Re-gifting... Mostly

Isn't this photo amazing? Remind you of anyone? I love it!

I was fortunate to win some prizes in the Bucks for Bella Raffle hosted by the Junk Sistas. One of the prizes arrived today. As I'm sure you can imagine, I was feeling crazy good with anticipation as I opened the box.



It's a box of baby themed shabby treasures from Mary at Vintage Patina. The contents are just wonderful! An extraordinarily tasteful gift! Mary packaged it so perfectly that I hated to mess anything up by unpacking it too much to take more pictures. But there are several layers of precious goodies in here.



My own children are teenagers and (hopefully) it will be a while before they start having babies of their own. So I've decided that this box of baby themed goodies sans one item will be re-gifted to Bella's grandma at the Winnie and Tulula's grand opening this Saturday.

And what is this one item I'm holding back for myself? The tag with the picture of the little girl. (It's nestled in the left side of the box in the last photo and the first photo is a close up of it.) I don't think Debbie will mind too much if I just keep this one little momento.

There is something just so captivating about this photo that I can't stop looking at it. Maybe it's the big eyes that remind me of my love, Mindy. Maybe it's the sweet innocent expression. Or the light. Whatever it is, as Mindy says...

"It speaks to me."

Giveaway Bonus Round

You probably already know what this picture means, but I'll explain it anyway. Yes, there were only supposed to be THREE drawings. You are correct. I am very happy for everyone who won the drawings. But as I got to the end, something was bugging me just a little bit. Even though I weighted the drawing according to the number of comments, the people at the top of my list who have given me the most comments and blog support hadn't won anything. As I contemplated the possibility of that happening, I told Mindy that I might have an additional drawing. At least I was kicking around the idea. She thought it was a fine idea.

When I was at A&M, I took a course in statistics and probabilities. If you've had such a course, you know it starts out kind of fun, but then becomes very difficult and not so much fun. Well, from what little I could remember from the fun part, I could hardly believe that no one from the top four in commenting had taken a prize. Perhaps that would change with a fourth drawing. Or perhaps not.

Of course, the problem with that is, the luck of the draw being what it is, you just never know. I debated this all in my own mind, even as I was publishing my last post. So I ended my post with, "So, folks, is the giveaway fun over? Hmmmm. Not necessarily" just to leave the door open. But I still hadn't decided at that point. What if I drew someone far down the list? Would I have a fifth drawing? A sixth? A seventh? It could get crazy. The more I thought about it, the more I was starting to lean against having a fourth drawing. I had just about decided to just let it go. Call it quits. Let it be finished.

Fast forward to this morning. At my house, Thursday mornings are hectic. I probably shouldn't even admit this to you, but I have a lady who comes to clean my house on Thursdays. Yes, it is wonderful, but she only cleans, she doesn't straighten, etc. So Thursdays are called "housekeeper day" around my house and the morning is very busy "getting ready for the housekeeper." Hey.... keep those tiny violins quiet!

So I'm rushing around this morning in my bath robe really not thinking much about blogging, the giveaway or anything else not related to getting the house straightened and myself ready for work. Just as I was about to get into the shower, this thought popped into my head, "David, just go pull out a shotgun shell. Don't think, just do it!"

So I went straight to my closet, unzipped the bag just a little and very unceremoniously slipped my hand inside. I grabbed a shell and held it in my closed fist. "Be a low number, be a low number, be a low number!"

I opened my hand. TWO! Ahhhh. I think I can stop now! THE END.

Congratulations, FringeGirl. By now, you know the drill. Pick your prize and email me a shipping address.

Cher, when you said you were unlucky, I REALLY thought one of my drawings was bound to prove you wrong. I stand both astonished and corrected!

Deb, I know you have more important things on your mind right now. Prayers for your daughter continue.

Amy, I love looking at your photos. And thanks for following my blog.

To everyone, I sincerely thank you. I appreciate all who have read and commented. And I hope this was fun for you, whether your number was drawn or not.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Giveaway Drawing Number Three

Sometimes the stars are just aligned. And inexplicable good fortune rains down on someone like manna from heaven. Take for instance an email that Mindy forwarded to me earlier today. This guy won 181 million dollars in the lottery last Wednesday, then finds the love of his life just two days later!



Can you believe it? Simply amazing! Talk about luck! And they say lightning doesn't strike the same place twice! HA!

Which brings me to the third and final drawing. By now, you know the routine. I rolled the shell bag around some more. I unzipped it just enough for Alissa to get her hand inside. Then she plucked a shotgun shell from the bag...



Let's check the list to find out who has the number 20...

1 Cher, 39
2 thedomesticfringe, 28
3 trash talk, 25
4 ALVN of WhisperWood Cottage, 19
7 Tracy, 5
8 Phyllis, 4
9 Hi! I'm Cindy, 4
10 Margo, 3
11 Tim, 2
12 deb did it, 2
13 cheryls fascinatingfinds, 2
14 The Hat Chick, 1
15 2L3Bs World, 1
16 Antiques and More Blog, 1
17 THE VERANDA, 1
18 MuseSwings, 1
19 jen, 1

---> 20 bella shabby, 1<---

21 delighted heart, 1
22 time-worn interiors, 1
23 Shannon @ Silver Trappings, 1
24 Moonlight Hollow Musings, 1
25 Janera, 1
26 philben5, 1
27 Stonefox (otherwise known as Heidi), 1
28 Garden Antqs Vintage, 1
29 Sie, 1
30 Debi, 1

And the winner... with only ONE shell in a bag of 150 shells is....

Sue at bella shabby!

Sue, you must be livin' right, girl! Seriously! Congratulations! You get your choice of any of the misfits except for Misfit #6, the chocolate colored Pike Street blanket that Beth has already claimed from the first drawing and Misfit #1, the Oregon Scientific Emergency Alert Monitor that Jan has already claimed from the second drawing. Please comment your prize selection and email your shipping address to tx_david@yahoo.com so I can get it on its way.

So, folks, is the giveaway fun over? Hmmmm. Not necessarily.

Giveaway Drawing Number Two

My daughter was gone to Six Flags with some of her friends all day and wasn't available to draw the next winner for the giveaway. Meanwhile, Mindy came over to go with me to a family birthday party.

"Would you like to draw out the next winning shotgun shell?" I asked her. You should have seen her face light up! She was more than happy to lend a hand!

Once again, I rolled the shell bag around. Once again I unzipped it just enough to get a hand inside. Mindy reached in...



... and pulled out the winner! Oh, what fun!



The shotgun shell she pulled out had the number 6 written on the brass.



Let's check the list to find out who has the number 6...

1 Cher, 39
2 thedomesticfringe, 28
3 trash talk, 25
4 ALVN of WhisperWood Cottage, 19

---> 6 summersundays-jw, 6<---

7 Tracy, 5
8 Phyllis, 4
9 Hi! I'm Cindy, 4
10 Margo, 3
11 Tim, 2
12 deb did it, 2
13 cheryls fascinatingfinds, 2
14 The Hat Chick, 1
15 2L3Bs World, 1
16 Antiques and More Blog, 1
17 THE VERANDA, 1
18 MuseSwings, 1
19 jen, 1
20 bella shabby, 1
21 delighted heart, 1
22 time-worn interiors, 1
23 Shannon @ Silver Trappings, 1
24 Moonlight Hollow Musings, 1
25 Janera, 1
26 philben5, 1
27 Stonefox (otherwise known as Heidi), 1
28 Garden Antqs Vintage, 1
29 Sie, 1
30 Debi, 1

And the winner is....

Jan at summersundays-jw!

Congrats, Jan! You get your choice of any of the misfits except for Misfit #6, the chocolate colored Pike Street blanket that Beth has already claimed from the first drawing. Please comment your prize selection and email your snail mail address to tx_david@yahoo.com so I can get it to you.

Wow, this is fun! And remember there is still another drawing on the way!

Giveaway Drawing Number One

Time to get this giveaway fired off! I just happened to have a couple hundred Federal 12 gauge shotgun shells. Doesn't everyone?

Using a sharpie, I wrote the number "1" on 39 of them for Cher, the number "2" on 28 of them for thedomesticfringe, the number "3" on 25 of them for trash talk and so on and so on. You get a lot of bang for your comments around here!



Some people have a lot of chances to win.



Some people have just one chance.



They looked kind of like toy soldiers to me.



I threw them all in a shell bag.



Then I stirred and stirred. And stirred some more. Then I zipped the bag up tight and rolled it around for a while. And tumbled it end over end. And shook it. And rolled it around some more.



Then I unzipped the bag just enough for my daughter, Alissa, to get her hand inside. She reached in blindly and dug around for a bit. Which one to pull out?



Then she pulled out this shotgun shell. It has the number 5 written on the brass.



Does everyone have their number memorized? No? Checking the list...

1 Cher, 39
2 thedomesticfringe, 28
3 trash talk, 25
4 ALVN of WhisperWood Cottage, 19

---> 5 Beth@playinwiththepaulsens!, 16 <---

6 summersundays-jw, 6
7 Tracy, 5
8 Phyllis, 4
9 Hi! I'm Cindy, 4
10 Margo, 3
11 Tim, 2
12 deb did it, 2
13 cheryls fascinatingfinds, 2
14 The Hat Chick, 1
15 2L3Bs World, 1
16 Antiques and More Blog, 1
17 THE VERANDA, 1
18 MuseSwings, 1
19 jen, 1
20 bella shabby, 1
21 delighted heart, 1
22 time-worn interiors, 1
23 Shannon @ Silver Trappings, 1
24 Moonlight Hollow Musings, 1
25 Janera, 1
26 philben5, 1
27 Stonefox (otherwise known as Heidi), 1
28 Garden Antqs Vintage, 1
29 Sie, 1
30 Debi, 1



Number five is Beth@playinwiththepaulsens!

Congrats, Beth! You get your choice of any of the seven misfits. Please comment your prize selection and email your snail mail address to tx_david@yahoo.com so I can get it to you.

There will be two more drawings. And with Beth's 16 shotgun shells "out of the bag," everyone else's chances just went up for drawing number two. So stay tuned for more fun!

From The Island of Misfit Toys

What do these poor unwanted misfit toys have in common?

Misfit #1: An Oregon Scientific All Hazards Emergency Alert Monitor that tunes into NOAA weather radio. It also has a compass, a thermometer, an alarm clock, a lighted face and a belt clip. It runs on three AA batteries (included). I bought this misfit toy about 20 years ago. It's seen some light use on camping trips, but is still in very nearly new condition and works fine.



Misfit #2: Three "looks-sorta-like-pewter" photo frames. Two of them have the original papers in them and one has a picture of my daughter and I from last summer. Yes, calm down, you get the picture too! These too have been lightly used. Then again, how do you heavily use a picture frame?



Misfit #3: A Dr. Scholl's infrared massager with five interchangeable attachments. I got this misfit toy at Mindy's family Christmas exchange 2007. It's never been used. It has a long handle angled like a back scratcher. The head swivels and the infrared thing heats up. It plugs into an electrical socket.



Misfit #4: They love me at Cabela's. I have a Cabela's Visa. Every now and then, they send me a fabulous prize for no apparent reason. This misfit toy is a folding lockback knife. Looks like a dandy, but I already have several knives.



Misfit #5: You need coasters and you need photo frames. So why not combine the two? This misfit toy was a recent Christmas gift. Now you would think that I, enjoying photography as I do, would want to keep these. And I will say they are a pretty darn nice present. But for whatever reason, I have a mental hangup about setting cold wet beverages on top of my pictures. Go figure.



Misfits #6 and 7: A couple of Pike Street comfort throw blankets. These are sort of a quilted kind of thing. The cover is microfleece or something of that nature. Soft, comfy and warm. They are 50" x 70" in size, perfect for snuggling on the sofa with that special someone. I bought a bunch of these from Amazon when they went on sale and gave them for Christmas presents in 2006. Now I can't remember who I've already given them to and I have these two left that need homes. Still new in the original bag, these misfits have been in the top of my closet too long.

Misfit #6 is chocolate...



... and Misfit #7 is beige...



OK, so what do these seven misfits have in common? They all hope to be selected by one of the lucky winners of my giveaway. I will draw three winners from these fine folks...

1 Cher, 39
2 thedomesticfringe, 28
3 trash talk, 25
4 ALVN of WhisperWood Cottage, 19
5 Beth@playinwiththepaulsens!, 16
6 summersundays-jw, 6
7 Tracy, 5
8 Phyllis, 4
9 Hi! I'm Cindy, 4
10 Margo, 3
11 Tim, 2
12 deb did it, 2
13 cheryls fascinatingfinds, 2
14 The Hat Chick, 1
15 2L3Bs World, 1
16 Antiques and More Blog, 1
17 THE VERANDA, 1
18 MuseSwings, 1
19 jen, 1
20 bella shabby, 1
21 delighted heart, 1
22 time-worn interiors, 1
23 Shannon @ Silver Trappings, 1
24 Moonlight Hollow Musings, 1
25 Janera, 1
26 philben5, 1
27 Stonefox (otherwise known as Heidi), 1
28 Garden Antqs Vintage, 1
29 Sie, 1
30 Debi, 1

You notice I've numbered them on the left. Easier to draw numbers than names. The number on the right is the number of times the number on the left will be entered. As stated before, once your number is drawn, you can't win again. Clear as mud? I thought so!

I will draw the first winner probably this weekend. They will pick one of the seven misfits above to go home with them. A day or two later I will draw the second winner and they will make one of the six remaining misfits very happy. A day or two after that I will draw the third winner and they will choose which of the five remaining misfits gets a new home. The last four sad and rejected misfits will be returned to the island. Sobbing uncontrollably no doubt! Poor, poor misfits!

My Giveaway Entry Is Officially CLOSED!

Do you remember that giveaway I told you about? Well, I've decided the time has come to say "when" on the entries. As of the time this post is published, there were 235 comments on my first 50 posts. No additional comments from this point forward will count toward the giveaway. I put all this into a spreadsheet and balanced it in both directions to make sure that no comment was left out and that my spreadsheet matched the number of comments Blogger showed for each post. Then I used data sort and... Oh, it doesn't matter! Suffice to say I was careful to do it right!

Following is a list of those wonderful people who are responsible for those 235 comments with the number of comments each of them made listed next to their name. Click on a name and visit their blog (or profile in those cases of people who don't have blogs).

Primitiques'n Poetry, 44
Cher, 39
thedomesticfringe, 28
trash talk, 25
ALVN of WhisperWood Cottage, 19
ME!, 19
Beth@playinwiththepaulsens!, 16
summersundays-jw, 6
Tracy, 5
Phyllis, 4
Hi! I'm Cindy, 4
Margo, 3
Tim, 2
deb did it, 2
cheryls fascinatingfinds, 2
The Hat Chick, 1
2L3Bs World, 1
Antiques and More Blog, 1
THE VERANDA, 1
MuseSwings, 1
jen, 1
bella shabby, 1
delighted heart, 1
time-worn interiors, 1
Shannon @ Silver Trappings, 1
Moonlight Hollow Musings, 1
Janera, 1
philben5, 1
Stonefox (otherwise known as Heidi), 1
Garden Antqs Vintage, 1
Sie, 1
Debi, 1

All I know to say is, "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!"

I listed everyone in order from highest number of comments to lowest. Those people who left the same number of comments are in no particular order. Mindy's 44 comments and my 19 comments will NOT count toward the giveaway. Every other comment will be entered, a total of 172 chances to win.

As an example, you can see that, other than Mindy, Cher has left the most comments with 39. That means she has 39 times better chance of being drawn as someone who only left one comment. You get the idea. There will be more than one prize. Once someone is drawn once, they will not be eligible for additional prizes. I will just draw again until someone is drawn who has not previously won.

Oh, one other thing I probably should just go ahead and mention. I will not ship outside the United States. I know that at least one person is in China, for instance. If they happen to win, maybe they have a friend or family member in the U.S. that they would like to designate as the recipient of their prize. Sorry about that, but I hope everyone understands the need for this limitation.

Soooo... The stage is set and that's all I'm saying for now! Stay tuned for more details!

Ooops! Almost forgot to share a picture.



How about this one of an Arctic Ground Squirrel that I took in Alaska?

:-)

Giveaway Goodies Received!

I received a goody box in the mail yesterday from Debbie at Talking Trash! You may recall that I won the grand prize for her 100th post giveaway. The prize included a JUNK NECKLACE by Laurie of 2Chippys and Debbie wanted me to have my picture taken in it before giving it to my love, Mindy.

I must confess I did make one small modification. I lengthened the necklace with a rubber band. Without it, it fit my neck very tight and, frankly, it looked ridiculous! Or perhaps I should say MORE ridiculous! On me, that is. The necklace is great and will look fabulous on Mindy! But on me... not so much! Oh well.

The box contained other goodies as well...

A book called "Bedrooms." Lots of pictures in here. Now, I thought I knew my way around the bedroom. But this book contains a lot of tricks I haven't seen before. I'm talking about decorating, people! I will probably share this with Mindy. Maybe.

An Elvis Presley DVD called "GI Blues." Definitely a prize fit for a king, so I think I'll keep that.

A bottle of scented shimmer body spray called "Sexy." I sprayed one little spritz of this on my left arm. Let me tell you it shimmered and it smelled... uhmmm... let's just say very feminine! It says it's "alluring and sensual." I would tend to agree with that description. I then tried to wash it off and I can report that it has quite a lot of staying power as well! I might be smelling pretty sweet for a while, but this is definitely going to Mindy!

A bar of bath soap called "Morning Glory." At least I think it's bath soap. It might be facial cleanser. Who knows about these things? It's girlie. Mindy's. Nuff said!

A box of floral tea called "Tea Forte" and a fancy little ceramic tea bag holder. Now this I will be keeping for myself. I do enjoy a good cup of tea!

A terry lined leopard skin shower cap. I don't even know what to say about this! Do people really wear shower caps? I have no knowledge of this. I will look to Mindy for guidance!

And, last but not least, a personalized note card from Debbie. In her own handwriting. This is the place where she wrote, "Be sure and post a photo of you wearing it or I'll take it back!" As requested, dear. Thank you so much! You ROCK!

Winner winner, chicken dinner! Valentine's weekend to remember!

Whew, what a weekend! I spent Friday night wrapping up the final details of my Valentine's Day surprises and didn't have as much time as I would have liked to keep up with all the details of Debbie's big 100th post party. Luckily, I had started a post earlier in the day that included my margarita recipe. I took a picture of Chuck the Buck and joined the party kind of late. Lo and behold, I woke up Saturday to find that I was the winner winner of an awesome junk necklace made by 2 Chippys!

I want to extend a big public THANK YOU to Debbie of Talking Trash for throwing such a fabulous party and for the generous give-away! I will take a picture before Mindy gets her hands on that necklace! And then I'll take some more pictures because I know she will look lovely in it! Thank you so much, Deb!

I spent most of Saturday working on Mindy's floor. Oh my gosh, did I ever bite off a big project! Suffice to say all has NOT gone according to plan! But I think I'm getting through it and I still have high hopes of the final result looking fabulous!

Then we came back to my house and cooked a couple of beer can chickens on the grill. That's where the chicken dinner comes in! We had baked potatos too. It all tasted great! Mindy and I also exchanged our Valentine's cards and presents. She gave me a very nice set of Sony headphones for exercising on the elliptical! And a VERY sweet and romantic card! She melts my heart!

My "card" to her was a custom Shutterfly photo book that I titled "What I Love About You." With 54 pages, 216 photographs and a whole lot of heart-felt writing about specific things that I love about her, I think I just may have hit the Valentine's Day grand slam!



I've been so excited about this! I'd been working on it for a month, so I think I earned every one of those sentimental tears in Mindy's eyes! Yeah, I did GOOD!

After dinner, I took a quick minute to comment a word of thanks on Debbie's blog. And then it was off to the Meyerson Symphony Center for the Valentine's Day concert of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra! And that was, of course, a lot of fun! I had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the woman of my dreams!

I spent some more time this morning working on Mindy's floor and putting the chain saw to some fallen trees that needed to be cut up in her back yard.

Quite a weekend! It was a lot of fun, but I can't wait to get back to the office so I can get some REST!

Blast from the Past - Stuck in the Desert

Stuck in the Desert, originally uploaded by Snakelover61.

OK, first of all, I have been thinking about the giveaway that I mentioned in my last post. I realize that some people may "follow" on other blog sites. Also, some people keep up with my blog through ways other than following. I don't want to make the drawing a complicated process. So I've decided to take out the follower element and just do the drawing based on comments only. Of course, being a follower probably means you read more and thus leave more comments, so in that sense, it still does give a better chance of winning. I'm still thinking of what I want to give away. There may be more than one winner and there may be a choice of prizes. Haven't decided; the wheels are still turning!

I'm also thinking about occasionally blogging a "Blast from the Past" photo like the one above. What do you think? Good idea or no? If this one is well received, perhaps more will follow.

This photo was taken many, many, MANY miles from the nearest civilization in the desert of Big Bend National Park. For those who may not be familiar, this is out in west Texas as Johnny Rodriguez sang, "Down by the Rio Grande." It was the early 80's, before the days of cell phones. We took a wrong turn to a primitive campsite and ended up with more primitive than we bargained for. When all traces of anything resembling a road vanished, I tried to turn around but the back wheels of the car dropped off into a depression.

As you can see, I was still in my redneck phase. My then girlfriend (later to be ex-wife) snapped this picture when I stopped to take a break. I had to jack up the car, one side at a time and put rocks under the rear tires until I could drive it forward. All this with an old bumper jack that had no base, so I had to place the jack on a flat rock and balance the car as I jacked it up. I also had to weight down the trunk with rocks to get traction.

When I first started, both the trunk and the center of the car were completely on the ground with no weight on the back tires at all. We had to pitch our tent and camp out here overnight. The entire community of Panther Junction was just a tiny flicker of light in the distance. No other signs of civilization at all. Got it out bright and early the next morning. Good times!

OK, what do you think? Would you like to see more of these kinds of old photo scans? Or should I stick to modern photography?

My New Mesquite Wood Diploma Frame

Mesquite Diploma Frame by Texas Wild Wood, originally uploaded by Snakelover61.

Handsome, isn't it? My friend, Trey, recently started a new business. It's called Texas Wild Wood and he makes things out of mesquite wood. It's not cheap, but it's expertly crafted. Mesquite wood has a lot of character. Every piece is a little different. I like the fact that he can make many diploma frames, yet mine has a unique character due to the wood used.

I like this frame so much that he is now working on another frame for me. It will also be in my office, but on the adjacent wall and will house the matted photo of the pair of foxes that I took at Mindy's house.

On a side note, I don't have very many readers or followers and I'd like to do something about that. I know that it is traditional to give away something for the 100th post. I'm not anywhere close to that yet! But I do encourage you to add me to your following and to post comments.

At some point, I'm just going to give something away. It will be something very nice. I won't announce the exact time frame in advance or even make a big deal about it. One reason is that's just not my style. Another is I don't want anyone to follow my blog or comment just to get a prize and then fall away. What I'll probably do is put a name in the hat for each comment that has EVER been made to my blog since I started. I'll probably exclude Primitiques 'n Poetry for obvious reasons! (No offense, honey!) ;-)

Then I'll have some way of giving followers extra chances. Like maybe if you're a follower, I'll make each of your comments count twice. Something like that; I haven't gotten it all worked out in my mind yet and I reserve the right to decide the particulars later. But, whatever I do, it will be fair. And then one day, I'll just draw a name out and give something away by total surprise. Well... I guess it won't be a TOTAL surprise now that I've told a rough idea of my plans. But you won't know when or what the prize will be!

So if you're reading this, consider being a follower and/or leaving some comments rather than just lurking. Who knows, it might pay off someday!