Giveaways Archives | Page 2 of 3 |

Announcement of SUMMER FLAG Giveaway Winner!

July 7, 2010 By Laura 7 Comments

THANK YOU to all 12 of our commenting participants for the Summer Flag Giveaway! I thought it was a bust at first, and it got me down, but you all came through, and got me excited again, because we have so many AWESOME Giveaways coming up! Our best yet!! So if you didn’t win this time, keep joining us and you are BOUND to win something great!

So far, we have chosen to choose winners via the random drawing generator from the numbered comments. We love all of our visitors and commenters, and are so happy you all participated, we’d have a hard time choosing ourselves. But some day, we may try a different method.

Ok, on to the WINNER!!

If you can believe it……the random drawing generator from the numbers 1 through 12 chose:

The first commenter!!

(We laughed out loud.)

Ohh…..WHO was the first commenter?

KIM from ‘The Inadvertent Farmer’

(Here is the link to the comments/post for this Give-Away.)

I like to call her ‘Kim the Farmer’, because for 1, I have a sister in law Kim who comments here sometimes, so it helps keep them straight. But also, I just love that she lives on a farm. Heck, I love her. And I love her blog! You’ve got to check it out. Always fun stuff going on, and ‘fabulous photos, too. Plus, you think having a hedge hog is strange? Wait until you see what SHE has!!

CONGRATULATIONS, KIM (the Farmer)!! Send me us an e-mail with your mailing address please, and we’ll get your gift right out to you!

Now, naturally, I have a few comments to your comments! I couldn’t comment before, or I might be at risk for winning my own summer flag! (hee hee.)

So yes Everyone who inquired, Michael is having a beer on his break, sitting on the roof covered bench. Was anyone surprised? I think we surprise people a lot, somehow. Neither of us are big drinkers in the way of intoxication. lol. But we do both have a drink or 2 on weekends. Lately, Mike’s Hard Lemonade has been my refreshment drink of choice.

Thanks to Everyone who just said nice things! Sorry if you didn’t win….but again, lots more coming up!

Rene….We have done mostly annuals in the past, but will be getting more and more into perennials as our landscaping/front yard transformation really starts coming to life. No herbs yet…..good thought. We got tons of strawberries, and are in between the 2 varieties right now. The gardens are looking fab, and hopefully still will when you get here! I will save a few strawberries for my freckle-faced girl. They are in the freezer.

Teri…..What a dream come true it would be, to have you sitting there on our bench. Even if you were just drinking and spewing pearls of your supervisory wisdom!

Paula……I didn’t expect you to be a bit impressed, with the gardens YOU have grown! So your comment meant a lot, even if you are lying because you love us.

Laura S…..We did not know that about the cosmos!! Thanks for that info! They have grown HUGE this year so far. More like trunks, than stems. Can you comment or send us an e-mail, with a little more specifics about what you do with them? Like…directions. lol

To Everyone Else….who mentioned about being excited to watch how the pumpkins grow, US TOO!! Boy do we have an update blog post on that. We have SO MUCH to blog about…..and so much work at the same time. So bare with us, and see it all as something to look forward to! Because we’re excited to share it all, even with slight delays!

YOU ALL ROCK!!!

Save

Mid-May to End of June 2010 | Front Yard Gardens

June 29, 2010 By Laura 12 Comments

There is so much to catch you up on, where our front yard gardens and transformation goes, that I’m lost in my own thoughts, in trying to figure out where I tell you what we’ve gotten done, and where I tell you about where all of this work in progress is heading. So, if it all seems a little mixed up at time, that’s pretty much where my head is at.

But to brief you, in case you are new around here; Our front yard was basically just a big square sandy lot, with no purpose or beauty of it’s own, for all of the years we have owned our home. We have had a side yard that we have utilized well, but the front yard, parallel to the (dead end) street we live on, was never safe enough for our very-young kids at the time, nor private enough to relax in.

But then early last spring, we decided to start a couple of gardens. Once we got our feet wet, we fell in love with gardening, and the dream gardens and front yard transformation plans began to unfold, and take on a life of it’s own. The big progressive goal, is to change our front yard, into a beautiful, charming semi-private garden wonderland of our own. We’ll be sharing the details of those plans as we go along in the posts like these. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way too! But for this post, I’m going to show you the kick-off of our gardening work this second spring, and very soon I will be posting how things are looking right now. The growing in the gardens change so much by the day, it’s hard to blog about! By the time I take photos, and edit them, and get a post started, the gardens look completely different once again. But I’m doing my best.

First, I just wanted to share this photo from the first day of May with you, because I never took a photo in the winter as I should have! What I am showing you, is not the beautiful children I am happy to call my own, but the beautiful green winter rye, in the garden bed behind them. When we had first built these garden beds, I was concerned about how ugly they would look in front of our house, in the dead of winter with no snow. Then, it was recommended to us to plant winter rye, which would grow through the winter, and was good for the soil too. In the spring, we were to till it into the soil to nourish it. I can’t tell you how beautiful it looked all winter long, with this fresh green rye coming up through the white glistening snow. (We had lots more snow this year, than usual.)

About mid-May, we cut it all down and tilled it into the garden beds. It was sad and a tad painful! I couldn’t get planting fast enough, to add oomph to the drab looking place, after that.

Here is a glimpse of the state of it all, before we got planting for the year. If you recall , we expanded the front (grass-less) yard last year, by sacrificing some of the extra-wide rock driveway we didn’t really need. That made more room for a 3rd bed across.

Our trip to the local nursery gave us most all of the starter plants we needed, to get things going. We got various vegetable plants, some we are growing again, and some new ones too, as well as helpful flowers that make our gardens prettier, keep some pesky things way, and also draw the right insects for much needed pollination. We’ll have a closer look at all of these plantings very soon. You also see some bags of compost, which I’ll be getting to in a moment.

Our strawberry bed, here in mid May, was doing fabulously in it’s second season. You have seen some strawberry posts since, of the berries it has given us. It’s grown SO much since this photo, but we have tended it well, having learned much last year.

Michael built a 4th garden bed, once we mulled over the layout that the whole transformation will ultimately be. He was going to build a 5th too right away, but we never got to it, before early spring had gotten away. That’s o.k. There is always next year!

This is new compost we are trying, all recommended by the nursery we frequent. We have mixed this stuff into all of our beds, and I can tell you, it’s doing some amazing stuff!

These are the flowers that we have planted along the inside edges of the beds. They are all just baby plants here! They have grown to ridiculous sizes since. No doubt due to the new compost we added!

Dahlias. Oh how I love dahlias. Big, big, big plans for dahlias of all kinds, in time. But for now, this pot of them sits on bench. Michael really did not want to spend the money on them, so I am doing all I can to make sure it keeps growing and thriving and spewing beauty. Because he loves to remind me, it was $12.99, and if it dies, I can tell you I will never hear the end of it, for as long as I live.

The verbenas have been thriving and growing, in 2 colors. I love them.

On the other side of the strawberry bed here, Michael is working very hard, at a new and exciting addition to our gardens….

….our very own little pumpkin patch! <squeal!!> If you all have been around in the autumn months here at OHOJN, you might know how much we love pumpkins around our home in autumn! We go pumpkin crazy, and get pretty creative with them too. It’s an expensive fetish, when you are paying by the pound. So we decided to try growing our own!!

After all of the cutting out, digging and turning-over-of-earth for our pumpkin patch, Michael decided to take a little break.

About a week later, we had 5 yards of loam delivered. A bit of it was for the 5th bed we never got to. The rest was for the 4th bed Michael did build, and to add some healthy loam to our sandy pumpkin patch.

Michael really built it up the patch, and NOW it’s looking real good. Wait until you see, in our Pumpkin Patch post coming right up soon, too.

So here is a view from the corner of our front lot. I know…..it’s not looking all that pretty yet. But you know what I see, when I look at this photo? All it is GOING to be! Honest to Pete, (….I’ve always wanted to know who Pete was….anyone know?….), you are not even going to recognize the place at all, when we are done. Major, major make-over, by the time we are through with the renovations. You know…years from now. But won’t it be fun for you, watching it all happen, little by little? You don’t even have to work hard with us! Well…..you could come over and help, if you really wanted. But really….we’re not minding the hard work involved here. It’s ever so rewarding!

So, as I said, we’ve got at least 2 posts right on the heels of this one, to show you all that is growing so beautifully, now that we are at the end of June! We’ll also be sharing more and more of the details of of our garden/front yard transformation plans. We can tell you, so far we’re pretty excited with where it is all going, and pretty happy with where we are at so far this year….

….which happens to be suddenly SUMMER! And feeling like it, here in New England, I’ll tell you! If you haven’t been to the Home Page, you may want to pay it a visit! ; )

We’re kicking things off with this cheery little Give -Away…..

….Flying and flapping in the breeze, over our growing gardens, is this happy summertime flag! It really brings a smile to my face, to see it there, over all that is colorful and thriving. It’s a bit of color in the air! It’s a quality-made flag, and to me, it has the happiness of summer, all over it!

If you love it too, we’ve got one for you!

All you need to do, is leave a comment tot his post, and you are in the drawing for a summer flag of your own! If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I’ll make an announcement when the comments are closing for the drawing. Don’t have a pole? Why not hang it as a banner on the side of your house? Or, you could even give it as a gift, to someone you care about. Surely, it’ll make someone smile, as much as it does us.

Good luck, and HaPpY SumMeR!!

Save

Giveaway Winner / Live, Love, Laugh & Win

April 21, 2010 By Laura 3 Comments

We’re so excited that the time has come to announce the winner of our latest give-away, for this beautiful stationary card set and fancy pen! But before we get to that, we just wanted to say…..

We never anticipated the heart-warming stories you all have shared with us. It was evident that every one of you shared a little piece of your heart. Whether you spoke of romantic love letters, special cards, or little notes that expressed affection in one way or another, from loved ones you have loved deeply, and maybe have lost……they all came from the most special places in your hearts. We felt it. A few of you spoke of written keepsakes from ones we too know and love, some have been lost, and others spoke of their loved ones we have never known. But the pictures you painted made us feel a little bit like we did too. Some stories gave us lumps in our throats, and some made us shed a tear on our keyboard. We want you to know each one touched us, and it matters to us that you could share such meaningful bits of your lives.

With that said, by using the random dot org number generator, the winner of this give-away is….

Commenter number 8 was MARIA!

Congratulations Maria!! Please e-mail us with your home address, and we will ship your gift right to your door!

Thank you all, again, for participating. In time, we hope our blog grows enough to be able to give-away bigger, better, or multiple give-away gifts. But for now, we are enjoying doing what we can, to brighten someone’s day now and then. It can be fun just taking part, with a hope that you might win! One of these times, it just may be YOU!

We hope in some ways, you were all reminded of how much written words, from someone you love, can grow to mean, as time passes. In reflecting on these memories and the keepsakes that mean the most to you, may you be inspired to leave a little of your own love and legacy, for those you love, in writing.

Save

Live, Love, Laugh and Win

April 12, 2010 By Laura 14 Comments

Hand written notes and letters, have virtually become a thing of the past, with the speed and convenience of technology communications today. I admit, I am all about using the computer, especially, for communication. I do love it. The phone, not so much. But there are some folks in my life, who are not going to e-mail with me, anytime soon in their lifetime. Meaning, never!

For example, one of those people, is my beloved Godmother. First of all, I am blessed beyond all reason, to be able to call her my Godmother. Although she has Godchildren that number in the double digits, (which is a testimony to the kind of beautiful, loving person she is), she has always made me feel like her only one. She has always made me feel extremely special to her, and unconditionally loved, forever. She is now in her 70’s. She is not into the computer much at all. And I thank God for it, because her fairly frequent notes and letters are some of my most precious possessions I have. They always fill me in on how she and my Godfather are, what they have been doing, and they ask about varied details of my life at the time as well. But most of all, from the greeting to the closing, they express her sincere and abundant love for me. For our whole family. Her love, and promise of being included in her daily prayers, is not only in her eloquent words, that so adequately express as much. It’s in the very flow of her handwriting. It’s in the sound of her voice that I always hear in my head, as I read her mail. It’s in her little drawn signature heart, that is always beside her name. She not only writes to me, but she and {A} have been pen-pals for some years now. Yes, she’s a faithful writer. Even though she admittedly says her hand shakes as she writes due to age now, and she doesn’t write quite as often, her need to express how much she cares about us, (and others, I imagine) encourages her to keep on.

Oh, she calls on the phone now and then, too. Oh, her voice. I can’t tell you how sweet, this woman’s voice is. Again….you can hear the love for you that she has, in every single word she speaks. So much so, that we have no less than 3 messages on our answering machine, that no one can bear to delete! It would just feel….wrong! A couple are at least 5 years old. So we hear them every time we listen to all of our messages. Maybe someday, we’ll delete them, although I can’t imagine. But her letters, and cards, I will keep forever.

I have letters, cards with written sentiments, and drawings from other loved ones as well. I have several boxes stuffed with precious pieces of postal mail, although it’s not often I need to lift the lid anymore, to stuff another one in, with the few true writers left in the world. Except from my Godmother, of course.

Do you have very meaningful handwritten mail, that you have saved? Could you think of a hand-written letter or note that you have received, right now, that meant so much to you? Do e-mails give you quite the same warm-fuzzies, as the personal mail you find in your street mailbox or post office box?

I have to admit…….we get some pretty meaningful, warm-fuzzy e-mails (as discussed on the HOME PAGE right now. If you haven’t been there today, please read there as well if you have the time this visit.)

But I can tell you, that one of my very most treasured messages, was a little note my mother wrote to me, in a book that she gave me, at a very difficult time in my life. The book itself was full of lovely images and press-printed text of poems and quotes, that I know were all meant for me. But it was her written words in that book, that spoke to my heart the most. They were the words I needed to ‘hear’ so much at that time, that I had not even allowed myself to realize it, until I read them on that page.

I want to encourage you all, to re-embrace once again, writing to those you love. Perhaps not all of the time. But more-so. Maybe a note to let someone know you’ve been thinking of them. Or a dated love letter for your children, to stick in their box of baby things, to find and read when they are older. A quick thank you, to someone who took the time to do something nice for you, even though a quick e-mail would suffice.

And so, I’d like to give away, this beautiful set of cards seen in these photos. They come in a nice and sturdy keepsake box, with a velcro closure. There is 16 cards and envelopes, and a variety of 4 designs.

They all depict beautiful, carefree artwork, and express sweet little reminders of the joys of life. Just writing in one, will bring cheer to your own heart. Never mind how you’ll brighten someone’s day, when they open their mailbox, or find it in a surprise place unexpectedly.

I love how even the inside of these cards, have design. They aren’t just a little something on the front, only to open to a plain white inside. That blank white space that makes you feel pressure. lol

No…..they are all as lovely on the inside, as they are on the outsides.

Even the backs, are pretty!

Of course, I would never send you this beautiful stationary card set, only for you to have the excuse of, “Well, I don’t have a good pen to write with.”

So, a brand new fine Paper Mate pen, will be sent with your gift.
–

I’ll even write you a hand-written note, myself, and it send along with your card set and pen. Oh don’t worry, I didn’t write on one of YOUR cards in the set. You can bet when I came across a stationary card set this cute, I got one for myself! After all, if I’m going to talk the talk, I’ll have to walk the walk, too. No pressure to stuff my note in your box of keepsake letters, though. (Although you can-if-you-want-to-ooo.) My only goal, is for YOU, to write notes, that OTHERS want to stuff in their boxes. For you to leave a little hand-written legacy of love behind in your life.

To enter to win, just tell us a little about the most meaningful hand-written note or letter you have ever gotten. The one, or one of the ones (if you are blessed enough to have a collection), that you treasure the most. The details are not necessary, if you are uncomfortable sharing that much. (Although you know we’d all eat that up. ; ). But a brief mention of who it was from, maybe what occasion, if there was one. Whatever you’d like to share.

That’s it! If you can do that, you are entered to win all of the above.

Remember……..the 3 L’s, whatever you do.

But also remember……if you don’t play, you can’t win! Don’t you love free stuff? We do! And we’d love to send these gifts to YOUR door step! WE LOVE DOING STUFF LIKE THIS!! So please join in on the fun!

Entries for this drawing will be accepted until the close of Tuesday, April 20, 2010. A winner will be announced sometime the next day, on Wednesday, April 21st.

GOOD LUCK!

Save

Winner of the Giveaway

February 23, 2010 By Laura

The winner of the vintage set Give Away is……..

Commenter #4 was Wendy!!

Congratulations Wendy! Please contact us, via the ‘E-Mail Us’ tag in the sidebar, to claim your prize and give us your shipping address, so that we can send along your vintage set to you. We hope you enjoy it!

Thanks to ALL of you, for participating, and sharing with us your lists of favorite things. We really enjoyed reading each and every one! We laughed, we said “Awww….how sweet!”, …..we said “Oh, me too! I should have thought of that one!”. But most of all, we loved getting to know you all a little bit better.

We’ll be having another Give Away very soon, so be on the lookout to see what it is! The chances of winning something are pretty good around here, and we love to do it! So keep checking back.

~ The Richard Family

Save

Amazon Affiliates