Liebster Award…

Tabetha at “The Closet Intellectual” nominated me and four others for the Liebster Award. Hooray! Thank you Tabetha! The Liebster Award is passed on by those who are awarded it, sort of like a hot potato, or good news, or button button who’s got the button (seriously…one of the perks of getting the Liebster Award is that you get a digital button). Speaking of buttons, consider clicking “The Closet Intellectual” button on my sidebar and beam over to Tabetha’s blog. Her blog voice is relaxed, smart, approachable, and often funny…plus, she posts do-able crafts, awesome web links (anything from obscure movies to vintage music and funky art) and often on Fridays she does a fashion post.

Part of the Liebster Award game (button, button) is answering questions posed by your nominator. And then when you nominate, you get to ask the questions. Here are Tabetha’s questions for her nominees—and my answers:

1) What is your favorite sort of book to curl up to & what beverage goes with it?

My very favorite sort of book is literary fiction, or sometimes memoirs… lately (this last several years) either one, if it’s written by Haven Kimmel. Kimmel’s particular mark of genius: she gets people, gets their psychology. Reading “The Solace of Leaving Early”, or “A Girl Named Zippy”, I was at last inducted into the enviable class of readers who find themselves laughing and crying at the same time. “Zippy” was a deja vu experience for me. I called my sister, Leah, and told her: “She wrote our book, Leah. She got to it before we did!”

The beverage? Hmm. I’m not really a beverage girl lately…although. I do love hot herbal tea (Evening in Missoula: Montana Tea and Spice Co.) with honey and a tiny bit of cream.

2) If Hollywood called and told you they were making a movie about your life, what would the name of the movie be and who would play you?

“And When She Woke Up, She Essayed To Speak”, starring a hybrid movie star (I love theoretically hybridizing people): Elizabeth Shue/Doris Day/Emily Mortimer. Reality would be vastly distorted by creative license (music, lighting, script).

3) If you were mad at a loved one, what flowers would be their ticket out of the doghouse?

Only my husband apologizes with flowers. I’m having a hard time recalling anyone else’s apologies…or the need for them. Hmm.

Sometimes I think Frank’s apologies would sound best in the company of really good, fairly dark chocolate, but I do love flowers. Ultimately, given the doghouse scenario…his best bet would be a For Real, Live, Blooming, Fragrant Plant. Like a lemon tree (intoxicating). Or a sweet pink crabapple, in a huge antique iron pot.

4) What is your favorite piece of clothing, and why do you love it so (I’m supposed to supply a picture).

Hard to choose…my favorites vary with my moods, how much cake I’ve had lately, and the seasons…but. Today, I’ll pick this skirt. The Dancing Skirt, Again. It is a feel-good skirt…both comfortable and pretty. I feel free and wonderful in it. Uninhibited.

5) If you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Yikes. Kind of embarrassed to admit this, but… “Emma” with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam. I stand exposed as a sentimental romantic. It would be groovier to choose “Cold Comfort Farm” (which I really like), or “RED” (every scene either unbelievably cool, funny, or both–), and more rational to choose my all-time favorite, “Sweet Land”, but in the end, “Emma” is my comfort movie (like old easy listening radio playing while I drift off–Christopher Cross, Carole King, Bee Gees, Gordon Lightfoot). It was my movie of choice at a time in my life that I feel nostalgic about now. I nursed babies to sleep watching it (today those babies are teenagers and don’t want to be reminded that they ever nursed). My favorite parts are when Knightly tells Emma off for being mean to Miss Bates (“Badly done, Emma—badly done.”). She’s turned away from him, and he’s looking like he’d rather kiss the back of her neck than lecture her (I am drawn in by two concepts here: sterling friendship, and honesty as love–or honesty conflicting with love–or both at the same time). I also love the scene where Miss Bates keeps shouting conversation fragments to her deaf mother at a party (“ANGEL, Mother, “PIG”, Mother”). Old Mrs. Bates’ expression is priceless.

And now, for my own nominations! They are: Aleisha at “She Calls Me Mama Leisha”, Katie at “Loverly She”, Meghan at “Eat Live Make”, Maurya at “For Lack of A Better Name”, and Mardel at “Resting Motion”.

Ladies, once you grab (copy, paste) the Liebster button, here are your questions:

1. If your life were a sound track, what song would be playing currently, at this moment? What song would have played the summer you were seventeen?  What song would play at your far distant funeral?

2. If you could invite a book or movie character, a historical figure, and your favorite author (or artist) to brunch, who would the trio  be? And what would you feed them?

3. If you were asked to appear on a talk show, what would you want to talk about? What would you wear?

4. What are you most afraid of, and why?

5. If you could go anywhere in the world with just one suitcase and a carry-on, where would it be?  What would the most important item in your luggage be?

(Notes: only a couple of these images are mine. Here are the sources for rest:

tea: Laurah Winder via Cecilia Rosslee onto Remedies and Othersuch
crabapple blossoms: 123rf.com
lemon blossoms: shirley-agardenerslife.blogspot.com
elizabeth shue: adrianalima-bra.blogspot.com
emily mortimer: lepotta.com
doris day on pinterest
emma: ecausten.blogspot.com)