Thursday, February 5, 2015

My Liebster Award Nomination!

Good morning world!  So last night as Nicholas & I were getting ready for bed, I was scrolling through my emails quickly and saw this one come in from the fabulous Cass at Jeans and a Tank Top.  The email was that I had been nominated for a Liebster award, and I was like wtf is this - is this something I should know like #widn (I had to google that when I started getting tagged in those).  So I got super excited and told my husband that people actually look at my blog that aren't just family members from around the world.  So with that, thank you Cass for the award nomination, and here we go!
 
The Liebster Award is directed towards blogs with smaller followings, as a way to help get their name out there in the blog world. One can only be nominated by a previous Liebster Nominee, and in order to be considered, a nominee’s blog must have less than 200 followers.


11 Facts about Meet The Smallsens 
 
1. I used to paint and sketch on the regular.  I never keep my work.  I haven't done it in awhile, but I used to be pretty good at it. You might see some of my work in a few of the Whitecaps houses in Vancity.
 
 
2. I haven't ate meat since I was 12.  I eat all poultry and seafood, just nothing with 4 legs.  Its been 18 years now, and I don't miss it at all.  Even though I don't eat it, I've cooked elk, bison and goat before.
 
3. I have a massive vinyl collection, and before I met Nicholas, I would spend hours and hours in random music stores listening and shopping for Vinyl.  I listen to everything from Sinatra & Ella Fitz, to Sam Cooke & Louis Armstrong, to Sade and Amy Winehouse, to Tupac and Brand Nubian, to Imagine Dragons and the Black Keys.  Its tradition in our house to listen to vinyl all morning.
 
 
4. When I was a child, I was enrolled in every kind of activity possible.  Basketball, volleyball, baseball, swim, tennis, dance, gymnastics, tae kwon do, horse back riding, piano, pottery.. and so on.  Basketball, swim and piano prevailed.
 
5. At one point I owned about 400 pairs of baby shoes.  They were all free so don't think I'm like a baby shoe freak.  Since then, my collection has been downsized to 25 that Sophia will use over the next 3 years
 
6. I also owned about 80 shoes for myself, but downsized it to about 30 pairs recently.
 
7. I try to have a glass of wine, and eat an avocado everyday.  Its the simple things right!
 
8. I was never one to go to crazy house parties or clubs.  I would much rather have a wine/cheese/game night with close friends or hit up one of my favorite lounges and listen to live music in a cozy booth.
 
9. Brunch is my favorite social activity.  Before Sophie, I would make a habit to meet up with my friends every other week for a brunch date and catch up over bennys, mimosas and extra spicy Caesars.
 
 
10. I'm an advanced open water scuba diver, and former aqua size instructor/lifeguard.
 
11. Over the past 4 years I've been such a go getter with my career.  I've done PR work associated with the Golden Globes, to releases on professional athletes, to social media contracts with Vancouver restaurants.
 
Questions from Cass
 
1. Why do you blog?  I started this blog about 2 months ago right before I had Sophia.  I wanted an outlet where I could talk about being a new mother, a new wife, and what its like to be a stay at home mom and not working for once.  I have a ridiculously small family, that's scattered throughout the world, and I thought having a blog would also be a great way for everyone to see updates with Sophia all at once.  Since then, I've also found some amazing bloggers that have inspired decisions in my day to day life - such as décor ideas and what to make for dinner.  I also find it intriguing to hear about the lives of others living in towns I've never been to.
 
2. If you HAD to change the name of your blog, to what would you change it? I'm actually thinking of purchasing the domain name MeetTheSmallsens.com and dropping the BlogSpot - so that's on my to-do list, but if it had to be something completely different, maybe something along the lines of Wanderlust Housewife of Vancity. 
 
3. Outside of family members, who is one person that has impacted your life in a positive way?  Would it be weird if I answered this question with a former ex?  I wont mention how long ago or who it was, but the relationship dragged me down to the bottom where I forgot who I was and what I could be.  Luckily I had the courage to leave & when I left him, my life changed so much.  I achieved the career I wanted, travelled to destinations I never thought of, and more importantly - I put myself first and I was so happy and healthy on a whole new emotional level that I had never felt before.  Since that negative relationship, my life has been such a wonderful blessing filled with love and happiness.
 
4. You can have dinner with any five people that you have never met before – who’s coming for meatloaf? Love this, a round table with strangers I've always wanted to meet.  First, Id invite my husbands brother Richie. He lives in Florida and although Ive never met him, we text each other everyday.   I'd also invite Coach K from Duke, and try to convince him that he needs to give me courtside tickets to see Duke vs UConn.  I'd invite Lionel Richie and probably rent a baby grand, just incase he wanted to perform some songs after I lather him up with amazing food and wine.  I'd invite the guy that American Sniper was based on, Chris Kyle (we can invite dead people right?)  This one wouldn't be for me, but for my husband.  If this guy was still around, and I got him over for dinner - Nicholas would be the happiest guy in the world (for those of you that don't know him, he is obsessed with anything and everything gun/military).  Lastly, I'd invite Tyson Beckford.  He's my longest #MCM and I need some eye candy to stare at if things go awkward and meatloaf goes flying.
 
5. If you were an animal, what animal do you think you would be? (Not necessarily the one you WANT to be, the one that you most embody)  As much as Id want to say a dolphin, I think Id say an eagle as I could never be happy living in a caged environment.  We're both very independent and learn to survive at a young age.  We have amazing eyesight, can always be found on the ocean, love fresh salmon, and would do anything to protect our loved ones.
 
6. Which of your blog posts is your favorite? The first post I made when Sophia came into this world :)  She was my inspiration in starting a blog, and I was so glad to introduce her via my blog to the world.
 
7. What is the blog post that you’re dying to write, but haven’t yet written? Id love to write a Best of Series for Vancouver, that mentions all the most amazing things and hidden gems Vancouver has to offer in the eyes of a local.
 
8. Where, in the United States, would you like to travel that you haven’t yet been? Florida baby! My husbands brother & sister live there, and on top of that I think a week in South Beach drinking strong mojitos in an infinity pool would be amazing.  I've been to Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Cali, along with Atlanta and Vegas quite a few times for work.
 
9. If you could suddenly be endowed with extensive knowledge in one specific area, what would it be?  Probably cars and anything mechanic related.  I would love to know that I could identify any problems that come up with driving a vehicle and how to fix it, without needing to consult with Nicholas or a mechanic.  Right now I'm so beyond blonde with this, and luckily I have an amazing mechanic that looks after my car.
 
10. When was the last time you laughed at yourself, and why?   Aside from the daily laughs of wiping all types of baby off of me, probably at Christmas time at my aunts where I joined in on an amazing awkward sing along of the 12 days of Christmas, where we could only remember the first 6 lines, so kept on repeating those.
 
11. Tell me a good joke.  I'm horrible with jokes!  I wish I had more of Joan Rivers in me, but I don't.  So I'll tell you about the last prank I did.  One of my besties is from Colombia, and on Jan 1st, him & a few of my other buddies did the Polar Bear swim (jump in the ocean kinda thing).  I didn't do it, but I did offer to hold his phone and take pictures :)  So obviously I hacked into his facebook, turned his notifications to off, and updated his status to 'Polar Bear swim done, Major shrinkage awarded!'.  Since his notifications are off, he had no idea his status was changed for quite awhile, until his mom showed up and congratulated him on his major shrinkage award.  She's like a Sophia Vargara type of lady too, and had no idea what I was talking about.  It was epic.
 

 
 
My Nominees for the Liebster Award
 
1. Shenine at Be Mused Shenine Joon
3. Audrey at Lilacs and Cutoffs
4. Monika at Monika Hibbs
5. Rachelle at Northwest by Nature
6. Tara at Pint Size Pilot
7. Caitlin at This Brunette Life
8. Marcus at Phantasy Steez
9. Alec at Life As We Know It

My Questions for the Nominees.

1. What inspired you to start a blog?
2. If you could be a journalist - what magazine/newspaper would you write for and what would you write about?
3. Would you rather do a post that was all words and no pictures, or all pictures and no words.
4. If you could take a weekend, a week long and month long vacation - what 3 destinations would you visit?
5. Big city girl with a never ending job and socialite parties - or small town girl where you shop online and grow your own garden?
6. What's your go-to for takeout/delivery when you're too lazy to cook?
7. Do you have a signature dish that you swear you're the best at?
8. What inspires you for your home décor choices - do you have a theme?
9. What book should every child read, and what movie should every child watch?
10. What does your ideal Sunday look like?
11. What blog post of yours were you most proud to write?

Thanks again to Cass for the nomination - and if I've nominated any of you and you've done this already - oops!  I've only been around for 2 months, so still new to this.

14 comments :

  1. Thank you so much for the nomination Stephanie!! I love reading these liebster posts because you learn so much about people. I would love to hear more about your scuba diving, my mom is a diver too. And so cute that you add the hubs listen to vinyls every morning. Thanks again for the nomination. Love those questions let me see about getting this post going!

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    1. Thanks Shenine! Diving is so much fun, and hopefully I can do it on my next tropical vacay. And nothing makes music sound better than played on vinyl :)

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  2. Congratulations on your nomination Stephanie and thank you so much for nominating me as well ! :D P.S. I love coffee, chocolate, pineapples, avocados and wine too !

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    1. No problem lady! Luckilly my calcium vitamins are like chocolate, so I feel like I get extra daily doses :)

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  3. Stephanie - the similarities continue! Former lifeguard, check! I love your last two answers - the 12 Days of Christmas sounds epic, one of those stories that you guys will probably talk about every year at the holidays, and your prank is GOLD! Well done! Love it all!

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    1. Thanks Cass! Family visits are always amazing filled with awkwardly fun conversations.

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  4. Thank you oh so much for the nomination, Stephanie! What an honor and an awesome surprise :)
    I absolutely loved reading this post...I feel like I learned so much about you as a person! Wine and avocado on the daily? Me too! Listening to music on the record player? Same! I hope to read more posts such as this in the future!

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    1. It was super fun to complete - but took forever!! It was great to read yours too :)

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  5. it's fun learning more about you. I LOVE BRUNCH!

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  6. Congratulations!!!!!!!

    www.jerseygirltexanheart.com

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  7. WOW!!! Congrats and Thanks so much for nominating me! :) I feel like I know so much about you after reading this! Congrats again! :)

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    1. Thanks so much! Hopefully I will get to read yours too :)

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