Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The 2011 Irish Blog Awards: And the Nominees include...me!

2011 Nomination!
I noticed on Twitter the other night that the nominations had been posted for the 2011Irish Blog Awards and I am delighted that I got nominated - in two categories!

I got a nomination in the Best Personal and Best Food//Drink Blogs. Thanks a million to my nominees - you know who you are, even if I'm just guessing! I promise I won't make a cringe-making Oscar/Bafta/Ifta-style acceptance speech - unless I make it to the shortlist or the finalist list!

There are a multitude of great blogs in the numerous categories - Humour, Newcomer, Political, Politician, Best Post, Personal, Food/Drink, Youth, Irish Language (eat your heart out Fine Gael!) and  so I am delighted to get to the longlist.

Last year I was lucky enough to make the shortlist and while I didn't win, it was great to follow the progress of the awards and to read so many new (for me) blogs. So I hope you enjoy them as much as I do - life's too short to be reading them all (and do other stuff as well, like work and knit and read!) but there are plenty of good ones out there.

I already recognise a lot of the names in the various categories, some that I follow and some who follow me - and there is a great camaraderie in the blogosphere that makes everyone happy for their fellow-bloggers when they appear on the list. At least that's how I see it; maybe I'm hopelessly out of tune and everyone's really gritting their teeth to see their nemesis nominated! Well, I'll keep up my Pollyanna-ish faith in human nature and believe in my theory - there's plenty of room in the Twittersphere for acerbic wit and cutting-edge scathing commentary!

If nothing else, it's great to see the increased traffic to my blog in the past few days - for a while there I felt I was blogging for myself as there seemed to be a decline in visitor numbers, but it's turned around since the list went up, so it definitely has an impact.

I've mused before on blogging and its appeal - and while I do it mainly because I enjoy writing and sharing recipes and reviews and ideas on issues that interest me, I'd be disingenuous if I said I didn't get a buzz from having new followers and seeing comments - so keep up the ego-massage, people!

Keep on visiting, commenting and following - and I'll keep on posting Dispatches from a cold and damp Déise!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Well done on the nomination.

joe

Brownieville Girl said...

Congratulations Catherine - two nominations, that's wonderful!

Jo said...

Congratulations, Catherine. That's wonderful. Two nominations. Good to see you again. Blessings, from Jo

MTeacress said...

Wow, what a fantastice list to make! Congratulations, and I'm so glad you stopped by my blog. I haven't been doing a lot of visiting to other blogs lately, so it's nice to see your face again. Have a great week. :)

Lilly Higgins said...

Well done Catherine! That's brilliant, two nominations is great!Best of luck with it and I agree about the nominations bringing a new zeal and freshness due to an increase in blog traffic. It's a great idea to have the awards as alot of the blogs I had never seen before!

Brigid O'Connor said...

Catherine, that's brilliant and well deserved.
I never heard of the awards before and I am on the list too, like yourself I just blog away as kind of a diary, so it is lovely to be on the list.
I see Barbara on it too, do we get to vote? Best of lucke.

SusanC said...

Congratulations Catherine and best of luck! Fingers crossed now for the short list! I can't believe the amount of blogs there are!

Catherine said...

Thanks everyone for the kind comments - and good luck to fellow-nominees out there!

Joe - makes a change from election fever - I'm sure you're caught up in it too! Another week to go and it'll be downhill to the count!

Brownieville girl - thanks a lot - greatly honoured! GOod luck you on the foodie one too!

Thanks Jo - haven't commented over on your blog for a while, but I did drop by to read it! These awards are great fun, good motivation!

Michelle - thanks and I don't get to visit blogs as often as I'd like either! See you on Twitter at times. That's fun in these election times here!

Lilly - good luck to you too - it's a great fun thing, these blog awards, and I'll try not to let my ego get in the way when I don't make it any further than the longlist! Love your pix and posts, mouthwatering! Any book title yet? Good luck with it!

Thanks Brigid - just commented over at your blog, and no I don't think we get to vote, it's all up to them now! Yes, Barbara is well-deservedly on it too, so I feel there's a lot of hard acts to follow!

Susan C - best of luck too you too! Great list, and would anyone get thru them all! Hope you make the shortlist now! (and me too while they're at it - and all my blogpals!)

Hang in there - keep in touch with the IBAs and tell your friends to visit new blogs every day! IBA - sounds like a disease or a business umbrella organisation!

Catherine

Barbara said...

Congratulations! That's wonderful!!! Good luck on getting to the short list and farther..