The Sunshine Award

I’ve been given the Sunshine Award by Eve Devon!

The Sunshine Award is given to bloggers who “positively and creatively inspire others in the Blogosphere”. 

How lovely!

Now I have to answer the questions and tag other bloggers, I mean, award them the Sunshine Award. Here are the rules:

Here are the Sunshine Award rules:
1) Thank the person who presented you with the award and link them in your blog post.
2) Do the Q and A that comes with the award (see below).
3) Present the award to 10-12 other bloggers and link them to your blog.

Here goes…

1. Thank you, Eve Devon! I can’t say as I’ve ever received an award before. Not since grade school anyway.

2. Q&A:

Favourite colour: (notice the British spelling!)
Hmm. I think it has to be yellow. I once decorated my whole house in yellow, when we’d moved to a dreary base house and I wasn’t very happy about it. I bought yellow floral fabric and made curtains (I used a needle and thread, since I’m scared of sewing machines). I painted my office yellow once. I think yellow cheers you up, and in this dreary climate, I need all the cheering up I can get.

Favourite animal:
No surprise here, my favourite animals are dogs. I’d rather be with a dog than any other animal, including, probably, most humans. They’re non-judgmental and, well, they bring sunshine, don’t they? I used to bring my last dog, a golden retriever who adored everyone she met, to my mom’s nursing home for unofficial pet therapy. Some of the people living there hadn’t seen a dog in a decade or more. I hope that wherever I end up when I’m old, someone brings a dog to visit.

Favourite number:
Lucky number 13! I was born on Friday 13th, so I consider it lucky.

Favourite non-alcoholic drink:
This is going to sound like I’m a lush, but there’s only one non-alcoholic drink I drink, and that’s green tea. I don’t drink juice or soda, so that pretty much leaves water and tea. Despite the fact I live in the land of tea drinkers, I can’t find my favourite brand of tea here, Lipton Green Tea with Mandarin Orange flavour. But I can get it in France, so I try to go a few times a year and bring back wine (my favourite alcoholic drink) and tea.

Facebook or Twitter:
Twitter. I love the hit-and-run aspect of Twitter. I worry about clogging up my Facebook feed, so I don’t post every comment that comes to mind, but on Twitter I’m much more verbose, despite the 140 character limit. Plus I really like the type of people that congregate on Twitter. We’re a fun, happy bunch!

My passion:
I don’t know if I can limit it to one! I love being with my dog, walking in the woods. I love going to historical sites, poking around ruins. I’m not much of a shopper at all, but I love antiques. All three of those passions are easy to do here in England, so I’m pretty happy. Maybe that’s why I haven’t felt the need to decorate my house in yellow! Hmmm….

Getting or receiving presents:
Oh, this is hard! I like them both, and since my birthday is two days away, I better say “getting” hadn’t I? But I really like giving them too, especially when you know something you’ve found is just the perfect thing.

Favourite pattern:
I’m going to echo Eve here and say “snowflake” patterns are my favourite. I really have a thing for snowflakes. My Christmas tree is full of them, and around the holidays I decorate with all the various snowflake things I’ve gathered over the years. And sometimes I forget to take them down…

Favourite day of the week:
Oh, this will be controversial, I know, but my favourite day of the week really is Monday. It’s the day I return to routine, when the house is all mine again and I can spend all morning writing a blog post or baking cookies or writing a new scene from my WIP or I can ditch all that and take my dog for a long walk, knowing there’s plenty of time later in the week for me to get the work done. Friday is bad, because it means I look back at the week and wonder, where did the time go? Why haven’t I got more to show for it?

Favourite flower:
I really love blue and purple flowers, so my favourites are lavender, bluebells, and wisteria. I think I love wisteria the best, though. I really love seeing it drape over an old stone cottage, or a whitewashed brick house.

3. And now to nominate…
Stephanie Monahan, my fellow Entangled Edge author, whose book 33 Valentines begins with a broken arm and ends up with a HEA.
Aubrie Dionne, whose book Playing the Maestro was one of my favourite recent reads.
Samantha Ann King, who is a real life friend from a land where there’s plenty of sunshine.
I’m going to nominate Tracey Livesay again, because I think we’d be great friends if we met in real life.
Inara Scott, because she seems to do a lot of good for the world, include writing excellent books for adults and teens.
Stella at Ex-Libris, because she adds sunshine to my world when I chat with her on Twitter!
Michelle Smart, because she’s also a person who I think would be a great friend in real life.
Gabi Stevens, who writes funny historical and contemporary romance and also lives in a sunny land so she knows Sunshine.
Rachel Lyndhurst, because she’s a fellow Entangled author and she likes antiquing too. I want her to tell me where her favourite antiques spot is!

Not quite 10, but that’s because I wanted to save room to nominate YOU! That’s right, you’re nominated! Chime in and let me know who you are!