I am very humbled to have received from Me, You & Zu the 2013 Blog of the Year Award. WOW! I don’t know what I did to deserve this awesome award, but thank you so much Ruby for the nomination! I truly appreciate it! Make sure you head on over to visit Me, You & Zu and tell them Nikita & Bella sent you!
I started Nikitaland back in 2010 when we rescued Nikita and gave her a “forever home”. I wanted to document her life, and ours too, from the beginning and all the silly things that she did as a puppy. For those of you who don’t know, Nikita came from a litter of seven puppies and after they were born, their Mommy was poisoned with anti-freeze and died. The puppies were in dire need of help and the APL rescued them, all of them and took them in and gave them the immediate care they needed. Without the APL’s assistance, these pups would have not had a chance.
Nikitaland has turned into so much more, as we now have two rescued dogs, and life without a dog does not exist in our house. Rather, life has been filled with so much love from these two dogs it is amazing! I could not imagine life now without a dog. They are my best friend and companions throughout the day, they make me smile, they keep me safe, they amuse me every day, but the love that I get back from them is unmeasureable, not to mention, priceless.
Getting back to the Blog of the Year Award, I did some checking through my stats to see what posts actually made me popular this year, and I have listed a few of them below:
A Pizza Pan is Just Not for Pizza Anymore (6,507 views)
Pizza Pan Patriotic Platter
How to Make Paper Mache Pumpkins & More
Fourth of July Crafts
DIY Halloween Prop: Cemetery Columns & Sign
How to Make a Night Light Cover from Melting Beads
What’s for Dessert? Apple Cinnamon Chimichangas
Anatomy of a Sock Bunny
How to Make a Sun Catcher
I am so blessed by all the views at Nikitaland, love all the comments I receive, but the best part of blogging to me are the people who I have become close with! They make blogging so much fun! I always can’t wait to wake up and check my in-box to see what they are up to!
My stats have grown since I started blogging in 2010, and here is a quick snippet of my views since then:
- 2010 – 1,958 views
- 2011 – 8,553 views
- 2012 – 19,594 views
- 2013 – 55,893 views to date
And, as of today, I just clicked over 86,000 views for Nikitaland! That is truly amazing to me to see these numbers! Thank you to everyone who has helped grow my stats!
And now for my nominations for Blog of the Year Award! I would like to nominate the following blogs for their outstanding content, creative writing style, humor, craftiness, animal welfare awareness, and photography. The nominations go to:
- Temporary Home, Permanent Love
- Me, You and Zu
- The Misadventures of Misaki
- Our Retired Life
- The Lonely Dogs
- Pride in Photos
- Boomdeeadda
- Wiley’s Wisdom
- 2 Brown Dawgs
- Free Range Cow
- Cupcake Speaks
You all deserve this Blog of the Year Award, so display your award proudly!
The instructions for this award are simple:
1 – Select the blog(s) you think deserve the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award.
2 – Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen- there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required- and ‘present’ the blog(s) with their award.
3 – Let the blog(s) that you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them- (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges!)
4 – Come over and say hello to the originator of the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award via this link: http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2-/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/
5 – You can now also join the Blog Of The Year Award Facebook Page. Click the link here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear
Share your blog posts with an even wider audience.
6 – And as a winner of the award, please add a link back to the blog that presented you with this award and then proudly display the award on your blog and start collecting stars!
Congratulations to everyone and thank you all for making me smile!
Nikitaland 
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Many congratulations on your award Valerie, you really deserve it! And thank you so much for passing it on to us. We are truly honoured, and it is such a lovely compliment coming from you!
Aw thank you! Your blog is awesome and what you do for each and every animal is priceless! Every photograph you post…. I melt! Happy New Year to you!
Happy New Year to you too dear friend!
By the way, shoot me an email with your address! I want to keep in touch with you! 🙂
OOo congrats! That is so exciting. Look at that growth!
Thank you, thank you! We surely had a nice growth since we started blogging!
Thank you Valerie…Blog of the year…wowser!!!! Can I tell you how ADORABLE your new header is for with Nikita and Bella…all I kept saying was, “Awwwwww”. You show so much love to everyone including me and for that I am very thankful. Merry Christmas to one of the cutest furry families around♥
Hi Laurie! I got your card today, thanks so much! That was so sweet of you! You deserve the Blog of the Year Award because your photography is OUTSTANDING! I am glad that you liked my new header, as I am in love with it too! I captured the essence of both Nikita and Bella so well, and it is a sight that I see every day. They are always together and I always capture them sitting next to each other checking out the neighborhood. So sweet! Merry Christmas to you & your entire family & Happy New Year! Hugs & smoochies!
Congrats on the fab award and thanks so much for sharing it with me. Your stats are amazing! I’m I’m so pleased so many people read your bloggy, I’m obviously in good company:-)
Hi Misaki! Aw, thanks! I am glad to present your blog with this award because you have a fabulous blog & definitely deserve the award too! My stats were amazing and I wanted to share them with everyone because they blew my mind when looked up how I did so far this year! I can’t believe how Nikitaland has grown so much since I started blogging back in 2010! It is amazing, but finding amazing friends like you make it all worth it! Don’t forget to share your award with others too!
Thank you Valerie, Bella & Nikita! I love how much your blog has grown over the years! I also agree life without a dog (and cat, in our case) in our house does not exist. 🙂
Life without a dog would well, stink! I am sitting here right now laughing at Nikita sparring with the laundry basket right now! And I never knew that a laundry basket was “fun”, it just meant work for me! LOL Nikita spars with it every time! It’s funny to watch! You deserved “another star” for your awesome blog & photographs, not to mention, having a dog that looks like Nikita! 🙂
Congrats Val, that is Awesome!!!
Aw, thanks! I was surprised when I was awarded this awesome blog award! 🙂
I wasn’t surprised you won, your writing and photos are outstanding!
:::Blushing::: over here!
Thank you!
Thanks so much for the award and congratulations to you. You certainly deserve it!
You are so welcome and definitely deserve the BLOG OF THE YEAR AWARD! Your blog is truly awesome! Display your award proudly and make sure to pass it on to others too!
Congratulations! Sounds like the award is much deserved. Here’s to another year of wonderful blogging for you!
We definitely had a great year over here at Nikitaland and we look forward to another year of blogging fun!
Congrats on absolutely everything going on in this beautiful place called Nikitaland, dear friend. Thank you also for your thoughtful Christmas card. It made my (incredibly hormonal) mom cry, but I’m okay with it since they appeared to be happy tears. Thank you for all you do and for being who you are!
Lots of love,
Wiles and family
Hi Wiley & Family! We are so glad that you liked your Christmas Card and we’re sorry it made your Mommy cry, but at least they were tears of joy! Let me know if I remembered to email you the PDF of your blog card too, because I can’t remember if I did or not! Your blog definitely deserves a Blog of the Year Award too as you always have the best posts! We really love you guys so much and we look forward to another fun year of blogging! Hugs from all of us at Nikitaland! 🙂
Tears of joy are all right in my book. 😉 I don’t think the blog card was attached, but I loved those so if you’re willing to share, I will gladly use them!
Hugs right back at you!
Wiles
I just emailed you the PDF file of the blog card! Check to see if you got it! If not, check your spam folder too in case! Glad you liked it! 🙂
I did get it! Thank you!
Yeah! Glad to hear that you got the PDF file! Hand em’ out to everyone! That is what I do. I am always passing out blog cards everywhere I go!
That’s smart! Good marketing….plus who can resist checking out Nikitaland? It sounds like such a happy place. 😉
Lots of love and Merry Christmas!
Wiles
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU TOO!
LOVE FROM ALL OF US! 🙂
Thank you for mentioning my website Valerie. This is an awesome post, congrats on the award and the 86k views! You certainly deserve this!!
Aw schucks! We love you guys too and you too deserve this award! You work hard on your posts and photographs and we are so glad that we became friends too! Display your blog award proudly!
Congratulations and many thanks for adopting Nikita, I can’t imagine a world without her.
We have two of the best rescue dogs around! Life is so much better with them in our lives as they bring us so much joy and happiness! We’re sitting here listening to Christmas music together snuggling!