Ooh, la la…more awards have arrived!

I’m blushing from head to toe. Really!

I received two more stellar awards from two stellar ladies. I am truly grateful to be honored with more love and encouragement from the blogging community.

The Sunshine Award

A big shout out to my radiant blogger Positive Boomer for honoring me with this award. To me, her blog is pure sunshine, so I am tickled that she considers me in the same cheerful company.

Some of you may have read Written by a 90 Year Old, which came from her blog. If you missed it, read it. You’ll love it!

To accept, I must answer 10 questions:

  1. Favorite color: Grey, Green
  2. Favorite animal: Cat, Cow (some of you met Ken during my last award post)
  3. Favorite number: 7
  4. Favorite drink: Water, Tea, Beer (converted after moving to Wisconsin, naturally)
  5. Favorite website: Yoga Journal (great tips for non-Yogis as well!)
  6. Passion: My beautiful husband, teaching movement, and it seems like I’m forgetting something…oh, that’s right! Writing.
  7. Prefer getting or giving presents: Don’t make me choose! Hey, I’m being real. I like presents!
  8. Favorite pattern:  Paisley (it’s all over my apartment)
  9. Favorite day of the week: Sunday
  10. Favorite flower: Cherry Blossoms

I must cheat a bit on all nominations as I am still new at blogging and cannot muster the required handful at the moment.

Here are two for the Sunshine Award:

  1. Live. Explore. Learn. Remember – Cool, fun couple living in S. Korea. They recently taught me about sock vending machines!
  2. Jessica Korteman – Another cool, fun couple. They live in Japan, and travel everywhere. Living the dream!

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

A big shout out to my fellow blogger The Emerald Maiden for honoring me with this award. She has a really warm, down-to-earth blog that you should check out. It’s always a relief to find people keeping it real!

To accept, I must say 7 things about myself:

  1. I bite my nails.
  2. I think film noir is fantastic.
  3. Australian accents are my favorite. I wish I had one.
  4. I rarely use a handbag. I use pockets or my backpack.
  5. I know how to dance the Highland Fling.
  6. I want to see the entire world before I die. That’s right, all of it!
  7. Teaching kids has helped me to clean up my dirty mouth. I now say things like “Oh goodness!” and “Fiddlesticks!”.

I would like to nominate the following three bloggers for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award:

  1. Doree Weller – A fellow writer with a kindred spirit.
  2. Figments of a Dutchess – She’s Dutch. She’s sassy.
  3. The R Premises – Random, angsty, and refreshingly different.

Dancers: Quirkier than you think

Playing the Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, my solitary duty was to entice the audience, whisking them out of the daily grind and into an ethereal world—graceful, beautiful, and effortless.

No stress, no blunders. Everything was simple and perfect.

And, here’s what the audience didn’t know…I couldn’t see anything!

Typically, it snows at the end of the “Waltz of the Snowflakes”. And, even though the stage is merely littered with bits of scrap paper, the cheap thrill is bizarrely breathtaking.

But the dancers have a different view altogether. Simply put, it’s a hazard.

During every performance I was blind, courtesy of snowflakes caught in my fake eyelashes. Every time I leaped off into the wings, I blew snow out of my mouth. It was comparable to dancing on an obstacle course, pointe shoes slipping and sliding on the messy floor like there was no tomorrow.

As a result, I muttered many choice words through gritted teeth.

Yet, the audience didn’t notice a thing, and exited the theater with dreamy expressions, Tchaikovsky and tutus forever embedded in their minds.

I fulfilled my duty as a performer. Sure it was dangerous and challenging, but I  cherished every last second.

Dancers are athletes, who know how to act. They make the impossible, attractively possible.

I often forget how enthralling the dancer species truly is, because I have always been one. So, I took a moment to step out of my dancing shoes to analyze quirky characteristics of the dancer, and share a few crazy things you may not know.

  • They’re shy  You probably don’t believe me, but I’m guilty as charged. I can dance for thousands, but I loathe speaking in front of people. I believe this is where the snobby misconception comes into play, others mistaking bashfulness for conceit.
  • Their posture is baffling  Due to my good posture, I almost failed my driving test when I was younger. The DMV tester guy made me pull over and instructed me to take deep breaths; he warned that he was about to fail me for being too tense, because of the way I was sitting. Uncomfortably, I slouched in order to pass.
  • They avoid pedicures  Dancers are hard on their feet, and probably need pedicures more than the average Joe. But, they don’t want to lose their calluses, which act as an important shield against bare floors and pointe shoes.
  • They create in teeny-tiny spaces  That masterful artistry you see on the stage was probably created in somebody’s shoebox apartment. Dancers don’t usually have the luxury of studio space, and make miracles happen in absurd amounts of square footage.
  • They’re always rehearsing  A dancer needs to remember and master, so they run through choreography constantly. They dance at work, the dinner table, the grocery store—you name it! Last week, I was dancing at the dentist.
  • They don’t know how to stop dancing  I’m not allowed to play sports, because I’m a distraction. Why? Because I point my toes when I sprint, I perform a high kick with the soccer ball, I pirouette to dodge something, and I do split leaps over the other players.

Dancers are some of the hardest working artists out there, juggling day jobs, rehearsal schedules, and teaching gigs.

They get paid the least and have the shortest careers, but dancers sacrifice for the greatest reason of all…they love what they do.

Versatile Blogger Award!

First and foremost, I’d like to thank the Academy…just kidding!

I’d like to thank my new friend at Travel Culture Food, a great travel blog that whisks you away for a day, for honoring me with the Versatile Blogger Award.

I am truly thrilled to be nominated after such a short time in the blogging community. Thank you again!

The way this works is for me to pass the honor along to 15 other bloggers. Feel free to scope out their blogs as I believe them all to be neat.

  1. Positive Boomer
  2. A Charmed Yogi
  3. A Drifter Off to See the World
  4. Toemail
  5. As Time Goes By
  6. Hovercraftdoggy
  7. She Thought Outside the Box
  8. Bucket List Challenges
  9. The Housemats
  10. Reading Interrupted
  11. Holistic Me
  12. Coco J. Ginger
  13. A Serendipitous Happenstance
  14. Introverted Blogger
  15. The Emerald Maiden

Lastly, I must divulge 7 tidbits about myself…

  1. I still sleep with a stuffed animal every night. His name is Ken (after my favorite author Ken Follett).
  2. I got married in Vegas. No muss, no fuss and we’ve been happily married for 7 years.
  3. Black licorice and root beer gross me out.
  4. Almost every dress I own is vintage.
  5. When I was little I wanted to be Indiana Jones or a Ghostbuster.
  6. I have been dancing for 23 years.
  7. I can do an accurate Britney Spears impression.

Sweets Without Grief…Indulge a Little!

Hi, my name is Britt and I’m a Dessertaholic.

My sweet tooth is stubborn, demanding, and tireless, transforming my will into humble pie. I devour it, yearning for seconds.

And, you know what? That’s OK!

Indulgence can be a beautiful thing, making life that much sweeter. With a balanced, healthy diet and regular exercise…why not? Why feel guilty?

In our enhanced, photoshopped world, it’s easy to feel inadequate, craving a physical perfection, which does not exist. Women are especially affected by this preposterous stigma, instructed to seek a flawless, ageless mirage–disowning sugar, embracing tummy tucks.

I believe in choosing sanity over artificiality–brownies over Botox, crème brûlée over crash diets.

Celebrate the finer things in life—don’t shun them. When it comes to dessert, find a tasty balance by counteracting and satisfying. Here are some ways to treat yourself without the grief.

  1. Do it right  If you’re going to do it “wrong”, do it right! Don’t bother with sugar-free, fat-free or light. It doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t satisfy.
  2. Forget the straw  Avoid sugary-infested drinks in the form of coffee, soda, juice, etc. Save your calories for a real dessert.
  3. Have it backwards  Eat dessert early in the day, so your body has time to burn it off before bedtime. Don’t make it your first meal of the day, just any time before dinner.
  4. Go on a mission  Keep dessert out of your house. This way you have to exercise to and from your delicious treat. Walk or bike for bonus calorie-burning points.
  5. Walk it off  Literally. Get up and move, even if that means doing the dishes. Lazing around after that big cookie doesn’t allow your body to digest properly.
  6. Explore a healthy side-kick  These usually do the trick for me! Greek yogurt with honey and fresh fruit; almond milk smoothie with cinnamon, spinach, banana, and berries; a small piece of antioxidant-friendly dark chocolate (go for the mini size if you’re tempted to eat the whole bar in one sitting.)
  7. Ditch the scale  You don’t need it!

Indulge a little…it’s a piece of cake!

The Clues in the Vintage Handbag

When I was a little girl, I idolized Nancy Drew. She was clever, stylish and feisty…my kind of heroine. She made elegance and intellect look easy, showing us that women were not only beautiful creatures, but forces to be reckoned with.

Several of my core interests stemmed from my childhood obsession with Nancy Drew: a nerdy love affair with history, writing strong female characters, and a vintage clothing addiction.

Yesterday, I unearthed a treasure, hidden in the folds of my new vintage handbag. No, the treasure did not have any monetary value, but in my eyes—it was a priceless discovery.

Awestruck, I found myself staring at artifacts in the palm of my hand: baseball tickets and a voting certificate with a list on the back. The year was 1954, a time of I Love Lucy, the Communist Control Act, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and of course…baseball.

Almost sixty years later, I find these clues from the past, offering a tiny glimpse into another woman’s life.

Looks like I get to be a sleuth after all.

Clue #1:  Baseball Tickets
During the 1954 season, Milwaukee Braves player Hank Aaron was making his permanent mark on the world of baseball. One of the first five African Americans to play in the league, he is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

When: Sunday, August 22, 1954
Who: Milwaukee Braves vs. Chicago Cubs
Where: Wrigley Stadium
Winner: Milwaukee Braves 12-6

When: Wednesday, August 25, 1954
Who: Milwaukee Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Where: County Stadium
Winner: Milwaukee Braves 4-3

Clue #2:  Voting Certificate and List
Unfortunately, I didn’t have much luck gathering solid information about the voting certificate, and if you have any insights out there, please feel free to comment down below. On the flip side of the certificate was a list, the most revealing lead…

Chocolate
Fly Swatter
Shoes
Film
Loan

So, who was she?
Based on the clues, I have created three different profiles of women, who may have owned the handbag…

  1. FILM  The baseball player’s girlfriend, unconventional and middle class. She enjoyed cheering him on, and never missed a single game. She integrated her love of photography with his love of baseball, documenting every tidbit of their lives together.
  2. SHOES & CHOCOLATE   The baseball fan’s wife, unfaithful and rich. Her husband’s idea of a romantic date always involved a sweaty baseball field. Bored out of her mind, she daydreamed about shoes and her younger lover while eating the chocolate she had stashed in her handbag.
  3. LOAN & FLY SWATTER  The baseball-loving son’s mother, devoted and poor. A struggling feminist, she always voted, hoping for better rights. She yearned to make adequate money to support her son, who wanted to be a baseball player. After the game she went to apply for a loan to avoid losing their home, which had recently been taken over by flies, escaping the summer heat.

If someone were to discover hidden artifacts in my handbag sixty years from now, they would probably find writing/dancing notes and a receipt for dessert.

What about you? Name two clues that might be discovered in your handbag or wallet.

Or, if you care to share…who do YOU think the woman with the handbag was?