The Liebster Award

January 18, 2015 by Rachel Kershaw in Something a bit random! 9

One of the things I love most about blogging is how supportive the blogging community is, especially here in the North East. So I was delighted to be nominated for the Liebster Award by the lovely Sarah Jayne!

From what I can gather, the idea of this online award system is to help promote the blogs you love whilst also opening up a bit to your readers by answering the questions put before you. These are the rules…

1. Thank and link the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the questions given by the nominator.
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers, who have less than 200 followers and link them.
4. Create 11 new questions for the nominees to answer.
5. Notify all nominees via social media/blogs.

So without further ado, here are my answers to Sarah Jayne’s questions…

What made you decide you wanted to start blogging?
I got the bug for blogging in 2012 when I won Visit England’s Fan in a Van competition. This involved travelling around our green and pleasant land in a vintage camper van called Rosie and blogging every day about the wonderful places I visited. I was on the road for three months, it was hard work but I loved it, so when I returned home to Newcastle it made sense to continue writing about the many brilliant things you can experience right here in the North East. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s a little video that condenses my three month trip around England in to an eight minute video!

Where do you look for inspiration?
I sign up to loads of local newsletters, the one from www.newcastlegateshead.com is really good, I look out for the Crack Magazine and NE1 Magazine too (both free in local city centre shops) so I always know what’s going on in the local area. I also love reading travel blogs like www.nomadicmatt.com, www.thetravelhack.com and travmonkey.com, they really encourage me to get out there and explore!

Name one blog you ALWAYS read?
I love reading www.northeastfamilyfun.co.uk because even though I don’t have kids it’s full of great ideas for things to do in the region and I really enjoy Sam’s writing style and cute pictures.

Who’s your favourite Youtuber?
I don’t really follow a lot of people on youtube, I use it more as a search engine. If anyone has any suggestions of who I should be watching please let me know!

What’s your favourite Instagram account you follow?
Paloma Faith, her style is amazing and she takes amazing pictures on her travels across the world. I had the pleasure of meeting her once and she was just as lovely as I’d hoped!

Explain your style in three words?
Errrrmmm, I don’t think I really have a style, I’ll say thrifty, eclectic and comfy (how boring do I sound?)

Photographic evidence of my lack of style!

Who’s your favourite celebrity and why?
I really like Miranda Hart, I know she’s like marmite but she always makes me laugh. As a kid I absolutely loved Cilla Black, I wanted to be her, I suppose that’s what you get for growing up in the 80’s!

What’s your goal for 2015?
I’d love to go to Australia to visit some close friends who live in Melbourne but having only recently got back from Thailand I’ve got quite a bit of saving to do.

I miss my girls!

What’s the one thing about yourself you’re confident about?
I guess my personality. I treat others as I would like to be treated and I try to not to sweat the small stuff, hopefully that makes me a nice person to be around.

Your favourite quote?
I used to be a bit of a hoarder but the older I get, the more I try and live by this advice… ‘Collect Moments, Not Things’.

Photo credit: Praktik Hotels

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to newbie blogger?
Try not to measure your success against other bloggers, ask yourself why you want to be a blogger in the first place and use that as your yard stick.

I nominate…

Ravenous Fox / Chloe Hall / Taste of the North / This Northern Gal / Sandra Tang / North East Nerd / Lady From a Tramp / Lee Burns / Newcastle Eats / Miranda Ashitey / Hannah Layford

These are my questions…

1. What was the best meal you ever had?
2. What is your favourite thing about blogging?
3. Where is your favourite place in England?
4. Who would be your ideal dinner guest?
5. If you had a £100 to spend on yourself what would you buy?
6. What has been your biggest achievement?
7. Do you have any blogging rules?
8. What is your worst habit?
9. Do you have a secret talent or party trick?
10. What’s your perfect Saturday night?
11. What are you most looking forward to in 2015?

I look forward to reading all your answers!

By Rachel Kershaw