Blogging | But I Smile Anyway...

The Versatile Blogger Award

08 May 2015 38 Comments

by Ritu in Awards Tags: Acceptance, Awards, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Humble, Thankful, Versatile Blogger

Awoke to another nomination!

Thank you so much to Tony Burgess for my nomination this time! I am so grateful! Please check out Tony’s great blog too!!

The Versatile Blogger Award rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
2. Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
3. Next, select blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.
4. Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link back to the post on your site announcing their nomination.
5. Finally, tell the person who nominated you, seven facts about you

I’ll start with my 7 facts… The hardest thing to think of, as I seem to have done a fair few!!

I have a problem with being touched on my neck…. I think it stems back to when I was born with the cord wrapped around it, 3 times!
I have an unhealthy obsession with stationery!
I love to dress up!…. But I hate to dress up…. If that makes sense! On a normal day, makeup does not touch my skin, but if there is an occasion, I love playing with the colours on my face!
I used to help some of my cousins get ready for their wedding days painting their bindis on their foreheads. And helping with hair. One cousin had short fine hair, so we bulked it up using…. A pair of (new) socks!! Yes, socks! Imagine her hubby’s shock to see her letting her hair down, on their wedding night, and seeing a sock or two roll out!!
I love to tell stories. A captive audience of children is all I need, and recently, I have been asked, at school, to read to the whole of the lower school, around 120 children! It’s exhilarating!
My daughter is a mini me, and my son is a mini his daddy!
I have now succumbed, and have to grudgingly say that yes, I do like One Direction songs, after being forced to listen to them for the last few weeks by Lil Princess!

And my nominees!

The Bespectacled Mother
Waffle Me This
London Kind And Funny
The Daydreamer
Ujima Magazine

Please don’t feel obliged to accept, but if you do, let me know, so I can read your facts too!

Thunderbolts And Lightning!!!

08 May 2015 38 Comments

by Ritu in Awards Tags: Awards, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Encouraging Thunder, Humbled, Thank you!

Woah there! A new one on my shelf!!!

Well, first off, I have to give HUGE thanks to the gorgeously cute Rob, of The V-Pub blog, for this generous nomination!

The Rules:

Post it on your blog.

Grant other bloggers the award.

What you cannot do:

Abuse or misuse the logo.

Claim that it is your own handmade logo.

What you should do after receiving the Encouraging Thunder Award:

Enjoy the award!

At least give thanks via comments, likes and/or mentioning the blog that you received the award from.

Mention your purpose in blogging .
Who to pass Thunder onto…….?

I truly love certain blogs and there are a few which stick out in my mind, as they have been there since my humble beginnings, through to my humble-still, now!

Cats At The Bar
The Happy Lifeaholic
10 Years A Single Mom
HaRsH ReAlItY
Chris, The Story Reading Ape

My Purpose In Blogging
What is my purpose in blogging?
Well, I love words, for a start. Reading them, writing them, and learning about them. It was an ambition for me to write a book … Any book. I started a novel, I’ve written some poetry based children’s stories… But it hasn’t gone any further, and in my life, there was not much place for my literary dreams to go anywhere.
Then I discovered blogging, quite by accident!
A friend started a blog to air some issues in her past, and clear her mind, and in order for me to comment, it tempted me to sign in, or sign up…. And so I did!
All of a sudden this blog was born. What I wanted it for I had no idea!
Slowly, I wrote different things, from my life, to creative, to opinions, humour, and not forgetting Sonu Singh!
The encouragement I received over the last 6 months, from the blogs above, and so many others, made my pen (read fingers!) flow, and so But I Smile Any way was born.
My blog has allowed me to reminisce, make you laugh, think, go ‘Awww!’ and given me the opportunity to meet and build relationships with fellow blog-pals around the world!
I thank you all for giving me the inspiration to continue to write, and maybe that lifelong dream of mine, to be published… Might even come true too!

Guess what finally arrived??!!

08 May 2015 30 Comments

by Ritu in Awards Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Cats At The Bar, Challenge, Poetry, Prize

Now, I’ve been blessed in the past few months, to have been awarded many blogger awards, but today… finally, a real life, solid prize arrived in the list from the lovely Tom at Cats At The Bar!
It’s taken a few months to meander here to the UK from Canada! But hey, its here now!
I always said to Tom I’d post as soon as it arrived! And I like to keep my word, so here it is!

My poetry prize, and if you want, check out my winning poem here!

The tea sure tasted good!
Cheers Tom and all the Cats At The Bar team, including those gorgeous kitties… Whose hair I think I also got in the parcel too lol!!!!!