Leibster Nomination? Yes, please!

I’ve been slacking off on this blog, which is kind of funny because I have all sorts of finance-related things on my mind. Life happens…my kids have been sick for about two weeks straight and it’s been like having a newborn (or two) all over again. Nothing kills my mojo like sleep deprivation…Yikes!

To my surprise, I opened my inbox today to see that Dames in Debt have nominated this blog for a Leibster award! At first I thought it was a mistake, but then I read their lovely post and understood that this is a really fun way to get more involved in the blogging community and to make some blogging friends. It made my day! Thanks so much, Jess & Katie!

Dames in Debt and I started our blogs around the same time and for similar reasons…to talk about money, about debt, and about managing our finances well. It’s tough stuff! But the Dames take a frustrating subject and make it fun, real, and interesting. They are a team of sisters on opposite coasts, working together to run their blog and offer helpful information to people. My favorite thing is that it is so obvious how well they work together…it is what makes their blog so great, and so well put together in such a short time (it was only started two months ago!). My favorite post is This is Your Life on Debt  because they tackle a subject that is near and dear to my heart. Debt-free is how I want to be! Take a gander at their website and show them some love. Thanks again to you ladies for reaching out and being supportive.

The Leibster award is geared towards welcoming and exposing new bloggers to the blogging community. It used to be for blogs with 2000 readers or less, but due to it’s popularity, it is now for blogs with 200 readers or less. Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. 🙂 How awesome is that?

Here is a link to the official rules of the Leibster. Now I am going to answer the questions posed by the Dames.

Here are 11 tidbits of info you never knew before!

1.What made you take the leap to start a blog? 

The first blog I started is Bunny and the Guy, formerly known as Revolution Starts at Home. That is my personal blog and I’ve had it since my daughter was about 3 months old…shes’s 2 years and 8 months now. This was a big step for me and something I had wanted to do forever, but I still keep it very private because I get very personal. My intent has always been to turn my blog into a website, but I haven’t gotten that far yet.

Art of Wealth story is a blog I started as part of a project I am doing with my friend DeWayne, who is eighty years old and looking to share the financial wisdom he has acquired throughout his life. This blog is a platform for that story (also to be incorporated into a more functional website!).

2. What is your favorite part about blogging?

I love the journal-writing style that I can accomplish with a blog. I still write in my journal all the time, but it feels good to have an audience, no matter how small. It makes me feel less alone in the world, which is the ultimate reason why I share what I share – in the hopes that someone who reads it might feel less alone.

3. Do your friends & family know you have a blog, or is it your own little secret?

Some do, some don’t. It boils down to who I am comfortable with and feel like I can be myself with, so that’s a pretty good meter in general of who I want in my life…I want to be around those I feel comfortable sharing my blog(s) with.

4. Are you more of a write on the couch with a cup of tea blogger, or a sit at the desk with coffee blogger?

At the desk with a cup of tea…lol. I recently gave up coffee (something I NEVER thought I’d do) because it seems to contributes to stress in my life, and contributions of that sort are not needed!

5. Where do you get your blog post inspiration from?

Everywhere. A look someone gives me, a tidbit of conversation, the pattern of birds flying in the sky. It has always been the truth that I cannot force myself to write, I have to let it come to me. And so, my job becomes making the conditions in my life favorable for inspiration, rather than trying to grasp at it. Thankfully, even when there are lulls, it always returns.

6. What is your favorite book, and why?

Gosh, I cannot ever choose. Reading is one of my most favorite things and greatest pleasures in life. Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes was life-changing. Gabriel Garcia Marquez can paint a scene with words like no other, and Pablo Neruda’s poetry is like someone writing words of my soul. Then, of course, the classics…Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Hemmingway…The thing that all my favorites have in common is that they give me insight into my own inner life and change my perspective in new and interesting ways.

7. How do you use images and text to get your message across?

I am working on that, but I use a combination of good free stock images and my own (Galaxy s4) photos. I may be investing in a better camera soon because I am really interested in vlogging 😉

8. What do you wish you’d known before you started your bloggie?

I wish I had really chosen a niche and a particular direction instead of feeling like the things I do are fragmented. I’ve had a really hard time choosing the right “name” and “topic” and still feeling like I am being myself.

9. What are your goals for your blog?

My ultimate goal for my personal blog is to turn it into a website platform, which is streamlined through social media and you tube. I guess kind of like a personal “brand” but that idea makes me a little uncomfortable. I still have quite a bit of leg work to do! I mostly just want to be honest and offer content that is helpful and interesting.

My goal for Art of Wealth story is to give a voice to my friend’s company by being as authentic and honest as I possibly can while learning from him. Actually, the goals for this blog and my personal blog are pretty much the same!

10. How do you remain productive?

Naptime, a babysitter 8 hours a week, and making sure I eat well, exercise and sleep. That may seem simple, but it is a huge accomplishment for me to stay steady enough (at this point in life, with two small toddlers and a lot of uncertainty) to have the energy to work.

11. What’s your favorite away-from-the-blog activity?

Being near the ocean. Thankfully, I live in Rhode Island, so it is all around me!

Here are my nominees! 

• Charlie of Looking for a Landslide
• Jason of The Wealthy Endeavor
• Exploring Adulthood
• Jackie of JKPOSTGRAD
• Mikki of Mikki the Marketer

And here are the questions I pose to them…have fun, amigos!

1. Why did you start a blog?
2. How has the direction of it changed over time?
3. What do you foresee for your blog?
4. What makes you the most happy?
5. What makes you the most sad?
6. How much time do you spend on the computer every day?
7. How much time do you spend outside every day?
8. What is your relationship to money?
9. Your favorite blog?
10. Your favorite vlog?
11. How do you define “success?”

This has been fun and motivating. Make sure to follow along for more! Thanks again to the Dames for the nomination!

Ciao for now 🙂

---

Below I am posting the official Leibster rules. You can also find them here, on Jack Henry’s site The Global Aussie.

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog. Try to include a little promotion for the person who nominated you. They will thank you for it and those who you nominate will also help you out as well.

2. Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.) At the bottom of this post I’ve included a whole lot of images you can use for your 2016 Liebster Award.

3. For the 2016 Liebster Award I will be shaking things up! Write a 150-300 word post about your favourite blog that is not your own. Explain why you like the blog, provide links.

4. Provide 10 random facts about yourself. (This year I’m making this optional. If you wish to engage with your readers it’s a great idea to include random facts about you.)

6. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 200 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

7. List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post or mine if you don’t have all the information so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)