The Sunshine Blogger Award | August 2023 Edition

Greetings, all!  I've been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by my pals Ivy Miranda and Rachel, and they've come up with some fun questions.  Thanks loads, ladies!

The rules are pretty basic:  just thank the person(s) who nominated you and link to their blog(s), answer the questions they asked you, nominate eleven blogs yourself, and give your nominees eleven new questions.  As has (unfortunately) become my wont, I'm not going to nominate anyone new, partially because most of the people I'd nominate have already been so.  But!  I did very much enjoy answering these questions and wholeheartedly invite you to do so yourself if you haven't already.

Let's get into it.  [My graphics game is chaotic today (not a cohesive aesthetic in sight), so, be forewarned.]

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✵ Ivy's Questions ✵

1. What's your favorite memory of 2023 so far?

Don't know that I can choose one specific one, but, generally:  taking trips to/with friends, hiking, seeing Hadestown live, etc.

"Winter's nigh and summer's o'er — hear that high and lonesome sound of my husband coming for to take me home to Hadestown . . . "

*catch me in my feels about Persephone and Hades*

2. Beach trip or hiking?

I love a good beach trip, but I have to say hiking, because forests and mountains are personal to me in a way that beaches just aren't.

3. Do you know of other royal families besides the Windsors?

I mean, I know of them in the sense that I know they exist.  Could I give you names, dates, facts?  Negative.

4. What food can you never get tired of?

I could eat buckets of the General Tso cauliflower dish from Burton's.  Also a big fan of the work done by various fruits, French fries, Amish friendship bread (which I cannot currently eat because my body has indefinitely decided that gluten is Threat Level Midnight™ 😭), guacamole, and the good people of Domino's Pizza.

5. Have you set a reading goal and if so what is it?

I typically read right around a hundred books per year, give or take five, and it's always my unofficial/unwritten goal to at least get to that nice, round "100" number.  But I try to hold that ambition very loosely, because if I get too hyper-focused on it, I can avoid longer (but good) books that I've long wanted to read just because they'll "delay" me or jeopardize the possibility of getting to 100 books within a given calendar year.

6. What are three things you would want for your dream house?

Lots of windows (preferably at least one of which would be accompanied by a window seat), some land attached, and lots of art and plants against light/neutral walls.  My home design inspiration can be described as Elizabeth James meets greenhousecore with touches of cottagecore, forestcore, minimalism, and light academia. 

Something like this, but with a deeper seat and higher ceilings.

7. What would the name of your autobiography be?

I don't know about an autobiography, but I'd like to write a memoir about my faith journey (such a cringey term but you know what I mean) entitled Delusions of Grandeur.  Because man, oh, man, has the Lord had to Address Some Foolishness™ in my spirit.

me to myself (even though I kind of do know where I got them)

8. What was your primary reason for starting a blog?

I'd been stalking Old-Fashioned Charm and Yet Another Period Drama Blog and Lianne Taimenlore and a few others during the heydey of the fandom blogosphere (hadn't we all?), which was also right around the time I was forming my first larger friend group at my homeschool co-op (pulling out all the stereotype stops today), which was also right around the time I was falling in love with The Lord of the Rings in a major way.  So, starting a blog seemed like the perfect way to potentially join an online community I'd begun to like while also giving me a creative outlet to express my excitement over all things story and to share that excitement with some of my "real life" friends.

AND JUST LOOK WHAT'S COME OF IT. *beams*  A full decade of Rivendell come this October, and some of the most significant friendships in my life to this day.  I love the heck out of you all.

9. Do you consider yourself a political person?

Yes, in the sense that I have some political convictions (as most people do), but no, in the sense that I don't (usually) enjoy discussing those convictions or hearing others'.  Nothing will activate my fight-or-flight impulse faster than the sound of a political talk show playing in my vicinity.  In the wise words of Captain Amelia:  "With the greatest possible respect, zip your howling screamer."

I tell ya, sometimes Jesus and this picture are the only two things tethering me to my sanity sense of hope for this nation. 

10. Do you like foreign/international music and films?

Yes!  I don't consume either in huge quantities, but I have some favorites among both.  This Is Not What I Expected, for example, is one of my tip-top favorite rom-coms, though I wouldn't understand a word of it were it not for subtitles.  I also love several songs that aren't sung in my native language, such as "S.O.S. d'un terrien en detresse," "Mijn leven is van mij," "Nessun dorma," "Sara perche ti amo," "Hoppipolla," and Katherine Jenkins' German performance of "Ode to Joy" (or her Italian performance of "Secrets").

11. What is your favorite lyric from a song and does it relate to your life at all?

It would take me wayyyyy too long to determine my one singular favorite lyric ever, but I have a couple favorite lyrics from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," which is one of my favorite songs.  "As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free," gives me chills, but it doesn't really relate to my life in a concrete way at this time.  "I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps," however, reminds me a lot of my walk with God and of the way he's revealed his presence in the midst of difficulties that have felt all-consuming and overwhelming.

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✵ Rachel's Questions ✵

1. What's the last movie you watched?

Barbie (2023), which I thought was fine but underbaked and overrated.  Ryan Gosling's performance was the best.  "Honestly, once I found out the patriarchy wasn't about horses, I lost interest anyway."  AN ICON.

2. What's the next movie you plan to watch?

Who can say?  Lately, I've very much been a "mood viewer," so it's really up to the vagaries of my psychological state on any given evening.  BUT, I would like to watch the 1970s adaptations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in time for Tolkien Week, and I've obtained both from the library, so that goal is looking pretty achievable. 😉

3. What new movie release are you looking forward to?

The new adaptation of The Color Purple.  Those ladies are about to take me to church with their vocals and their acting chops, and you'd better believe that I will be Sat™ in that theater come Christmastime.

4. What TV show(s) have you seen every episode of at least once?

(I think) Galavant, Agent Carter, BBC Robin Hood, Single Parents, Parks and Recreation, Leverage, Monarch of the Glen — probably more.

5. Pirates or vampires?

Pirates!  Though I'm not a huge pirate girly in general.

6. Do you own a camera?

I don't, unfortunately, but I'd really like to get one someday and learn more about photography.  The limitations of my four-year-old Android phone camera are a trial and a tribulation to my soul when I'm hiking.  I want to capture all the silvan goodness in all its glorious richness of detail and I just CAN'T. *stamps foot*

7. What's the last thing you did outside?

I ✨walked✨.

Have been meaning to get away to the mountains for a hike for the last few weekends, and haven't for one reason or another, but I have been able to walk around my neighborhood.

8. How far do you live from where you were born?

As of now, about ten minutes.  I was born in the suburbs of a city, lived the majority of my life in a semi-rural area about thirty minutes away from that city, and moved back into those suburbs last year.

9. Have you ever ridden a horse?

Yes, if you count sitting on one and being led in a slowwwww circle by a handler for about five minutes.  Otherwise, no.

10. What ice cream flavor do you heartily dislike?

Any kind of fruit flavor that has bits of the fruit in it.  Blech.  Also not a fan of plain chocolate or coffee ice cream.

Agreed.  It also should not be in little freeze-dried pellets in ice cream.

11. What was the last thing you ate as a snack?

Pretzels, probably.  Or Snickers.

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There you have it!

What have you been up to this summer?