My Liebster Award and Nominations

The rather lovely Jocelyn at The Reading Residence (known on Twitter as @ihavecards) has awarded me the Liebster Award. What is it? Well, Liebster is German for sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome – very nice! The Liebster Award is about celebrating other people's blogs and building the community, and is given to bloggers who have less then 200 followers.

To take part, all I need to do is answer the questions that Jocelyn has posed to me and the other blogs she has nominated, share some random facts then link back to her and give thanks for the nomination. I then nominate between five and 11 other blogs, contact them to let them know and pose my own set of questions to them. Easy peasy!

My answers to Jocelyn's questions:

1) What inspired you to start blogging?

I began To Become Mum when I became pregnant as a way to keep my friends and family, who are spread across the country, up to date with my progress as bump grew. Just before my little man arrived in May, I decided to turn my online diary into a virtual pinboard for all the things I know and love.

2) How does blogging fit into your everyday life?

As I'm on maternity leave at the moment, I do have more time than normal to read other people's blogs, to tweet and to write my own blog posts - even if this is at 3am during a night feed! During the day, it's just me and little man, so I like being able to talk to other mums via my blog, their blogs and on Twitter to share what's going on, what we like and don't like and generally natter about our lives.

3) What has blogging given to you?

Blogging is a great outlet for sharing your thoughts and feelings with other people who are in a similar place in their lives. Despite being of different ages and from different backgrounds, when you become a mum, you suddenly have an appreciation and an affinity for other mums and it's great to be able to talk to others who are going through or have been through the same as you, right then and there, any time of day or night. I don't have too many friends with babies so I wanted to be able to connect with other people who do but my blog is more than that; being a mum is absolutely brilliant but I still have other interests too. Blogging lets me explore these and it's fun and reassuring to speak to other people who have just as many interesting things to say as I do.

4) What’s your first childhood memory?

I remember Father Christmas coming to visit my house on Christmas morning. He came down the path and around the house to the back door, in the snow, and delivered me my first bike. I was so excited, I didn't seem to notice that my dad was missing. Ever since then, I've pledged to make Christmas the most magical time of year for my children.

5) Which film have you seen over & over again?

I LOVE films and have watched many, many films over and over again. Hmm... Aladdin, Mrs Doubtfire and Jurassic Park were part of my small VHS collection when I was younger, Austin Powers I know back to front from my teens, Moulin Rouge is one of my favourite films ever, LOTR I have watched hundreds of times I'm sure, and Sex and The City is a huge love of mine too. I cheated there didn't I, not picking just one?!

6) What’s your favourite book?

I don't read as much as I used to - just don't seem to be able to keep my eyes open long enough - but thinking back I'd probably say The Kite Runner or The Time Travelers Wife. My favourite books growing up were Fantastic Mr Fox and The Suitcase Kid.

7) If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

This is a tough one. I haven't been to so many places I'd like to. I loved New York but don't think I could live there. I love so many places but always love coming home. If I could live anywhere, I'd live near my family. At the moment that's a place called Fleet in Hampshire but really it's more about being close to all my friends and family that matters, but they're spread all over the country. It would be so nice to have them all in one place, on one street, as my neighbours!

8) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

I always wanted to be Nancy Drew, the teen version of Jessica Fletcher, when I was younger! I love a good murder mystery!

9) What was your favourite subject at school?

English, because I wanted to be a writer, then later on I loved art.

10) Where’s the farthest you’ve ever been from home?

I went to Singapore for work six weeks after our wedding. It was the longest flight I've ever been on and it was quite scary, despite being with a client, knowing I was on the other side of the world to everyone I knew. Amazing experience though.

11) What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?

Anything Ben & Jerry's! Clever Cookies and Coconutterly Fair being two particular faves.

Random facts about me:

1. My middle name is Virginia.

2. I am an only child. My parents had a daughter two years before I was born but sadly she died shortly after being born. I have a half brother and a half sister in Australia. My half brother came to my wedding which was the first time we met.

3. I have five tattoos - the eye of Ra inside a sun design at the top of my back, symbols down the middle of my spine, a butterfly design at the bottom of my back (which was my first when I was 17), a peacock feather on my right foot and the latest one is a swallow on my wrist, with the tail feathers shaped into the letter E for my baby boy.

4. I have three pets - a dog called Watson and two cats called Sherlock and Arty. When I was growing up, I had six cats, two rabbits, six fish and more than 100 birds as pets.

5. I met my husband when we both started working at Blockbuster when we were students. We will have been together for 10 years in January.

6. I passed my driving test on my fifth attempt. Don't laugh.

7. My dream car is a VW Camper Van. One day I will have one and it'll either baby blue and called Betty or sunshine yellow and called Daisy.

8. I've kept my son's umbilical cord in cotton wool in a box, despite thinking my mum was very weird for doing the same with mine.

9. I have very eclectic taste in music. I've been a fan of Backstreet Boys for 20 years yet love rocking to Marilyn Manson. My husband often says it's a cruel shame that I wasn't blessed with a beautiful voice as I love to sing but can't carry a tune.

10. I am a fan of wrestling. Yep, you read that right. I watched it when I was younger and got back into it about five years ago. I go once a year to see it when they come over to the UK and Hulk Hogan blessed my bump in January this year.

11. I love dying my hair or changing the style, although since I was pregnant, I've kept it quite safe. I've been long, short, layered, straight, curly, red, brown, blonde, dark, bit of everything at the same time... I just like trying new looks.