"The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It's a great way for new and undiscovered bloggers to meet new people, get more followers and find new blogs that they want to follow."
The rules (as laid out by DancingWithDragQueens):
1. List 11 facts about yourself
2. Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you
3. Ask 11 new questions for the bloggers you nominate
4. Choose 11 new bloggers with less than 200 followers to nominate
5. Let everyone know they've been picked
So here's the problem: I don't follow all that many bloggers with the requisite "less than 200 viewers," so I'm going to take this as a challenge to find good, less-known bloggers and follow them until I feel like I can actually complete parts 3 & 4. I promise I will do a part 2 in a few weeks nominating bloggers and asking them my questions!
11 Facts About Myself
1. I am a voracious reader. Once I get started, I won't put a book down except to eat. Maybe.2. I am obsessively organized. Clutter and chaos drives me up the wall!
3. If I'm at home, I'm most likely going to be wearing this super comfy half-zip pullover I "borrowed" (read: stole) from Captain Doctor Boyfriend Person. I have to roll up the sleeves like 4 times to use my hands, but it's SO COMFY.
4. My favorite color is blue.
5. When I was little, I was a huge tomboy and insisted on only being called "Sam" because I thought "Samantha" sounded too girly. Now that I'm older, being called Sam drives me nuts and I like to be called Samantha. The only people that are allowed to call me Sammy without getting dirty looks are my parents (Sammy-Annie!), my best friend (SAMMMMMIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!), and CDBP (Sammy-Girl). Sam-I-Am is acceptable if you are a man old enough to be a grandfather. (My rules know no logic.)
6. My favorite magazine is Real Simple. I am totally a 40 year old mom at heart.
7. I lovelovelove wine. Unless it's chardonnay - because that's just gross. (Blurrrg, oak.)
8. If given a blank sheet of paper, I will doodle Winnie-the-Pooh styled honey bees (complete with little dashes showing their flight path behind them) all over the place.
9. I brush my teeth every time after I eat or drink something. I cannot stand having my mouth feel "dirty" or bad breath!
10. My Brita water bottle is practically glued to my hand. I drink water all the time!
11. The combo of onion dip and Baked Lays IS MY CRACK.
11 Questions Asked by DancingWithDragQueens
1. When and why did you start blogging? I started this blog back in September after having surgery and being unable to leave my house for several weeks. I didn't keep up with it, but on a whim decided to start up again about a month ago.
2. What's one thing you've learned about yourself because of blogging? I use too many adverbs. To paraphrase a Stephen King quote, if you're using strong verbs, you don't need adverbs. It's always been a writing weakness of mine. Along those same lines, writing this blog points out how verbose I am, and it's helping me to learn to speak more succinctly.
3. What is one thing that has surprised you about blogging? Honestly, the view-bots. It's so annoying to think you got 50 views in an hour, only to realize that they are all from a spam site. I have to mentally subtract those from my day's (or week's) views and then the number is always so disappointing.
4. If you could only wear one makeup up look the rest of your life, which would it be...eye makeup with bare lips or lipstick with no eye makeup? Definitely eye makeup with bare lips (as long as chapstick or colorless lip balm doesn't count). I have only gotten into lip color and lip products the past 6-8 months. When I was in college I walked everywhere and it DROVE ME NUTS to be outside and have my hair stick to my lips. Now that I'm inside most of the day at work, I can pretty much wear whatever lip product I want and not have that concern.
5. Who is your biggest beauty inspiration? I don't know that I have one! I tend to be inspired by Vloggers I watch the most, but I don't have one person who's beauty look I try to copy.
6. What is your biggest pet peeve about bloggers that you've noticed? Bloggers that believe crazy claims or marketing about a product. So much of the marketing that gets thrown around with a product is BS, and as a person who majored in a biological science it drives me nuts that people believe so much of that crap. Same goes with "natural" products and marketing (all "natural" products are actually chemicals... and a lot of "chemicals" are much better for you than something extracted from a leaf!). Example: Nightshade was used for ages to dilate the pupils and make your eyes look prettier, but it's POISON. See what I mean? A product can be natural and still be good... but being natural doesn't intrinsically make a product awesome for you. (I guess this applies to the beauty community as a whole, but bloggers too!)
7. What age did you start wearing makeup and what was the first makeup item you owned? I started wearing makeup for real in 7th grade, though in 6th grade I would cover myself in glitter (any 90s/early 2000s girl understands this) and think I was the coolest person ever. I did own a ton of makeup before that though, that I was allowed to use for dress up. I had a box in my bathroom with a lot of my mom's castoffs and also samples/freebies that my parents got from work thanks to their awesome retail jobs.
8. What is the best advice you've ever received? When you're feeling anxious, to go to a mental "happy place." Mine is imagining a field full of happy, fluffy bunnies. I'm not kidding, it actually works.
9. What's one beauty rule you always follow? I smile when I am applying blush to the apples of my cheeks. It just makes it so easy to see where to apply!
10. If you could be somebody else for one day, who would it be and why? This is so silly, but probably Allison (Amarixe) from YouTube. In a totally non-stalker way, I love everything about her - her apartment, her style, her hair, her makeup. Even the food she shows is always stuff I'm craving.
11. What are you most proud of with your blog? That I am sticking to it. I thought after my first few posts that the business of work, traveling so often, and just general life stuff would get in the way of blogging. I've found that I can snap a few pictures and then snuggle into bed and type a quick post before falling asleep even on the busiest days.
I promise a part 2 will happen... I just need a few weeks (or months)!
XOXO Samantha
Thank you so much for doing this post! I'm with you on the follow up part 2...I don't follow a lot of bloggers with less than 200 followers either! You're such an intelligent and beautiful woman, you're exactly who I was talking about in my post...you can have a brain, and love makeup. Very inspiring!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your kind words :) I never let on about my makeup addiction in college because all my friends were science-y people and I didn't want them to think I was an idiot - it's so nice that there are people out there who get that you can be smart and still love makeup and beauty products!!
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