With Wildflowers Wins The Sunshine Blogger Award

With Wildflowers is 8 weeks old! It has been a very fast couple of months and I am learning so much about blogging already, and now I have a blogging award under my belt!  I have met some awesome ladies and fellow bloggers along the way and was so excited to be nominated for The Sunshine Blogger Award by Anna from Spirit Co. Blog. She has an awesome site about “living a naturally magical life” and she posts about health, happiness, positivity and so much more. The Sunshine Blogger Award is awarded to bloggers by other bloggers and is a great way to get to know some of the accounts that you follow on a deeper level and discover new people along the way.

I have nominated some of the lovely ladies I have gotten to know over the last month below,  and look forward to hearing what they have to say about their experiences with blogging and the other questions I wanted to ask them.  

Here are my answers to Anna’s questions so keep reading to learn more about me and With Wildflowers.

1. Tell us the story behind your blog’s name

My first blog was a Tumblr account I started my sophomore year of high school in 2011. It was called “The Garden Of” (Eden implied) and it was a music blog I kept up with throughout college. I kind of ran out of steam on it and wanted to expand to a full music and lifestyle site.

Of course by then, every Garden of Eden domain variation was taken so I thought about keeping the garden/flower thing going while using the lyrics and albums from my favorite artists. I love music and celebrating my favorite artists through their songs or album titles so wildflowers  kept coming back to me.

I love Tom Petty and his album Wildflowers has been a favorite of mine for years. His song “Among the Wildflowers” is one I always go back to for the amazing lyrics and sentimental tone. The lyrics inspired me with my name and I love the meaning attached.  “You belong among the wildflowers. You belong on a boat out at sea. Sail away, kill off the hours. You belong somewhere you feel free.”

I wanted With Wildflowers to be that space for me, a place to share my writing and experiences and feel free doing so, so the name stuck and after debating about other names for over a month I just went for it.   

2. What are the top 3 ‘topics’ of your blog?

Music, food, and style would be my top three categories. Music was one of the main reasons I launched With Wildflowers after transitioning from my old tumblr account so it is a major part of the blog. Right now I am doing my summer playlist series and love sharing my favorite tracks. Food is also a huge part of the blog. I love to cook and am a pretty big foodie, so when I travel I love to find great restaurants and blog about them as well. Style kind of encompasses beauty and fashion which I enjoy playing around with to round out my interests. (My other topics are travel and musings where I write little thoughts and moments.)

3. What is your favorite content to write about?

It used to be music for sure, concert reviews and artists profiles, but as I have gotten more into cooking and photography I love doing recipe posts. My boyfriend and I are always experimenting in the kitchen so I love to document it all and share our favorite dishes and concoctions with others.

4. Tell us a bit about where you are from.

I am from a town called San Juan Capistrano in Southern California. There’s the Mission, lots of restaurants and tons of history in town and it is where I have been most of my life. I was born and raised in Orange County and love it. San Juan is  a small town where I also went to private school from 1st-12th grade and everyone kind of knows each other in the area. It is definitely my comfort zone. I only ventured away to San Diego for 4 years during college and loved being close to home. Most of my family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents) all live in the same SJC zip code and it is such a special place to me because of that and my grandparents house is definitely the hub for our family. My best friend and I used to call it the triangle because we really just went from school, to our houses, and my grandparent’s ranch. (I also love to take pictures at the ranch and around San Juan because of the beautiful landscapes and buildings.)

5. What do you do to treat yourself and have some chill out time?

Cooking! I love to spend a couple hours making an elaborate meal with my boyfriend then enjoying it with some wine, curled up on the couch with our dog. I also love going to lunch or working out with my mom because she always makes me laugh.

6. What do you think about karma?

I think it is important to be a good person and mindful of how your actions affect other people. I don’t know if I am necessarily collecting “good karma” when I am doing what I should be doing as a decent person, but I definitely think you should be comfortable with what you are doing in life and treat people in accordance to that. I don’t know about karma and things equaling out because I know some pretty crummy people that lead amazing lives but maybe it will catch up to them.

7. The top 5 best/favorite qualities you appreciate about yourself

I feel like I have always been responsible and like to be a reliable person, so being someone people can count on is a trait I appreciate.

I have extra taste buds and was deemed a super taster in 2nd grade after taking a test test and dying my taste buds in science class, so I can always pick out random flavors in food.

I can go with the flow and show up at the airport with 45 minutes till my flight leaves and know it will be okay. If plans change, I don’t really stress over it. (I do worry about my loved ones though if I don’t hear back from them so I guess I worry a lot about stuff like that)

I can throw together a pretty great dinner with whatever random ingredients I find in a pantry or fridge.

I value quality time immensely, so I love listening to people and spending one on one time being there for others and trying to make them feel better or laugh.

8. Your favorite holiday/day/time of the year

So hard! I love summer, but am so sensitive to the heat. Plus, now that I am working and not in school it isn’t the all out break it used to be. I love the time between Halloween and Christmas. My grandparent’s house gets over the top decorated and we have lots of fun events. Christmas would probably be my favorite holiday because of the happiness and childhood nostalgia I associate with it. So, maybe Christmas Eve or eve eve because the actual day of Christmas goes so fast and then it is all over.

9. What would you like to achieve with your blog?

I feel like most bloggers would be lying is they said they didn’t want to monetize their blog. I definitely do, but I know it will take a long time to do so. In the meantime, I hope to spread the favorite parts of my life to others and share the music I love, recipes I make, and the places I adventure to with whoever wants to know! This is a creative project for me and I am really enjoying doing it so far.

10. Are there any tips you’d like to share with other bloggers?

Don’t wait forever to start your blog. I got interested in starting one over a year ago and was encouraged to do so but didn’t think I had enough to say and was nervous. Just go for it and don’t dwell on your name forever. It is important, but having a passion project is more important so jump in!

11. Your favorite quote

“Life is about how situations affect each one of us, and how much each of us can tolerate.”

Pattie Boyd said this in her biography and it jumped out to me off the page. I used it my senior year for my High School quote and I will love it forever. She was telling her therapist that people didn’t think she should be so upset about things with her marriage to Eric Clapton but it was killing her, and she struggled processing her feelings with how everyone else felt before realizing it didn’t matter what they thought.

I think it is very easy for people to lessen the severity of their experiences in comparison to another’s but it is about how thing are impacting YOU not someone else. Your brother or sister might be able to brush something off that happened in a family situation but it can do a lot more to you, that doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t valid. I think it is important to know everyone is dealing with something that you might not understand so be patient!

That was fun! I haven’t filled out something like this in ages. Now the nominations continue, for the ladies I have listed below follow along to keep the fun going.

The 4 basic rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you (me).
3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

I would like to nominate:

1. Champagne at Shannon’s
2. Bring Your Own Kombucha
3. SK-Wellness
4. The Midwest Wife
5. Anne Autio
6. The Fit Brunette
7. The Blonde Aesthetic
8. Fashion with Frankel
9. Sarah Zentner
10. Hustle and Flo
11. My Revamped Life

Here are your questions, ladies! And feel free to add photos and links and whatever into your responses!

1. What is the meaning of your blog’s name/ why did you choose it?
2. How long have you been blogging?
3. Why did you start your blog?
4. What are your favorite things to blog about?
5. Where do you live?
6. What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten at a restaurant?
7. Do you have any pets? What are their names?
8. If you had to eat one cuisine for the rest of your life what would it be and why? (Mexican, Italian, Japanese, etc.)
9. What is your favorite dessert?
10. Who are your top three favorite artists or bands?
11. If you could travel to anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?

I look forward to reading everyone’s answers! Thank you again, Anna for the nomination!