I was so honored to receive a nomination for the Liebster award by the awesome Coty and Mariah over at Quirks and Twists!
Basically the Liebster Award is something given from a blogger to another blogger. It is mainly aimed at smaller, newer blogs just as a way to get to know other bloggers/get more involved in the blogging community!
You answer a list of questions provided by the blog that nominated you, and then you nominate several blogs that you follow and love!
SO – for the questions:
How did you get the name for your blog?
I had a looong list of potential names. Long list. I had been building it for years, constantly updating it, so when the day came to start my food blog I would have lots of options to choose from! I eventually landed on The Garlic Diaries because 1. I love cooking with garlic – I pretty much add it to everything and I LOVE the flavor and complexity that it brings to dishes, and 2. I wanted to use the word “diaries” because this blog is basically documenting my journey through creating my own recipes. Hence, “The Garlic Diaries!”
Why did you start blogging?
Cooking is what I love to do more than anything; it brings me so much joy. I have been obsessed with it since I was in middle school. I have always said I would love to make a career out of cooking, but I didn’t want to be a chef in a restaurant because that seems SUPER stressful. My dream to start my own food blog developed when I was a freshman in college and started seeing more and more people have them. The world has Pinterest to thank for that! I thought it would be really fun, but I never saw it as an option since I was in college for an Education degree (which would leave ZERO time for food blogging!). Well it just so happened that my senior year of college, I realized that teaching really isn’t what I am passionate about. I didn’t want to dedicate so much time to something I didn’t love. So right after college graduation, my husband and I got married, moved down to Fort Benning, and I decided to start The Garlic Diaries and spend my time doing something that I am passionate about! I am so happy every day that I made that decision.
What is your favorite food?
Sushi. Hands down. I am a bottomless pit when it comes to sushi – I can literally eat roll after roll after roll and still want more because it tastes so awesome. I have only ever made it myself once, here, but I definitely plan to make it more often so I can enjoy it whenever I want!
If you could have anyone’s closet, who would you choose?
This is kind of a hard question for me because I LITERALLY live in jeans and t-shirts. I really don’t dress up very often. Cozy, comfy clothes (which can still be cute!) are always my goal :). So whose closet would I choose…I guess I would have to say Jennifer Lawrence because she is super chill and doesn’t always have to be decked out to leave her house.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love hanging out with my husband (Seth) in my spare time since we are always so busy during the week. That usually involves going to the dog park and playing with our awesome puppy (is 9 months old still a puppy??), cooking together, trying out fun new restaurants and breweries, finding hilarious shows on Netflix and watching them for WAY too long, playing silly video games together, and a long list of other random things!
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
I would love to go to Europe. Particularly Italy, Ireland, Greece, or France. Seth and I are planning on going on a European cruise in the next year or so either across the Greek Islands or through the Fjords in Norway. Yay!
Are you a cat or dog person?
Need I say more?
Do you like meeting new people?
Yes and no. I do like meeting new people and making friends, but I also love having a strong, close knit group of friends that I spend most of my free time with. I am definitely not an anti-social person, but I also don’t feel the need to have 100 friends and meet new people everywhere I go.
What is the best gift you’ve ever received?
That would definitely be my engagement ring from my husband on Christmas Eve a few years ago. I am absolutely obsessed with Christmas, so Seth knew that the only thing that could make me happier than being engaged to him was having it happen under thousands of Christmas lights on the happiest night of the year :).
If you had one wish, what would it be?
This is a tough one! At this point in my life, my siblings and I live really far apart. One of my brothers and his wife live near Seattle, and my other brother and his wife live in New Mexico (his wife is actually living in Vegas right now about to start PA school). Seth and I live in Georgia and are about to move to Kansas. All three of us are military, so we will probably all live far apart for the next several years at least. My wish would be that all six of us could live in the same city someday, preferably somewhere awesome like Charleston or Colorado. Then all of our kids could grow up together and we could see each other whenever we wanted!
Now for the blog nominations!
All you have to do is answer the above questions and nominate a few blogs that you follow and love!
This is such a great post! It’s so nice to learn more about you. I’m so glad that you started blogging so that we could become blogging friends! And I’m a total dog person, too. I’ve grown up with them all my life and can’t wait to get another one soon! Thank you SO much for the Liebster nomination! I am very touched that you thought of me, Annie! Unfortunately, I’ve already been nominated and passed it on last year (July 2014, I think), so I can’t participate again. Btu i really appreciate it, Annie! :)
Gayle @ Pumpkin ‘N Spice recently posted…Parmesan Garlic Shrimp Fettuccine
Thank you so much! Oh yeah, dogs are the best :). That is totally fine – congrats on the nomination last year!!
It looks like we have a lot in common, Annie! I also wanted to start a blog for a few years and I wasn’t completely passionate about my major in college (nutrition). I was unhappy at my job, so I started my blog! I also want to travel to Europe and might get the chance next year for my honeymoon. This was a fun post to read and congratulations on the nomination of the liebster award!
Keri @ Fashionable Foods recently posted…InPSYCHfully Nourished
That’s so cool! I bet your education background in nutrition helps a lot with your blog because it gave you knowledge about healthy food. I would love to take some nutrition classes sometime in the future! That would be an AMAZING honeymoon! Seth and I went to St. Lucia, but Europe was up there in our top choices. Thank you so much! Congrats to you too, I saw you got nominated with me :).
So much fun reading! Thanks for sharing your story!
Thank you so much, Mira!