Surprised by a Blogger Recognition Award!

Blogging awards have been the subject of much discussion in Blogging101 recently. I had been thinking of finding an ‘award free blog’ badge, as I have seen some. Not that I’d been expecting to receive any nominations, so thought I had plenty of time. However this was a very nice surprise and is humbly and gratefully received from my nominator, meloheart.

My first blog award, received with thanks from meloheart, click the award image to visit her blog, Seeking Romance

As a recipient I pass on the award to say ‘thank you’ to each of the bloggers I now nominate and by way of congratulating their blogging accomplishments 🙂

NB: my list is in no particular order of preference and is missing some worthy contenders for being limited to fifteen:-

• vnktchari for inspiration, insight and interesting variety at ‘Living Better’ and his other linked blogs
• darshanneo an emerging young writer and fantastic use of the Apostrophe theme
• honestme363 for supportive commenting and wonderful posts.
• Margo at ‘That Little Voice’ lovely company for Shafali’s Creativity Carnival, great response posts and other good stuff at her blog.
• Shafali for creating and hosting the Creativity Carnival (click link for more info), for inspirational challenge prompts, supporting and responding to participants.
• aidyl93 inspiring and creative participant in above event.
• Self Therapy blog Jessica writes an amazing blog with lots to explore.
• World Reacher Shubhanshu makes me smile with posts like this one.
• Fernseeds for the love and appreciation of the everyday, a great blog and sharing some fab links in twitter, (my fave #DrawingAugust companion).
• Stochastic a creative young blogger I came across recently via Shafali’s event.
• Raymaxx an interesting, intelligent and well-presented blog.
• An Artist at Heart great blog and I love articles like this one.
• Keith Gregg an artist’s site/blog I found recently. admired and enjoyed.
• Ivan Proust for his zany edge, poetry, intriguing posts and for instigating collaborative poetry in the blogging 101 Commons.
• Josee at ‘For His Glory’ for an inspiring blog, with style, fun and art.

The requirement of fifteen seems like a lot at first. However looking at blogs I follow, my comments and likes etc, I could have found many, many more to have nominated but some will have been nominated already or received other awards.

Some of my nominations may not wish to participate in the challenge chain for one reason or another and I hope they do not feel obliged to do so. I also feel that it should be possible to accept the award and make an acceptance post displaying the badge without having to follow the rules to the letter – eg explain (or not) reasons for not participating further, accept but postpone the workload of completely fulfilling the challenge, nominate less than the required number, or adapt as necessary. After all, it is a gift of thanks bestowed from one blogger to another. I make my nominations without wishing to impose the condition that they participate in the full chain challenge…

In the end, I decided to participate in the chain challenge as per ‘the rules’ and having never yet gotten around to posting a blog round up as I might have liked to be posting over a week ago, so saw it as one way of making such post. This may be the only blog award I ever receive/ accept and I am honoured to have received this one.

I have chosen from memory, to seek the blog links for recent memorable moments of admiration or and/or interaction and make my nominations that way. Apologies to any who are already overwhelmed.

Here are my adapted rules for this award with the ‘official rules’ at the bottom of this post:

1. Select up to 15 other blogs you want to give the award to (bearing in mind the workload and time constraints  and meaningful nomination etiquette suggested by Blogging101 discussion & guidance (Daily Post primer on Awards)- maybe stage your nominations if time/energy is limited.
2. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you (yes, also tempting to nominate my distant other half, but including that notion as if ‘myself, those close to me etc.’ & so as a no-no!)
3. Write a post to show your award (can I do this in stages? … I might have but nearly completed now – but taken ages because I’m a snail!)
4. Give a brief story of how your blog started (so that’s why I had a burning muddle-along-monday post to write, in prep!)
5. Give a piece of advice or two to new bloggers (get an award free blog badge quick if you can’t or don’t want the workload of graciously and humbly accepting the obligation of awards … OR adapt the rules to suit! and/or complete the chain challenge in stages over a timescale that suits you. AVOID BLOGGING BURN-OUT!)
6. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
7. Attach the award to the post (right click and save, then upload – my nominees can find the award badge here or a smaller version here
8. Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them (so that’s another 30-60 minutes… if nominating 15?)
9. Provide a link to the award post you created (provide a link to where? you’ve already linked to nominator’s post…? DOH – to the comment you’re sending to all your nomination recipients!)

At 10. should state if the rules have to be included in the recipient’s post, everyone else’s post I’ve checked so far follows a standard format, including the standard rules, mine’s different…

How my blog started: with ideas yet to be realised, …and by clicking start a free blog at wordpress.com 😉

…and then with the discovery of a long, ongoing learning journey to meet my original aims and intentions… so starting this blog instead from where to play and learn (before starting another two blogs to do similar differently!)

Here are the rules as per standard format award posts:

1. Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
2. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you
3. Write a post to show off your award
4. Give a brief story of how your blog started
5. Give a piece of advice or two to new bloggers
6. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog
7. Attach the award to the post (right click and save, then upload)
8. Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them
9. Provide a link to the award post you created

Thanks again to meloheart for nominating me for this award.