Liebster Award?!?! How many small blogs do you know?

I feel kind of out of the loop of the bigger blogging world, but Elena at Ecklipsed by Color nominated me for this "web award" (and I thank her so much for it!)  It's pretty neat; it gives you a never-ending network of new and smaller bloggers to check out. You could very well waste hours clicking around to check out the "nominators" and click through to all the various "nominees" on the various blogs.  This award in particular is dedicated to helping out smaller blogs, those with less than 200 followers.

The rules, as Elena puts them, are this:

You must post 11 random things about yourself.
Then answer the questions that the nominator set for you
Then create 11 questions for the people you nominate to answer. 
Finally, choose up to 11 people and link them in your post and and go to their page and tell them.

I can see this turning into a long post!  Well, let's start off with 11 Random Facts:

1. I work in healthcare, and this is why I've loved gel polish since I first used it! Regular polish lasts me three days if I'm lucky, and chipped polish when you're working is a health hazard.  Gels seem much safer.
2. Sometimes I'm really simple.  Smiles from patients make my day (or even my week!)
3. I'm a bit of a computer addict, and I play computer games sometimes (sometimes more than others, too). The constant tapping is probably another reason polishes never seemed to last on my nails.
4. I've moved far from my original home to live with my significant other. Well, not that far, but about 6 hours.
5. I have two cats and a rabbit back home with my family, and I miss them a lot. Although I'm pretty sure last time I painted my nails back at home, a hair or two got nicely encased in my polish!
6. I like reading. And I like books.  Nice, second-hand books from stores like Abebooks.com.  I have an older e-reader but I barely use it. (Look up Better World Books if you're there, by the way.  The most amazing company!)
7. I also really like music.  Sometimes it's hard to talk when making a video, and I hate the idea of using generic license-free stuff, so I HAVE to put some kind of music from my music player in.  Hopefully my selections aren't too bad, and hopefully I'm not keeping too many people from watching.
8. I also like makeup, and I have a LOT of colors, but I've mostly stuck to my Urban Decay "Naked" palettes for the last year or two.  IE: My makeup is boring.
9. I crave fake cheese flavor a lot.  Cheese curls, cheese sauce... anything but cheese whiz.  Why?  I have no clue.  It has no nutritional value. 
10. I drink a ton of water every day, probably at least 5 bottles.  And I still have dry skin, how lame!
11. I got a heated blanket for my birthday last fall. It's simultaneously the lamest and BEST GIFT EVERRR.

Now for the 11 questions Elena at Ecklipsed by Color asked:

1.  What inspired you to start blogging and also your blog name?  I don't see a lot of swatches for gel polishes outside of forums, but there are a ton of blogs dedicated to regular polish swatches.  So I thought I'd try to do something different.  My blog name is REALLY LAME. I love gel polishes!  And the first brand I tried out is called "NaiLuv". I feel so uninspiring.
2. What has been your greatest accomplishment so far?  That's really hard!  Probably, overall, just overcoming the Fibromyalgia I was diagnosed with as a teen and all the setbacks it gave me, and coming so far as to work full time at a job I don't hate (haha!).
3. What is your favorite creative outlet? Art? Music? Dance? etc.? Oh man, actually, I do a little bit of everything now and then!  My favorite is sewing I guess, but I can get frustrated with that and I don't get to share the results of my efforts as fast/easily as, say, showing off my nails.
4. If your life was a book what would be the title?  Can I pick "The Stranger"?  Albert Camus already took the title, but I like it, too
5. Describe your favorite meal. That really depends on my mood.  But I don't think I'll ever say no to a freshly prepared pasta a la carbonara or alfredo.  I am part eye-talian!
6. What would be your ultimate polish color and what would it be called? Oh this one's easy!  The perfect linear holographic gel polish! Just a plain silver holographic, but not too bright. 
7. If you had pick between the two- chocolate or cheese? Can't I have both?  Ok, fine... as a lifelong chocoholic, my answer's pretty simple.
8. Favorite travel destination that you have been to and one that you would love to go to.  I haven't been many places, but I have been to Germany, and that was pretty awesome.  I still wish I could find bread as good as we had there. Oh, and the Kölner Dom and castles were pretty awesome, too:
   
   
   Source: daad.de via Multi on Pinterest
   
   As for a place I'd like to go to?  There are a lot, but the ocean is always really close to my heart.  When I was young, I was one of those east coast kids that went to "the Shore" for trips sometimes in the summer.  I'd like to go back, even though this is what it looks like right now:
   
   
   Source: articles.latimes.com via Multi on Pinterest
   
   Now, as a resident of the northeast I also make a lot of jokes about New Jersey, but it's mostly like the way you poke fun at your family.  Most of NJ makes money by tourism and seaside attractions; I'm not saying Sandy's as bad as Katrina was, but NJ is definitely going to have to do a lot of work to get back on its feet. And I hope sometime soon I can take a vacation and help!
   
9. What nail trend do you see happening in 2013? Hopefully lots more easy, wearable, accessible nail art. I love all the simple ideas made with tape, saran wrap, simple lines or brush strokes. 
10. Do you speak any foreign languages? Donde esta el bano?  Actually that's probably the only phrase I can remember off the top of my head...  I've taken a few years of Spanish, and one of Latin and German, but I don't remember much of any of it.
11. Favorite nail polish brand and favorite shade? Probably OPI because of their wide variety of types of polishes, gels, and systems they offer, although I do think Zoya has a much more awesome range.  As for shade, I don't have one favorite (yet!), but I feel like I tend to prefer darker, vampier creme colors or ones with a lot of multidimensional shimmer.

Now, most importantly:  Here are some more cool blogs I've come across, all with less than 200 followers, too.  I nominate all of you! 

Under The Lily Shadow may not be for everyone, there is A LOT of bling on this blog! But even if it's not your thing, it's certainly neat to see how it's all done.  I'm just kind of depressed she hasn't updated in a while.

FerretKingdom is a mixed type of blog, but its owner is so creative at mixing up her gel manicures, especially adding her own eyeshadows and pigments and sparkles.  Her nail posts are always helpful!

...All of a sudden it's gotten really late, and I thought I had more blogs, but I apparently didn't "follow" them myself and I can't find them right now!  If I find them, I'll update this post.  Let's end this with my 11 questions for the next "nominees", if they choose to take up the offer:

1. Most favorite type of polish (Creme, sparkle, etc)? 
2. Least favorite color for nail polishes?
3. What's your favorite Movie/Book/whichever you prefer (or both)?
4. What's one of your beauty "bad habits"? 
5. Best beauty/nail care tip?
6. Ever wish you lived somewhere else?  The grass is always greener, right?
7. What's your favorite store (any type of store, really.  The grocery store counts, if you want!)
8. You've turned into a superhero!  What's your super power? 
9. It is the flu and cold season; so how do you keep yourself up when you're sick?
10. Do you have any pets?
11. How much nail polish do you have?  

And thanks once again to Elena, it was fun looking through all the blogs so far. :)