Taking care of business - Pyramid Giveaway and Liebster Award

I have been flat chat of late (getting back into working after holidays - isn't it hard!!!!!) and catching up on marking assignments - hmmmm - not fun. So sewing and blogging has had to take a bit of a back seat :-(

I have a few minutes now to draw and give away some great patterns as part of the:

Click on the image to find the rules

First some mentions:

Kathryn T from the ACT (Australia) very kindly sent some patterns to me to include in the pyramid. She doesn't have a blog so can't be part of the fun. How generous was that!!!!!

I also had offers of patterns from Funnygrrl and Heather through Did You Make That site of Karen who launched the original pyramid. I didn't take them up on it as I thought they could save the postage for the pyramid go around.

And the lucky winners are:

Lisa H from Sew On and Sew On

KC from The Sewcratic Method

Funnygrrl from Falling Through your Clothes (must have been your determination coming through)

I hope you enjoy the pattern / s you choose from the selection you receive and don't forget to host your own giveaway as soon as possible.

Please go onto Pattern Review and Private Message me (BeaJay) with your postal address.

Now to some exciting (for me) news!

The very talented Valerie at Valerie's Own Sewing Blog has awarded me the Leibster Award.

Now I take awards very seriously. Probably due the the dirth of awards I have amassed over my lifetime (this one make 2.5). 

My brother was Dux of the school - not so much me. My sister was good at athletics - definitely not so much me. Kids these days get awards for everything - even turning up - but back in my day you had to do something exceptional to get an award. *sigh*. 

I did - back in the early noughties - win a Vodafone Legends award (which I am claiming as number one of facts about me as there isn't that much that is newsworthy). This was a great award as it entailed a free overseas trip (always good), but that is it. I was always an also ran (or walked for that matter).

I did get the lovely Premio award from the extraordinary Carolyn - and not to take anything away from that award as I did so enjoy it - but it really is only the "luck of the draw" so to speak - the order in which people comment. (so this is the .5)

Soo - it gives me much pleasure to get this award. It means that my blog is enjoyed which brings me delight so thank you very much Valerie for thinking of me.

Now the rules for the Leibster are: (these were hard to find as when I googled to find out what the Leibster was for and it's rules I found lots of different sets of rules so I went through the ancestry of the one that was passed to me and found this on I Heart Fabric and amalgamated it with others

The Rules:

The award is for bloggers with less than 200 followers/readers to bring them into the limelight and hopefully increase their readership

• Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog
• Post 11 facts about yourself
• Answer the 11 questions posed by your nominator
• Nominate up to 5 other blogs (let them know you have nominated them) and ask them 11 questions of your own

Jeeze - I would love to pass it on to 11 people and list 5 facts about myself (luckily Valerie didn't ask the 11 questions!!!) - but - I went to the trouble of looking up the rules so I may as well use them!

Here are the 11 things:

• See above post for number 1
• I have an artificial hip and am on the waiting list for another one 
• Number 2 is because I have a condition called acetabulum protrusio (don't you just love Latin!). It is an uncommon defect of the acetabulum (the socket that the femur bone goes into) where it protrudes too far into the pelvis (ouch). Too much information????? (don't you love how I have split the fact to make 2 facts!!! Who said I don't do math!)
• Ooh - there goes number 4. I am not good at math! Coming from a mathematical family I have to hang my head in shame!  
• I used to breed fish. I didn't start out with an ambition to breed fish - but what can I say - I don't do things in halves (there's the math again!) When I was in my teens my mother bought me a 2 foot fish tank and some tropical fish as a present. Now - me being me - I had to research the very best ways of looking after the fish (and that was prior to the internet - the younger people amongst us wouldn't understand old fashioned research). So - I had to feed them the very best of food - which made me buy a 1 foot tank to breed live food and feed it into the other tank - which made my fish very happy and very fertile. Before long the live bearers were popping out fish like an assembly line - but even more - the egg layers started laying eggs. Which entailed another tank ( a five foot one now) to transfer all my fish into as - if you know anything about fish - you will know that fish eat their young or other young fish. Couldn't have that! So I moved my fish into the 5 foot tank, used the 2 foot tank for the baby live fish and purchased a 3 foot tank to put the leaves with eggs in - which numbered in the hundreds - which necessitated another tank and so on and so forth. So......... long story a little bit shorter ..... I ended up with a house full of tanks and exhaustion and not so much fun but cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. Hence - I sold the tanks and fish and now have none.. WAY too much info..... 
• In a related fact - I don't eat fish - or any seafood for that matter. Tastes like the bottom the tanks smelt (and I kept them clean)
• I am self employed - I have and run 2 businesses. One is as a sub contractor, training business and management subjects mainly for traineeships and qualifications - the other is for corporate training and writing of learning materials and resources.
• I'm not into chick flicks - If there is not a lot of action going on it probably isn't worth seeing IMO
• My all time favourite TV show is the West Wing (followed by 24 and Criminal Minds)
• I am not a gambler - I once went on holidays to the Gold Coast, went to the casino with a designated amount of cash to have fun with and walked out with exactly the same amount of money - couldn't "throw it away" - contrarily - I play the stock market and manage my own super fund - if that isn't gambling I don't know what is!!!!
• When I am in the mood I am a quite a pot stirrer

Phew! - there's a couple of minutes of your life you'll never get back again!!

Now - Valerie was kind enough not to ask questions.

I am not so kind.

Mainly because I am a nosey Parker and like to know things.... So.... Here are the questions I am asking for you to share with your blog readers and me.... 

1. Tea or coffee
2. Cats or dogs
3. If you had $50 and could only buy patterns or fabric - what would you buy?
4. Comedy / Drama / Horror / Musical or Action
5. Do you feel younger than your age or older - or just right?
6. If you could do or be anything in the world (human that is - profession etc) - what would you be?
7. Why are you not the above (if you said anything other than what you are)?
8. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things - and no sitting on the fence on this one - if you had to choose - what would it be?
9. If you could offer a child only one piece of advice - what would it be?
10. Do you have life goals - and if so - do you write them down and revisit them?

This last one is a favourite of mine:

11. Is there any such thing as the truth and if so, is it possible to know the truth without challenging it first?

Now I am not a tough taskmaster - if you want to skip the facts and questions - please just accept this award in the spirit it was intended - with thanks for taking the time to share your journey with others - and then pass it on. ....... But I really am a nosey parker. Hey if I didn't for some strange, unknown, stupid reason, send an award to you (how very remiss of me - you know I love you  - but the rules said 5), you can still answer the questions if you like (see how nosey I am!!!)

I would love to pass this award onto the below blogs. The award is for blogs with under 200 followers (I added subscribers too - some blogs have 100 odd followers but over 100 subscribers and I really want to acknowledge the great blogs I have stumbled onto that don't have a great deal of readers as yet).

I also have not awarded it to bloggers who have already received it (that I could see anyway).

And in no particular order ....To the below - I salute you. 

Chris Lucas at Chris Lucas

So glad I found this site. I found Chris through a Craftsy course - Plus Sized pattern fitting and design. She uploaded a picture of a finished project of Vogue 8815 and I found her blog. She is making some lovely clothes and I really love her happy smile.

Edited to add - Tigergirl has since nominated Chris and my thoughts were - not people who had already received the award - HOWEVER - I picked Chris first (picture thumb on nose and poking out of tongue) just hadn't gotten to publishing this post as I still hadn't printed off the entries into to pyramid and picked winners.

Moonthirty at Moonthirty

Moonthirty has been making some great tops and I am enjoying seeing her creations.

Westmoon at Confessions of a Sewing Novice

Westmoon shares her sewing and knitting journey, her life, her reviews of magazines and her great bags.

Louise at From No 23

Louise has not only made some lovely clothes but also some great crafts that she is selling.

Alison from Sewing with Cats

Alison has sewn up a storm last year - looking forward to seeing what she comes up with this year. Check out her purses!