Breaking the Rules - Toot Sweet 4 Two

In August, Tiffany of MrsTee Love Life Laughter nominated Toot Sweet 4 Two for a Liebster Blog Award. We were incredibly honored to be nominated for this award and were humbled that she included us in her list of eleven bloggers that she featured on her post! Thank you, Mrs. Tee!

But, then I emailed her to tell her that we’ve been nominated before! Nominated late 2012 by another new blogger, we accepted the nomination and launched our Liebster Blog Award post on January 1, 2013 in celebration of the new year. You can read that post here: Liebster Blog Award. As new bloggers last year, we were thrilled at receiving this honor and had much fun writing that post.

I also told Mrs. Tee that we no longer fit “the rules” because we’ve blogged for a year and a half now and we had several thousand visitors a month. And, I thought that disqualified us. But, as many of us do in our “toot sweet” life, I didn’t read “the rules” closely, but rather skimmed through them since I knew we had been nominated in the past. You see, I didn’t want to take the glory of being a new blog in its infancy away from the ten other blogs she nominated.

Her nomination has haunted me {grin} since August. So, I revisited her post, which you can read here, and read her post again.

Well, there is nothing in “the rules” that disqualified us from accepting a Liebster Blog Award again! But, Rule #3 – “…each with under 200 subscribers…” haunted me. How many “subscribers” do we have? I didn’t even know where to look! So, I asked Mrs. Tee where she found Toot Sweet 4 Two’s subscriber numbers and she told me that she found them on Bloglovin’.

I didn’t even know what Bloglovin’ was, so I checked it out. You can, too, by clicking on their name, which is hyperlinked to their site or the “Follow me on bloglovin'” button on our sidebar.

They are a blog aggregation site, where you can follow your favorite blogs all in one place! Then, you don’t have to shift through hundreds of emails to find your favorite blogs or find them on your feed reader. You can “follow” them on Bloglovin’ and you get one email from Bloglovin’ sent to your inbox.

But, the sad thing for Toot Sweet 4 Two is that we only have 11 Bloglovin’ subscribers!!! Actually, ten. I’m the eleventh.

So, I decided to check our email subscribers. We can get access to this information through Feedburner. We have a total of 16 email subscribers (11, really, when you exclude me and Tiffany plus 3 of our relatives!). Imagine that – between the two services, we only have a total of 21 subscribers!

We are, indeed, little fish in the giant ocean that is the Web. This has been a very humbling research project for me!

So, I want to thank Mrs. Tee, again, for haunting me, which challenged me to look further. She has motivated me to work on our subscribers this next year and improve these pathetic numbers!

And, I’m breaking the rules by accepting her nomination for a Liebster Award again!

What is a Liebster Award? To quote from Mrs. Tee’s post:

“The Liebster Award is an award given to Bloggers BY Bloggers who believe a person is on the move with their Blog, yet still have less than 200 followers. How cool is that? To be recognized by your peers for doing something you both love to do! Now, where did the name Liebster come from. The meaning of the word: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome. Isn’t that sweet?”

And Mrs. Tee shared further, “to be a Blogger is definitely about building and supporting the community of Bloggers around you and what better way to show your support than letting other Bloggers know how great you think their work is? Then simply by following the rules listed below, you accept your nomination and can proudly post your award/badge to your site.”

Rules:

You must link back to the person that nominated you.
You must answer the 11 questions given to you by your nominator.
You must pick 11 bloggers, each with under 200 subscribers, to be nominated for the award.
You must come up with 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
You must go to their blogs and notify your nominees.

Our 11 Questions from Mrs. Tee:

(1) What motivates you to write?

Carole: I’ve always loved to write. I don’t really need “motivation.” In high school, I was inspired by a journalism teacher, Mrs. McGehee, who mentored students on both the school newspaper staff and year book staff. She saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself and asked me to join the school newspaper staff. Writing ever since, I’ve never looked back. But, I’ve never written as a “career”, but rather for personal enjoyment. When my nieces and nephews were younger, I wrote children’s stories for them all the time. Just never went the “published” route by submitting them to book publishers. I did it for me. Blogging seemed a natural fit for me and I love creating content for our site!

Tiffany: Just like Carole, I have always loved to write. From a very young age I always kept a journal, loved writing notes, poems, letters and working on doodles/lettering. I love to jot things down and put my thoughts on paper. Even now in this digital age, I really enjoy a good pen and paper to actually “write”.

(2) What was your first car?

Carole: A blue Ford Pinto that my parents bought for me (and the subsequent new drivers in our household – I’m the oldest, so I got the first opportunity!). The first car I bought for myself with my own money was a Nissan Sentra. I literally drove that car into the ground because one day when driving, the driver’s seat broke and fell into the back seat with me in it! I drove straight to a car dealership, in a most precarious fashion and bought my second car!

Tiffany: A 1981 silver Honda Civic Hatchback. I LOVED that car! I named the car after the old man that we had bought it from and even to this day I would love to have a car just like “George”. So many fun memories were made cruising around with my friends and listening to music. Sadly, my days with “George” ended too early when going through a blind intersection at the beach one day after school. We got hit and were all okay, but “George” didn’t survive.

(3) How many hours do you devote to your blog on a daily basis?

Carole: That’s a hard one to answer because I don’t work, necessarily, on it daily. By that, I mean the physical task of typing on this blog as I’m doing at this very moment. I’ve typed all my working life, so I’m a pretty fast typist. But, even though I don’t “type” on this blog every day, I work on this blog all the time! By that I mean that I’m always doing something for this blog: cooking and creating new recipes, photographing lots of different things (food, flowers, family, sunsets and sunrises, places we visit, restaurants, birds and wildlife – the list is endless), thinking of ideas and content for the blog. I’m inspired all the time – inspired by life and living. I’m writing all the time, too, not just typing into a post. I put notes on my iPhone, I carry a small notebook in my purse, I have endless “drafts” of material on my computer, I have a 500-sheet spiral-bound notebook that I leave around the house so that when I’m not on my computer, I can write something down that inspires me. Once I’ve used up every space in that notebook, I start on another 500-sheet, spiral-bound notebook. My inspirations can be a word, an entire thought, a photograph, a sunset or the ingredients for a recipe. So, even when I’m watching TV with Charlie and Coco, I’m working on the blog because that spiral-bound notebook is in easy reach as is my iPhone. If I have to “define” the number of hours daily devoted to our blog, I’d have to say 3. 3 hours a day.

Tiffany: This question is one that I can’t answer right on point presently. Over the past six months, I have been absent from the blog. I took a much needed blogging hiatus to get my personal life on track. By blogging hiatus I just mean that I haven’t been posting. I still have been active in other areas of the blog. Moving forward I plan to set “office hours” and work on the blog for 2 hours a day.

(4) What was your first job?

Carole: My very first job was as a neighborhood babysitter at the age of 12. With 3 younger siblings, I was considered “mature” and trust-worthy to neighbors, so word spread and I babysat. My first job in an actual business was at 14, when I got a job in a local restaurant as a waitress and cashier. I held that job for 5 years doing many things: waitress, cashier, cook, sous chef, dishwasher. I learned the importance of hard work, reliability, accountability and commitment. It was a great place to work because their staff was mostly high school and college kids and I have fond memories of that time.

Tiffany: My first job was working for my dad who is a professional photographer. I would help him by assisting on photo shoots and doing office work. Once I was able to get a work permit in high school, my first job was at The Gap as a seasonal employee during the holidays. While I learned many things at The Gap, such as folding clothes very neatly, I also learned that retail was not my thing.

(5) What is your favorite type of TV show? Comedy, Drama, Reality, etc.?

Carole: I’d have to say Drama. Charlie and I watch, mostly, Drama. But, when it’s just me commandeering the remote, I watch cooking shows on the Food Network and Cooking Channel! And, occasional decorating and gardening shows on HGTV.

Tiffany: That is such a hard question to answer! I love to laugh so I want to say comedy, but most of my favorite shows are Drama and suspense types. Like Carole, I also love shows about food and home stuff, if there isn’t anything “good” on TV I can always count on HGTV!

(6) Where do you go for inspiration when you hit a writing wall?

Carole: So far, that hasn’t happened, so I don’t know! I look at everything I do as a potential blog post. Every.tiny.little.moment. A good example is my recent post, Pinky Swear. That was about a 10 minute moment during preparation and eating Christmas dinner that turned into a post.

Tiffany: When I hit a wall I go to Carole! She always has an idea or inspiration. I also find inspiration by looking through pictures, often that will bring back a memory, which turns into a story to share (aka: blog post).

(7) If I pressed play on your iPod/iPhone or music player what song would play?

Carole: Sadly, nothing! I’m Late to the Party when in comes to music on these devices! Somehow, I’ve never managed to find the time to add music to my iPhone.

Tiffany: Luke Bryan…anything Luke Bryan…I LOVE Luke Bryan!

(8) Are you part of the Coffee Crew or Team Tea?

Carole: Definitely Coffee Crew! Too much; coffee! I even wrote a post about my habit: Hot Stuff!

Tiffany: Coffee! I love to start my day with coffee, once the morning is over though, I have no interest in it.

(9) Which do you prefer…Twitter or Facebook?

Carole: Facebook; I’ve yet to “engage” in Twitter. All of our Twitter engagement is currently done by my niece and partner on this blog, Tiffany. I need to make Twitter one of my New Year’s Resolutions, don’t I?

Tiffany: I love both platforms for different reasons. I’m more active on Facebook though. I think because I’m more visual and I see so many pictures on Facebook and it makes me feel very connected to people in this busy life!

(10) How often do you ‘Pin’?

Carole: Several times a week. I’m a huge Pinterest fan and love adding our creations to Pinterest and finding inspiration from others via their Pins.

Tiffany: I pin whenever I have a few spare minutes or when I’m bored and tired. I love Pinterest and find the only problem is that once I start I have a hard time stopping!

(11) What was the last dessert/sweet you had?

Carole: Peppermint Caramel Corn leftover from Christmas. Yum!

Tiffany: Butterfinger Ice Cream last night! One last splurge!

And the Nominees are…

A Beautiful Ripple Effect (Carolyn has 108 Bloglovin’ followers)
Cath’s Cookery Creations (Cath has 71 Bloglovin’ followers)
Carrie Elle (Carrie has 127 Bloglovin’ followers)
Crunchy Creamy Sweet (Anna has 176 Bloglovin’ followers)
Debt Free, Cashed Up and Laughing (Cath has 103 Bloglovin’ followers)
Inspiration Café (Heather, Danni, Mary, Natalie and Mel have 108 Bloglovin’ followers)
Jennifer Dukes Lee (Jennifer has 58 Bloglovin’ followers)
Sweet Little Bluebird (Mary has 115 Bloglovin’ followers)
The Blushing Bride (Shardi has 180 Bloglovin’ followers)
The Undecided Girl (Jocelyn has 40 Bloglovin’ followers)
Twinkle in the Eye (Bree has 128 Bloglovin’ followers)

Editorial Note: you will notice that every single one of the nominated blogs have oodles more Bloglovin’ followers that we do {grin}!

Questions for Our Nominated Bloggers:

What inspired you to be a blogger?
How do you make time in your busy life for blogging?
What was the last book you read?
If you could live any place in the world, where would that be?
What is your favorite Social Networking site and why?
Have you attended a blogging conference? If so, what were your “take-aways” from the conference?
What do you do in your “down-time”?
Are you a chocolate or a vanilla person?
Do you have favorite “big-time” bloggers (bloggers with thousands of followers) and if so, who are they?
Who/what inspires you the most?
What is your favorite blog post that you’ve written?

It’s Your Turn!

Please claim your Liebster Award by commenting in this post! All of you have been selected based on the number of followers listed on Bloglovin’. If you have more than 200 followers on Bloglovin’, congratulations! You were also selected because I follow you on Bloglovin’ and know you are sharing great content with readers.

So, thanks, again, Mrs. Tee for lighting a fire under me to increase our subscribers! Here’s a picture of Mrs. Tee, which I swiped from her blog (I’m sure she doesn’t mind):

Blogging just 6 months, Mrs. Tee has quite an active blog with regular posts such as Mommy Monday Blog Hop, Tunesday Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, Monthly Instagram Photo Challenge and You Save Friday.

BTW – you can “Subscribe Now” or “Follow Me on Bloglovin'” through the links on our sidebar.

Do it now, will you pretty please? I’m breaking the rules by accepting the Liebster Award again, so let’s see if we can get us out of the running for another Liebster Award by getting more than 200 subscribers through Bloglovin’. Thank you so much; you are the best “sweet peeps” EVER!

Tootles,

(other posts about blogging)

Rules:

Our 11 Questions from Mrs. Tee:

And the Nominees are…

Questions for Our Nominated Bloggers:

It’s Your Turn!

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