There is a Winner!

The winner of the Starbucks giveaway is Jolene, with the 10th of 12 comments!  I have emailed Jolene to let her know, but if you haven't got the email yet and are reading this, Congratulations!  Check your email!

I appreciate all of those who responded to the post and started following.  I will be following any of you who mentioned having a blog!  And I have finally finished my six weeks of more travel than not travel and will hopefully be posting on a more regular basis here!  

I have a few things I would like to do:  get caught up on the Picture A Day project and post those here, do some before and after photos of my two big decluttering/organizing areas - the garage and the guest bedroom closet, and get my Christmas decorations put away so the house starts to look a bit more normal, oh, and talk a little bit about The Compact that I have been considering, but not committing to.  

So, there you have it.  Congratulations to Jolene and I look forward to hearing from the rest of you for a future contest or just through a comment on a post here and there!

New Starbucks Fave and Giveaway Offer!

From Starbucks.com

I have a new love.  No, I'm not getting divorced or anything!  I tried Starbucks' new Vanilla Spice Latte this morning and it is my new favorite coffee drink!  I am a latte lover at heart, but the sweetness factor in a lot of the flavored ones has driven me away from them.  Since I love the Christmas flavors (Gingerbread and Pumpkin Spice), I will order them, but with half the usual amount of syrup.  And, that is usually pretty good for my taste.  But, I ordered this Vanilla Spice Latte with the full syrup and with the sweetness and spiciness, I really think it is a perfect fit!  The spiciness seems to cut the sugary flavor of the vanilla just the right amount.  I can't say this will be good on my pocketbook goals for 2013, but I am certainly happy to have a drink I can look forward to when I do decide to spend some cash at Starbucks (or when I get that gift card that I save up MyPoints for during the year!

So, because I have fallen in love with this new latte experience, I have decided to offer a giveaway to my readers (and there are not a ton of you, so the odds are pretty good I think!)!  I will give a $5 Starbucks gift card so you can try the new latte in the largest size you would like AND give a coupon for a free Tall Blonde Roast drip coffee (for those without the fancy coffee taste)!  All you have to do is (1) become a follower via GFC (in the sidebar) and (2) comment below with your favorite coffee drink (or if you are a non-coffee drinker, your favorite thing to sip on during these cold winter days).  Let me know in your comment what name your GFC follow is listed under.  Even if you aren't a coffee drinker, you can enjoy something else with your $5 gift card and share the coupon for the free Tall coffee with a friend or family member!  Each entry will be assigned a number and I will use a random number generator to choose the winner on January 15, 2013!  I will email the winner, so be sure to leave your email along with the comment!

I have received no promotional materials from Starbucks for this post - I just thought I would share!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

I do not consider myself to be a lucky person.  In fact, I am usually more inclined to think that losing makes me stronger and to take my lot in life and move on.  But, lately, I have been entering online blog contests as I see them.  Nothing substantial - just when I come across something that I think would be a good thing to have, I take a few minutes to enter the contest.  Usually via Rafflecopter, so it isn't difficult.  And often, it will introduce me to new blogs and/or new Pinterest pages and/or new Facebook pages that I soon fall in love with.  So, why not?

Well, this week has been my lucky week!  So far, I have been notified that I won a Ubooly from Mom in Management (one of my favorite blogs), which is going to become a Christmas gift for Bean (she will love it - although, we may not be able to get our phone/iPad back from her) and today I found out I won the Winter Kids Craft prize from a new blog I discovered recently: Projects for Preschoolers.  The prize is a combination of things for me (a planner, journal and notepads) and things for Bean (crafts supplies, etc.).  I love, love, love the Laura Kelly designs stuff and I have not got a new wall calendar for 2013 yet, so it will be perfect!  I am super excited about both things and can't wait to get them and try it all out.  Thanks to Jen at Projects for Preschoolers and Daria at Mom in Management!

So, for this week, I will consider myself lucky!  What about you?  Have you won anything lately?