One Lovely Blog and Kreativ Blogger Awards

This was a nice surprise! Lisa at Diary of a Square Toothed Girl honored me with two blogging awards: One Lovely Blog and Kreativ Blogger. Thanks, Lisa! I wholeheartedly recommend following her blog if you haven't yet.

As a condition of accepting these awards, I just need to answer a few questions, provide ten facts about myself, and pass the awards along to seven more blogs. Let's start with the questions and answers.

What is your favorite song?

Favorite song? Are you kidding? That probably changes every time anybody asks me. Instead, how about I tell you which one is in my head right now? It's "Little Talks," by Of Monsters and Men. If you haven't seen the video, I recommend checking it out; it's fantastic.

What is your favorite dessert?

Are you trying to trip me up? All I can say for sure is that chocolate has to be involved--well, unless it's fresh peach or blueberry pie. I prefer fresh peach and blueberry pies to their baked counterparts.

When you are upset, what do you do?

That depends on how upset I am and why. If I can pull it off, the best thing for me to do is just take a nap. I'm usually calmer when I wake up.

What was my favorite pet?

Favorite pet? I can't possibly choose. They've all been special.

What do you prefer to wear, black or white?

Probably black. White clothes get ruined too easily when you tend to spill things.

What is your biggest fear?

I don't even like to type the word, but it's those eight-legged creepy crawlies.

What is your attitude mostly?

I'm pretty realistic most of the time, but I do get my occasional bouts of pessimism.

What is perfection to you?

I guess it would be when everything goes the way I think it should.

What is your guilty pleasure?

All I can think of is when I finally eat something that contains wheat after going a few days without any wheat at all.

Now, for ten random facts about me:

1. I used to be a voracious reader but slacked off considerably, so I recently signed up at Goodreads as an incentive to read more.

2. I'm a listmaker from way back. I even make lists of lists to make!

3. I'm pretty forgetful, so it's a good thing I make all those lists.

4. It really bothers me when I'm watching something and the sound and picture aren't in synch.

5. I'm always surprised when one of my favorite shows gets renewed for another season. Most of my favorites throughout the years didn't last long.

6. I'm never surprised when one of my favorite products gets discontinued or "improved" in a way that makes me hate it.

7. Black plums are probably my favorite fruit, and I'd never even tried one until a few years ago.

8. Broccoli is by far my favorite green veggie. I don't like it raw, though.

9. I like those peanut butter kisses that are only available around Halloween. You know--the chewy peanut butter candies wrapped in wax paper. Some have orange wrappers and some have black ones.

10. I drink more water more than anything else.

Last but certainly not least, I'd like to pass these awards along to the following terrific bloggers:

Becca at Lost in Thought
Betsy at My Five Men
Dana at The Daily Dose
Kate at The Suddenly Kate Show
Janna at Pastry and Poetry
notes4neta at Rabbit Trails
Sherri at Sherri's Graphomania

Wrapping Up the A to Z Challenge

The Blogging From A to Z Challenge wrapped up on Monday, April 30. I took some much-needed downtime for about a week, but now it's time to reflect on how the challenge went for me.

This year, I entered three of my blogs, and each had a theme for the challenge:

Ellie's Blank Book (this blog) - things you'll find on Pinterest
Ellie's Couch - music videos
Help Michigan Pets - pets in urgent need of help

My Self-Imposed Rules

1. Post at all three blogs for every letter.

2. Stick to a naming format. I like looking at the sidebar and seeing the posts in (reverse) alphabetical order by the first letter of the title.

3. Write and post them on the day they're due. In other words, no writing or scheduling posts ahead of time.

4. Make-up posts are not allowed.

What Do I Have Against Doing Posts in Advance?

Absolutely nothing. As someone with three blogs in the challenge, I can certainly understand why it's a good idea. Nevertheless, I didn't do it, for two reasons.

1. It's more of a challenge to me if I write the posts on the days they're actually due. This isn't procrastination; it's just how I choose to challenge myself. For me, the challenge isn't just having a post for every letter of the Roman alphabet but also writing those posts on the days they're due. I do allow myself to research, take detailed notes, and write rough drafts in advance, but not the final posts.

2. For my pets blog, it wouldn't have been possible to write the posts very far in advance, since they were about specific pets in urgent need of adoption. Although some have been designated as "urgent" for a quite a while, others are constantly being added, and some are removed from the list (which we always hope is for happy reasons).

Results

I read an incredible number of fantastic posts. I got many new followers and followed quite a few new blogs myself, with more to come.

Even if I had entered just one blog, I would have had a hard time keeping up with return comments and visits. That's something I'll be working on now that the challenge is over.

Will I Do This Again?

I hope so, although probably with fewer blogs. I've already been thinking about possible themes. In fact, a few days into the challenge, I remembered that I'd chosen and started planning a completely different theme months ago. Oops!

Thanks

Thanks to Arlee Bird and the rest of the A to Z team for hosting the challenge.

I'd also like to thank everyone who visited, commented, and/or followed any of my blogs.