This is my happy face.

When the photo was taken (by brilliant Edinburgh photographer Margaret Clift McNulty), I had a happy face because it was the day of DorkySon’s Christening and I was having a wonderful time in the sunshine with family and friends.

Today I have a happy face because it has been a week of very good bloggity news.

On Tuesday I found out that all you lovely readers – I warn you now, I may use the word ‘lovely’ a lot in this post – have voted me into the finals of the BritMums Brilliance in Blogging Awards. Thank you so very much!

I’m chuffed to bits to be one of the remaining six bloggers in the Fresh Voice category. The winners will now be chosen by judges, so other than adding a shiny new ‘Finalist’ badge to the side of my blog and turning up for the awards ceremony in June, there’s not much I can do except wait. It’s a real honour to be up there alongside some really excellent talent, so many, many thank you hugs and high fives to everyone who has supported me.

Yesterday then brought a second piece of exciting news. I’m also a finalist in the Best New Blog category of the MAD Blog awards! Apparently there were more than 50,000 nominations for the MADs, with more than 3000 different blogs nominated, so to be in the finals is just mind-blowing.

The write-up of DorkyMum on the MADs website made me a little teary-eyed when I read it yesterday morning. It says: “We love Ruth’s evident passion for justice and how she weaves her activism and poilitics seamlessly through parenting posts, her 52 week photography project and all the bits and bobs of family life. This is a well written an absorbing blog.”

That’s so very lovely, and it reassures me that while I might have turned into a Blogging Awards Bore, being a parent has not turned me into a total nappy bore!

When I started blogging just over a year ago I had no idea what I was getting into, and I wasn’t even aware that there were awards for bloggers – so to be in the very lucky position of being a finalist in two of them is a bit mad (no pun intended).

The MADs are having a final round of voting to determine the winner in each category, so I’m asking (for the last time, honestly!) if those of you who have read and enjoyed DorkyMum over the last year could take a couple of minutes to go and vote for me.

You can do that on the MADs website here.

I am not expecting to win either of the awards, because there is some pretty intimidating and awesome competition, but I genuinely can’t thank you enough for helping me get this far, and for giving me a very happy face indeed.

Big love,

xx