Brilliant Blog Bouquet Award

I am such a shameful blogger. The fantastic Kiri Liz awarded me with a blog award over a month ago and here I am getting to it just now. I am so honored by her kindness!

~Rules~

Put a link to who gave you the award
Post the award to your blog
Answer the questions
Choose 5 blogs to receive the award
Let them know you've awarded them

Questions~

1. If you could have a "flower pen name" like we have here on our blog, Violets and Daisies what would it be?
Roses have always had a special spot in my heart so I’m inclined to say something with “Rose” in the name. Actually though, Sweet Pea has always been my signature flower, mainly because I love sweet pea scented things like lotion, soap, etc. Not to mention it’s pink, and everyone I know (or even barely know) is aware that pink is my favoritest color ever. All that to say, if I had chosen a flower pen name for myself it would no doubt have something to do with sweet peas.

Sweet Pea

2. What is your favorite ever Bible verse and why?
Favorite Bible verse? Gracious… There are just so, so many, I can never really choose! I’ve always been very fond of Psalm 18:2: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” It’s something I like to remind myself daily.

3. What are the blogs which inspire you most?
Of Faerie & Faith, Christ is Write, Further Up & Further In, Go Teen Writers, Lianne Taimenlore, Nothing Less than Bread, and…my entire blog list plus some.

4. If you and your friends could visit any country in the world, where would you go?
Ireland or New Zealand! No doubt about it. Or just a trip across the entirety of Europe then head off over to New Zealand. Yeah, that sounds good.

5. If you have one, feel free to share your testimony as to how you became a Christian.
Ah, just thinking about what Jesus did for me, dying on that cross so I can be with my Lord and Savior for eternity…it brings tears to my eyes. I was at the age of 7 when I gave my heart to Him. My entire family was trying to get over a stomach virus and we were all in desperate need for something to pass away the time so my dad and brother left to go to a nearby video store to rent some movies for us all (yep, back in the days where you actually went to a video rental store, before Netflix). My little sister was just a baby at the time so it was mainly mom and I hanging out. We were in her and dad’s bedroom atop the bed when we started discussing godly matters. Having been raised in a Christian home I already had much of the knowledge, I had just yet to accept Him into my heart. But something happened that evening. As mom and I talked and talked I felt a stirring and excitement within me and I gave my heart to the Lord then and there. Best day of my life? OH YES! Who cares about stomach viruses!

Awarding~

I’m passing on this award to these 5 lovely ladies:

Sienna North
Sky
Jessa Bri
Kellie
Sarah Elizabeth

Instead of asking new questions, this award has the same five questions for everyone. If anyone else wants to answer these questions in a comment or their own blog, feel free to!

Questions-
1. If you could have a "flower pen name" like we have here on our blog, Violets and Daisies what would it be?
2. What is your favorite ever Bible verse and why?
3. What are the blogs which inspire you most?
4. If you and your friends could visit any country in the world, where would you go?
5. If you have one, feel free to share your testimony as to how you became a Christian.

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Okay, for something else fun, Kiri Liz also has a list of 11 questions on her blog post HERE that obligates all readers of said post to answer them in either a comment on that post or on their own blog. I couldn’t resist answering them, they seemed like such fun questions. Since I’m doing this blog award, I thought I would just answer these questions here as well.

1. Do you have any allergies? If so, which ones?
I think the better question is: Do I not have any allergies? I tend to become allergic to everything after a while. To name a few: Chocolate (at least when I was little, I might be over that but I actually hate chocolate [yes, you read that right] so I don’t eat enough of it to know if I’m allergic to it anymore or not), penicillin, Ibuprofen, pretty much every soap ever (my skin is uber sensitive and eventually develops an allergy for basically everything I put on it after a while), hotdogs, artificial cinnamon (I guess that’s what you’d call it. I can’t have cinnamon candy or use something like cinnamon toothpaste), erm…I’m drawing a total blank at the moment but, needless to say, I get allergic to stuff all the time.

2. Would you rather be a skilled musician, a talented writer, or a brilliant artist?
Talented writer! No question. I adore music and wish I was more skilled at it and I would love to be able to draw, but writing is most definitely my biggest passion.

3. Do you say "sur-rup" or "seer-rup"?
Sur-rup.

4. Favorite non-Disney animated movie?
How to Train Your Dragon. Love it!!

5. Last book you read?
Well, I’m almost done with This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti, but the last book I read in full would be Me, Just Different by Stephanie Morrill.

6. Which book would you recommend to me to read? And why?
O____O So…many…books… Well, my favoritest series ever is the Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire series (which happens to be one series, the names just changes halfway through…it’s confusing) by Bryan Davis.The first book of the series is Raising Dragons so I’d recommend that one.

7. Favorite breakfast?
I usually don’t eat breakfast honestly, it just doesn’t settle well with me, but when I do pancakes would definitely be first choice. I love me some pancakes.

8. If time travel were possible, which Bible story would you love to watch live?
Goodness me, tough one! I think going back and watching the animals enter the Ark would be so amazing. I know that’s really random, but I love animals and it just seems like it’d be fascinating. I’m a strange one…

9. What song do you find yourself singing a lot?
Our God by Chris Tomlin. One of my most favorite songs and constantly going through my head.

10. Are you a Grammar Nazi?
YES. I refer to myself as one constantly. And yet I make so many mistakes myself…

11. What three words would you use to describe my blog, Lianne Taimenlore?
Fun. Creative. Inspirational. (Seriously, I just LOVE your blog!!)

I hope the rest of this week is a blessed one for everyone! (Where did this week go??)

My Muse Moseley

If you’re a writer or an artist or…just about anything honestly, you’ve probably experienced those moments when it feels like there’s something within you budging your creativity in a certain direction. A writer may suddenly be inspired by a new plot that badgers them into dropping everything and writing down. An artist might unwillingly find themselves sketching a dragon when just moments ago they were painting a vase of lilacs. A photographer may suddenly have this great urge to snap pictures of nature instead of human portraits. There’s something in our brains that gives us this great desire to do a certain thing, despite if we are busy with other projects.

It’s called our muse. Or, as some others may prefer, “That irritating voice in your head that won’t be quiet until you do what it’s telling you to do.”

I think every person has one. That little thing that inspires our creativity.

For some, their muse may simply be a special place, like a quiet wood in their backyard or the cozy atmosphere of a library where inspiration flows. Others may even find their muse in a physical person that is a source of ideas for them. A lot of writers I know have one of their story characters as their muse. And then a certain few has…something else.

Meet Moseley. He’s a dragon. A green one.

Now, he would like for you to imagine him as a fierce, 100 foot long, fire breathing creature that strikes fear in the hearts of even the greatest of warriors.

He’s not.

He’s actually only about 2 feet long from the end of his long tail to the tip of his snout, and I don’t even think he can breathe out that much fire, if any. And now since I’ve given away that he’s not that fierce looking at all, he would like for me to inform you that he is at least very adorable. *rolls eyes*

Yes, Moseley is that little voice “moseying” around in my head always forcing creativity upon me. I say “forcing” because, as most writers are probably aware, muses are very demanding and not always that pleasant to have around. They’re usually the ones that wake you up at 3 in the morning screaming in your head, “You should write about THIS!” and then proceed to keep you awake for the rest of the night hurling one idea after the other through your head, as if the muse is throwing rocks at your brain until you actually do it. That’s the thing about muses—they don’t give up. Most muses of writers spend every single second of every day doing something along the lines of…

Perhaps you have a project you’re already working on, maybe even have a deadline for it and need to get it done. Well, muses don’t care about that. Have you ever been working on something consistently and suddenly you have no desire to do it anymore due to this inexplicable urge to work on something new? Yep, that’s your muse. Usually, they have no sense of responsibility and take pleasure in just throwing caution to the wind without a lick of common sense. Or, at least, that’s how it is in my case.

Moseley is a mischievous little thing. I do believe he takes pleasure in torturing me. Constantly chucking one idea after the other into my brain before I even have time to work on any one of them; or giving me a terrible urge to work on something at the most inopportune times. For example, he always gives me a great new story idea and the deep desire to work on it right in the midst of NaNoWriMo when I couldn’t possibly start something new. Or I might be going in a certain direction in a story and he insists I totally forget that idea and go an entirely different way.

Then my silly, oh-so-full-of-himself muse decided that he wanted to be in one of my stories. That would be all well and good if he wanted to be in one of my many, many high fantasy stories swarming with dragons. But oh no, that’d be much too easy. Nooo, he had the mindset to be in a steampunk, time travel story I’m writing that has absolutely no place for a little dragon. Dragons do not even exist it in that world, Moseley!

I’m going to interrupt myself here and tell you one thing about muses: There is no fighting them. When they get a mindset, that’s that. They will badger you and badger you, day and night, until there is absolutely nothing you can do but finally acquiesce to their wishes. Some writers may claim their muses as nothing more than slave drivers. (Not that I feel that way or anything. *cough, cough*)

Want to guess what story Moseley made it into?

*siiiigh*

Now, don’t get me wrong, muses can be quite useful. I often enjoy the many plot bunnies Moseley plants into my brain, or the sudden bursts of inspiration that come from him. I just wish he chose to give me those bursts of inspiration not at 3 in the morning. But, then again, without a muse I’d probably never actually get any writing done, so they have their perks.

But they also can be extremely annoying.

Ahem.

Muses are stubborn, incessantly demanding, rarely quiet (unless you actually need them to give you inspiration, then you usually won’t hear a word from them), often very sporadic, cause your sanity to disperse completely, and usually have no bit of common sense…so it seems. Despite often fighting my muse, I’ve learned, as hard as it is to admit, your muse is usually right. (Oh, stop smirking, Moseley.) Even if the ideas they give you seem absurd and will never work, in the end they usually do, quite well. So, as much as I want to, I’m learning to stop arguing with my muse.

Besides, when you’re a writer, throwing caution to the wind is the best thing you can do for your stories.

…Or so says my Muse.

Of Hobbits, Books, and Fix-its

Thursday evening, Dad came home with this—

Much squeeing and bouncing and hugging ensued on my part.

 

Also on Thursday, I joined GoodReads.

Now, most of you probably know what it is, but I’m going to blog about it anyway. *wicked grin*

Ahem. Mainly I’m blogging about it because it seems to have taken over my life and is my new favorite thing. I’ve known about this magical place called GoodReads for about a year now and I’ve been meaning to join it for…about a year now. But, me being my silly self, I never got to it. Then the other day my brother mentioned it and I remembered I wanted to join it, so this time I actually did. Yay!

…Then I may have spent the entirety of Thursday and Friday obsessing over. *COUGH*

It’s kind of like a haven for readers. You go in and rate all the books you love, hate, sorta like, wish it was human so you could marry it, whatever and then from that it recommends similar books based on your preferences. You have “bookshelves” where you can put lists of all sorts of different books—your favorites, different genres, the books you own, etc. And, let me tell you, this site has basically every book in existence listed, obscure or not. You can also follow and befriend people so you can see what they’re reading and rating. You can read other’s reviews of books or make your own. It will even give you links of where you can obtain a book if you want to buy it. It’s just…wonderful.

I have this thing about making lists, and books are my favorite things, so getting to make organized lists of all my books and everything I’ve read, and be able to have all these nice digital lists is just spectacular. I love this site!

Lauriloth's bookshelf: favorites

So, if you love to read, you need a GoodReads account. I’m making a mess of explaining it (it’s all really simple, honest), but I promise you won’t regret it.

 

And lastly, I’ve been planning for a while now to do some changes and fix-its here and there to me ol’ blog. I’m not changing the template or anything, but I will be doing quite a few adjustments to things. Thought I’d throw a warning out there in case I accidentally exploded my blog during the process or something (hopefully not though). Anywhoozle, if you start seeing some changes and whatnot going on here in my small part of the internet, that’s why.

(I’ll do my very best to not blow anything up though, I promise.)

Have a blessed day, everyone!

Whimsical Grey

Do you ever have those days where you feel whimsically grey?

It’s those days where you feel melancholy, but in a good way. The days where you want to be alone to just bask in the quiet beauty of life.

Creativity flows within you on these days. If you’re a writer, you might find yourself spending all day in a quiet corner tapping peacefully on your keyboard. An artist could be spotted with pencil in hand, looking out their window and copying the scenery before them. A photographer may discover themselves leisurely wandering in the woods, snapping pictures of nature. It’s those days where you want to get a good book and go lean against your favorite tree and read the afternoon away. Or you want to just relax and listen to calming music while you ponder over your thoughts.

On these days, you might even want to do something new. An artist may attempt their hand at a story and a writer might find themselves using the pencil to make pictures instead of words.

These are the days where you feel peaceful and comfortable and creative. Where the world looks a little bit more beautiful. Where you’re somehow feeling both whimsical and melancholy.

On occasion, I have these day. It’s on these days that I might find myself creating a new story or journaling or just seeking out a quiet place to read. I’m not an artist in the least and yet on these days I have the sudden desire to try my hand at it. I feel the need to be alone but I also have this deep urge to create something beautiful, enjoy the simple whimsies of life.

It’s these days that I realize how beautiful God’s creations really are.

I think for me it’s the coming of spring that really brings on the whimsical grey days. There’s something about the change of the temperature and nature blooming and the breeze bringing me a whiff of the fresh new spring air.

Life is beautiful and whimsical and creative.

And even grey can be lovely.

20 Random Things About Me

You may or may not know…

1. I somehow manage to be both a loner and a social butterfly.

2. I would say I’m far closer to being an extrovert than an introvert though.

3. Owl City and Chris Tomlin are my favorite singers/bands of all time.

4. I love heights.

5. Due to number 4 it’s my dream to one day fly in a hot air balloon.

6. My biggest fear is drowning.

7. The ocean kind of terrifies me.

8. I love to sing but don’t think I actually have a good singing voice (at all) and will only sing when I’m alone or along with a large group.

9. I really dislike Daylight Saving Time and having to readjust my schedule due to it.

10. I have an obsession with names, to the point that my best friend got me a baby name book many years ago for Christmas just so I can look through it for fun (which I do on a constant basis).

11. It’s my dream to go to New Zealand and Ireland someday and I have every intention of doing so at some point…hopefully.

12. The only other country I’ve ever actually been to is Canada (I’m American by the way…but that’s probably obvious).

13. I think the fact that today’s date is 3/13/2013 is really cool.

14. Numbers are fun.

15. I’ve been playing the piano since I was 4 years old and adore it (it’s my favorite instrument).

16. I like to say dragons is my favorite animal (because they are of course.)

17. Sailing by Celtic Woman is currently playing while I’m typing this point.

18. Celtic Woman music is gorgeous.

19. I love making lists. (You couldn’t tell, could you?)

20. I genuinely hope each and every one of you has a most spectacular, beautiful Wednesday.