Giveaway

Just a quick note to let you know that Liv over at Choosing Beauty is hosting a giveaway - up to $40 for the print of your choice from my ETSY shop. You have to leave a comment with the name of your favorite print (and there are ways to be entered more than once to increase your odds). The giveaway ends tonight. Go comment! I once commented and won two beautiful prints by this lovely artist and friend.

Also, Liv has launched a terrific website called Feel Good Deal of the Day with all kinds of great deals on stuff you love anyway. I just got 40% off my order from Esprit.com and one of the things I ordered is stretchy enough to fit me even now! That's some stretchy-ass material!

What else? My pal Aimee is teaching in what looks to be a fantastic e-course where 21 artists share their techniques. You listen and learn at your own pace and it runs from April through August so you have plenty of time to soak it all up.

A few months ago my mom unearthed a series of emails I had sent ten years ago while Mr. Rosen and I were traveling the world. I think I will post a few in a "Ten Years Ago Today" series. Can you remember what you were doing ten years ago? I hardly remember what I did yesterday. Thank goodness for the digital paper trail.

And last, thanks to everyone for your support as we navigate this period of mondo-transition. It is enormously comforting to hear your stories too.

Cup runneth over

Well yesterday was a banner day. It didn't start out great when a black squirrel jumped over my arm as I was opening our front gate and scared the bejeezies out of me. Holy vampire rodent! But then lady luck sent me a few emails that I had won not one, but TWO blog giveaways. And I'm even more excited to tell you about where they came from.

The first was all serendipity. My friend Liv, who I met at our October blogger/artist retreat, was hosting her weekly Happy HeArt giveaway - two prints by our other dear friend Lori, also present at the retreat. I often enter, when I remember, because the giveaways are always great. And last week's was no different. First a word on these two friends. These women and their art/presence in the world are completely inspiring to me. They each have powerful stories to tell. And their blogs are bursting with love and gratitude and beauty. But what you may not know is that they are hilariously funny too. When a one-liner is delivered with a sweet Minnesotan accent it's all the more delicious. Anyway, I'm taking the kids to visit my mom in my hometown for our winter break and will see my two oldest friends from elementary school so these will make the perfect gifts and then I'll have to order another for myself!

And THEN, as if a rainbow wasn't already shining out of my tushy, I got another email from one of my new favorite bloggers, Tulpen, congratulating me on my second win, a pair of gorgeous earrings from her sister's ETSY shop called Silver and Stones. I mean what are the chances? Happy Hanukkah to me! Listen, if you are in the mood for a crazy rant or a story about one of the charming old ladies at the nursing home where Tulpen nurses or a powerful reminder that, really, the kids are alright, go visit her immediately. She drops the f*bomb a lot. As much as I would if my mom wasn't one of my readers. And then go to Silver and Stones and get bejeweled in something twinkly.

I am off to play the lottery and ride out this winning streak.

**REMINDER** The 30% off sale at my shop continues through Friday December 10. Use code CHARM3 at checkout.

My clear conscience is your loss

I totally blew it guys because I am paranoid and lazy and here's how it all went down.

Someone from a company that aggregates discounted designer stuff for kids emailed that she wanted to do a giveaway on my site. Ordinarily I would say no because these solicitations all seem like scams (one guy actually reached out to me a few times, from different companies, but with the same name and form email. Who do you really work for Sam Goroff? CIA? Mossad?). But I went to her site and saw a few things that I like and I said I might be amenable to the idea.

She was offering to give away a little Crocodile Creek backpack with the solar system on it and since I had just been searching for backpacks for my son who is starting kindergarten on Monday, I thought, well, I'm someone who has an opinion about backpacks, plus I just finished this little print with space icons on it (above), so I could probably tie all of these otherwise unrelated things together for a co-promotional blog post and one of you lucky readers would get a free backpack! Win win! And then she offered to send me one too! Even better!

But then I forgot to email her back. And then a lot of time passed. But I finally did email and she agreed to do the promotion but I would have to endorse two of the designer brands they were featuring. And of the twenty or so brands, the only one I would even consider buying is Tea Collection and only at a serious discount. Because I just can't get behind spending $40 on a mass-produced blouse for a three-year-old? And the other brands were altogether ridiculous. Baby Lacoste? Baby Burburry? For now I'm sticking with Baby Target.And Baby Hand-me-down.

So, in good conscience, I declined her offer. Sorry Tracey Lin*. You seemed really nice. My readers and I would have been psyched to have matching free backpacks. I guess it wasn't in the stars. I'll do better next time and get us some really kickass lunch boxes or something.

* this is a pseudonym in case Tracey also works for the CIA.