Sunshine Blogger Award, Many Thanks

Greetings Inter-world,

I write to you tonight from planet Thirteen, currently circulating  the Earth’s Moon for the last time before breaking orbit and heading towards Pluto. Yes, I know that’s not a planet anymore. Now, thank you to Belsbror for the nomination, here we go!

Rules: Post 11 facts about yourself, answer these 11 questions, and nominate 11 other blogs.

Anyone know why this award’s a fan of eleven? Just curious. Wonder if it has anything to do with numerology and the fact that 11 is a Master number, right next to 22. Hm, maybe not.

Facts: 

1. I am currently running on a Starbucks Doubleshot and Starbucks Refresher. Still feel like I haven’t slept in a month.
2. I have to pay the court $491 for something I didn’t do. Yay me. (Not much sunshine here, I’m afraid.)
3. I recently got addicted to Ghirardelli Dark & Caramel chocolates, they are AMAZING.
4. My stomach is rumbling, I need food. What to eat . . . suggestions?
5. I genuinely want to build a community with my blogs but am still struggling on how to achieve this, and grasp a complete definition of this term. What is community, and how do I get one? Again, suggestions?
6. I’m a Type B introvert that likes to present she’s a Type A social butterfly, at least at work anyway, because that’s how I make my money.
7. I am sometimes unsure of myself when writing, and have the horrible habit of self-censorship. Fighting this battle one step at a time.
8. I have a migraine at least every other day.
9. Customers at work have been known to walk up to the counter and ask: “Where’s Mary-had-a-little-lamb?”
10. I once had a woman ask me about framing a piece of artwork containing real human hair from the Victorian era. No freakin’ joke.
11. I’ve had lucid nightmares for the last week or so. I now have a new story arc thanks to them.

Questions: 

1. What is the first thing you do as soon as you wake up in the morning? Check my phone to be sure I’m not late for work or class, I’m notorious for oversleeping, especially near finals week. 

2. What is your greatest fear? There are too many to count, but at the moment: limiting myself. 

3. Do you have a new years resolution for 2014?  Yes, to be more myself and care less about being rejected by others. I am tired of being someone I’m not. 

4. What is your favorite song at the moment?  “Rule the World”, The Sunbeams’ tribute to Take That. (Saw Stardust again a few days ago.) 

5. What is your favorite childhood memory?  Middle School. Almost every morning the school librarian would threaten to kick us out if we didn’t tone the noise down. (Sometimes, she actually did.) 

6. What’s your favorite social media platform and why?  I have two: WordPress for it’s more serious bloggers, and its Publicize function; and Tumblr, because of all the awesome pen pals and snail mail blogs, and the fact that I can mindlessly surf it for hours. 

7. What did the last text message you received say? LOL 

8. What bugs you the most?  Noise, light, too many things to count. But I get by anyways. 

9. What do you consider to be the most important appliance in your house?  My laptop, hands down. Or, should I have answered the smoke detector? 

10. If you could have one song that would play whenever you entered a room, what would it be? Florence + the Machine’s “No Light, No Light.” 

11. What’s your favorite movie quote? “Hasta que el mundo dejara de girar.” (Until the world stops turning,” Pan’s Labyrinth.) I  just love this movie, quote, and the word “girar.” To me, it represents the belief of never surrendering. Until the world stops turning, keep on going towards your dreams and wishes. 

My nominees: (In no particular order.) 

Cee’s Photography 

Sincerely Kate 

5 minutes more please 

Woodclinched: for the love of wooden pencils 

Piyush Pujara 

Street of Dreams

A Holistic Journey (Just discovered this blog today!)

Leanne Cole Photography 

Suzie81 Speaks 

Kendall F. Person, thepublicblogger 

The Culture Monk 

Well, over and out!

My Newest Series!!

Hello All,

As some of you might have seen, I recently uploaded a post on my mail blog titled “Snailmail Roundup.” This will be a repeated post, and focuses on the mail I receive each week. However, I am also working on a serial post for this blog, which is called Blogging Tools

Now, there are actually two parts to this series: Blogging Tools & Writing Tips. However, since the second is more focused on writing, I’ve chosen to publish that in my writing blog (Little Dreams of Mine) on a later date. Or, if you guys would like them sooner, just let me know.

Blogging Tools will be a series of posts about that exactly, different tools that bloggers can use on the go or at home. Now, this is completely subjective, based on my personal opinion, and should thus not be quoted as gospel. The tools I will address over time are tools that I use myself (or would like to use) and so, I will be writing about their use overall: the good and the bad, and leave you with the choice of whether to ignore me, call me an idiot (please don’t) or try out the tool yourself. Also, if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

I’ll shut up not and move on to the first post. Stay tuned. (Which, actually means I’m not shutting up. Ha!)

When Inspiration Strikes, I Get What I Want

Good evening everyone!

Can you  believe we’re already at Day 27? Well, for today I chose to return to the tasks where we were asked to modify our blogs, play with our themes, and practically personalize them the best we could. At first glance, the biggest modification you see is that I finally changed my header. After looking at a few blogs, the stylistic element that I noticed the most were the personalized banners and headers of the blogs. I wanted my own, so I made it. Taking one of the pictures I’ve taken in the last week, I edited it on Fotor, and this is what was created:

What do you guys think? And what did you chose to do for today’s challenge?

Apparently, I Give off Sunshine (and Not Cloudshine)

Hello Everyone!

First, I want to thank Nic of Adventures & Thought Bubbles for nominating me for this interesting award, I am really (really) thankful! [Shakes hand] Now, I’m going to present 11 facts about myself as instructed, but will not be nominating all ten blogs at once. (After all, yesterday’s assignment involved nominating blogs.) So, for now I will just nominate five blogs, and five more tomorrow. (What can I say, I’m a rule breaker.)

(No, I lied. I’m a nerd through and through.)

But I’ll stop stalling.

Here are my eleven facts:

1. I am addicted to Starbucks Refreshers. (No joke, I have one almost every day.)

2. Math and I will be at war until the day I die.

3. I am afraid of water beetles. (If I see one, I kid you not, I’ll scream like a little girl and run.)

4. I secretly want a t-shirt that reads: future queen of the world.

5. Baskin Robins “Banana Royal” (with fudge instead of caramel) is now my new favorite ice cream dish.

6. I do not want to work in the legal or medical field, but sadly, that is where I might end up. (Cuz, let’s face it, that’s where the money is.)

7. I am always open to questions from my readers. (Hint. Hint.)

8. I dislike Beethoven, but love Bach and Chopin. (But, hands down, Apocalyptica rules.)

9.   Mushroom in my food makes me want to cry.

10. The process of frying fish whole freaks me out. (Seriously, have you seen what happens to the eyes?)

11. My greatest wish is for this blog to succeed, and even more, to build my own community (with all of your help).

Finally, here are five of my nominees, enjoy!

The Better Man Project 

Toemail 

The Gravel Ghost 

From One Crazy Life To Another 

Made By Steven

Well, have a good night folks!

(It’s 1:10 AM here. Parents are coming for a visit in the morning. Not ganna get much sleep.)

PS: And yes, I made up “cloudshine”.

The Last One Made Me Cry

Hello Everyone,

As usual, I am fashionably late. I finally finished yesterday’s prompt by editing my About Me page a bit more, and just finished today’s prompt now. I searched under the “Mexico” and “Letters” tags and found several amazing blogs. Here they are!

Curiosity is Calling

Williamenu

The Vinciolo Journal 

culture+typography 

Hello, Sad Dad 

Always Annaleigh 

Thanks for reading!

-M

Change is good, right?

(Miko caught red-handed, chewing on the strap of my black work apron.)

Hello Everyone,

How many of you have already completed the second task for the Hero to Zero Challenge? I just finished it myself, and am proud to say that it has helped me center myself a bit more. Obviously, I didn’t change the title of my blog, and this is because I like the title too much. It reflects exactly what I want to focus on in this blog. However, if anyone has any ideas for a new title, please let me know. (I swear, I wasn’t being lazy. Not this time!) On the other hand, I did revamp my About Me page, so please give it a read when you have the chance, and let me know what you think.

Thanks and have a wonderful Friday!

~Mary

Secretly, I Wish I Was Drunk for This

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’re all spending the second day of the new year well, and in the company of loved ones. I myself am relaxing at home, watching Dexter (Netflix finally updated to the latest seasons!), and working on my blog at the same time. In the new year, I hope to improve this blog, because lets face it, I slack off A LOT. Sure, life gets hectic at times and keeps me from updating regularly, but if I really focused myself, I think I can make this succeed. (Sure sound confident, don’t I?) Therefore, I’ve decided to participate in WordPress’ Zero to Hero 30 day blogging event! Each day I will work more on my blog, improve it in some way (and hopefully even more than I am instructed to by the Daily Post), and by the end of the month, I want to have something that resembles a proper blog. (And by proper blog, I mean a blog that has seriously been worked on and has the dedication of its writer.)

Today just so happens to be (officially) the first day of the event. And, to go with the theme of beginnings, the assignment for the day is to introduce myself and my motivations for this blog. I know, at first this seemed a bit redundant for me given that I’ve had this blog for over a year now; but it’s not a bad idea actually. One of the hardest things for me to do as a blogger is, surprise surprise, to share information about myself. Disclosing myself is without a doubt, one of the scariest aspects of my life. I’m an introvert by nature, and hate to talk unless absolutely necessary. More than that, I hate telling anyone my personal business and personal details of my life. Don’t get me wrong, over the year I’ve tried to share. I think I even shared more with you guys than I have with my friends on a regular basis; but I know that in the long run, my efforts have not been enough. One of the questions given in today’s guidelines is: Why are you blogging, rather than keeping a personal journal? Well, because I want to be heard. But, lets step away from this question for a moment and think about another one: why do people read blogs? I can’t really answer this for others, but I can answer the question myself. I read other’s blogs because I find people interesting, but not just because of that. I read them in order to find others like myself, and to gain some sort of support (even if it’s only one sided) from other’s words, because, lets admit it, words are powerful. (This isn’t a pen and sword argument, but we all know which is the real winner.) So again, why am I writing a blog instead of keeping a personal journal? (Well, I do keep a journal too, as some of you may know.) It’s hard answering this question, but I will have to say that I blog because I want to share my words with others, and bring some kind of solace to others that need it as well. As a human being, I’ve learned that I cannot make it on my own, I cannot live without human interaction as much as I would like to at times. (We all have our off days, don’t we?) So yes, I blog in order to share myself with others, and inspire them if at all possible, just as all of you inspire me.

So, now you know why I keep this blog and why I can’t let it fail. I will put my best into it, but I must also ask for your help as well. Please don’t hesitate to add your comments to each of my posts, as I do need others to interact with in order for this to be successful. For all of my regular readers, I hope to hear even more from you, and thank you in advance. And as you might have seen, I struggle with keeping a set theme to this blog. Is it a writing blog? A craft blog? A photography blog? A music blog? Well, it’s a personal blog that incorporates all of these things into it in order to present a semblance of my life. I’m surprised that it’s taken me so long to come to this conclusion, and for that I apologize. However, I will tell you all now, I do have a few plans for the year, and plan to open up one more blog that will most definitely have a theme, but I’ll keep that hush hush for now. And finally, who would I like to connect with in this blog? Well, all of you, and with anyone that has something to say. I am a writer and avid reader, and I know that that limits me, but if someone else has anything they want to talk about that is not writing or art or crafts (or about any other random things that I know about), then please comment and expect many questions in response. I am  not afraid to admit that I do not know something (even something in my own field).

Well, this is it for now. If you are interested in joining the fun please follow the link down below, and please, let me know if you are participating so I can follow you and support you as best as I can! Have a great day!

Best, Mary

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/zero-to-hero/

New Blog

Hello everyone,

Well, I’m very excited that I’ve finally exceeded 50 followers for one. I never thought I would reach this number so fast, yay! Well, I also wanted to let everyone know that I recently started a new blog here on WordPress, and would appreciate the follow there as well. (There’s more information on the blog’s aim in its ABOUT page.) I started this blog in hopes of creating something that brings inspiration to everyone that views it. I hope that in the future I can also receive some comments with advice and recommendation for posts. Thanks again, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Thirteen

 

Link to new Blog: http://tobelieveinmermaids.wordpress.com/