Blogging Awards – The Wayfaring Baker

I was very happy to find that I had been nominated for a second award by Sofia over at Papaya Pieces. It’s great to know that people out there are enjoying what I’m writing, especially as I get so much inspiration and ideas from the wonderful blogs I follow. On a complete aside, I love the picture and think being nominated for a dragon award has a certain Tolkein-esque quality to it!

Anyhow, like before the rules are as follows; nominate other deserving bloggers for the award, and give 7 facts about yourself. I actually find it quite hard nominating people for these awards, particularly as there are a lot of blogs that I love and read on a regular basis, but don’t want to spam their site with these things if they don’t want them. As a result, if you got nominated last time I did this, consider yourself nominated again! (If you want it official let me know and I’ll happily add you in!) These following blogs are people I have discovered over the last few weeks and think you should take a look at!

The Tea Drinking English Rose

Poppy’s Patisserie: Bunny Kitchen

omfg. so good.

Some great recipes in there and thanks to the nominees for a lot of great reading and inspiration!

And now, the obligatory 7 facts about me.

For years I have held firm about my hatred of green tea. However, I’ve now discovered green tea with peach and cherry blossom. Addicted is not the word!
My favourite places in the world at this moment are Dubrovnik, Berlin, Grindelwald and Cornwall.
Microplane Graters and I do not get on – I have permanent grate-marks on my fingers from using it. However, somehow I just can’t keep away…
I honestly don’t know what I am going to do with my evenings when the repeat of Season 3 of Masterchef Australia ends in a few weeks time.
I have a tendency of getting songs stuck in my head and they will not go away! I’ve had ‘Call Me Maybe’ stuck in there for weeks now – it’s driving me mad!
I love the sea – I wish I was there now!
I hate all cold sauces – ketchup, brown sauce, mayonnaise, any thick cold sauce. I can’t even deal with cold soup from a can!

So there we are! Thanks again for the award and I hope you continue to enjoy! 🙂

As you can see, today I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by the very kind Peckish Kiwi, who I would like to thank both for the nomination but also for introducing me to the wonders of New Zealand’s ice-cream flavours (a result of which is that I now want to emigrate!).

The rules of the blogs are as follows: to select 15 blogs you follow and nominate them for the award, and the to tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself. Here goes then!

Gluten Free Gus: Now I am not gluten free, however I still want to make pretty much everything on this blog. Definitely the mark of a good specific-diet blog if it has this effect on someone like me!
Daisy and the Fox: A very recently discovered blog (actually though another of these awards, but one definitely worth reading. I also love the name, and wish I’d thought of it first!
Le Pirate: Delicious food and lovely photographs – a winner all around!
Honey and Jam: Again, a lovely site that makes me want to eat everything on it 🙂
The Paddington Foodie: I am waiting to find a passionfruit just so I can try the melting moments – I am even daydreaming about them at present!
NeonAnimalStash: Interesting and thought-provoking essays on literature, art and technology
Warm Toasty Muffins: Baking and sweet things.
Cupcakepedia: Anything and everything to do with cupcakes- recipes, art, crafts and beauty.
Sugar and Spice Baking: Lovely recipes and pictures to make you laugh.
Grub Blog: Delicious recipes of all types, for all occasions
Cream Puffs in Venice: Cakes, biscuits, puddings – the works!
The Aspiring Baker: This blogger is living my dream and I love hearing about the tasks at Le Cordon Bleu.
An American Cupcake In London: Recipes and book reviews – this blogger is substantially adding to my reading and baking list!
Pocketful of Sugar: More great recipes, both sweet and savoury.
Rants, Raves and Rations: Discussions of both teaching and food, and simple afterschool recipes which as a fellow teacher a really appreciate!
So Hungry I Could Blog: Sorry, I couldn’t keep it to 15, I’d have felt so guilty about leaving this one out 🙂

Enjoy! Some excellent reading here so go forth and peruse! The next part of the challenge says that I need to provide 7 facts about myself, to introduce myself, so here goes!

A musician by trade, I play 5 instruments to a good standard (violin, piano, flute, clarinet and oboe) as well as being a singer. This doesn’t count the tin whistle or the few chords I can play on guitar – namely the song ‘Smelly Cat’.
I love sitcoms, particularly, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls and 30 Rock. There is nothing that I cannot link to one of these and I will tend to compare events to scenes from one of these. Yes, I’m sad. However, I’m sure some of you also do this…
I love travelling, particularly Europe. I want to visit every country in it, and feel very lucky to live in a country where this is possible.
I applied to go to Cambridge University both due to the normal reasons (course, reputation, etc) and also because of the buildings. Seriously – they are so beautiful, it’s hard to believe they are university halls! I got accepted for postgraduate study and was very disappointed that a.) I didn’t actually get to live in one of these amazing buildings, and b.) the university wasn’t Hogwarts in disguise.
I am seriously addicted to chocolate. It’s a terrible and delicious condition.
My halls of residence at University were hexagonal, as when it was built they were for an all-female college, and it was believed that women were scared of right angles. I always wondered who would write such a study in the first place, let alone use it to base a building on!
I really wish that I had written ‘The Hunger Games Trilogy’ and ‘Matilda: The Musical’ – I love both of them. However, my favourite musical is ‘Les Miserables’ and it made my day yesterday when two of my Year 10’s said that I looked like Eponine!

There we go, 7 random facts about me! Happy reading and see you back here soon!