One World One Heart Blog Event and a Giveaway- Deadline EXTENDED

True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max:260 Result: 204 Powered by RANDOM.ORG
Winner is Electra
I will be emailing Electra and telling her the grand news.
If I do not hear back by Friday at midnight I will redo a winner.
Closed- winner to be announced as soon as I can.
DEADLINE EXTENDED TILL Monday Feb. 15th 8:30 PM, EST. I am still visiting blogs and I feel like as long as I am, you should be able to visit mine and enter.

There is a big blog happening you may not be aware of. The 4th Annual One World One Heart. Created in 2007 One World One Heart brings bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It's kind of a blog hop. There is a list of blogs entered, you go, visit, learn about each other, make connections, friends and in the process maybe win a treasure. Last I checked there were almost 900 wonderful and talented bloggers signed up. I have been to a few and I am blown away by the beauty and talent these bloggers possess.

So in honor of this wonderful community event I want to welcome all bloggers to my site....you have no blog you say ? Well sign up. It's fun and it's a fantastic way to meet new friends, share and learn all kinds of new stuff. Comments, are the new hugs you know.(if you need help figuring out how to sign up and get started blogging, email me through the addy in my profile) There is a wealth of knowledge and friendship in the blogosphere.

This years theme is "Ride the Magic Carpet" so to enter my giveaway I'd like you to do the following:

Leave me a couple lines in a comment. Make sure you leave a link to your blog. And your email addy in your comment or make sure I can find it on your blog profile. Then go to the Magic Carpet list and visit as many blogs as you can. Remember, it's a world wide event. (you may have to scroll to the right side of the page as its so big it would not fit on my monitor)

Okay here is the item you can win on my blog ;



Watermelon Evening - Earrings
A pair of wire wrapped pink faceted glass crystals with a chunk of watermelon abalone over top. On surgical steel ear wires.

New cutoff at 8:30 PM Feb. 15th.
Contest ends at 12:01 a.m. February 15th and the winner will be announced later that day.
Make sure I have your email in your comment or on your blog profile.

No Garden Can Still Equal Fresh Just Picked Veggies.

Some readers of my blog know that we have a garden and a greenhouse. Fresh veggies are not a challenge for us. I mean FRESH veggies. But to those of you who have no time or no yard there is a way you too can have fresh veggies for most of the year.

Community Supported Agriculture or "CSA"
It's a concept that originated in Europe and Japan and has been in the US for about two decades. It has really taken off though in the last 5-6 years.
Basically city slickers join in with a local farmer and buy a "share" in the farms bounty.

Usually a payment is made up front early in the year and in exchange you receive a delivery, usually at a central point like a church parking lot, weekly of bags of what the farm produces.

Some CSA's include fruits along with produce and some provide meat and eggs. I know one that has mushrooms, goats milk and cheese and apple cider along with the vegetables.

Now how cool is this?

It is also a way to introduce food you may have never tried before, like broccoli rabe, eggplant, fennel, endive and salsify (look it up).
Some farms produce right up to Thanksgiving and a few even longer depending on what they are into and the climate.

What a way to eat healthier, introduce new foods, go pick up a bounty you helped to produce, meet new friends, one CSA here in Ohio has a potluck dinner every month and they include recipes along with your delivery.
Everyone wins.
Some may even have a way to work off the join up fee.

To find a CSA in your area go to www.localharvest.org and enter your zip code.
Vegg Out.....

Brightest Full Moon Tonight

This evening we will experience what is known as a "Wolf Moon". The first full moon of the year.
A name given by Native Americans acknowledging the wolves that howl at the moon.

The moon will also be appearing bigger and brighter to us and here's why,
The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles from Earth. The moon's orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles closer than the other.

So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year. This is what will happen tonight.

Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year. You can read all about this at Spaceweather.com.

Also, if you look to the left of the moon tonight, that star like, reddish brown object is Mars.

Something cool to do with the kids.

Soups on for the Giveaway Winner.

From the Free Generator at Violet Cottage...

Random Number Generator
This page simply picks a random number, within a range you specify.
For example, to pick a number between 1 and 100, set the Lowest Number to be 1, and the Highest Number to be 100.
Then click on Pick a Number to pick the number. That's it. Have fun!

If you found this useful, consider visiting the main Violet Cottage website. Thanks for visiting!

The randomly picked number is: 4

Lowest Number 1
Highest Number 32

BOMBTASTIC BELLE ! COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE OUR WINNER !
Belle has already been contacted. Hope you enjoy your mugs.

Everyone else, thank you for entering and there will be another giveaway soon.

Little Ricky Pickles 1st Snow

Little Ricky has gotten a name addition. My daughter said he looks like a "Mister Pickles" so we started calling him Ricky Pickles.

He is now believed to have some retriever somewhere along his lineage as he brings you all his toys to throw. He will start with his little teddy bear, if he gets no response from you he will then go get an old necktie that has a bunch of knots tied into it. If you still do not respond he will start bringing the raw hide bones, I think these are to bribe you into playing.

All of a sudden, you'll look down and there will be toys and bones all around your feet and he's sitting there, with that infamous Jack Russell stare. As soon as you look at him a big bark comes out and he grabs a toy and lays it in your lap. If you do start throwing, be prepared to be in it for the long haul.
His favorite game is you throw, he retrieves, you go to throw but he does NOT let go and a great time is had engaging in tug-o-war until he lets you have it. Then it starts over. He's a great growler and sounds extremely ferocious. Kind of a cross between Wolfman Jack and the Tasmanian Devil.

It snowed quite a bit here last week so I got him out in the yard and took some pictures.





He keeps us all laughing.

Take Me Back Tuesday...My Daughter.

I am participating in "Take Me Back Tuesday" over at A Giveaway Addicted Mommy.

This photo of my beautiful daughter takes me back to 1991 when she was about 15. Sarah went to the Job Corp that year and really did a lot of growing up. I am so proud of her.


Today she works in Boston at a Mid-east restaurant, does wonderful photography work with bands, has a lovely vintage shop on Etsy, is an artist, and has a slew of crafts she enjoys.
She is also mommy to Logan, a mix breed and Stagger a deaf Boston Terrier. Sarah is fluent in American Sign Language.

This photo was taken by a neighbor of ours in Norfolk Va. by the Hague, I love the foggy morning look it has.

Thank you Sarah for all the love and joy you have brought into my life. I love you.

Progresso Soup Mug Set Giveaway !

Yum mm Fiber...No REALLY, yum mm. CLOSED (come back soon for another giveaway, or sign up to follow and find me on your blogger dashboard)

Fiber = bad rap for years. Jokes about eating cardboard come to mind.
But then we all started educating ourselves, and realized there were plenty of great ways to fit more fiber into our diets. Keep those pipes in good working order. Fiber is also essential to losing weight.

But WAIT ! Now there's even more fiber to be had... in soup.
That's right, in your soup bowl.



Progresso soup has added more fiber to four of their soups. Now you can get 28% of your daily fiber in one serving of : Creamy Tomato Basil , Chicken Tuscany, Hearty Vegetable & Noodle and Homestyle Minestrone.

I usually make soup from scratch, but I do keep cans in the cupboard for times when there is major cold weather activities going on outside and a nice hot bowl of soup is the only thing that will do.

Progresso sent me a can of their Homestyle Minestrone to try out, and even sent two huge cobalt blue soup mugs and spoons so I could open the can, eat soup, and not have to wash a soup bowl first to do it in.



Tasty soup, although Minestrone is not my favorite, I'm more of a Creamy Tomato Basil kinda gal.

But hey, they sent it, I ate it and I ended up with almost one third of my daily fiber in that one bowl of soup.

AND WAIT ....they are offering you dear peeps, a chance to have your own mugs and spoons so you can eat soup.
Snazzy cobalt mugs. Silvery spoons. Fiber in your soup. Sounds good.

ENTER

Just leave a comment saying how you add more fiber to your families meals. Or a good high fiber recipe would be nice too if you have one. Make sure to leave your email in your comment or make sure its on your blogger profile if you are a member of blogger.

EXTRA ENTERS-( do the one above first please.)

*Follow this here blog publicly- 2 extra entries- leave 2 extra comments for these. Like "follow #1"then "follow#2" if you already follow just do the same.

**Follow in google reader- 2 extra entries. Tell me you do.

**Blog about this giveaway-3 extra entries- yep, leave 3 separate "I blogged #1"...Blogged #2...Blogged #3

This will run until Sunday January 17th at midnight EST. Winner will be announced on Monday January 18th.

Progresso Soup and MyBlogSpark provided soup, mugs and spoons so we could try the soup out and provide my opinion here on this blog.
All opinions are mine alone. Nobody dares put words in my mouth.

I Won the Warmest Mittens and I Love Them.

I like to sew, but I have not been sewing in quite awhile. But I am getting ready to get back into it, so I have been wandering around the web looking at sewing blogs.

A while back I came across a blog , Sew Glamorous, and I thought "wow, this is a sweet blog about someone who hand makes a lot of different things and posts about them". I also fell in love with this bag....
Photo from Sew Glamorous
But alas, I found her blog after the giveaway for it.

BUT I WON THESE !!!

Photo from Sew Glamorous

Angie posted about how she hated making them. It was a pain and that they came out not feeling right to her and that she wanted to give them away to anyone who wanted these p.i.t.a mittens.
She also said they were extremely warm....mmmmm....warrrrmmmmm.
I am a sucker for warm when it comes to my circulation challenged hands.
So I entered....and I won. ( I was the only entrant on her blog, not sure if anyone else did on her facebook, poor mittens)
But na na na naaaa. I won and I love them. I have never had a warmer pair of anything on my hands.
Thank you Angie.
I Love hand-made recycled stuff.

A Winner is Picked ! YAY!

Kristyanna is the winner of the 15.00 gift certificate to my Etsy Shop.
Congratulations on winning, I will be emailing you shortly.

And Thank You to everyone who entered.
I will be posting another giveaway tomorrow - Saturday for something that is not jewelry.

Random Number Generator
This page simply picks a random number, within a range you specify.
For example, to pick a number between 1 and 100, set the Lowest Number to be 1, and the Highest Number to be 100.
Then click on Pick a Number to pick the number. That's it. Have fun!

If you found this useful, consider visiting the main Violet Cottage website. Thanks for visiting!

The randomly picked number is: 65

Lowest Number : 1
Highest Number: 87

Passionate Kisses

Photo from Duncan ENT.


Are you crafty? Would you like to be crafty?
Do you like to recycle and upcycle things you have around the house?
DO you have kids that spend way too much time in front of the TV, PC,video game player?
Would you like to have easy instructions for all kinds of crafts emailed to you at no charge?
Really neat crafts. The kind that you would be proud to show your best friend, the one that tells you the truth about your butt really looking too big in that skirt.
Well, here is the link for such a site.
Just sign up for their newsletter with your email and that's it.

Your kids will love the cute things they can make with you.
I love the ideas. And for all levels of crafters, seamstresses, kids and wannabees.
The "Kiss Me" pillow was in my mailbox today along with tons of other instructions.
(I would make the pillow, but embroider the "Kiss Me" on it so it would be something you could cuddle with.)



Passionate Kisses
_________________

Is it too much to ask
I want a comfortable bed that won't hurt my back
Food to fill me up
And warm clothes and all that stuff
Shouldn't I have this
Shouldn't I have this
Shouldn't I have all of this, and

Passionate kisses
Passionate kisses, whoa oh oh
Passionate kisses from you
-Mary Chapin Carpenter-

With Valentines right around the corner I will be adding stuff to my Etsy Shop with that in mind.
The newest addition....

"Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate"

How the Library Helped Us Buy Our Land.

Well I'm pretty upset. Libraries are closing around the country due to budget cuts. Some are cutting hours, some are cutting days, a lot are on the brink of closing all together. Our little library is now closed on Thursdays. Also they are only having one night a week of extended hours, used to be three nights.

I am one of their most patrony patrons. Usually I have 20 - 30 library books at home.
Along with a few DVD's and CD's.

Here is the story of what the library has meant to me...

Larry and I were on the same page ever since we met back in 1970. (I was 12, he was ummmm....older ) We both loved living in the woods and wanted to some day own a good amount of land and build our own home. And even after losing touch for 27 years we both kept that dream.
When we found each other again, in 1998, we made a plan. To save as much as we could and in 2 1/2 years buy land.

I moved up here from N.C and got a job as a pharmacy technician in a drugstore one block from the 1 bedroom apt. that Larry had rented right before I moved here.

He was working as "an agragate relocation specialist" (he hauled gravel) The apt. he rented was 3 rooms, heat, water and trash included, so the bills we had were: rent,electricity,phone and car insurance.We drove an old car, one he could work on himself and we both took packed lunches to work.

We bought nothing. Went out to eat once a week at "an all you can eat" place. And socked away our money.

Here's where the library comes in....Our soul form of entertainment was built around it.
We checked out tons of music. Loads of movies and read books on how to garden, digging wells, building houses,plumbing your own home, wiring, canning food, woodstoves, compost toilets, greenhouses, catching rainwater, frugal living...and so much more.

By utilizing all that the library has to offer, we managed to save almost $30,000 in those 2 1/2 years. Enough to buy almost 10 acres of land and build our home. And learned so much along the way. Giving us a wonderful knowledge of how to do for ourselves.

And now they want us all to buy a Kindle or some other reader. To me, a plastic "reader" is just never gonna be the same I tells ya. There's just something about holding a book, seeing them lined up waiting, with goodies inside, on a bookshelf.

I've always had bunches of books around. Always had a book nearby with a bookmark in it. I grew up in foster homes and so many times a book was my only friend. I could be anywhere, and pretend I was anyone through a book.
I learned how to "Be here now" with the help of a book titled "Be here now".

When I was little and my mother was still here, I had piles of books. I was an early reader and I know this helped me survive the after years.
When my kids were babies I read to them and we would go for the books at yard sales. They always got books at Christmas and birthdays. And we would go to the library.
They loved the library.
I would catch both of them at night, up reading after I had called lights out. I never got upset. I was just so happy they had an early love of books. They both did well in school and they are both wonderful adults and they both still love books.

Well, this is my rant about loving the library and feeling sadness every time I read about another town or city having to close theirs.

Please support your local library.
It would be horrible to one day hear a child ask "Mommy, what's a book"?