Sunshine Blogger Award

So today I woke up to the best surprise ever. My first nomination. Let me set the scene: I wake up after a crappy nights sleep expecting it to be something stupid like 7am so I check my phone to see not only is it 10:30am; but the lovely Claire at The pramshed has nominated me for a Sunshine Blogger Award.

Let me clarify what this is, alas no, it is not an award that I can pray to win and find a place in my overcrowded Lounge to put in prime position. The Sunshine Blogger Award is when a blogger is given questions to answer in a new blog (voila) and to then nominate another five bloggers for the Sunshine Blogger Awards.

Here are the questions put to me to answer:

1) What is your favourite TV programme and why?
Oh gosh this is such a hard question, I LOVE tele and watch so much of it especially as I’ve been on maternity leave for six months! Quite possibly at having to push an answer for just one programme I would say Friends. For today anyway! I love how I can watch an episode so many times and still find it hilarious and like I’d never watched it before. I also love how she got off the plane ❤

2) How would you spend your ideal Saturday night?
This is easy, a relaxing bubble bath followed by takeaway, movies and snacks snuggled on the sofa with hubby and somewhere put a little dance party in the kitchen in the night also!

3)Tell us about the best holiday you’ve been on and why?
I have had many super holidays that I loved but I think my favourite holiday must have been our honeymoon. To have two weeks where we didn’t have a care in the world and money was no object (within reason but we still did go silly)
We spent three days in Paris and two of them in Disneyland which hubby had never been to. I managed to convince him that America is a good idea as he has never wanted to go to anywhere other than Washington, but his experience of the magical Disneyland converted his mind! We flew back home and about six hours after landing in England headed straight to Rhodes for a 5* all inclusive honeymoon package hotel. We had our own private pool overlooking the water fountain which had a show every night, with a freshly restocked fridge everyday and two massages included each! Absolute bliss and the best way to start married life (although hubbys massive cold sore ended up like a crater on his face so all photos are with him hiding his mouth behind me! ) 🙈

4) Why did you start blogging?
I actually used to blog on a separate account where I wrote about our trying to conceive journey and I found a wonderful, supportive network on WordPress that when Ben was about three months old and when I was at a very low point, I decided to try my hand at blogging again. I had stopped when the pregnancy got too much but being so depressed I wanted to get out there and get a network of people who knew how I felt.

5) What are you blog successes (for you) since you’ve started your blog?
I have a few to be honest, to reach over 500 page views in little over four weeks was pretty epic and to have some brands want me to review their products has been pretty awesome (review post will be up in a week or two). I also have something pretty major that is in the pipeline and if it comes to fruition then that hands down will be amazing. But I’m not divulging what it is ‘cos I don’t want egg on my face just yet!

6) What would be your dream holiday be if money were no object?
Me and hubby have said we would love to visit all of the Disney parks around the world but one thing I have always wanted to do was to travel America and go to little towns, not just the big tourist spots. I would love to go to Iowa to visit spots where Slipknot got together, to go to somewhere like Charlotte in the southish area, but to also return to New York to collect my heart that I left there when I was 21. I want to do Route 66, witness Boston in the fall, go to Seattle, do film studio tours and just experience everything America has to offer!

7) What is your favourite book and why?
I really love Jodi Picoult’s My Sisters keeper. It’s so easy reading and each chapter is from a characters perspective so you really get to grips with every character and get to know them so well. The story is such a sad topic but also raises an interesting question of would you have a child if you knew they could save their sibling. However, I hated the movie. Hollywood did a Disney ending and just ruined it for me.

8) What’s your favourite TV Christmas advert?
Oh I love Christmas adverts! It has to be the Coke advert from the 90’s. whenever this comes on it let’s me know Christmas is truly here!

9) Who are your three favourite bloggers?
**I have only just discovered Lex at no manual to mummy. She has a few posts that I have been drawn to about modern day celebrities and what we can learn from TV characters.
**Katie at Mummy in a tutu has an amazing and amusing style of writing and her most recent post about internet dating proves it. She has me chuckling regularly, so go check her out!
**Kayleigh ‘just got married’ Thomas at Blue jeans, white tee is not a parenting blog, she is the lady you may have seen over the past year depicting her story about not using shampoo for a year, yes a whole year! She makes you want to eat and live cleaner but my hubby may not appreciate it 🙈

10) How do you keep yourself motivated to keep your blog up and running?
To be honest I’m actually finding it frustrating as I don’t have enough time doing my blog that I would like to! Having a five month old who is teething, has a massive appetite and wants focus on him makes it hard to juggle both Instagram, Twitter and my blog.
I am hoping that when I go back to work, the commute to London and back will help somewhat because then I’ll get nearly three whole hours uninterrupted daily!

So, to keep the award going here are my five nominees:

Kayleigh Thomas –  Blue jeans, white tee
Vicki Moore – Confessions of a NICU mum
Lex – No manual to mummy
Rachel Hawkins – Our Rach blogs
David – Tales of Two Children

And you guys these are my ten questions for you to answer:

1) Who was your childhood celebrity crush?
2) What has been your favourite post that you’ve written to date?
3) What advice would you give to fellow bloggers?
4) If you could survive on one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
5) What song would you say is the soundtrack to your life?
6) Who would you get to play you in a movie?
7) What are your aims for your blog?
8) Strictly Come Dancing or X Factor?
9) What came first, the chicken or the egg?
10) If you could vote anyone in as Prime Minister, who would it be?

Once you have done your blog post let me know so I can retweet it and I may even post a cheeky Instagram post for you!

😘