Liebster Award

Hey, look - I won an award?! (Happy February, by the way!)

"The Liebster award is a blog award given to new, up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers."

Tagged by my good old (and only) blogging pal cyndork. Who would've thought I'd ever win an award for having a grand total of one follower? It makes me rather chuffed to know that somewhere on the internet exist kind individuals who create such heartwarming awards such as this.

So what are the rules for accepting this award?

1.  Post 11 random facts about yourself 
2. Answer the 11 questions that the nominating blogger asked you 
3. Ask 11 questions to the bloggers that you nominate 
4. Nominate 11 new bloggers (they must have less than 200 followers) and link their blogs in your post
5.  Make sure you tell the bloggers that they've won!

[ONE]

1. I am enchanted by pretty colours and fairy lights.

2. I can play the piano and violin.

3. Though my faith isn't always be as strong or integrated into my daily life as I would want it to be, I love and believe in God.

4. I'm very fascinated by the sea: exploring, sailing, boats, krakens, mermaids, pirates and the battle between the sperm whale and the giant squid in the depths of the ocean!

5. I am mildly addicted to coffee. 

6. More of a crazy cat lady than a dog person.

7. Despite being of Chinese descent, I can hardly speak a word of Chinese. I can communicate reasonably well in basic French, however.

8. I love vintage fashion, secondhand and antique stuff.

9. I have somewhat quirky features ie. my nose looks like a mushroom and my toes are so ridiculously long they could pass as spaghetti.

10. I have visited France (on a two month exchange trip when I was 15), Spain and New Zealand.

11. Eleven used to be my favourite number until my Hogwarts letter did not arrive at age 11. I was genuinely distraught. Now I don't have a favourite number any more because I don't especially care for numbers.

[TWO]

1. Your favourite film of all time?

You know, if I could only pick one, I guess it'd have to be Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Ever since I was little, I've always loved the way the movie combines colour, fairytales and adventure and music and singing candlesticks and teapots. Not to mention Belle's superhuman animated grace and elegance. I can (and do) watch it again and again. What's not to love?

And that library...OH, THE GLORIOUS LIBRARY!

"I want adventure in the great, wide somewhere."

2. What is on your wishlist right now?

Risk: The Lord of the Rings edition. 

WORLD MIDDLE EARTH DOMINATION SHALL BE MINE.

(Winward Balloon Adventures)

Hot air balloon tickets would be incredibly surreal in the most extraordinary way imaginable.

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing." - John Keats

3. Your favourite game?

The Ace Attorney series for Nintendo DS, especially #3: Trials and Tribulations

I love the adventure novel-style gameplay that is easy to navigate but with a reasonable degree of challenge and thinking involved. I've never sound anything else with such an interesting storyline that has combines humour, ridiculousness, heartwarming moments and brilliantly eccentric and quirky entourage of characters.

4. Favourite novel?

Reading is one of my favourite things in the world to do and throughout my reading adventures, I am always discovering and loving stories but there will always be a special place in my heart for Harry Potter. It always has been, and always will be my very favourite novel. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was the first novel I ever read (also the first movie I saw at the cinemas) and I can't ever thank JK Rowling enough for all the magic, love, courage, friendship and adventure that she's used her imagination to bring to life.

5. Where are the places you want to travel to?

I want to travel and travel and travel! To lots of places, all over the world - but I'll just pick a few.

France (pour la deuxième fois)

Russia.

Egypt.

Antarctica.

6. A particular thing or person you're obsessed with right now?

Boost's 'Green Tea Mango Mantra' smoothie. Icy, fresh deliciousness. Obsession fuelled by the fact that I've never had one to myself, I've been craving one for weeks and price of said smoothie always seems to coincide with the last amount of change I need to save for public transport.

I can't stop thinking about it.

7. Would you call yourself a passive or an aggressive person?

I try not to be either. I think deep down I'm actually a shy kid whose heart beats nervously every time I have to use the phone, but one who'll take action if something doesn't seem quite right.

I believe the best way is to strive towards balancing assertiveness without aggression.

8. Favourite quote?

I'm going to cheat and pick four.

"You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." - CS Lewis.

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself." - Amelia Earhart

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible!'" - Audrey Hepburn

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." - Dr Seuss

9. Your favourite cartoon show?

Sadly, nothing really comes to mind. I've always been more of a movie kid than a TV show one, though I do remember being a fan of Sailor Moon when I was younger.

10. Funniest memory you have?

Once Cindy threw a sleepover and we tried to beautify ourselves with egg-white masks. Proceeding to read the world's funniest picture book and bursting into muted snorts of laughter, rolling around on the bed in fits of glee and agony because our faces made it impossible for us to crack a smile.

Why is everything so much funnier when you're not supposed to laugh?

11. Your favourite song as of right now?

"82, rue des martyrs" - Mika

Has the most plays on my MusicBee this week. Terribly catchy; it makes me happy and sad at the same time.

[THREE]

My questions to you!

1. If you could jump inside any book and live there for a while, which story would you pick?
2. What is your favourite drink?
3. What was your childhood dream profession?
4. Three things that make you smile?
5. Something that makes you cringe?
6. What do you suppose was going on in the exact spot that you're currently inhabiting, a hundred years ago?
7. What is your favourite film?
8. Do you still live in the town/city of your birth?
9. What is your favourite inanimate object?
10. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
11. What is one goal that you would like to achieve this year?

[FOUR]

As I don't, as yet, have anybody I know to contact for this lovely award, I am now on a blog hunt to find such worthy candidates!

*Update* Ahem, I tag - 

Trudie @ My Vintage Childhood
Jess @ Vintage Pie
Erika @ Swingin' it in Vintage
Simone @ Vintage.Home.Life
Jack Edwards @ Poetry and Other Writing
Taylor Wise @ Saved by grace...maintained by coffee
Lisa @ Crafternoon Tea Craft Market
Anna @ Green Tea & Toast
The lady whose name I don't know @ Dear Pearl Vintage
One with fine taste in beverages @ Over Morning Coffee
The space waitress @ Coffee, Tea, or Me?

Good luck! (And, yes, I did just run a Google blog search for 'vintage,' 'tea' and 'coffee')

Weekend Adventuring

I just returned last night from a very busy (in the outdoors-y sort of way) and lovely weekend away with my dad and siblings where we visited Pemberton, Margaret River, Bussleton and Mandurah (hee, that's a lot of places over only three days) and saw a lot of cows. It was incredibly fun and exciting to try all sorts of new things I've never done before, like canoeing and fishing. I even got to try rowing a rowboat by myself. Well, with my seven year old sister hanging onto the left oar and trying to help but really sending us around in crooked loops and eventually running aground. Although that last part was my fault, I'm almost certain. That dude from The Notebook made it look so much easier.

So I don't launch into an extended commentary on how beautiful the scenery, butterflies and adorably soft joeys sniffing around the place were; here are just some of the greater highlights of the weekend:

-My dad canoeing out on the lake by himself for almost an hour. We thought he was having the time of his life, really in the moment. Although when he sort of staggered up ashore, finally, it turned out that he had been stuck and having a rage of frustration out there the whole time. Kudos for powers of observation! Dad, next time don't wave like you're enjoying yourself.

-The advertisement for Hungry Jacks right above the cow field. The morbidity of it didn't occur until until my witty bro pointed it out. I laughed and felt like a terrible slayer of animals. Conflicting.

-American guy who was a staff member at Karri Valley resort had the most intriguing shoes I have ever seen. Sort of flat, yellow and grey in colour, like soft rubbery climbing or athletic shoes but - get this - they had these individual toe pockets. Like toe-socks but shoes. Toe shoes. I regret not asking him where he got them from.

-My brother and sister butt-printing the walls of the dry sauna we were hanging out in. What is butt-printing, you ask? I imagine it could mean any number of things from learning to print your ABCs à la butt to swallowing whole sheets of paper and using your butt as a printing press. Although in this context, it simply refers to pressing your wet (from the swimming pool) butt cheeks up against the wooden walls of the sauna and leaving charming, well-rounded memoirs for everyone to see, waiting for them to evaporate and repeating the process. No wonder we didn't have company.

[One day I will learn how to manipulate blogging technology to make beautiful and fascinating bullet points that will make my readers stare at them for a really long time. Then they won't notice how much grammars I don't have.]

Here are pictures of the places we spent the night at that I swindled off Google images:

Karri Valley Resort (Pemberton)

They have these gorgeous wooden chalets there.

Upsides: Absolutely beautiful landscape, our neighbour feeding lots of Rainbow Lorikeets on her balcony.

Downsides: No oven in our kitchen, kookaburras mocking you as you reel in your unsuccessful fishing line

Abbey Beach Resort (Bussleton)

A little bit fancy.

Upsides: Close to the beach, feels like you're staying in a luxury mansion, access to swimming pools, a sauna, sports thingos (like squash, basketball, gym and tennis), playgrounds and art exhibition within the resort, fascinating kitchen cabinet with 360 degree spin rotation: hours of entertainment.

Downsides: Lousy dishcloth made the water turn purple and proved near useless in scrubbing burnt spaghetti from a saucepan, renting movies from the Lobby is ridiculously expensive and they didn't have The Amazing Spiderman disc even though it was on their display rack of available movies. Sister deprived of reunion with hotsy biffle, Andrew Garfield.

Both places were comfortable and incredibly lovely, in different ways. It was a really fantastic weekend and even though I'm very tired and sporting mosquito bites in questionable places, I feel extremely chuffed and lucky to have had the opportunity to go away to such great places and try such exciting activities. 

I hope you had a great weekend, too!