Creative blogger and Infinity Dreams Award –> Dreams and facts about myself.

Thanks to Brooke from the Gardening and Food blog Savory Stalks and Joann from Joannsfoodforthought I have been nominated for the Creative blogger and Infinity dreams awards. It’s an honour for me to receive these awards and most of all it is surprising. I didn’t even know they existed. Then again I don’t want to see my blog filling up with posts about awards… That way I made the choice to combine both since I’m grateful to both persons showing respect for my hobby!

These awards have some rules. The first one is to nominate 15 other blogs and notify them. I want to use this rule to point out some sources of inspiration for the things I love and those who share some passion. I’ll keep this list for the end and start with the other rule: “Share five random facts about yourself”. I want to take some time to explain these random facts. Just for those interested in more. So here we go:

First fact: I love to create things all by myself.

Unfortunately I’m not handy at all and I know nothing about gardening and breeding, nor have I enough time to experiment with the things I want to make… An outdoor kitchen, small farm, own vgetables, … This does not mean I don’t attempt to fullfill some parts of my dream. For this reason I’m trying to grow some vegetables in pots and 2 square meter gardens (and don’t forget to mention my chicken for a daily egg). Most things grow well (better than I expected).

Last Year I grew some peppers and made smoked chili powder from them. This year I’m growing Eggplant, Fennel, Sweet Bell Pepper, Negro azteca tomatoes, … AND Zucchini… But just like last year I encoutered a problem this year. I started with a verry tasteful fruit but all coming after started to rot. Brooke took some time to point me in the right direction resulting in 3 beautiful new fruits growing. Thanks again!

Second fact: I’m a music lover!

I have a weak heart for heavy music. How ironic but no exception. In the “metal scene” there are a lot of passionate music lovers! Though I’ve learned music is more than metal and I opened up my horizon for other music. Nowadays I split my listening time in +- 50% postrock and metal music and the rest of the time at other styles. What music do I prefer? Well I went to this years Dunk! festival and left impressed by the professional approach! I also went to Asaf Avidan a few months ago and we will go to Dranouter next month to see him again! He’s some kind of little hero singing about the struggle of life in a mix of intimate beauty, emotional explosions and a slice of dark humor. His voice has a touch of Janis Joplin and he’s one of the few artists that show how beautiful it can be to take some time for the dark side of life and make something beautiful about it! He can get me quiet on my happiest moments and make me realise how beautiful that moment is. Feel free to check out these performances who give me this kind of feeling:

Asaf Avidan’s Tiny desk concert but check out this song too: The Labyrinth Song

Paolo Nutini – These Streets

40 Watt Sun (Patrick Walker) – Carry me home. This guy managed to get a pub totally silent while soundchecking! Not the best quality movie but it gives an idea! You should also check the original version to hear the difference.

It’s tempting not to fill this post with dropping links… So I’ll leave it with these! Maybe I’ll make another post later on with more music! Mostly when I listen to these songs I can’t get into my bed before I’m totally exhausted. And when I’m in my bed I listen to some more… Addicting

Fact 3: I’m a proud person

This being in two ways. First of all I’m verry proud at my wife and children! They make my life… I can honoustly say that I wouldn’t be the person I am without them. Sounds rather cliché but I fear I would have thrown away possibilities I would never have known about. That’s probably where the second meaning of me being proud comes in the story… Without my wife I think I would have stubbornly ignored talking about deeper emotions and I would only focus on enjoying life (not a combination that is long-lasting I know but it’s tempting). Over time I’ve learned to cope with problems this way. Resulting in me being an optimist (which I’m proud of) but also resulting in me trying to be more open about my concerns. And that’s where I’ll draw the line concerning this object :-).

Fact 4: I love photography

Actually I love art. My mother is an art teacher and she took me to her school when I was younger! I liked being creative but at some point I “lost” my interest… I think the period where it’s not cool to like the things your mother does. Well at that point I fear I neglected my skills (if I had them …) and most of all I neglected my interest in artists… Now I’m stuck with big wholes in my cultural luggage and lacking time to fill them. But I discovered the beauty of photography and started to take some lessons to learn how to capture life and the moments that make me proud. I still have a lot to learn but it’s fun to do.

Fact 5: I tend to lose myself in my passions…

I’m sure I’m not always running from hard feelings. Yet I’m putting a lot of time in the things I love. And when I get started I have some problems to stop with it. I started typing and was about to write to facts and leave the rest for tomorrow… Then I came to the second fact and got drown into the stream of music. I need to go to bed now…

*Saves as a concept and plans on writing more about my inspirations tomorrow*

The day after:

So here I am again. Meanwhile I received the Infinity dreams award too… So I’ll share some of my dreams to! I have a lot of them… I think I’m quite a dreamer. I won’t write them all down cause that would take me too long. Here are my favorites:

1. Obvious: Enjoying my family and friends as much and long as possible. Getting beyond the cliché this means I would like to create a beautiful place for my children to grow up. If possible I would make more time for this and create some cozy moments together. This would alsom mean more time to invite some friends over. Watch the children play and enjoying the goodness in life.

2. Less obvious: I’m dreaming for a long time to organize my own festival with the bands I like. Since it is a dream people like Johnny Cash, JBonn Scott, Joan Jett, Kurt Cobain and Dimebag Darrel and so on would wake up from the dead and play the gig of their live.

3. I would love to fly and be able to help some people getting back in time to help prevent them getting involved in situations they didn’t deserve… Some kind of super hero but without people knowing they got some help. The flying would be just for fun.

Inspirations and nominees:

These are some blogs that inspire me in some way (not only for my own blog). I say inspire because I don’t want people to feel forced to do this. I did it because I appreciate it and I tought it was a good moment to let the people who inspire me now they inspire me and share something a bit more about myself. So feel free to join if you want or don’t if you don’t feel like. No particular order but I’ll save the bbq blogs for last.

1. Savory Stalks: once again thanks for pointing me in the good direction and giving me this award! I’m learning a lot from reading this blog.
2. Joann’s food for thought: The non BBQ version of my blog. Sharing beautiful recipes like chicken wings, beef shortribs, …
3. Mexican Food Memories: Nice Mexican recipes! I rarely cook some mexican food but I like it a lot… I’m sure going to try some of these recipes!!
4. A walk with my camera: Street photographer sharing some verry beautiful images!
5. Francoise La Prune: One of my favorites! Beautiful recipes, pictures, …
6. Marja Wagemans: blog about life in Sweden. I never went to Sweden but somehow I’m attracted a lot to that country! So it’s fun to read about her experiences. Especially the BBQ hut they’re building sounds awesome for winter days.
7. Mefrouw: three sisters sharing there vision on life! Somewhat feminine look on the world (food, reality, decoration, …) but most of all enjoyable to read how people enjoy the little things in life.
8. Vinissima: Passion for good drinks: cocktails, wine pairing, …
9. Backbone: blog about everything in life that can make you live the good life!
10. The Happy House: Just inspiring in many ways! Beautiful blog!
11. Ann:: Actually: about food, travelling, music and more
12. Arnold Sterk: sharing beautiful personal stories abd recipes
13. BBQ-NL: Noskos is really popular in the lowlands and his blog is the reason! For years he is delivering some decent content to look up at! When starting with BBQ I learned a lot from this blog. He’s also member of the seaside smokers. I hope one day to join a BBQ contest too. Just for fun.
14. Ghentlemen’s BBQ: Another dutch blog about BBQ! I got to know this blog via wordpress and I’ve been enoying to read how he experiences his passion.
15. BBQ Helden: Another dutch blog about BBQ that inspired me for about the same reasons I mentioned above.

    EDIT:

16. Michiel Ziet: Awesome dutch blog. Michiel is an interesting writer that shares his view on reality. I got to know his blog by a funny humurous post where he criticized the BBQ hype. Fun to read! For some reason this link disappeared from the list (though it’s one of the first blogs I thought about).