So! Last week I learned that Pavithra of eat, live, burp had awarded me the Shine On Award. This is my first blogging award, and it’s extra-meaningful because eat, live, burp is a blog I very highly respect. According to Pavithra, this award is given to blogs that shine, make you feel good, and are inspiring to the readers. So thank you, eat, live, burp!
The Rules
1. Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and a link back.
3. Share 7 random interesting things about yourself.
4. Nominate up to 15 bloggers for Shine On Award, provide a link to their blogs in your post, and notify them on their blogs.
5. Copy and paste the award somewhere on your blog.
7 Random Interesting Things About Me:
(Well, these are random – hopefully they’re interesting. Since this is a blog about being vegan in Charlotte, NC, I tried to make most of them food or animal related.)
(1) I’ve had 18 pets in my lifetime – two goldfish, four hamsters, two parakeets, three toy poodles, six cats, and one Jack Russell terror – er, I mean terrier – mix. Most have been rescues.
Two of my current five.
(2) I had HORRIBLE food allergies as a child. The entire year of first grade, I brown-bagged my lunch of a slice of white bread, a few slices of canned dried beef, some carrot and celery sticks, and sometimes an apple or grapes. I purchased milk at the school to drink with my lunch. Decades later, after I went vegan, I discovered what I’ve actually had all these years was an allergy to MILK.
(3) I’ve never had much of a sweet tooth. I like chocolate brownies. And I like peanut butter. And that’s about it.
(4) Speaking of peanut butter, I could seriously eat it every day. Peanut butter and jelly. Peanut butter and apple slices. “Slooshee sloshees” – my favorite Saturday breakfast as a child, that my Daddy made for me. It’s simple – pour Karo syrup over a spoonful or two of peanut butter. Stir. Take a slice of bread, tear off bite size pieces, and dredge it through the peanut butter/Karo mixture. Enjoy with a tall glass of almond milk.
Sloshee Sloshee AND blue roses? Life is good!
(5) I love blue roses.
(6) I was considered a picky eater as a child, but in retrospect I liked all vegetables except peas, and all fruits except bananas. The picky label came about because my parents were always trying to force me eat some weird sh*t. Fried bologna. Hot dogs split down the middle with a little American cheese in the slit. Pickle and pimento loaf. “Deviled ham” sandwiches – this stuff (deviled ham) came in cans and had the scent and texture of canned dog food. To this, sweet pickles and mayo would be added. Egg salad sandwiches made entirely with egg whites – because my mom would eat all the egg yolks herself. Hmmm … now that I think about it, it was my mom who tried to make me eat weird sh*t. My dad made me peanut butter and Karo! 🙂
Decades later, I still don’t understand why a minister and his wife fed their children a meat spread that had a little dancing devil on the packaging.
(7) Books are my only vice. At any given time, I’ve probably got at least three or four I’m in different stages of reading – perhaps one novel, another novel as a back-up plan in case I leave the first novel somewhere, a cookbook, and one or more nonfiction books. I’m not addicted, though – I can stop any time I want to. I just don’t want to.
Now, the blogs I am nominating for the Shine On Award:
Hopefull Vegan – A blog by an 18-year-old girl who has overcome addictions. It’s so inspiring to see her posts about living a happy, sober, vegan life!
Honk If You’re Vegan – I love Celeste’s sunshiny personality.
Rachel In Veganland – “a fall down the rabbit hole into a world of photographs, vegan foods, art, mad tea parties, and sustainable living.”
Violet’s Veg*n e-comics – Virtual Vegan Comics for Children. Sweet little comics that gently get the point across.
Luminous Vegans – A peek into the vegan life in Atlanta. Fitting that a luminous blog should get a “Shine On” award.
Eileen Likes To Eat – I’ve learned so much about Asian cooking from this blog!
Made of Stars – Some exceptionally good posts on raising vegan kids.
VegginOutAndAbout – A guide to finding veg restaurants and farmer’s markets when traveling. I think it mostly applies to the American South, though I could be wrong … that could just be I’ve been more focused on those reviews!
Writer In Progress – This one’s not a food blog, but the young blogger writing this one loves to read as much as I do! Interesting reviews of (mostly) YA novels and updates on her own writing works in progress.
On a final note, let me say that the name of this award reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“Always reach for the stars. You may not get one, but you won’t wind up with a handful of mud, either.”
VegCharlotte 
Thank you Catherine for your kind words and you certainly deserve this award. Your nomination list is very interesting and wow! you have owned 18 pets.. That’s really something!
Thanks again for nominating me! Deciding on a nomination list was hard since I couldn’t nominate you and many of the blogs I immediately thought of were on your nomination list, or were so popular they already had tons of followers and awards. So I tried to pick a balance of popular blogs and some smaller, but really good blogs that don’t get as much attention.
Yep, 18 pets! Many were rescues or strays (obviously the goldfish weren’t strays!) Fortunately, although I have food allergies, I have never had pet allergies!
Your realization that you weren’t actually picky is so funny! I made the same realization at some point that the kinds of foods I didn’t want to eat as a kid are still things I’d have no interest in eating today (even if I wasn’t vegan)! Was there really anyone who enjoyed tuna noodle casserole topped with potato chips? I remember it smelled awful! But as a kid I loved asparagus, sauerkraut, pickles, bean dip, fresh off the vine tomatoes, and huge salads! If I’d been offered artichoke hearts, avocados, and Greek olives as a child, I would have loved them. Picky? Nah! Just a different palate! 🙂
I already follow and love Luminous Vegans, but I look forward to checking out the other blogs on your award list!
Oh, I forgot about the tuna noodle casserole topped with potato chips!!!
I can’t blame my mom too much for this “food,” though – I’ve seen her old cookbooks and some of the recipes in the magazines she saved. All that “food” really was popular at one time.
I’m the same as you – as a kid I also loved asparagus, sauerkraut, pickles, and I loved avocados and actual artichokes where you peeled off the leaves, dipped them in butter, and scraped it off with your teeth. Olives? My great aunt Martha always had them as a condiment for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners, and I loved both the green and the black ones. I can remember her telling me to leave some for other people.
But, because I didn’t like fried bologna (sigh) I was picky.
Thanks for commenting and I’m off to check out your blog!
Congrats on your award! And thank you for nominating me. The list of bloggers you have sounds fabulous and I will have to check them out!
The caption on that deviled ham spread is hilarious btw!
You’re welcome! You have a great blog!
Congrats Catherine!! And thank you so much for the nomination – I’m touched. Celeste 🙂
Congrats!
Thanks, Heather!