I’m going to get right to it – one of my most loyal readers, Tanya from Tanya Today, has nominated me for a “Reader Appreciation Award”. It’s the first way that any sort of appreciation has been shown for me other than entering giveaways and comments, and I am so thrilled. Thank you so much, Tanya.

I’m going to stick to the guidelines for accepting the award, as I love to share the love…so, these are:

1. Thank the person that nominated you.
2. Answer 10 questions.
3. Nominate some other bloggers.

I have thanked Tanya already, but I’ll do it publically again – I am so grateful and feel incredibly honoured! The questions that I will answer are as follows:

1. Your favourite colour? I don’t know that I particularly have a favourite colour, but I do lean towards very bright greens and reds and yellows – anything bright, really. My right eye doesn’t really do colour (long story) and bright colours are easier to see!

2. Your favourite animal? Two answers to this – domestically, I love cats. JShas promised me a cat as soon as we move into our own flat. I can’t wait. His name will be Rumbleroar (Rory for short) and he will be Awesome. In the wild, I love penguins. I have a huge collection of penguin paraphenalia to prove it, and almost all the cards I get from family are penguin related. All but my closest friends haven’t worked this out yet. (Although I did get dressed up as a penguin for my birthday. It was good fun!) I guess that secret’s out!

Dressed as a penguin at London Zoo.

3. Your favourite non-alcoholic drink? Can you say Coke addiction? I’m a Cokeaholic. Also love a good cup of Earl Grey – but I am trying to cut back on both of those and drink water.

4. Facebook or Twitter? Both. Facebook is great for pictures and links (Plutonium Muffins is here), but Twitter is brilliant in other ways (Plutonium Muffins here). I’ve got some amazing Twitter friends (Ruth and C to name a couple), and they’ve changed my life.

5. Your favourite pattern? I don’t think I have a particular favourite. I love Illusion Knitting, and I’ve done a big Harry Potter wall-hanging for Grumpy that I adored. Color Affection has won my heart recently, as has Sideways. I just love knitting, especially when it involves new techniques or lots of colour. It doesn’t really matter what I’m making out of yarn, it’s the process that I enjoy so much!

Harry Potter Illusion

6. Getting or giving presents? Giving. I love planning each present for each person carefully, and putting a lot of care and love into the way I give it as well – from wrapping to choosing the best moment to hand it over.

7. Your favourite number? I don’t think I have a favourite number, really. I’ll say 11 cos that’s the day that I was born!

8. Your favourite day of the week? Monday – especially now that I’m unemployed! I always feel more motivated and alive on a Monday, feel like the week ahead is going to change and be better than the one before.

9. Your favourite flower? Oooh, a tough one. A Flame Lily, probably – a very rare wild flower from my native Zimbabwe!

Flame Lily

10. What is your passion? If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ll know something about my mental health issues at the moment – this has clouded my brain a bit, and I don’t really know what I believe in anymore! I love animals, and people, and I am an affectionate and passionate person to both. I’m in love with knitting, I believe the world can be a better and healthier place, and I am striving to help make it so – but I haven’t worked out how. Get back to me on this!

So my third task is to nominate some bloggers. Obviously, Tanya is up there, but she can’t be one of my official nominations or we could get stuck in a perpetual Reader Appreciation Loop, which could get tiresome. Check her out anyway.

So, in no particular order:

Gingerbread Bunny – Sarah is awesome, a crafter who did a knitalong with me. It went well, and I loved her for it. She sent me a beautiful card and buttons.

iMake – Martine is an incredibly talented lady from Guernsey who runs the iMake blog and a podcast that she publishes a new episode for monthly (promo is here). I’m doing the Color Affection Knitalong with her Ravelry group at the moment, check it out here.

Patch of Puddles – Merry is mother of a clutch of ducklings who feature in her blog a lot. She also runs a toy-shop, and talks about parenting, teaching, knitting, holidays – her life, basically. I can’t describe the power of her writing – I suggest you check it out yourself!

Crafts from the Cwtch – Sarah talks about knitting and other things – she is very creative and I look forward to her posts appearing in my feed reader.

Sal’s Kitchen – A friend from school, Sally, keeps a blog about her exploits in the kitchen. She is an incredible writing, her recipes and reviews are inspiring, and I love reading her posts.

That’s the last I’m going to put here, because this post is massively huge, and I think I ought to stop! I hope you enjoyed finding out a bit more about me (eek) and please do check out my recommendations. I think they’re great, and hopefully you will too!

Much love,

Corrie xx