunny.
10. Currently, I am not in the best spot as I am home from work with a burn out. As you could read yesterday, I am on the way out of that, but I am still working on getting better. It is a very common ‘teacher thing’ to get this at a certain point in your life. This is my second time. In five years. And it has me doubt whether I still want to be a teacher. I know I am good at my job and I love working with students. But sometimes I can’t help but wonder: is there anything else I could do?
11. My blog is in English because it’s the only language I’ve pretty much used on the Internet. Back in 1999 when I first discovered Internet, there were hardly any Dutch language websites around and so I associate being online with doing things in English. Add in my frequent visits to online discussion boards, chatrooms and whathaveyounots from the days before social media existed and I don’t know any better than life online is conducted in that wonderful language that I fell in love with when I was 14 years old.

2.) Natasha’s questions:

1. When did you start your blog and what made you decide to start it?

I wanted to write! I missed writing as part of my daily life. I simply love to write. Whether it’s blog posts, module guides, PPTs, letters of application… I don’t care. As long as I get to create a text, I’m good. I’m not much of a writer for fiction though, so a blog was ideal for writing down my musings on topics I cannot discuss on a daily basis with colleagues, friends and family. Oh and I started my blog in September 2010, coming up 4 years this year!

2. What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever done?

Wildest thing… I’m not super wild, but I have my moments. Back in my clubbing days when I was 18, I was the chick who danced on tables/ the bar/ on stage/ whatever. And I did all that without a single drop of alcohol in my system. I preferred dancing over drinking and so I was a complete teetotal during my clubbing days.

3. Do you have a bucket list and if so, can you name some of the things that are on it?

I tried making one, but I can’t thing of anything good to put on it. Not because I don’t have anything that I would like to do some day, but somehow writing them down makes them so final and I am afraid I’d become disappointed in myself if I don’t manage to do them. I’d rather just dream about it and keep it to myself rather than putting it out there.

4. What’s your favorite season?

Despite my hayfever: spring. Or fall. Summer is too hot and also has the busiest time of the year for me as a teacher. Winter is just too cold for me. Spring and fall are nicely in between them. I love spring because of the weather and daylight. I love fall because I love getting cozy on my couch with TV series and a big cup of tea, which is perfect for rainy, grey days. Plus I generally like spring and fall fashion most too! I find it allows me to wear whatever I like rather than having to stick to breezy dresses or my thickest sweater.

5. If you could choose only ONE cosmetic item to use for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Mascara. Because mascara makes everything better.

6. If you visit any place in the entire world, where would it be?

New York. I fell in love with that city when I was 19 years old and I have been there 6 times in total. That’s more than London (my other favorite place). When it comes to new places I would love to visit South Africa, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Egypt. Closer to home I’d love to visit Italy, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia.

7. What country do you reside in?

The Netherlands. (No, it’s not called Holland for anyone who’s NOT from here).

8. What are some of your hobbies?

Well I write about my hobbies on this blog, so anything I have EVER talked about on this blog is a hobby of mine. But to sum it up: dancing, cooking, work outs at the gym, reading, music, concerts, make up/ beauty, fashion, shopping (if that counts), sleeping (if that counts), watching TV series/ movies, traveling.

9. Who’s your favorite band and/or musician?

It used to be very easy: Backstreet Boys were my favorite band from 1996 till 2009. I kinda fell out of love with them, but I recently found out that they’ll forever have a spot in my music loving heart. By now, I don’t have one particular artist that I love to pieces. It changes from day to day. I generally listen to newly released bits and bobs mostly and most of it indie or not radio friendly things. But I also listen to plenty of music that precedes my date of birth. Some artists I love: The Beatles, The Who, Angus & Julia Stone, Arcade Fire, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, the Black Keys, Pink Floyd, James Vincent McMorrow, Johnny Cash, Journey, Duran Duran, Laura Marling, Nirvana, Eels, REM, Marvin Gaye, Florence & The Machine, Purity Ring, Tennis, Bob Dylan, Jacques Brel, Muse, Michael Jackson, Vampire Weekend, Marcus Foster, Ray Charles, Johnny Flynn, Justin Nozuka, Snow Patrol, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, etc. etc. etc.

10. If you could choose anyone in the world to meet (dead or alive), who would it be and why?

Pff I hate this question. Because I’ve never been able to find an answer I’m satisfied with. Quite possibly, Edgar Allan Poe because he’s one of my favorite authors.

11. What is your greatest passion in life?

Greatest passion? Easy: dance & music. Luckily those two things go hand in hand.

3.) People I’m nominating

4.) 11 questions for these 11 fabulous ladies to answer (in both Dutch and English to make life easier on all of you).

1. Why did you start your blog? / Waarom ben je je blog begonnen?
2. What is your favorite place? / Wat is je favoriete plek?
3. What beauty product would you suggest to anyone in a heartbeat? / Welk beauty product kun je aan iedereen aanraden?
4. What is the best experience of your life? / Wat was je beste ervaring tot nu toe?
5. Favorite music? / Favoriete muziek?
6. If you’d win 1000 dollars in gift vouchers, at which store would you spend it and what would you buy? / Als je 1000 euro shoptegoed zou winnen, waar zou je het geld uitgeven en wat zou je ermee kopen?
7. Favorite magazines? / Favoriete tijdschriften?
8. Do you have a ‘pamper routine’, if so, what is it? / Heb je een ‘verwen routine’ en hoe ziet die eruit?
9. What’s your quirky habit? / Noem een aparte gewoonte van je.
10. What will your life be like in 10 years? / Hoe ziet je leven er over 10 jaar uit?
11. Favorite childhood memory?/ Beste herinnering van vroeger?

That’s it! Those are my questions and I hope these 11 wonderful ladies are willing to take up the tag and haven’t done this before.