BitterSweet

[What? You should know that I don't drink!]

Here’s to another wonderful year, full of joy, crafting, and good food!

I’m still in shock. Even though I don’t always write about food, even though I up and disappeared on you guys for a whole week, even though I was up against some seriously incredible food writers out there in the blogosphere, I still won for the Well Fed Network’s 2007 food blog awards for Best Writing. Talk about unbelievable, part of me still wonders if it might all be a joke, and any minute now I’ll get a joking email saying “Ahaha, you fell for our trick!” Well, until I see such an awful message waiting in my inbox, I’ll just have to take your word for it and let you all know how incredibly honored I am, and grateful for all of your support.

Now, I’ll do my best to prove that I deserve this title by returning to a normal pattern of blogging again, since I’m finally back at home and mostly done with school work. If you sent me an email eons ago and are still waiting for a response- Sorry!- I will be sorting through my mess of emails and returning your letters very soon, I promise!

This was the best holiday gift I could ever ask for, and hopefully I’ll find some way to return the favor to every last reader out there who made this possible!

Hannah our loyal Bittersweet Blogger is a bit bogged down with her very first round of college finals this week, and has felt dreadful about not having wonderful sweets and crafts to share with her readers. Luckily, there is something that I wanted to share with everyone this week to fill in the posting void, and Hannah has graciously allowed me to take the spotlight for a quick post.

For two weeks in December, Chez Pim is uniting food bloggers for the Menu for Hope, a fund raiser for the UN World Food Programme. Each year, food bloggers from all over the world join forces to host the Menu for Hope online raffle, offering an array of delectable culinary prizes. In 2006, Menu for Hope raised US $60,925.12 to help feed the hungry, and I am sure that they would like to do even better this year.

Hannah, the crafter behind Bittersweet, is a “starving” college student (literally, vegan dorm food is hard to come by), so she is unable to give a large monetary donation. However, what she can offer is her wonderful work. Hannah has generously donated an autographed copy of her new cookbook, My Sweet Vegan, as a raffle prize for the Menu for Hope. Did I mention how positively gorgeous My Sweet Vegan is? Hannah is far too modest and shy to say it, so I felt the need to tell everyone.

Getting back on topic, you can help the Menu for Hope fund raiser by donating just ten dollars U.S. For every US$10 donation, you will receive a virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Beyond Hannah’s great cookbook, there are scores of wonderful prizes to assign to your raffle tickets.

Thank you for allowing me a moment to share this wonderful event. Good luck with your finals Hannah!

- Alisa

The Well Fed Network is holding their 2007 food blog awards right now, and it seems that someone must have confused the entries or something, because it was just brought to my attention that my humble little blog has been nominated for Best Writing. And really, the best part of this is that I’m so surprised, I don’t even know what to say except… Wow! If you could toss a vote my way, I would really appreciate it, too!

The entry period for the printer contest is now over!  I’m so impressed with all of the creative, funny, and beautiful series that everyone has come up with, and let me tell you, this will not be an easy competition to judge.  The sheer volume of emails stacked up in my inbox is quite terrifying at the moment, so please forgive me if it takes some time to get through them all, or reply to other comments and messages.   The round up is on it’s way, along with the announcement of the winner, so sit tight!

The most interesting new book came in the mail the other day…

I can’t believe it’s really real, and I’m actually holding it in my hands. But… It’s true!

[My apologies to everybody for my sluggish responses- I'll get back to you guys asap, I just need to get enough time away from classes and homework!]

I guess I should have known better. Here I was, thinking that I had given you all a really tough image to decipher… and 30 minutes after posting it, in the very first comment, it was identified with ease. Jeez, I have no idea how to stump you for future contests! I guess this little event will need to go back to the drawing board… But for now at least, since it became immediately obvious so quickly, I treated this one more as a raffle and entered everyone who commented into a random drawing.

So without further ado, by using a random number generator and then selecting the corresponding comment, I’ve determined that the winner is… Kya! Congrats, your new puppy pal will be on his way soon!

Thanks to everyone else for your enthusiasm too. All I can say is… Next time I’ll have to do some different sort of contest!

Well it seems as though I’ve been tagged for another meme, this time by Paul. I must admit, this one was a bit more difficult, as I find it rather difficult to describe myself in the first place, but even more so when the words must match up with the letters of my name! Sorry if you’re not interesting in reading a bit more about me (I don’t blame you), but feel free to skip over this post- I promise, you won’t miss much. Regular posting will resume in no time, so sit tight!

Curious to learn more about me?

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…Or at least they’re curious about me! Imagine my surprise when I got an email about a month back asking if I would be interested in answering a few questions by none other than my fellow vegan crafters and foodies, Jess and Michelle, on behalf of Herbivore online- I’m still thrilled that anyone might want to know more about little old me. You can check out the full interview here, but alas, you must have a paid subscription to view it. For all of you frugal readers who have trouble parting with money that could otherwise be spent on good yarn or vegan ice cream, (Don’t worry, I know the feeling!) here’s just a little snippet to tide you over…
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Although I take great pride in this little blog of mine and try to post quite regularly, I tend to think of myself more as a lurker than a blogger. If there is any free time between crafting, baking, and writing, you are sure to find me browsing through the 100+ blogs I have earmarked, enjoying witty scraps of conversation and creative ideas, but rarely chiming in myself. It’s just hard not to feel like an outsider when such amazingly talented people seem way out of my league, which is why I usually end up as the observer and leave interaction to the ‘real’ bloggers. Thus, a meme has never graced my webspace before, but it seems as though the winds are changing; Nominated by no less than two bloggers for the exact same meme, it seems as though fate has conspired to shake up my usual routine. Despite my extreme distaste for talking about myself, I’m just tickled pink that you guys really want to know, so how could I refuse?

For those of you who are just here for the crafts and food, I’m putting this bit of babble underneath a cut so you don’t need to waste time scrolling through it. Just sit tight and you will be returned to your regularly scheduled blogging shortly!
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