Hey everyone, it's a celebration giveaway!
To celebrate the season, and in looking forward to the New Year, I'm excited to give away a beautiful 2011 Calender from Gilding Lilies. If you aren't familiar with Jennifer of Gilding Lilies' art, you're in for a treat. I've been reading her blog for a while now, and have been admiring her work ever since. She couples fine art photography with stunning graphical effects that end up as greeting cards, prints, jewelry and other items. Definitely, check it out!
I originally ordered this calendar as a gift...but then I ran out of people to give it to! So, I figured offering it through a giveaway would be a way to show my appreciation of all you interesting, fun, talented, and wonderful people out there in blog land.
Here's the calendar packaged up all lovely upon arrival:
I didn't want to open the package and get my grubby mitts all over the pages, so here's a sample of the inside taken from Gilding Lilies Etsy shop:
Image Source: Gilding Lilies Etsy Shop
...and of course, there are 8 more months worth.
To enter, leave a comment about your favorite ways to celebrate a holiday. It can, but doesn't have to be a December holiday, tell us about any celebratory traditions you especially like. Or, you can talk about anything else you want instead.
One of my favorite things to do at any holiday/family celebration is play games...charades, or balderdash, or even the limbo. Sometimes it's difficult to round people up, which is where nieces and nephews generally come in handy :)
I'll announce the (randomly picked) winner on St. Stephen's Day...Boxing Day if you prefer, or I guess here in the US, it's just plain old December 26th.
To enter, leave a comment about your favorite ways to celebrate a holiday. It can, but doesn't have to be a December holiday, tell us about any celebratory traditions you especially like. Or, you can talk about anything else you want instead.
One of my favorite things to do at any holiday/family celebration is play games...charades, or balderdash, or even the limbo. Sometimes it's difficult to round people up, which is where nieces and nephews generally come in handy :)
I'll announce the (randomly picked) winner on St. Stephen's Day...Boxing Day if you prefer, or I guess here in the US, it's just plain old December 26th.
Official Rules and Regulations:
Giveaway is open to everyone on planet earth. Interplanetary restrictions apply---giveaway prize will be awarded to earthlings only. Oranges and nuts not included.
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Posts
Hi, first time here, don't worry about the competition for me, as I live outside the US, but I still wanted to share with you a cake that we make in Italy, and we always have at Christmas: Panforte. Yes, the recipe is vegan, and it is here
ReplyDeletehttp://alessandra-veganblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/vegan-panforte-italian-christmas-treat.html
Happy holidays to all
Alessandra
What a beautiful calendar! One tradition that my husbands family has, that I love, is everyone goes over to his parents house Christmas morning for breakfast. Everyone in the family looks forward to that. This year will be different for me since I'm a vegan now, but I am still looking forward to it. I think I will make some vegan muffins to take. :o)
ReplyDeleteI hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas...sounds like you have fun when everyone gets together in your family. I also love playing games.
What beautiful work she does... lovely..
ReplyDeleteMy new favorite way to spend the holidays is with my nieces... they are 2 and 4 and it's so much fun being with small children again.. my kids are 17 and 19 and of course, I love spending time with them, but there's something so amazing about experiencing it with small children again.. and a bonus, seeing my brother be a wonderful father to his daughters just melts my heart!
Oh, what a wonderful and tantalizing giveaway! I love Jennifer's artwork and have coveted that gorgeous calendar since she shared it on her blog. That's a generous and beautiful gift, your lucky recipients are going to be thrilled! As will your giveaway winner! :-)
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite fun traditions around this time of year is a little bit similar to yours, and that's doing jigsaw puzzles. My mom was big into puzzles when I was growing up, and they always had to be Springbok 1000 piece ones with lots of fun stuff going on in them (none of this "a lone yellow marble on a solid blue background" crap, lol). Around the holidays especially, we "puzzled and puzzled till our puzzlers were sore." :-) I still have all the ones she bought, and two of our favorites were (and are) Christmas ones - "The Christmas House" and "The Night Before Christmas." They are such fun! I find it relaxing and almost Zen-like.
When I don't have time to work one at Christmas, I'll do it around New Years, with the added challenge of trying to finish it before midnight New Year's Eve (sort of dilutes the Zen-like quality of it, but oh well!) ;-) It's often more fun to do at New Year's, because BW has time to participate.
Thanks for the fun giveaway! Good luck to everyone!
LOL - I just read your Official Rules & Regulations ~ too funny! (But what's this about nuts and oranges not being included? What kind of lame-o giveaway is this that it doesn't include nuts and oranges?! What about the candy canes, are they included?) ;-)
ReplyDelete"Or, you can talk about anything else you want instead."
ReplyDeleteerase that before the good luck duck reads it, she'll tell you about the potty in their rv, a wierd rash or the eye goo
lol i love that picture of the flowers in the sand, so calming!!
i love halloween, getting to put a tail on is like a dream come true...yea i just said that. it a tradition!
Alessandra
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks for stopping by...I actually started following you already, recently...I discovered your blog through Lovinlivinvegan's blog. You can be in the giveaway...it's open to the whole planet! Thanks for the panforte link too. I lurve a good panforte.
Happy Holidays to you too.
Michelle
I'm sure the family breakfast will still be fun and special! Your muffins sound great...what about a tofu quiche to boot?
A very Merry Christmas to you too!
Melo
Aww that's great...I agree, the holidays are more fun with kids around. My nieces and nephews are all pretty much grown up (in theory anyway), but I enjoyed the holidays immensely when they were younger...so much fun!
Laurie
I bet you're a wiz at the jigsaws! 1000 pieces...very impressive. I haven't done one in ages...I remember liking them though, so long as I liked the overall "picture" the puzzle was supposed to put together. I'm convinced though that all puzzles come missing several pieces...or maybe that's just me. :D
But, on a more serious note:
I understand that participants may be disappointed about the oranges and nuts, but all restrictions apply...my hands are tied. The candy canes are subject to review.
Dirtyduck
And, tails do become you, I might add! Good luck duck might talk about weird eye goo? OK! Bring it on, it's a celebration after all!
I've been making graham cracker "gingerbread" houses with my nephew for the past few years (he's now 10), and a new tradition of a chocolate coin hunt on Christmas Eve, and if he finds them all, he gets to open a gift. I don't have any kids, so this makes it fun for me too :)
ReplyDeleteI love Christmas and one of my families favorite things to do is sing! We all love singing:)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for letting your readers know about me, I really appreciate it. I loved my introduction, and I giggled at the rules and regulations. Thank you my friend. Good luck everybody, I loved hearing about all your traditions.
ReplyDeleteI'm in! We love to celebrate holidays with food and fun and family! There's no stress allowed, and everyone is to go to sleep utterly exhausted. By the way, I had a dream about you last night - my first blogger dream! And it was you! Whaddya think of that??
ReplyDeleteI also love playing games - the husband has next week off, and our goal is to play each of our many many board games once (including multiple versions of Trivial Pursuit)!
ReplyDeleteVeg Spinz
ReplyDeleteGingerbread houses and chocolate coin hunts sound really fun...I agree, the holidays are so much fun with kids around!
Carissa
Oh yes singing! I love to sing carols too. I've been caroling on a few occasions, which was really enjoyable and festive, but haven't had the opportunity in many years...
Jennifer
Thank you for your fab creations!
BlessedMama
I'm sure holidays at your house are a total blast! As many have already said, holidays are just more fun with kids, and I'm sure you guys pull out all the stops!
A dream about me? I hope it was a good one...(it wasn't a nightmare right?). I think I dream about people from blogs/blog-related stuff from time to time too...when something just sticks in your mind...dreams are curious things.
Merry Christmas to you and the family!!!
Lizzie
That sounds like a great way to spend some holiday time off...I used to have a Trivial Pursuit...we loved playing that in college...I must see if I can find mine and dust it off and have a game or two ourselves this Christmas. :)
No nightmare! Just a dream where you had us over (the kids and I). Apparently WA and CA are just 5 minutes away, did you know that? And then you spent over an hour in the kitchen washing about ten cups, that was very strange of you, I thought. Then you left us to run an errand and brought back two brothers from our homeschool group for my kids to play with. So thoughtful! I'll think we'll visit again.
ReplyDeletePhew! Glad it wasn't a nightmare! Sounds like fun times. Sorry it took so long for me to wash the dishes. :D
ReplyDelete"I think I'm all ready for BlessedMama and the Blessings visit...Darn! I forgot the kids!" lol I probably felt bad that I didn't have any kids in-house for your kids to play with, so went out to wrangle a few from the playgroup...
...I love the idea of a 5 min worm hole btw here and CA!
Funny - I loved that Blessed Mama had a dream about you. I think I've had blogging friends as characters in my dreams, too.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite game to play with my siblings is Scrabble. I love the games like Taboo and Scattergories, but they never want to play those as much. With my kids, my favorite tradition is our Christmas Eve scavenger hunt and decorating an outdoor tree for the animals.
Jenny
ReplyDeleteYaay, thanks for joining the giveaway...
I have blog dreams sometimes too...seems sort of twice removed...subconscious brain activity about virtual interactions in the ether. :D
Those are fun games....and your Christmas Eve activities sound super fun! I love both ideas!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Merry Christmas Rose, it has been such a pleasure to get to know you better this past year. Thanks for all the support and kindness.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Jennifer
Hi Rose,
ReplyDeleteThe calendar by Gilding Lilies is so beautiful. Thanks for introducing it to us.
Just wanted to come visit to say Merry Christmas to you and your family, and to thank you for your warmth, friendship, and support.
Grace
for VietNamAnChay.blogspot.com
Jennifer
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you too, and Happy Stephen's Day! I've enjoyed getting to know you better too! :) The blogosphere is a wonderful place!
I'll be announcing the winner of your lovely calendar soon!
Thiên Ân
Merry Christmas to you and your family too. Thanks to you for your wonderful blog and thoughts of peace and love.