Winners!

I'll come back and get the links up with your names and some photos posted tomorrow. Well, actually at a reasonable time later today. It's just after 1 a.m. though and I want to get this done right now! Hopefully some of you will see it and can email me in the meantime.

These are the winners from the giveaway where I introduced my new shop, The Daisy Shop. I would love for you to go visit and look forward to the opportunity to do business with you in the future.

In no particular order:

1. Melissa won the reversible tote bag
2. Bobbi won ponytail holders (not pictured or even listed in the shop yet)
3. Jena won a zippered pouch
4. danyelle won a set of 4 fabric notecards
5. Betsy won a set of magnets
6. Lora won a zippered pouch
7. Kathy won a reusable covered notebook
8. "D" won a zippered pencil pouch

If you left a comment on the giveaway post and you see your name here, please contact me at kayrenc@gmail.com and I'll get back with you after VBS tomorrow. Otherwise I'll start looking for your email address or blog to leave a comment so I can get your address.

Giveaway Winner

The winner of the CSN $60 Gift Certificate is:

Domestic Diva!

Congratulations! I'll be contacting you so I can send you your special code (or you can email me).

Thanks, everyone, for entering. I have so much fun with these. I wish everyone could win.

I haven't had a blog anniversary giveaway yet, and of course that 2-year point has passed me right on by this month, so watch for it sometime this week.

$60 CSN Store Gift Certificate Giveaway

It's time for a $60 giveaway from CSN Stores.

A $60 gift certificate to use any way you want (pick something that has free shipping, or you have to pay for the shipping, but other than that, any way you want).

I told you my favorite item in the last post was not a sectional sofa, but did you figure out what my favorite item was from this CSN Store anyway?

It's the coffee table, not the sofa. Until we finish our basement, I have absolutely no place to put it, unless of course I cut the legs off and hang it on the wall. When Hubby reads this he'll probably be getting ideas.

I do love all these coffee tables, and any one of them would be perfect in our rec room where we don't have a coffee table (the sofa in the first one is cute too).

I appear to be drawn to a similar style, and there is also a storage theme going on!

I'd love to have a chair in the corner of my bedroom, and this would be perfect.

But then this would be totally awesome and unreasonable at the same time.

Of course $60 wouldn't be enough for any of these items, but I thought I'd introduce you to just one of their over 200 stores. There are tons of things you can find, individually or grouped together, for $60. Shop away!

Here's how to enter the giveaway (please leave a separate comment for each entry). You have a chance at four entries.

1. Leave me a nice comment and say, "Hi," or, "Howdy," or however you say it in your parts.
2. Visit the CSN Sofa store and see if they have your favorite college team featured on a coffee table, and then let me know who it is.
3. You get an extra entry if you are a follower on my sidebar or on your google reader. Just leave a separate comment saying so.
4. If you don't facebook or tweet, you get an extra entry. That's because I don't facebook or tweet, and people always get extra entries for those and I never do, so if you don't you get an extra entry, just because.

This giveaway will be open until Sunday night, June 20th (Father's Day), until 11:59 p.m. I'll use the random generator to select a winner. If you don't have a blog, please leave an email so I can contact you.

Another CSN Giveaway!

I get to have another CSN giveaway. This time it will be for a gift certificate to any of their over 200 stores.

I'll be back in another post to give you all the great details, so keep an eye out for it, or two...coming later today or tomorrow...depends on how quickly I can get it together since I'm a little busy!

In the meantime, check out the sectional sofas at this CSN Store I didn't even realize was out there. I'll tell you when I post the giveaway my favorite thing from there (hint: it's not a sectional sofa). See if you can figure it out. ;)

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Actually it would be a slow cooker, because Jenny, entry number 14, was the winner of the giveaway. But maybe she could make a chicken dinner in her slow cooker.

And if I was even a little bit technically savvy, I might know how to get the picture of that generator onto my blog post like other people do. But I don't. I tried.

Legend has it that years ago every Las Vegas casino had a 3 piece chicken dinner with potato and veggie for $1.79. A standard bet back then was $2.00, hence when you won a bet you had enough for a chicken dinner. Thus the phrase, "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner." Works for me. I just used it because it rhymed and I could segue with it.

Jenny, email me your address and I'll get this ordered and shipped directly to you. Congratulations, Jenny, and thanks to everyone who entered. You can covet her slow cooker with me if you want.

Sticky Post for Giveaway

My giveaway is open for comments until Wednesday, May 5th at midnight. Go here to enter.

My most recent posts are right below this. You don't have to click anything, just scroll. But you already knew that, didn't you? ;)

Hey, Hey, It's a Giveaway!

I was contacted last month about doing a giveaway for my readers, but since my computer where all my emails are stored decided it doesn't want to open correctly anymore, I wasn't able to access the email, until yesterday. Thankfully I was still able to offer it to you.

I was so surprised by the size and selection at CSN Stores, the online site offering the giveaway. When I first went to their web page I noticed the lighting first, because we still have all the standard builder lighting in our house and I can't wait to start changing it out. I started looking at the drums, because that's what I want for my master bedroom and it's going to be one of the first ones I switch out. Isn't this one great?

But I loved this one and have never seen anything like it!

I think I might have to get it for my bedroom.

Now before I show you what I'm giving away, look at this fun stuff. They have storage and organization galore. Galore!

I looked up Arkansas Razorbacks, and these are just two of the cute things I found.


You can look up your own team, even if I don't like them.

These are the exact binoculars we use for birding.

They even have an entire MLB Fan Shop!

I had so much fun looking around picking something out to give away! I'm giving you a choice if you are the winner. You could pick this most lovely hanging organizer which I will covet to no end. I've looked at this before somewhere else, and when I saw it available at CSN Stores, I knew it had to be one of the choices. It even has options on which way it can be hung on the wall — horizontally or vertically. Oh, it's just too cool!

With a dark espresso finish and the ability to hang vertically or horizontally, this magazine rack is a convenient and attractive storage unit. Its 4 canvas baskets are exactly what you need to keep your bathroom in order (or any room I think). Features:

• Canvas baskets
• Can hang vertically or horizontally
• Dark espresso finish

For the last couple of years, I've wanted to get a 14" Wok to use when I make pasta, like Fettuccine Alfredo or something along those lines. I make so much that even with my 12" family-sized pan I end up spilling a little over the edges sometimes when I'm tossing it, and I have to be very careful the entire time. I think the larger diameter wok would work nicely. I've picked out an Analon Advanced Bronze 14" Stir Fry Pan with Helper Handle for you to choose from also. It's something I'd want. Plus it's oven safe to 400 degrees. I love that about some of today's pans.

Stir fry pans have flat bottoms for use on gas or electric stovetops. The rounded, sloped sides of a stir fry pan allow for fast rotating or stirring ingredients. The shape is similar to a salad bowl to allow for easy tossing of food. Features:

• Heavy gauge hard-anodized aluminum offers exceptional gourmet cooking performance
• Attractive bronze finish
• Restaurant tested by professional chefs
• DuPont's Autograph 2 surpasses all other standard nonstick formulas
• SureGrip Handles®, a combination of 18/10 stainless steel and silicone rubber, are durable and ergonomic

Specifications:

• Overall Dimensions: 4" H x 14" W x 23" D
• Material: Hard-anodized aluminum
• Oven safe to 400°F
• Cleaning Care: Hand wash
• Lifetime Limited Warranty

The third item you have to choose from is the Cuisinart 3.5 Quart Slow Cooker in a brushed stainless finish. I have a larger slow cooker and there are times when I wish I had a smaller one for some of the recipes I have. If I picked one, this would be it.

Slow cooking is an art form, and the Cuisinart 3.5 Qt. Slow Cooker perfects it using a precise, convenient 24-hour LCD countdown timer and four cooking modes, including a Warm function when the time elapses. It’s easy to make classic comfort foods or try out new gourmet creations, all in a convenient-sized ceramic cooking pot that fits comfortably on any countertop. Features:

• Automatically shifts to “Warm” when cook time ends
• Touchpad control panel with LCD timer display
• 24-Hour cooking timer
• Off/On, Warm, Simmer, Low, and High settings
• Removable dishwasher-safe 3.5-quart oval ceramic cooking pot
• Brushed stainless steel housing, with chrome-plated handles
• Tempered glass cover with stainless rim and chrome-plated knob
• Retractable cord storage
• Nonslip rubber feet

Specifications:

• Spiral-bound recipe book with 70 dishes
• Instruction book
• Limited 3-Year Warranty
• Overall Dimensions: 11.75" H x 16.5" W x 14.25" D

So just to recap, if you are the lucky winner, you get to choose one of the following three items:

• the handy-dandy wall organizer I will covet
• the 14" stir fry pan I will covet
• the 3.5 qt slow cooker I will covet

To enter, just leave a comment on this post and let me know what you'd pick if you won. If you are a follower, leave a second comment for another entry. If you don't have a blog or your email isn't linked to your profile, be sure to leave it in your comment so I have a way to contact you if you are the winner. I'll leave the giveaway open until next Wednesday, May 5, at midnight.

I did not receive any goods or other compensation for offering this giveaway. Shucks!

Top 5 for 2009, and a Giveaway

When I started working on this list, I realized I read entirely too much fiction this year and not enough non-fiction. It was not for lack of having non-fiction on my reading list, just my negligence in picking it to read when I would finish one book and go on to another. I have high hopes of making that situation right. Soon.

5 Little Questions That Reveal the Life God Designed for You by Dannah Gresh — This book was such an encouragement for me. I literally read it over the course of the year. Not necessarily because I wanted to, but because that's the way it worked out. I'd read a section of it, put it down, and then not pick it up for a few months. I just recently finished it, and the ending is the best part.

Dannah always includes journaling assignments at the end of her chapters. I don't do these, although I do think about it. I just am not a journaling girl. Never have been. Wish I was. But it doesn't affect the impact of the book in any way.

All Dannah's books are excellent. She is transparent and honest, and I personally think that's what makes you connect to her books. I can't wait to go back through this one now and make some notes. (It's because I'm a math brain and I never have done well at reading comprehension...it takes me at least twice!)

Right now this book is only $1.99 at CBD. If you click on the title link you will be taken there.

City of the Dead by T.L. Higley — I ended up getting this book as a gift from the author. I happened to mention her business in a post about my obsessive organization. (By the way, it was koolstuff4kids for those fusible beads, and my original post was here if your curiosity gets the best of you.) She sent me this book, the second in her series. I love historical fiction and Christian mysteries, and this sums it all up in one book.

I thought I had this book figured out, and then I didn't quite. I was surprised by some of the history in it. I loved it! I'm going to be receiving the first and third books in the series for Christmas. Yes, I already know some of what I'm getting.

Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews — This is the someteenth book in the Meg Langslow series. It is a secular series, mystery, and one of my favorite. I love her quirky family, the bird theme that always seems to find it's way into the mystery one way or another, and the fact that with rare exception, I can't figure out whodunit until really close to the end — sometimes even when it's being revealed in the story line. I look forward to each new installment.



The Smart Chick Mysteries by Mindy Starns Clark — I re-read these in 2009. I first read them in 2006 or 2007. I read them after I fell in love with Clark's Million Dollar Mysteries five-book series. Both series do need to be read in order.

These books are about an organizational freak, modern-day Heloise who is sweet and charming and trying to figure out her life. Her grandparents who practically raised her have died, her parents who she has nothing in common with and hardly knows have tried to marry her off, and her best friend realizes he is in love with her. And that's just the beginning. Fun series!

I have a tie for the fifth spot between a fiction and non-fiction book. The first is The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart. This is the third installment of the Mysterious Benedict Society. It follows four children, two boys and two girls, all four with different special gifts, as they solve riddles and puzzles on their journey. I still have some concerns about this series since there are times that they don't always listen to the adults, or they are supposed to figure out whether or not they are supposed to listen to the adults, but ultimately the goal is that they must work together or they will fail. If only we could all learn that simple task.

The other book is Mothers of the Bible Speak to Mothers of Today by Kathi Macias. I received this book as part of a blog tour. It took me a while to get to it, probably because it was non-fiction and that always makes me tend to not pick it up from the pile.

When I first started reading the book I wasn't sure I was going to like it much. It goes through the first mothers of the Bible, (Eve, Sarah, Rachel, Leah, etc.) and tells their stories and then discusses how they must have felt. I just wasn't feeling it. But then the book started covering some more obscure mothers in the Bible and I really started enjoying it much more. Some of them I didn't really remember reading about because they were just tucked in there, but realizing that they were mentioned for a reason, and even more that they were one of the few that were mentioned in the New Testament was eye-opening.

I'm going to give away my copy of Mothers of the Bible Speak to Mothers of Today. It's been gently read by me, and is hardbound with a dust jacket.

I'm also going to give away a copy of Dannah's book 5 Little Questions That Reveal the Life That God Designed for You. It's a brand new copy of the softcover book.

All you need to do to be eligible to win is to leave a comment on this post by Christmas Eve at a reasonable time of night. Please tell me in your comment what one of your favorite books was that you read this year. That's it. If you don't have a blog, please leave me a way to get in touch with you if you win.

Merry Christmas!

Updated: The giveaway is now closed, but please feel free to leave a comment on your favorite book. I love to get new ideas for things to read!

Congratulations to Rona, the winner of Mothers of the Bible Speak to Mothers of Today, and to Bobbi, the winner of 5 Little Questions That Reveal the Life That God Designed for You. I'll be getting in touch with you soon for your mailing addresses.

Winners!

photo courtesy of Flickr (Ashley Virginia)

I'm sorry I'm just now announcing the winners for the Target gift cards. We've been busy at our house.

Just look. None of these shoes are ours, and this isn't even all of them.

The first winner from the 'got the picture right' group was Mama Bear. I was secretly glad because she not only got it, she got it right down to the details — "I'm going to say this is part of the rainbow cake you made. Maybe the part that you cut off to level the layers."

We are talking dead on here. I just had to take the picture before I ate so much that there wasn't enough for a picture.

The second winner pulled from all entries, right or not, was Betsy.

Congratulations, girls! Email me with your mailing addresses and I'll get these off to you.

Thanks to everyone who played along.

Target Gift Card Giveaway

Two $10 Target gift cards are up for grabs. Tardy me. I said I was going to do this weeks ago.

Here is the picture:

But before you guess, let me tell you how this will work, because I don't want people to get all upset with me. I don't like people mad at me. I like to be liked.

For me, part of the fun is seeing what you guess. I don't care if you are right or wrong. It's almost more fun if you are wrong, because those can be funny!

I also don't like to decide whether someone is right in their guess or not. Take these two pictures as an example, the first of which was originally going to be the picture I was going to have you guess, but I changed my mind.

Now someone might guess leaf, which would not be wrong. Then someone might guess a leaf on a tree, which is not correct, because it is a leaf on a bush, so do I exclude that? Then someone might actually guess leaf on a bush in your yard, which is exactly correct. But is the first person who said leaf the first correct guess? See, I could argue for either side.

So all that crazy stuff said, I don't want to have to decide who is right. That is what it boils down to. I don't want anyone mad at me for not picking their answer.

So this is what I will do. If someone, or more than one person, gets the right answer (please, please, please don't make it hard for me to determine), then I will draw one of the gift card winners from that group of people. Then I will put all the names (including the correct guesses not chosen) in to draw for the second gift card.

Happy? Please say yes or don't say no.

Once again, it's this picture, not the two in the middle.

I'll keep this open until 10 p.m. EST on Tuesday, November 3rd. Can't wait to see what you guess!

The $5 Starbuck's Gift Card Winners Are...

It's time to announce a couple of winners. Yes, I said a couple. But first, a little business.

It all started with the question I posed asking what fellow bloggers thought this picture was:

I got tickled when Mama Bear said, "It's hair." Very definitive.

Leann also thought it might be hair, hoping that it wasn't from a drain, while Seth's Mommy thought it was "crazy doll hair." Around my house, could be "crazy my hair."

There were also several guesses relating to fencing, garland or tinsel, and yarn. Mari was the first one to figure out that it was that fuzzy yarn.

And of course Hubby couldn't figure out what it was even though he lives with me and watched it form in my hands.

Then I go and get an email right before I post this, and my mom tells me that she and my step-dad haven't been able to come up with an answer for my picture either. Excuse me, but who came in July and gave me my crochet refresher course, specifically on this:

In honor of the whole Starbuck's theme, and since I did just do a post showing all about my mug collection, I used my Pike Place mug, the one that got my entire collection started.

All the names got placed inside and my boys each drew a name.

The winners are:


Congratulations, girls! If you don't get an email from me, just click on my profile and email me so I can get your card right out to you.

That was so much fun I think I'll do it again, maybe even next week. I mean, my girls are wanting to draw names, so to be fair...well, you get the picture...pun intended. Next time I'll do something like a Target gift card so maybe more people can play along.

This will probably be the picture, if you want to get a head start thinking about what it is.

Thanks for playing along!

I'll Give YOU Five ~ a GiVeAwAy!

A couple of weeks ago I did a post called Give Me Five where I posted on five words I was given by Ronnica of the Ignorant Historian.

This post has nothing to do with words.

This post has to do with a picture.

Oh, and a $5 Starbuck's gift card. Because it's one of my favorite places in the whole world, although I really don't go there very much.

All you have to do is give me a guess in the comments what you think this is a picture of:

I'm not going to moderate comments where you can't see what other people guess, so try to decide what it is before you look at the other comments. You do not have to have a correct guess to win.

I'll take comments through sometime on Friday. It depends when a big surprise I'll tell you about later gets done happening at our house, not that I'm just trying to be difficult. The winner will get a $5 gift card from Starbuck's to use as they choose (I might even give out two if lots of people guess, so get to it!). I'd get a venti White Chocolate Mocha, extra hot, if it were me.

You don't have to have a blog to enter and win, but you do need to leave me a way to contact you.

Hubby, you cannot enter, even though I know it is one of your favorite places too.

Fourth Times a Charm...

I've been wanting to use the random number generator, and even though there were only five comments, I decided I'd use it. Would have been more fun with say 100, or even 15, but I did it anyway.

And the winner of 'How Can I Run a Tight Ship When I'm Surrounded by Loose Cannons?' is...

Commenter #3, the author, Kathi Macias. So I'm thinking she already has enough copies of her book. So after I found a camera and got a picture without the flash, I tried it again.

Seems like it was determined to give Kathi her book! So I tried again after another photo.

I was starting to think it either wasn't so random or this was why it works much better if you have 100, or 15. I did it again.

Yay! Commenter #1, Stephanie at My Answered Prayer. Click on my profile and email me with your address and I'll get it right out to you.

And The Winner Is...

Cute dish, huh?


Just three names to pick from. Well, four, because one was a pair of sisters. Buddy was the one still awake to help me out at 10 p.m. EST!


And the sisters were the winners!


They win this copy of Guided By Him To a Thinner, Not So Stressed-Out You!

and I'm sending their name(s) on to Kathy Carlton Willis Communications for a chance to win this awesome gift basket of books. I hope you win it, too!


If you'd like to read more about the book Direction by Cheri Cowell, you can read the blog tour post here.

p.s. Just in case you wonder on the post time, I put the time back a little so my Menu-Plan Monday would show up on the top. I actually waited until after 10:00 to do the drawing in case there were any last minute commenters.