Blogger love and motivation

Back from the break with a bang! I am so thrilled to receive 'the Liebster award' from the gracious Mehak at The Double "M" Life! And to top this excitement, Kavita from Chic-ilicious featured me on her lovely blog this Saturday.

Wow! Four months and so much of blogger love! I am touched, happy and feel blessed!

Kavita is from India and is a management student, has ‘chic’ sense of style, shopaholic and fun to talk to, just like me ;) Thanks to blogging I am able to connect with like-minded people like Kavita who are spread across the globe. I think this is definitely one of the best aspects of blogging.

Kavita has started a new feature called ‘Saturday F Slave’ where she will feature a blogger every alternate Saturday. I was on cloud nine when she chose my blog to start with on this feature!! Thank you so much Kavita for the feature and such a well-written post! Kudos to you gurl! Do check out her blog – Chic-ilicious and the feature post here. 

Another award for blogging, am I dreaming or what! Pinch me please!

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. The Meaning; Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcoming.

The lovely Mehak from ‘The Double "M" Life’ has nominated me for the Liebster Award. Mehak is a fellow Indian blogger, residing in the US, charming and warm person and easy to approach. She’s a master of many trades – artist, avid reader, fashionista, foodie, traveler and a blogger above all! Do check out her blog – The Double "M" Life where she writes about all these topics and her weekend adventures – it’s such a pleasure to read her blog.

The rules for receiving the Liebster award:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you.

3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.

4. Create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer.

5. Go to their page and tell them.

6. Remember, no tag backs!

11 things about me:

1)   By starting this blog, I have realized a dream of mine and it just feels so right and awesome! Koi kuch bhi kahe (say what you may), but writing this blog has been so fulfilling and satisfying.

2)   I have a fetish of collecting coffee mugs; if I see something interesting I need to buy a pair of it. I now have 4 different pairs of coffee mugs for everyday use; every pair is unique in color and shape.

3)   I have been always talkative in my childhood days; so much so that once my kindergarten teacher mentioned to my mom that “your girl is so very talkative in class” (imagine my mom’s reaction to that!) As I grew up, that trait has disappeared (many reasons), but in this break I have taken upon me to become more chirpy, spontaneous and talkative of course!

4)   I think I mentioned this in earlier post, but for some silly reason I always took pride in my unique name – I was the only person with my name (that Google’s servers knew about) in the whole wide web world!

5)   I am an Engineer by education, Business Analyst by profession and a fashion, food and travel lover on weekends.

6)   I never drove a car in this country for the past 5 years I have been here. Call it phobia, procrastination, or anything else, but I never was required (??!!) to drive around neither for school nor for work. For everything else, there was and is Husband!

7)   I have trained for Indian classical dancing (Odissi and Bharatnatyam) in my school days. But after an accident I suffered fracture, I stopped dance classes for a while and never took them up again. Another dream of mine, is to start dancing – any kind that may be.

8)   I love to collect little tit-bits/tickets/passes from our travels. I put them together in our travel scrapbook to create a personal memoir for J and me to browse through after many many years.

9)   I never cooked a meal or even entered the kitchen when I lived in India with my parents. That ways I was a spoilt brat (even though I had a working mom). But since moving to the US, I have developed this new hobby/interest in cooking. I cook Italian, Mexican, Mediterranean, Thai and different types of Indian cuisine of course. I don’t know how I made this sudden 180 degree turn towards the kitchen; guess, necessity is the mother of learning to cook :P

10)   I never ever loved chocolates in my childhood. No chocolates, no cookies, no sweet for me; weird, right? Well, I just despised the way the chocolate stuck between the teeth when you eat it (yeah, I hated chocolate for this reason!). That saved my teeth from cracking up :P But now I have grown up to be a very different person, I enjoy eating chocolates and everything else in moderate to small quantities.

11)   I am inspired by real-life success stories – be it adopting the healthy way of eating, working out, starting blog or learning to make rotis (Indian bread). When I watch my friends do it excellently, I am motivated to give it a try. I believe in real-life role models rather than reel-life ones.

Questions posed by Mehak as part of this award:

Q1. What was the inspiration behind your blog?

Ashy: I have been reading blogs for two years now (!!) so when the time was available, I wanted to start writing my blog and share the anecdotes of my life.

Q2. Which one would you prefer : A vacation trip to the Mountains or Islands??

Ashy: Vacation trip to islands please!

Q3. What is the craziest thing you've ever done?

Ashy: Latest crazy thing was jet-skiing on the rough waters of Atlantic Ocean in

Miami. The waves were so bouncy I don’t think we ever sat properly on the seat At one point, I admit I was scared for my life: P

Q4. Who is your favorite blogger?

Ashy: It has to be Kendi from KendiEveryday. I don’t think I will ever tire from reading her blog or looking up her pics. She looks just angelic and is a natural when posing.

Q5. If you were given a chance to undo one thing from your life what would it be and why??

Ashy: My fear of driving car. Though I am learning to drive now, I think I should have done that way before.

Q6. What is your idea of a perfect breakfast?

Ashy: Hot Ginger tea a la’ desi style and hot Poha (flat rice snack) made by J, he makes delicious poha. When we were dating in India that was the first dish he had made for me (he specially got up early in the AM to make it so he can give it to me for breakfast when we meet in the office)

Q7. What quality do you most like in yourself and why?

Ashy: I am fiercely loyal to my friends, family or my team at work; that quality helps maintaining relationships for a long haul.

Q8. Have you accomplished any goals recently.. tell us about it..

Ashy: yes, starting a blog and maintaining it was a long time goal since past year or so. It was a risk I took, but have survived very well until now. I think it can now be ticked off from my list of goals in life ;)

Q9. What do you prefer: Heels or Flats??

Ashy: I love heels but occasionally. For every day wear I go with comfort and so vote for Flats.

Q10. If given an opportunity to be on the cover of a magazine.. Which one would you choose and why?

Ashy: In-Style, for their easy, comfortable styles that I can relate to in my everyday life.

Q11. If you had to describe yourself in 3 words.. what would they be??

Ashy: Amiable, Stylish and Honest.

Here's my list of blogs for the Liebster award:

1. Double Expat

2. a devine life

3. Head2Heels

4. Indian Kitchen filled with Spices & Love

5. Its Not Just Fashion 

6. ms.rhea's

7. My Not So Ordinary Life

8. Preeti's Kitchen Life

9. Rising Colors

10. the fashion flite

11.Trippin' on Fashion.

Lastly, thank you to all my readers that pour in support and love via emails, Gtalk chats, comments and social media. This blog wouldn’t have been successful without you. And thank you to my friends, family and dear husband who encourage me day in day out ;)

You all motivate me to give my best and try harder!

P.S.: next up – outfit post and couple of ways to wear a sheer top.