The lovely Madame Croquette  has nominated me for a One Lovely Blog Award. My first award; I’m thrilled! Thank you, Madame, for  honoring my blog as lovely! Funny thing is, often when I’m writing a post I think to myself, “Gosh, I use the word lovely a lot. I need to come up with a different adjective.” Lovely is one of my favorite words, so to be nominated for an award with lovely in the title is, you guessed it. . .lovely.

Now for the rules associated with this award:

1. Share whoever gave this award to you with a link back to their blog (above); 2. Write 7 random facts about yourself; 3. Give this award to 15 other bloggers; 4. Let them know they have won; 5. Pop the award on your blog.

Write 7 random facts about yourself . Okay, here goes:

1. I was born in Massachusetts and spent my childhood there. It’s one of my favorite places on earth.

2. I got engaged in a graveyard whilst sitting in a tree.

Me in the tree

The husband carved our initials in the tree. Aw.

3. Not sure this is a random fact, because it doesn’t feel random, but purposeful: I love Jesus and talk to God each day.

4.  My favorite cookbook right now is Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. I love it and Bourdain.

5. I’ve watched every single season of America’s Next Top Model and can’t get enough of it. If there’s a marathon on TV, I will watch episode after episode with no thought of food or water. (Don’t judge.)

Kahlen from Season 4 and my favorite contestant of all time. Photo credit: listal.com and most likely ANTM and maybe Tyra Banks.

6. I have a degree in Elementary Education and taught kindergarten (briefly) and first grade (even more briefly). I applaud all the teachers out there workin’ it in their classrooms every day.

7.  Given the fact I have already mentioned ANTM, this random fact will make me seem very, very shallow, but I’m okay with it: I have been watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix. Ergo, I am in love with Tim Riggins. Even the husband has said (more than once), “Tim Riggins knows how to wear a pair of jeans!” Indeed he does.

Thank you, Tim Riggins, thank you

Now for my favorite blogs. I follow many, but here are my top picks ( in no particular order)

• Rantings of an Amateur Chef (Lots of good recipes and tips)
• Skinny girls & mayonnaise (Recipes plus humor)
• juliemaida (Julie’s one of my best friends, and also a real, live working artist)
• In Pursuit of More (Love the delicious photos!)
• Maggies One Butt Kitchen (So many recipes! I don’t know how she does it)
• High Heels in the Barnyard (If only I could live on a farm with chickens. Sigh)
• From Scratch Club (Local eaters growing food, cooking food, and showing you how to do it all)
• Year of Healthier Living (Someone just like me, trying to eat local meat and produce, and becoming healthier in the process)
• Carmelize Life (I’m a recent follower. Love their garden to table philosophy)
• Liz Lemon Nights (Liz Lemon’s in the title, so that’s a given, but she has great recipes and entertaining posts!)
• Clover and Thyme (A local girl and a gardener)
• No 1 Likes You When You’re 23 (My dear friend Natalie’s brand new blog about the wonders of post college job interviews and career hunting)
• To Be Frank (a fun blog about all sorts of things from art to food to diy to gardening)
• Go Guilty Pleasures! (Read this blog. Jules, as I like to call her, is delightful)
• Darla Cooks (Darla certainly DOES cook a wide range of recipes, and they all look slammin’)

Picking 15 blogs when there’s countless quality, useful, and lovely blogs out there seems unfair, but those are my picks nonetheless.  Now I’m off to make myself a One Lovely Blog Award t-shirt. Represent.