The Bucket List Project is presented the Sunshine Blogger Award

At the end of September last year, while Darcee & I were travelling around Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein, I received a wonderful surprise email. Amanda Hill of My Sweet Beautiful Life notified me that she had nominated The Bucket List Project for the Sunshine Blogger Award. If you don’t now Amanda, she is a mother of 3, a wife, and a Navy vet who has a passion for travel. I love reading her blog because she shares great stories, along with tips and tricks on how she travels with a family.

Then in June, while we were exploring the beauty of Darcee’s home state of Wyoming, I received another email from one of my favorite book bloggers Margaret Gamble of Novel Blondes! She too had nominated us for the Sunshine Blogger Award. At first I politely declined her nomination to allow others a chance to be nominated. But Margaret is highly literate, opinionated, goal setting, book bushing blonde, so who was I to say no!

So what is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is a recognition award given to bloggers by fellow bloggers. Essentially, the award is given to a blogger who is creative, positive, and inspiring, while spreading sunshine to the blogging community.

How does it work?

Once nominated for the award, in order to accept you need to write a post where you:

• Thank the person(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog
• Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you
• Nominate 10 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo on your post and/or on your blog
• Bask in the winning of your award with bubbly!

My Sunshine Award Questions & Answers

Amanda Hill of My Sweet Beautiful Life, with her nomination, asked me the following 11 questions and here are my responses:

1. What made you start to blog?

   I had decided to start The Bucket List Project blog For 3 Reasons, First I needed everyone’s help in pursuing my own bucket list. I figured posting my story online would keep me accountable. Second, I wanted to help others with their own Bucket List Items. Thirdly, I wanted to Inspire People to Dream & then to GO OUT & COMPLETE THEIR BUCKET LIST!

2. How long have you been blogging?

   I started dabbling with a version of The Bucket List Project blog in March of 2013. However, I became 100% invested in the version of The Bucket List Project you see currently around April of 2016. So as a full time blogger it has been 2.5 years as of October 2018.

3. What are the goals that you set for yourself each day?

   I am a check list kind of person because without a check list I get very distracted and nothing gets finished. Therefore, my goal for the day is to scratch everything off that list for the day. My daily list usually includes going to the gym, eating healthy, completing my daily marketing, and usually a couple of other errands.

4. What are your passions?

   If you ask anyone, I am the Bucket List Guy and I Love it! I will talk to anyone about my actual hand written Bucket List notebook, all the things I have completed thus far, and all the things remaining in the notebook. Obviously I can get passionate about my Adventure Travel Bucket List items and Adventure Activities & Experiences Bucket List items. But recently I have been getting more passionate about items on my Helping Others Bucket List.

5. How many states have you visited?

   As of August 2018, I have been to 28 of 50 states and Washington, DC.

6. If you could pick one place to travel, where would that be?

   This is a hard question for me. I would love to go to Myanmar or Morroco. Also, I love Spain and need to return so that I can discover the Southwest areas. But if you told me that I could only travel to one more place, then I would choose Cuba. I would want spend several weeks exploring my family heritage and see my mother’s childhood home in Havana.

7. What motivates you in the morning?

   Well, I am going to be honest and say that I am not the biggest morning person. I don’t set an alarm and just wait for the sun to kiss my face before I jump out of bed. With that said though, once I am awake I am awake and ready to go. I think this is because I don’t want to waist any of my life or time.

8. What is one strength you have in blogging?

   I think one of my strengths in blogging is I love story telling and painting the picture. To me describing a Bucket List item that I completed comes easy. This is because I imagine a reader actually taking one of my posts and using it to go out and chase down their own bucket list items.

9. Name one of your top bloggers?

   I personally love following Matthew Karsten of the Expert Vagabond. He keeps providing up to date inspirational stories, photography, and tips from around the world.

10. Name one person that inspires you?

    There are so many people that inspire me for different reasons. But if I had to choose one, I would have to say my friend Mike Poissenot inspires me quite often. I have always admired his joy for life, adventurous yet weird spirit, and his persistence to always find a way to succeed.

11. If you can leave one thing people would remember you by, what would that be?

    I would want people to remember me by the motto, “It is better to live 1 day as a Lion, than a 1,000 years as a sheep!”

The Bucket List Project nominates the following bloggers for the Sunshine Blogger Award:

1. Amy Hurst of Life Coming Alive – Amy doesn’t write about bucket list items in maybe the standard format. But a really important bucket list item for her family is serving others together with her kids. Read one of my favorite posts about how she participated in the Flag for Every Hero Family Service Project.
2. Yeshi of HelloYeshi – Yeshi has a really fun & inspiring blog! She shares her passions for travel & food through her blog, and hopes for others to see the world the way she does – with love, compassion, hope and a hunger for learning. Read one of my favorite posts about how she left South Africa to spend a year in the United States of America in I’m Going International!
3. Portia Yates of PorshBritt – After soul-searching, Portia remembered what she loved doing as a kid, being creative and it shows in her beautiful blog. Her stories bring guidance, inspiration and maybe even a couple of laughs. But don’t take my word for it. Check out her amazing Bucket List Adventure Explore Arizona in 4 Days! Her pictures alone will make you add Arizona to your Bucket List immediately!
4. Dara of LikeSaraWithAD – Dara is a full-time wife and mother of two and part-time blogger living in the Queen City, North Carolina. I love reading about all of her adventures with her family! One of my favorite posts she recently shared a great bucket list adventure: White Water Rafting at The U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
5. Ingrid Rizzolo of IngridRozzolo: My Write Blog– Ingrid is a wife of a loving husband and mother to two adult children. I love her story because not all bucket list items are about Travel! Not only is she is also an educator but she is an emerging writer of lyrical verse as penned in a book: Splendor from Ashes. Read a short exposition of her poetry with “The Returning Soldier“
6. Marjie Mar of Marjie’s Simple World – Margie is passionate about life and it is evident in how she combines dedication, love, and enthusiasm in her writing. One of my favorite posts on her blog is We Are Enough! In this post she reminds us that We are enough to do whatever we set our mind to, enough to break any barriers and enough to achieve our goals and make our dreams come true!
7. Srijanya Tummeda of She Be Girly!! – Srijanya may be “a simple girl from India” but she has many dreams & ideas about life. I love reading her many things like tips & tricks, lifestyle, fashion, relationships, & most of all inspirational ideas. One of my favorite posts of her’s is “QUOTES THAT INSPIRED MY LIFE!!” because she isn’t afraid to admit that she got in situations where she got stuck and had no solution. However, she searched for quotes to overcome them in a positive way.
8. Dinesh Ramakrishnan of BlogTom – So if you know me, you know I am not very tech savvy! That is why I love Dinesh’s blog because he created a useful tool for all the Internet users to improve their quality of Life through Technology. If becoming a Blogger is on your bucket list, but you are struggling, then you will want to read his post, “5 Proven Strategies to Overcome the Barriers to Blogging“.
9. Sarbjit Singh of HikingSingh – If you have a passion for travelling especially trekking then you will love the HikingSingh. His blog is amazing because he inspires others to get out of their comfort zone and see the beauty of nature. I loved his post about how he got out of his own comfort zone to take a solo trek up one the highest point in Narkanda region: Hatu Peak!
10. Preeti Gaur of Scenario of Life – Preeti considers herself a lifelong learner, a career woman and a dreamer. She fully believes that in order to reach the top, she has to start from the bottom. However, that doesn’t stop her from sharing great ideas to improve your health, experiences, or relationships. I personally love her post, “My Papa – My Inspiration!” She talks about how her Papa inspired her to chase her bucket list dream of becoming a writer and blogger!

Questions for my Nominees:

1. How did you get started with blogging?
2. What is your favorite post that you’ve written?
3. What is the #1 travel destination item on your Bucket List and why?
4. What is the #1 Non-travel item on your Bucket list and why?
5. What’s your favorite season and why?
6. What are you most looking forward to in 2018?
7. You’re allowed to choose a superpower! What would it be?
8. How did you choose the name of your blog?
9. If you could be in anyone else’s shoes for a day, whose would it be and why?
10. What is your favorite inspirational quote?
11. What cartoon character are you most like?

Don’t forget to Pin this to your Favorite Bucket List Board!