Fall Y'all Bloggy Giveaway

**** Updated****
OK – the comments are closed! 350+ comments! That is some kind of craziness!

Now, how I picked the winner: I exported your comments to an Excel spreadsheet so I’d have a number beside each name (I removed a couple of duplicate comments). Then I used the handy dandy random number generator to generate a handy dandy number. And here are the results:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers: 249
Timestamp: 2007-11-02 19:00:26 UTC

And the winner is….

Vicky @ Homeschool Mandate.

For those of you who did not win, I'll be back again if Shannon does another giveaway at Christmas (or some other future date). And feel free to check out the Mount Harmony website where you can order soaps online. They're not cheap, but these soaps are just lovely, are great for your skin and smell great too! Thanks for all your comments! This has been a blast! Hope you all enjoyed it too!

Rocks in My Dryer is hosting a fall bloggy giveaway and I am joining in on the fun!

I am giving away handmade soap made in Middleburg, VA at Mount Harmony farm. These soaps are amazing! Each of our soaps is made with over 50% olive oil (which is great for your skin - especially dry skin in the winter) and other essential oils and fragrances. All ingredients are natural. Here's a look at the soaps we sold at the farmer's market this weekend:




They look almost good enough to eat! (but I wouldn't recommend it!)

I'll be giving away two bars (to one winner) that you can choose from the following list:

“Ann Yonkers Meets The Red Mandarin”…essential oils of mandarin red, sweet orange and bergamot with jojoba and apricot kernel oil, color and safflower petals.

“Ginger Lemon Poppyseed”… soft scrub of poppyseeds, oil of apricot kernel, essential oils of ginger and lemon, plus color.

“Oatmeal Lavender”…combines the best of both worlds…oatmeal for earthly texture, and lavender essential oil for heavenly scent.

“McCreamy McSoap”….Grey’s Anatomy fans now have their own creamy soap from Mount Harmony’s McCreator. Avocado and castor oil, pigment, safflower petals, and fragrance give McSoap its McCreamy softness and allure.

“Citrus Moonbeam”…essential oils of sweet orange, tangerine, lemon, lime, grapefruit and cedarwood are bathed in the light of moons of juniper berry and grapefruit balls, paprika and tiny meteorites of heather buds.

“Gladiator Exfoliator”…for the man in your life…ground oats, spices of cinnamon , allspice, nutmeg give strength and honor to essential oils of rosemary, sage and clove bud with the bravery of wheatgerm oil, aloe vera gel and vegetable glycerin.

“Grouchy Tiger, Smitten Dragon”…just can’t get enough flying fantasy action, this is close and will have you flying through bamboo forests: essential oil of mentha arvensis, pigment, vegetable glycerin, and apricot kernel oil.

“Shea Chic”…shea butter, vegetable glycerin, lavender essential oil, calendula petals –tres chic!

"Clary Sage and Mandarin”… like a rare piece of Oriental porcelain, a design of oils of avocado, aloe vera, vegetable glycerin, chlorophyll, calendula petals, mandarin soap pieces, and essential oils of lemon, mandarin, sweet orange, tangerine and clary sage.

“French Lavender”…white as angel wings, essential oils of French lavender, bergamot, cedarwood.

That's it! The soap will come wrapped in a beautiful tissue paper should you choose to give them away as gifts. The wrapped soap looks something like this:

Just leave a comment (include your email if you don't have a blogger account)and you'll be entered into the drawing! I'll pick a winner using a random number generator on Friday, November 2 at 3pm EST. I'll post the winner's name to the site on Friday and also send an email.

Happy bloggy giveaway-ing!!

Jesus can take me home now.

Because I've seen Liza. In person. We were in the same room. And it was amazing! I have not been so overwhelmed by something in a long time! They just don't make entertainers like her anymore. She is so powerful. Her ability to connect with the audience is so like no other and you can't help but love her (she cried while singing "Maybe this Time.") She doesn't have the range she used to have, and she's had both her hips replaced so the dancing is mostly limited to her busting out the jazz hands and striking poses like this:

But when she strikes a pose she totally strikes it. And she holds it for several seconds until a few people shout out "we love you Liza!" and then she gives a little giggle and goes on with her singing. She was just so Liza. Liza with a "Z" that is. And after the concert last night I was thanking the Lord like nobody's business for giving me this opportunity, and then I said a little prayer for Liza because I have no idea where her heart is, but I do know that I hope she's with me in heaven because I don't think I could spend an eternity without being able to listen to Liza.

Tomorrow my life is going to change forever.

That is, if I don't have a heart attack first. The moment I've been waiting for since the beginning of time (or maybe since I was 12) is about to happen. I'm going to see Liza!! Liza with a "Z"!!! In concert. In Baltimore. Tomorrow!! The only thing that could make this moment better would be meeting Liza and/or getting called on to fill in for one of her back up dancers who just came down with the bird flu. Not that I'm wishing that on anyone. I just have dreams about dancing with Liza. Because that is my goal. And I dance much better than I sing. Hopefully one day I'll be doing this:

Some things I've been enjoying lately.

A great column on Jesus and the iPhone.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/columnists/franklinharris/070913.shtml

Every Breath Bernanke Takes. I'm a Bernanke fan, but I just love this video!



Listening to my Coldplay cd (thanks Rachel!) in my car. Y'all know what that’s means :)

Wrapping soap and working at the Farmer’s market.

Doing this quiet time everyday. Except I like to refer to it as 90 days with the one of many because if I’m honest with myself, Jesus is just one of the many things that has my heart right now. But that's why I'm spending more time with him :)

Dancing.

Last night my pilates teacher told me I looked like a dancer so you may just find me auditioning for the next season of SYTYCD. If I'm not too old.

Jamaica me happy :)

If you are wondering where I have been lately, I've been on vacation. Imagine that! I just got back from a super fun trip to Jamaica with Paige, Liz and Katy. We took this trip to celebrate Paige's 30th birthday and I of course enjoyed seeing all mi bredren (as they say in Patois) in JA.

But each year that I go back, it's always sad to see how much the kids have grown up! Sweet little Barrington is still completly sweet but he is no longer little! He just turned 12 last Wed. but he's already a good 8 inches taller than me. I can hardly stand to watch him grow up! Thankfully he is still a little boy on the inside. He is one of the nicest and most polite kids I have ever met! When I told him I didn't bring him a gift this year he said "Yes, you did! You came to see me on my birthday and I appreciate that very much!"

We took he and his friend out to dinner and they had a blast! When Paige offered Romain a taste of her pasta, he took a bite, and then proceeded to eat from her bowl for the rest of the evening. He and Barrington hardly ate their pizza, but they certainly enjoyed all of our meals. Too funny!

Other than hanging out with the kids, we spent lots of time relaxing on the beach, went horseback riding and went to YS Falls. Here are some pics of all the fun!

At the falls

At Barry's

With Barrington at his birthday dinner

Romain, Barrington and Paige at dinner

Katy, Barrington, Romain and Liz

Me and Paige with Peter (aka Cash Money) on our way to the caves

Cash Money in a cave. I love this pic :)

The ladies at Rick's Cafe

Paige on horseback with our guide Patrick

Oshane and Patrick

And the pic you've all been waiting for... Shabba with his new teeth! I made him run home and put on the same shirt I'd taken the toothless pic in. It's a little faded but he still has it!