A Newb Blog Award

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Once in a while we will see various blog awards flying around the blogosphere, awarding people for their diversity or style or whatever else. Just last week, the lovely Danielle of Simple Sapphire was kind enough to pass on a blog award of a different nature. It's called the Liebster Award, and used primarily to acknowledge us newb's on here. 

These are the specs that come with the award...

The Liebster Award is meant to connect us even more and spotlight NEWER BLOGGERS who have less than 200 followers (but hopefully not for long). The rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them. 
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the Internet – other writers. 
5. And best of all – have fun and spread the karma!

While I will graciously accept this award (since I meet the criteria and all), I cannot pass it on to others without first noting it's main flaw. To me, it seems as if the award is a little too focused on numbers and followers. Because really! Since when does less than 200 followers mean that you are a newbie!? Okay so the generalization fits me well. I've only been around these parts for about a year. But I frequent a number of amazing blogs who have been around for three or more years and only have a modest following. To these guys, a follower base is best comprised of quality and not quantity. 

So while I may be classed and labeled and struck down as being an 'amateur' in this world, I think I have been around long enough to realise that numbers do not, and should not matter. I have to confess that I squeeled a little on the inside the day I saw my follower base pass the 100 mark. But to be honest, while it's definitely nice to know that people enjoy my blog, sometimes the fact that people are reading it escapes me completely! If I were here for numbers I would have gave up in the early days when I was writing three or four posts a week to absolutely no body. I have met so many wonderful people through this world already and my only hope is to keep doing that. It's a community guys, not a popularity competition. I refuse to be just a number to anyone's blog, and I'd hate for any of the people who read what I have to write to feel that way either. 

Anyway, with all that being said, here are a few blog ladies I adore with less than 200 followers... 

1. Stephanie from Shes A Maniac is a fellow Australian blogger who always has something wonderful to share. She tells tales of her weekend, documents her latest purchases and always has a sweet photo set to compliment her words. She has been more than a friend in this online world, and I can only hope to meet her in real life one day. 

2. Erin writes from her self-titled blog Erinj0 about living a not so typical life. She is an incredibly strong individual and shares some of the most inspirational and positive blog posts I have ever read. 

3. Ashley from Emerald Doodles is a lovely lady from Ireland who has recently moved to Melbourne, Australia and blogs about a range of things from adjusting to a new city, style inspiration and long distance relationships. Her blog is on hiatus at the moment because her boyfriend from back home has come to stay with her. Fair call I think! 

4. From the very first read you will realise that Box of Crayons is a great place to be. Annalise is it's author and writes her blog beautifully. Maybe because she's a writing student? While the content that she writes about is what drew me in initially, her tone and expression are what kept me there. Truly original stuff round those parts. 

5. There are just too many others to share... so perhaps I'll do this again sometime.