The Liebster Award

I am so happy to announce that I’ve been nominated for The Liebster award by

Lexi at Streets of Gold.

Lexi is a 20- something fashion blogger that has great taste.  She blogs about her travels but also frequently posts outfits that are perfect for the office and day wear.  Her style is very wearable and she doesn’t fall into blogger trend traps.

THANK YOU for noticing my blog Lexi, and for this nomination!

The Liebster award is given by fellow bloggers to new blogs with smaller followings but huge potential; it is a great way to find new blogs as well as support one another.  For more information on the award you can read this article, written by Lorraine Reguly who also blogs at Poetry Perfected.

11 Questions Answered ….

1. If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?

Travel is such a strange thing.  Two years ago I would have said India….but now that has changed.  Now, I think about the water, the medications and the shots I would need if I wanted to travel to India and my desire quickly fades.

Plus, I am now traveling with a toddler!

Traveling with a toddler is a lot like traveling with a mouse.  A cute little mouse, that you wish would sit in your shirt pocket like a good little mouse, but instead he is running up the pant legs of the person sitting in first class.

I’ve taken my mouse to Canada twice, and Berlin on vacation.  Between stopovers and such he’s already had 10 flights.

Right now, my vacation dreams revolve around where we can go as a family.  I’m dreaming about Ireland, Scotland or the South of England.  Or perhaps, riding a bakfiets bike, with the big cargo basket for kids in the front, through the streets of Copenhagen, and then stopping in for a dinner at Noma !

http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/2007/10/04/triobike-internet-reviews/

I ALSO CANNOT WAIT FOR  THE EXPO IN MILAN in 2015, which will have a HUGE and beautiful area set up by Reggio Children, just for kids.

If you don’t know about the Expo or Reggio Children, I will be writing about them both so stick around!  If you just can’t wait feel free to watch this video…it will make you want to go out and buy your ticket for Milan!

2. What’s your favorite season and why?

Not the winter it’s too cold.

The spring is pretty, but too rainy

The fall is beautiful but also a little rainy

The summer in Italy is hot.

I used to say the summer,  but it  gets HOT here.  I’m talking “my body is melting” type of hot, and we don’t have air conditioning.  Oh, and there are no screens on the windows in Italy, so while you lie in bed melting, tiger mosquitos eat you alive.  I hope I’m not deterring you from ever visiting in the summer!

So…I’m gonna go ahead and say the FALL!  Specifically, September.

September 7, 2013 We’re at the event Bambinopoli, where the whole city transforms into a City for Children.

In September there is the event Bambinopoli (the city of Children), and there is the Philosophy Festival in Modena (I’ve written about it here and here).  Plus, it is hot enough for shorts and a t-shirt but comfortable enough that you sleep well in the evenings.  Plus my sister, husband, brother and friends  Adrienne and Agata all celebrate their birthdays in September! (HELP ME I’m surrounded by Virgos!)

3. Flats or heels?

Yes and Yes.

4. Favorite food?

What a tough question to ask someone living in Italy!  I’m gonna go ahead and say ……….

curry goat in a roti….SURPRISE!!

Oh my God how I miss Curry Goat in a roti!! I could honestly eat it every single day of my life.  I spent the first MONTH that I lived in Milan trying to find a roti shop.

I found the address for one Jamaican restaurant online and  I took a two hour bus ride to get there, and spent over a hundred bucks using the gps on my phone (because I got lost), only to find the place had closed down.

I’ll let you in on a little secret…eating curry goat in a roti (with extra gravy please) is one of the major motivators that I have for going back to Canada and visiting my family. Specifically, the curry  goat roti from Albert’s on ST.Clair.

there.

I said it.

I don’t even EAT pasta.  What a waste this country is on me!  Please note, if you are reading this and you are living in Italy and happen to be from the West Indies, and are capable of making me a curry goat roti, I WILL PAY YOU, FEED ME ….PLEASE.

5. Coffee or Tea?

Oh my. yes and yes.  But not real people tea, I drink things like “Chocolate mint chai” (someone out in internet land just fainted I know!).

And I drink a lot of espresso.  Sometimes black, sometimes macchiato, sometimes as part of a soy cappuccino.  In the morning I drink it elongated with hot water and I add milk (they call that “Americano” here).

6. What’s in your handbag?

Good question, I am already so embarassed.  In my handbag, you will find:

• my iphone
• a portable iphone charger
• my new camera stored in an ikea makeup case
• a giraffe
• a zebra
• a tiger (sometimes you’ll also find an elephant and a frog)
• one puzzle piece
• a little cutout of an elephant’s head
• EVERY flyer for every children’s event in the city.
• receipts, and all kinds of pieces of paper and old train tickets
• a pen that looks like a reindeer
• paper
• wallet
• chapstick
• deoderant
• tissues
• 2 pencil crayons, one crayon and a green china market
• a wind up robot
• agave sweetened chocolate
• normal white chocolate
• two packages of gum (both of which are empty…but don’t worry the gum is floating freely around in my purse and I will eat it, even if it has crumbs or lint stuck to it)
• a Nuby children’s water bottle
• keys
• headphones

7. Most embarrassing moment?

You mean aside from question number 6?

Well, luckily for me, I have no shortage of embarrassing moments.  Thanks to a good 15 year period of poor decision making, mixed with good old fashion promiscuity + stupidness, I have stories galore!!

I would say that none of the top 20 can be shared publicly, so I’ll just go with….. that time in 6th grade when I laughed so hard that I barfed on Trudy Gardner’s head at recess.

We’re not friends anymore.

8. Do you have any pets?

Does a toddler count?  I did TRY to have a fighter fish, but sadly he ended his life by jumping from his small, inadequate tank, may he rest in peace.

9. Fly or road trip?

Let’s fly somewhere fun and then go on a road trip!

10. Favorite color?

Orange.

11. One thing we probably don’t know about you?

When I eat a pizza, I eat all the toppings and outer crust and leave everything else.  Most pizzerias here in Italy are horrified by this method!

11 Random Facts About Me

1. I sleep in the fetal position

2. I really love music.  All music in fact. My playlist includes Ella Fitzgerald, the Beatles, Gregorian Chant, Beethoven, the Arcade Fire, K-Os, lullabies from Madagascar, love songs in Turkish, Vasco Rossi, Devendra Banhart, The Broken Bells, Bugo, Johnny Cash, Classical Indian music, Elvis and many things from my various phases of punk, rap, folk and techno. There is so much to discover and so little time.

3. I met my husband at a Tarantella folk dancing class and together we’ve taught workshops in Toronto and danced on Canadian national tv.

4. He’s my 2nd husband

5. My favorite classes in University were my performance art classes, and as part of “performances” I’ve shaved my legs with another woman in a sandbox filled with rice and eaten an entire package of paper napkins .

6. I worked as a waitress in Milan.  Once I was visiting my boyfriend in Bologna and missed a day of work.  To avoid getting fired,  I said I had fractured my foot.  And so, I made a fake cast out of plaster and actually wore it to work (and served people) for two weeks while never taking it off.

7. I am long winded (kidding you knew that already!!)

8. I’m a Leo in Western Astrology and a Metal Monkey in Chinese Astrology.

9. When I was 7, I watched The Exorcist on late night t.v. (without my parent’s permission…I used to sneak down in the middle of the night all the time and watch tv without anyone knowing).  I was so affected by the SOUND that I wasn’t able to be near a toilette when it flushed.  For YEARS my younger sister had to flush for me, and only once I was out of earshot.

10. I read my first book at 14.

11. I hate fizzy drinks, and will only add a few table spoons of diet coke to a full glass of water.

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MY NOMINATIONS

I would like to present the Liebster Award to these great bloggers.  I have been following each of them for a few months and they have under 200 followers. I used Facebook Fans as my criteria.

1. Happiness At Mid-Life

Alice from Happiness at Mid-Life has fantastic style and puts together wonderful outfits that are never boring or clichè.  She’s a working mom in her 40s and is also doing a fitness challenge that she is WINNING!  After 8 weeks, she is looking amazing and I applaud her dedication.

2. Wilde in the City

Vicki from Wilde in the City is a very talented fashion blogger, with nice clothes (perfect office wear) and she’s also funny!  She’s a New Yorker who reveals a bit of her everyday life in each post, her photographs are very beautiful and I find myself visiting her blog often.  She’s written great articles like How to shop Outles, and also gives you the insiders scoop on decoding the New York City subway delay messages.  What more can you ask?

3. Myself Expressed

I get a lot of styling ideas from Jo from Myself Expressed who has an amazing ability to find wardrobe pieces that make a statement and incorporate them into outfits that are chic without trying too hard.  One of the things I love about her blog, is that it really focuses on the outfit by using a mannequin and not photos of her, pretty much the opposite of my blog, but hey opposites attract.

4.  A Fashion Crowd

A Fashion Crowd is the workspace and blog of Sharon, a Keaton Row personal stylist.  Like me, she is always looking ahead and analyzing trends.  Just when I’m thinking about about a trend, Sharon posts a great article and reflection on it and I really like reading her opinions and advice on how to wear a trend, or why to avoid it.

Technically I was supposed to give the Liebster Award to 11 bloggers,  but there are really only 4 that I’ve been following with under 200 followers. So, when I’ve accumulated the rest, I will do another post and share the other 7.

QUESTIONS FOR MY NOMINEES

1. Why did you start your blog?

2. How much of your time is spent blogging?

3. Is this your first blog?

4. Why do you feel compelled to blog about fashion / your style?

5. Do your family / friends know you blog? Do they visit your site?

6. What kind of feedback have you received?

7. What is the one item in your wardrobe you will never part with and will always continue to wear?

8. Do you shop alone or with company?

9. Who are your style icons and why?

10. Are you planning a trip anywhere?

11. Share one (or more) things about yourself that we won’t know.

The Official Rules Of The Liebster Award 

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.

2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. provide 11 random facts about yourself

5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)