My One Year Anniversary/Christmas Give-Away!

Can you believe that the Christmas Season is upon us? Time since the Summer has just flown. Actually, time since last December, when I first started my blog, has REALLY flown by! I only wrote two posts in December of last year -- then waited another six months before I really started to blog! I would like to have this little give-away to celebrate and to thank you. I wish I could give all of my blogging friends a present -- alas, there will have to be only one winner. I hope you will be pleased with this give-away. It's a small token of my thanks to all of you for dropping by and visiting me, and for leaving all of your nice comments. (And funny comments too!) I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all of you. To see that someone has read my post really and truly brings me joy. If I felt 'down in the dumps' one day, and I saw someone left me a comment, I can honestly say that it made my day. And so I thank you. You are all such wonderful people out there, ladies and gents, and I wish you all Happy Holidays and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Now -- on to the Christmas Give-Away!! As you will see below, there are a trio of surprises: On the left is a set of the tea towels that I purchased a little while ago. I had mentioned on one of my posts that I would give away another new set that I had, so here they are! (Click here to read that post and see a glimpse of the towels outside of the package.) To the right of the tea towels is a little Christmas bucket and I added a ribbon. I also added a few little Christmas trinkets inside of the bucket! But shhhhhh... they will be a nice little surprise for the winner. And third, on the right, is a Lenox Santa figurine. I know a lot of you enjoy a 'winter white' color scheme, and this will go nicely with it or, of course, the Santa figure will look pretty in any colored vignette. OK, I will now stop writing so you can see everything!

To enter give-away, you have three chances:

1. Leave me a comment letting me know where this Santa would live in your house, or where you will put the little bucket.

2. Become a Follower (or let me know that you are one already).

3. Mention this giveaway on your blog.

This give-away will start today, Saturday, December 4th and run until Midnight (EST) Tuesday, December 7th. I am only making it for four days so that I can mail this out to the winner quickly next week!

Good luck to everyone and I thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart, for visiting my blog this past year and for taking the time to comment. God bless you all!

Holiday blessings,

Gloria

Shop Cinderella Moments!

Hello and I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and now having a great weekend! I am once again showing off my little art creations from my talentend blogging friend, Caroline, from "Cinderella Moments."

Here's my new set of clothespins that I got a while ago. I have not taken the time to take new photographs! This is a photo that Caroline had taken when she put them in her Etsy shop for sale. As soon as I saw them, I bought them! Caroline was also so sweet because I had asked her to make me one of her little bookmark houses to match my house in red, sometime in the future, and she surprised me with one as a gift when she sent the clothespins! It is adorable -- I will have to take a picture to show you.


Although she doesn't have any new clothespins for sale at the moment, Caroline has many other beautiful things in her Etsy shop for sale. Click HERE for all of her "Christmas" items.

One of the offerings that she has for sale is this adorable little Whimsy Marie Antoinette make-it-yourself kit. This is great for crafters. Or to give as a Christmas gift to a little lady who might be interested in started to craft! Click HERE to see more photos and a description.


Caroline also has this GORGEOUS Santa for sale!


So when you are relaxing this weekend, take a 'moment' to visit Cinderella Moments!

Best regards,

Gloria

My blog's been "Mentioned!"

Everyone! Please go to visit Eddie at his blog: Eddie Blue Lights ! He is doing a SUNDAY ROAST of our favorite blogger: Our lovable Sheila, Mrs. Magpie! Here's Sheila's blog too, The Quintessential Magpie: click HERE.

Sheila was so kind to mention me in her "interview" -- SHE'S THE BEST!

gv

AND THE CSN WINNER IS...

And the winner is: Our beloved Mrs. Magpie! YAY!!!! Congratulations, Sheila!

Sheila is the new owner of a wonderful Le Creuset baking dish and smaller companion baking dish in cherry -or yellow -or green, or whatever color on which she decides!

Here is what Sheila will be receiving:

As you can see, I took a photo of Random.org -- after trying to cut and paste the last time I had a giveaway, to no avail, someone told me to take a photo of it and post it. Brilliant idea! So here it is.

Thank you all for participating. In the very near future, I am going to have another give-away, a couple of things to celebrate my one year anniversary blogging. So please continue visiting and look for it soon! Hint: It will add to your Christmas decorations!

Again, CONGRATULATIONS to Sheila!!

Best,

Gloria

Neighbors

Sometimes we have neighbors who are nice, sometimes we have neighbors who are great; sometimes we have neighbors who are lousy, sometimes we have neighbors who are mean; sometimes we have neighbors who are just plain weird. In my lifetime, in the city and in the country, I have had all those I have described (and I have probably BEEN all those I have described).

For over at least ten years, however, I have been lucky enough to have a neighbor who is WONDERFUL. Her name is Angie. She and her husband live next door in a beautiful white house with a lovely entrance circle, and a gorgeous garden with pretty grounds. I wish she would let me photograph her property, but I am still too shy to ask, as she is a private person. But I just had to show you the lovely flowers she brought over and left on my side stoop yesterday. Angie is an artist and her paintings and letterpress cards were part of a show and sale at our public hall in our town yesterday. She brought the flowers, arranged in the vase, over to me after the closing of the show. Isn't she so nice? I have to remember to return her vase!

A few days ago, we made plans for this coming week. She invited me over for lunch on Wednesday and I am so looking forward to it. The last time we got together in person was over wine, a long time ago! Wine will still be involved this Wednesday, as I am going to be the one to bring it. :) Maybe I will pick a nice White Zinfandel, which can go with anything. I would like to bring a dessert too, but I haven't thought of any ideas. Should I make something, or buy a little cake, cookies, or pastries perhaps? If anyone has a suggestion, please don't hesitate to let me know! Have a great rest of the weekend, and I hope you enjoy the flowers, as I have...

Thanks for visiting.

Best,

Note: 'neighbors' photo courtesy of google images.

My CSN Review, PLUS a CSN Give-Away!!!!

Greetings! I will not only be reviewing a CSN product today, but this same product (in the color of your choice) is my Give-Away! The item is a Le Creuset Rectangular 10.5" x 7" baking dish, with a free 7" x 5" companion dish. It will be shipped directly to the winner, courtesy of CSN.

If you know anything about CSN, they have SO many different products and online stores. CSN is the best -- whether you are looking for something from one end of the spectrum, such as baking dishes, or the other end, such as barstools, you will find whatever you need at CSN.

The Le Creuset baking dishes are both beautiful, heavy pieces. Le Creuset has such a good reputation anyway, so I knew that I'd love them. One caveat about this set, if you are looking to use it to feed a large family, forget it. It is on the small side, but perfect for 2-4 people. But, if you add in the smaller dish, then it would feed at least 6. I filled both with macaroni and cheese and baked the large one right away, and I froze the little one to have another time. They would also be nice for presentation on your table, filling with mashed potatoes in the large, and cranberry jelly in the smaller one for the Holidays! (You might even get it in time for Thanksgiving.)

All in all, I was VERY PLEASED with this CSN/Le Creuset product. I give it an A+
It not only looks nice and can be brought to the table to serve, but feels substantial and the food bakes wonderfully in it. I am sure the winner of this give-away will be just as pleased with it as I have been. Sooo, without further delay, here are some photos for you to see, then on to the give-away details!

This next photo is the large dish, ready for the oven!

And here is the little one, ready for the freezer!

Here is the Mac & Cheese, baked -- and, as you can see, the interior of the Le Creuset piece is non-stick and the food comes up so easily (although I DID spray a little Pam before filling).

So now, ON TO THE GIVE-AWAY! One entry per person: to be the lucky winner of this item, please leave me a comment and let me know: (a) that you are a Follower or have become a NEW FOLLOWER of my blog, and (b) what color you would choose. PLEASE ALSO BE SURE TO INCLUDE your blog name or email address, so that I can contact the winner. The colors from which to choose are: Cherry (what I picked), Caribbean, Violet, Kiwi, White, Cobalt, Dijon, Lilac, or Black Onyx.

[To see the colors, click HERE.]

The give-away will be open until next Thursday, November 11. I will choose the winner, via Random.org, on Friday, November 12. Good luck to all!

Best regards,

Gloria

HOORAY! PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!!!!

Oh, I cannot tell you how THRILLED and RELIEVED I am that my blog is OK again! To make a long story short, I had to find out what was in my blog that was causing a problem and, by trial and error, and deleting different things, I found out it was the calendar on my blog. It had been there for months but, obviously due to some malfunctioning encryptioning (!!), when I deleted the calendar, then my problem with the virus alert disappeared. A funny thing though: not everyone who visited my blog got the virus message! (And one person even got a message/redirection to another website or some such thing!)

I MUST greatly thank Willow of My Irish Cottage Home for sticking with me last night and this morning. She was right there, checking my blog when I'd delete something to see if she could get on my blog, or would get the virus message. She's my hero! Others who stuck with me are my dear friends, Mrs. Magpie/Sheila and Christine and Candice, who were just as worried as I was with this problem!

Thank you all and thank God!! :)

And please visit tomorrow (Friday) for my CSN Review and CSN Give-away!!

Gloria

PROBLEM NOT SOLVED!

PLEASE NOTE: I was having a problem with my blog yesterday. My PC is updated with virus protection, etc. (I checked and it was all up to date) but some people were getting a virus alert, and/or a re-direction to another infected website, when visiting my blog on Wednesday. I tried to investigate to find out why it was happening, and one of the Blogger Help Posts suggested that it could be an infected post, and one blogger confirmed that this was his problem when that happened to him, and to just delete the post. So I have deleted my "Autumn" post, which I believe is the post that started this whole thing! Note: I have also reported this/put this question to 'Blogger' and am awaiting an answer.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS HAS NOT SOLVED THE PROBLEM, HOWEVER. SO I WILL JUST HAVE TO WAIT TO HEAR FROM BLOGGER.

Gloria

Halloween Decorating!

Greetings! I finally went out and got a few Halloween decorations yesterday. I only have a few things, so I decided to put them in my "little kitchen corner" that I recently showed you in Sheila's "Heart of the Home Party."
(Click HERE to see how this corner normally looks.)

Well, I am not going to write a lot today, just show a lot of photos. I couldn't decide which ones to pick, so I uploaded everything. I hope everyone has a fun Halloween.

Oh, and I am branching out today and linking to the following parties, so please be sure to visit these blogs too when you get a chance!

Cindy at: My Romantic Home for "Show and Tell Friday"

Courtney at: French Country Cottage for "Feathered Nest Friday"

Niartist at: Color Outside The Lines for "Vignette Friday"

Happy Halloween!

Gloria