One Lovely Blog Award

Thank you Alona from Lonetester HQ  for nominating  me for the "One Lovely Blog Award".

I write my blog posts to record my family history research and photos for other family members and future generations.  However, it is wonderful to be recognised by fellow bloggers.  I will always be thankful to Alona as she inspired me to commence blogging in 2012 when she initiated the  Family History through the Alphabet Challenge.

The Rules for the "One Lovely Blog Award";

• Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog
• Share Seven things about yourself - refer below
• Nominate 15 bloggers you admire (or as many as you can think of!) - also listed below
• Contact your bloggers to let them know that you've tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award

Seven things about me (that you may not know)

• I can't help myself, I always plan things.  Always have!  I remember as a child, planning in advance how many jobs that I needed to do to save enough pocket money for a particular toy.  I really do believe that you make things happen by planning.  I can't remember ever doing anything spontaneously.  Does that make me boring? Or organised?

• I am progressing on my Genea-Bucket List and am currently planning a trip around UK to complete family history research on my ancestors.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

• I am totally uncoordinated and have no sense of rhythm but would love to learn how to dance.  
• Since I was a child, I have always liked doing puzzles and still do at least one or two puzzles every night (Sudoku is my current favourite).  Maybe that is why I enjoy family history so much? It's the hunt and solving the puzzles that I enjoy!
• I cannot sing and haven't tried since my son, at 2.5 years old, told me to stop singing nursery rhymes as I sounded like "a strangled crow".
• I cannot cook......well I don't cook......and am very lucky to have a wonderful and supportive husband who does all the cooking and most the cleaning.  
• I love to travel.  Through planning, budgeting and saving, I have been fortunate enough to visit 21 different countries (and have plans in place to visit a further 5 countries within 12 months). As long as I am physically able to, I will continue to travel and regularly complete review on Tripadvisor.

15 Blogs I read regularly

I subscribe to many different blogs (I was surprised to see that it is over 100!).  I work full time (over 55 hours most weeks) so am always behind in my reading and do not always comment (sorry). I deliberated whether to participate in nominating blogs as there are so many good blogs (with many already being well recognised). I don't want to offend anyone who I omit.  I think Pauleen was very smart not to nominate.  However I have decided to nominate blogs that may be lesser known to my followers and those who have been very inspirational to me.  I apologise if your blog is not listed below but there are so many good blogs out there that inspire me and I cannot list them all. 

In no particular order;

1. Yes, Virginia, There is life after retirement - I first started reading Denise's blog during the 2013 A-Z Challenge.  I really enjoyed reading about her travels and new places.  I continue to follow and read her posts.  She is articulate, intelligent, often amusing with some wonderful photography......so everything that I enjoy.
2. 5000 Poppies - I want to draw attention to this blog. The organisers are planning on "planting" a field of poppies in Federation Square Melbourne in April 2015, to commemorate all Australian soldiers.  I have made a start but aim to crochet poppies (before March 2015) to remember each of the ANZACs in my family tree.  There will be a future blog post about this.
3. My Grave Place - Bill takes photos of cemeteries and churches around UK.  I enjoy his photography and hope to one day take photos of the cemeteries in UK where my ancestors lie.
4. Spud's Daily Photo -  This is Bill (above) again.  He takes photos from around UK.  As I intend on visiting UK one day, I am always interested to see the sights. I enjoy taking photos too so appreciate good photography, which is natural and shows day to day images.
5. Travels Through my Past - I feel that Liz's blog is similar to my own, remembering ancestors and recording family history for future generations. 
6. Craft Gossip - In particular the crochet patterns - I like to crochet (when I get time) and have this site bookmarked. 
7. Postcards Then and Now - I always enjoy looking at before and after posts and this is a very interesting and easy to read blog
8. Family Tree Frog -  Alex is well known to many but I felt that I needed to include her as she writes the way I would like to.   To me, it seems that she writes the way she would speak.  She is interesting and amusing and although I have never met her, her writing makes me feel that she is an old friend.
9. Edes-Orban Family - This is a relatively new blog for me but I have enjoyed reading about Hungarian and Romanian Family History and want to read more.  I have family from this area, which I have not yet started researching.  Yes, I really do need to reduce the length of my blogs as it seems that the blogs that I read are all shorter, succinct but interesting.
10. Many of you would already know fellow geanea-blogger Jollett etc but I must also include Wendy's blog as I read it regularly and always enjoy it.
11. Memorabilia House - Alona nominated me via her Lonetester HQ blog and I nominate her right back for another of her blog posts.  What a great idea to have a blog especially dedicated to the history or family memorabilia.  I have started to catalogue them but one day would like to do the same thing as Alona.
12. Yvonne's Genealogy Blog - Yvonne's post are well researched and easy to read.  I tend to write too much in my posts but Yvonne has the ability to make a post inclusive and interesting but short enough to read quickly.
13. Avoca during World War 1 - This is a new blog by Ann but one that I am following.  I am interested in anything to to do with Australians in World Wars and as I have family who came from near Avoca, these are posts that I want to read.
14. From Helen V Smith's keyboard.  Helen is very well known but I include her here as I find her very inspirational.  Helen works full time but somehow manages to be very active in the genealogical community.  She has assisted me several times with research and inspired me to commence doing studies in genealogy, which I am enjoying immensely. Thank you for your support and assistance Helen.
15. Sepia Saturday - Last but definitely not Least.  Sepia Saturday would have to be my favourite blog post on the internet so I need to include it.  Such a wonderful inspiration for so many of my posts.   I have been inspired and challenged to research and blog about so many tops that I would not have otherwise, except for the weekly Sepia Saturday prompt.  They are such a wonderful and friendly group of members.