Thankful Thursday (04-08-10 edition)

I have been soooooo negligent in thanking people for my winnings. Here are a few of them. I need to get more photos for the others, so they will follow later.

First I want to thank Mama Makes Money and Bake Me a Wish for the cake. Yum! I can't even begin to tell you how good this thing was! I froze most of it, and would just eat a small piece at a time. It lasted two or three weeks. It was good heated just briefly in the microwave, and then topped with whipped cream. Oh, Mama!


The eau flirt perfume was won from The Art of Random Willyness. This perfume is supposed to be "clinically proven to make men flirt with women".
I won this lovely glass heart from Samma Parcels Glass Heart Creations as part of the One World One Heart event. Isn't it lovely? Note the angel wing on the right. This thing really has some weight to it.

This tea cup cozy was also part of One World One Heart. I won this from Yarns Yarns. How did she know how much tea I drink? Really cute!

And this gorgeous Cake Node Bowl was won from My Life in Style and All Modern. No, I did not take this picture. I "borrowed" it off of the web.
Am I a lucky lady, or what? Thanks again to My Life in Style, Yarns Yarns, Samma, The Art of Random Willyness and Mama Makes Money for their giveaways. I appreciate it so much!

Thankful Thursday (08-27-09 edition)

Time to try to catch up on some thank yous!

I lost or misplaced some photos, so I don't have a picture of this shirt when I got it. However I got this picture off of the manufacturer's website. I got this cool tee from Happy First thanks to a giveaway on Monsters in my House. I love the "idea" behind this shirt! And what a classy company! I wish I hadn't lost my pics, so I could show you how beautifully wrapped the shirt was, with a Happy First postcard and other things. Really great!



These lovely little earrings were made by Maya Tobias and came to me by way of a giveaway on Recuperation Nathalia Brault. What lovely filigree!


This Brown Sugar Strawberry Gel Scrub by VB Cosmetics, won through a giveaway on Three Boys and a Dog, was all very professional and wonderfully packaged with a letter from the company. Very nice! The scrub smells super strawberry-- it smells yummy enough to eat! The strawberry seeds make for a nice scrub, and the jar is a hefty size.


And this Jasmine scented "Island Wahine" handmade soap I won from East Coast Tropics. I just love the smell of jasmine! This looks like some really great soap, but I haven't used it yet. I'm trying to decide whether I want it in my master bath or guest bath.


Thanks so much to Happy First, Monsters in My House, Recuperation Nathalia Brault, Maya Tobias, Three Boys and a Dog, VB Cosmetics, and East Coast Tropics. Everything is absolutely wonderful!

Thankful Thursday (08-13-09 edition)

I am dreadfully behind on thank you acknowledgments. And unfortunately I don't have my pictures available to me right now. So today I will just do a few "thank yous" for items that don't really need a picture:

First let me thank April of April Showers for the button for my book blog Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World. Cute, huh? April graciously offered free buttons and signatures to anyone who asked back in June.


Also I would like to thank the Queen Mommy for the Windex Outdoor All-in-One kit, which I haven't used yet, but should come in real handy! This ought to keep me from having to climb into the bushes in order to clean my outside windows. Whew!

Also thanks to Sera of Laughing Through the Chaos and Phil of Break Pal for the Break Pal membership! I'll do another post about this soon, so you can learn more about this service. Additionally I would like to thank both Sera and Phil for their quick response when I emailed Sera with a concern. Both have been fantastic!

So that's just a few of the long overdue thank-yous that I have waiting. Thanks so much to Sera, Phil, April and Queen Mommy!

Thankful Thursday (07-09-09 edition)

Thank you to The Green Mom Review for the special edition of the Mother Earth News Guide to Living on Less and Loving It!













Pigatopia Studios uses their artwork to help animals, and she has a whole slew of rescue animals herself, including-- you guessed it-- pigs. Take a look at her Etsy store. However this print of Charlie the Pig that I won is actually by KathyMortonStanion.


She Saved came up with a great idea. She's good at using coupons and special deals to save money and get free items. So throughout the week, she fills a box with "freebies" and special deals that she's gotten, and then picks a winner for the box. I won this box of goodies!


The box included Hefty Ziploc Freezer Bags, a Johnson's Buddies easy-grip sudzing bar, a box of Bic pens, the book Dream Big: Finding the Courage to Follow Your Dreams and Laugh at Your Nightmares...


...a Scotch paper cutter, Walgreens transparent tape, Nivea tanning moisturizer sample, Nivea moisturizing body wash sample, Aveeno shampoo and conditioner samples, and a trial size of Nivea redefining gel-cream. What a cool haul!


I've still got more winnings to list, but they'll have to wait until another Thursday, since I accidentally deleted all of my photos from my camera, thinking I had already transferred them off the memory card. Ugh!

Thank you to everyone for the gifts!

Thankful Thursday (07-02-09 edition)

I decided that I will try to do my "thank you" post once a week. So here comes "Thankful Thursday". I'm slow getting this one up, because it was such a huge giveaway that I won, and I wanted to try to address each item.

This giveaway was won from Audrey's Country Crafts. Unfortunately the original blog that I won the giveaway through is down now, so I can't look up the details on who donated what item. So I'm going to do my best here in acknowledging each vendor/artist/crafter involved in this giveaway, based on business cards and labels on the gifts. Audrey contributed this denim tote.


When I opened the package, I found everything wrapped nicely in tissue paper.







When everything was unwrapped, this is what I wound up with. What a haul!







I believe that this is a Coffee Cozy, and it came by way of Primitive Junkie. It seems that she is on vacation until 7/6/09, so her store is currently empty.





This cute little bow ring is by foxymonster. It came wrapped in a cute little box with a bow. The picture is a little bright, and it's hard to tell it is a ring.





Here is a side shot.


This one came in a cute little nylon bag from Prairie Blossoms.







Once I opened the bag, I found an adorable earring and bracelet set.



From SallieBear came this cute little knit purse.









I got the "Spring Bouquet Goat's Milk Soap" from Happy Goats Soap. It looks like a little duck or chick hatching from an egg. Cute!







This cute little dream pillow was made by geschichtenvonkat. (Wow! That's a mouthful!)








These hair sticks were all on their own, so unfortunately I am unsure who made them.








This wooden necklace was made by Joann Temple of Jodaycraf.






These lovely little nature cards are from KaHolly. She also sent along these little...I'm not sure what you call them. They are little "emblems" that can be stuck on cards or gifts, and they say things like "Happy Birthday", "Get Well" and "Thank You", and have sticky tape on the back for sticking onto things. Cute!



This lovely little hummingbird photo was unidentified. Maybe it came from KaHolly, or it may have come from someone else.










From The Muddy Moose came these lotion bars and lip balms. We've got Sweet Innocence and Clean Cotton lotion, and Juicy Pineapple and Devil's Food Cake lip butter.






Bovine Bubbles & Hogwash contributed Fig & Melon parfum creme, Cinnamon Stix "smelly wax things", and Kiwi Lime Daiquiri Jam. Yum! All of it smells good enough to eat, but I think that I'll just eat the jam!





This Bayberry Mint candle was unfortunately unlabeled. I don't know who made it. It smells great though, and is very strong smelling. This will easily freshen a room. This might be a good one for the litter box room! (Five cats. Remember?)








Heathen's Hearth sent this Blueberry Cobbler Skin Softening Salt Soak. Perfect!










Unfortunately this pottery was broken when I received it.








But this little "zen" sculpture made it through okay. Both items were made by Ray McDonald of Willow Tree Pottery. I couldn't find a link for them.






So thank you to all involved. Everything was wonderful! I really do have a lot to be thankful for!

Whoa Nelly, this is a big thank you a'comin'...

I am due for a thank you for some recent prizes won, but the HUGE giveaway that I got this week is gonna make this a doozy of a thank you. You know, come to think of it, I think I'm gonna have to break this up into two thank yous. That big giveaway that I won will have to be a thank you all by itself.


First off, I got some Wall Talk from a Stacie Vaughn giveaway. I don't have a pic yet, as I'm holding off on putting it up yet, until I figure out what I might do about painting. I chose from their Original Talk collection the saying "Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon". I plan on putting it over the french doors next to the kitchen. I will post about it in the future once I get it up.

I also got in the mail today two bird decals from Lewa's Designs. I posted awhile back about how you could get free decals from them, and mine arrived today. I have their button on my sidebar. They do some more lovely wall art, but while Wall Talk does phrases, Lewa's Designs does things like birds and caterpillars and trees. I love them all! As with the Wall Talk, I'll do more on this later after I put up the decals.


From Razor Family Farms I won a cleaning kit from Simply Neutral cleaning products. The products came with just a small tablespoon or so of cleaning solution in the bottle to keep the weight down. Just add water and viola! You have an all natural cleaning solution that smells very nicely of tea tree and citrus. One of the solutions is for glass, and does a good job of cleaning my dirty, cat-nose-smudged glass french doors. There is also a scrubbing solution that resembles baking soda. Awesome!




Then there was this adorable little peacock pendant, won from papermenagerie. Cute, huh? Check out her Etsy store here.














This lovely pendant by Unoriginal Sinner was won through a giveaway on From Athena's Desk.








And from Northwest Mom Finds (now Evergreen Moms), I got a pack of chocolate goodies that are "good for you", too.











I haven't tried these Tropical Source chocolate chips yet. I'm saving them for the brownies.











Speaking of brownies, here is the brownie mix that I haven't made yet.










There was a box of these organic Brownie Bites by Erin's Bakers. They aren't bad, but the first time I ate them I thought that there was a slightly odd flavor that I couldn't quite place. I looked at the ingredients and saw "Raisin Puree" listed and thought, "Aha! That's what it is!" So they taste like raisin-chocolate brownies. If you like that, then you'll like these. They come individually wrapped.



These little Brownie Bite-lettes were pretty good. They taste very "coconut-y", if you like coconut. I snacked on these for a good couple of weeks.





Well, that's it from the first batch of "thank yous". Whew! Next I will have to do the big giveaway package that arrived this week. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, thanks again to Simply Stacie and Wall Talk, Razor Family Farms and Simply Neutral, Papermenagerie, From Athena's Desk and Unoriginal Sinner, Northwest Mom Finds aka Evergreen Moms, and Lewa's Designs. I love all of my gifts!

REVIEW: Relish! Subscription

I recently won a one-year subscription to an online menu service called Relish! As they state on their site:

We offer the plan to get you out of your dinner rut for good and to prepare healthy and creative dinners, every night. You choose your weekly recipes, the grocery list is tabulated, shop once a week and have all of the ingredients needed for five meals.

Basically you log in, and you choose to select your weekly menu. You choose how many people you are cooking for (2,4,6,8) and you are offered fifteen possible dinners and one dessert.


You select up to five dinners and dessert that you would like to make that week. Then choose to "Create Your Custom Menu", and you will be provided a grocery list and the recipes for the menus that you selected.


If you like a particular meal that you try, you can add it to your favorites.


I've already added a meal to my favorites. I recently posted the meal of Tilapia with Lime Butter that I made and LOVED!

So far I have been very happy with my Relish! subscription, as well as their customer service. If you love cooking, but perhaps need a little help with organization or menu ideas, check out Relish!

My thanks to Everything Up Close for the giveaway.