Liebster Award!!

A bonus post for the week you ask?!  Something outside the regular Sunday post for Sew Lah Tea Dough?!  I know, weird right - I love routine!  But I have some exciting blog news to share... On Saturday morning I got a wonderful comment linking me to the great Anyonita Nibbles blog, letting me know that she had nominated me for a LIEBSTER AWARD!!!! Yey!!  Many of you know what this is, and I had seen it on a few blogs I follow but never thought that it would be my turn any time soon, so as you can probably imagine, I am super excited to be a part of this... hence the bonus post!

But what is a Liebster Award?  The award is given from bloggers, to bloggers... Giving recognition to new and small blogs of 200 followers or less - and yes, that is me - I am pleased to have 69 Facebook followers, but yes, 50 of these are family and friends!  The purpose of the award is to meet new and up and coming bloggers :-)  Yey!  

So with a combination of our friends' new baby boy (check out my cupcakes here) and an incredible long weekend filled with adventure AND this exciting blogging news it is all just wonderful around here :-)

Onto the Liebster Award fun... Here are the rules:

Answer the 11 questions your nominator asked you.

Post 11 random facts about yourself.

Give the award to at least 5, but no more than 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.

Tell your recipients that they have received the award.

Come up with 11 questions for your recipients.

Here are the questions (now with answers) that Anyonita from Anyonita Nibbles asked me:

1.  Why did you start blogging?

All my life I have crafted things, baked cakes and loved to be busy making and baking!  As I got more adventurous in my cake decorating, and with the arrival of Pinterest in my lives I noticed how much the world loved reading about arts, crafts and all things food!  Maybe I could put my things down in writing as well?  I tried a Tumblr but didn't stick to it but here I am, since January this year blogging week after week, linking up and sticking to it - and I am so pleased I get to write things down, learn more about how to do things better as I go and that you all get to read about it :-)

2.  What is your favourite thing to blog about?

Hmm, well as you can see from the title of my blog - Sew Lah Tea Dough, I created this blog to not only be about 1 activity, but all my favourite things!!  If I had to chose one, I think it would have to be Dough - baking, decorating, all things cakey in particular!

3.  If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

That is TOUGH!  I love city breaks but most of all I love adventure - exploring nature, seeing new things and finding secret places all over the world.  Wherever it would be, I would want it to be with my husband Jonathan - I wish everyday could be spent travelling together ♥

4.  Which do you prefer; beach or mountains?

Definitely mountains!

5.  What is your favourite food?

Again, so hard to choose!  The amount I love to bake is definitely outweighed by my love for savoury food.  So I would have to go with sandwiches, preferably the steak variety with crispy onion straws on top, with a side of sweet potato fries!

6.  What is your favourite season?

I think right now I would have to say Winter - I LOVE Christmas, I love everything about it - the food, the family, the giving of presents, singing carols... and I also love Winter weather - snow snow snow :-D

7.  What is your job?

I love my job!  I am a piano teacher, and a music teacher to little ones - I love making music with the littlest of children but most of all I love sharing my piano learning experiences with them - creating fun and exciting piano lessons, instilling a love for music that will hopefully stay with my students throughout their lives ♫

8.  What is your favourite cuisine?

I love ALL food so it is hard to pinpoint one, but if I were to think about restaurants I love to go to it would have to be Mexican, or at least Tex Mex - burritos, fajitas, tacos, nachos - yes it would have to be that!

9.  What is your greatest achievement?

In the academic world - graduating from my Undergrad in Music, and also getting my Masters too!  In the blogging world, well the fact that so far I have stuck to it and there has been a post per week since January :-)  And in life, the greatest thing I have achieved, is the marriage to my amazing husband ♥

10.  Would you consider living abroad?

I DO!  In 2009 I went on a huge and scary adventure, leaving friends and family to be with my now husband Jonathan in Canada.  I miss home every single day and wish there was a way to be in both places at once - but here I am, a British girl living everyday in Toronto, Canada!

11.  Have you ever met anybody famous?

Not realllly.... a few bands and singer-songwriters after gigs when I was a teenager, but that's about it!  Nothing major I don't think...

And now, 11 random facts about me:

1.  I get bored REALLY easily.  I cannot watch tv without doing something else!  Not always a good thing.

2.  When I was at school my Mum helped me with ALL my sewing and textile class projects that I disliked.  I bet she never thought I would one day own my own sewing machine!

3.  I cannot eat ice cream like a normal person.  I can't bite on it, and definitely prefer it almost melted in a bowl.

4.  Dublin is one of my favourite places to go in the world and am lucky to have spent a whole lot of my life there on trips seeing my grandparents!

5.  My piano teacher was an American living in England, and now I am an English piano teacher living in Canada!

6.  I once dressed up as a double bass for a Music in the Community event where I worked in Sheffield, UK!  It was the best :-)

7.  I am British and I love tea.  But just the regular kind thanks.

8.  I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan.  Like seriously.

9.  My favourite thing to do would be to learn and play ALL different instruments all day long, forever learning new ones ♫

10.  On our road trip around the East Coast of Canada last summer we bought a lobster trap from a fisherman, which now sits on our balcony - I love it!

11.  I hate paying full price for anything.  I LOVE sales!

And my nominees for a Liebster Award are:

1.  Kate at Home

2.  Cupcakery  

3.  Make Something Daily

4.  Let's Pour Tea
5.  Janae Today
6.  Good Morning Pancake

I love all of your blogs for different reasons, inspirational ideas and creations, British influences, cakes and bakes and lots more - thanks for sharing your posts :-)

11 questions for you!...

1.  When and why did you starting blogging?

2.  What is your most best, or favourite post you have written so far in your blogging life!?

3.  Coke or Pepsi?

4.  Did you join Pinterest before or after starting your own blog?

5.  Sweet or savoury?

6.  What is your favourite thing to blog about?

7.  Where are you from in the world?  

8.  What is the best thing about where you live?

9.  Ice cream in a cup, or in a cone?

10.  Do you play a musical instrument?  

11.  Outside of work, and blogging, what is your favourite thing to spend time doing?

I am so super excited to be part of this Liebster Award, and thanks again to Anyonita for nominating me - it has been a lot of fun thinking about those questions - learning things about myself whilst writing the answers, and I love the chance to tell people about the great blogs I love to read :-)