We have us some winners, internets!

The following nine commenters are about to be proud owners of The JJ.

#129 – Tonya
#133 – Cyn
#181 – Janet (no blog – gmail email address)
#384 – Julie
#402 – Gina (no blog – yahoo email address)
#434 – Melene
#488 – Lynda (no blog – yahoo email address)
#490 – Katrina
#656 – 2pink

Congratulations, everybody!

If you’ll email me your mailing addresses, I’ll forward that info to Janie so that she can ship out your JJ early next week.

And if you didn’t win but would like to order, it’s oh-so-simple.

Janie’s website isn’t quite ready, so she has set up a blog with all the pertinent info, and you can order through PayPal there. The JJ’s are selling in stores for $40, but if you buy through her blog, you can get them for $34 each. Plus, if you order between now and December 15th, shipping is free – whether you order one or ten.

I don’t know about y’all, but I love me some free shipping.

But wait! There’s more!

Because if you buy 4, you’ll get 1 free. If you place an order for 4, Janie will throw in a freebie when she ships your order.

I KNOW!

So if you’d like to place an order, head over here – and you’ll see each pattern, measurement information, and an email address where you can contact Janie if you need to do that. I can promise you that items will be shipped out quickly because my brother – who is perhaps the most obsessive thorough person I know – is helping Janie with the packaging and shipping, and he will probably be sitting in the parking lot of the post office at 7:30 Monday morning, waiting on them to OPEN THOSE DOORS, ALREADY.

Thanks so much for participating, y’all – this giveaway was so much fun! And thanks especially for the way you have encouraged Janie this week – it has meant so much to her to have such a phenomenal response to a brand new product. I’m going to put a button in my sidebar this weekend so that y’all can continue to check her website for updates and new designs.

Hope y’all are having a wonderful weekend.

Some recent posts I have really enjoyed:

Thankful by Susanna at Confessions of A Tired Supergirl

Thursday Thirteen: Ethel Edition by Melanie at This Ain’t New York

What Goes Around by Antique Mommy

Just in case you want to put a button in your sidebar….

<a href="https://www.boomama.net/?p=1730" target="_blank"><img src="http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h134/boomama205/tour.jpg" border="0" alt="Christmas Tour of Homes"></a>

The internets have spoken (well, some of them, anyway), and it looks like we’re gonna be having us a Bloggy Tour of Homes again this year. Before I put up the previous post I’d decided that if at least a hundred people wanted to participate then it was probably the thing to do. And since it’s almost Christmas, I think it makes sense to do a Christmas tour. Because that would be convenient.

So give me a couple of days to get a sidebar button done, and once it’s ready I’ll post the code here so that we can start to get the word out.

If you don’t know how these things work, it’s pretty simple. I’ll be the home base and will put up a Mr. Linky on the day of the tour. You’ll put up the pics of your home tour on your blog – and then you’ll come over here and link to your post on a Mr. Linky. It’s a big bloggy extravaganza.

The date is going to be Monday, December 17th – I’m guessing that most folks will have their houses decorated by then. I’ll outline some specific tour guidelines later. Whenever I figure out what those guidelines might be. Or if they’re even necessary. Or whatever.

Or maybe we’ll just abide by what we did last year:

I only ask a couple of things if you’re planning to participate in this humble little tour:

1) That you actually post pictures of your holiday decorations (and by all means, if you celebrate Hanukkah and not Christmas, please join us).

2) That you don’t mock the season. Or the Reason. Or the people who are participating. And I shouldn’t even have to say that because MY WORD WE’RE A BUNCH OF GROWN-UPS, PEOPLE!

As for what kind of pictures we’re going to post…well, I’m thinking pictures of your tree…pictures of a particular collection that you love…pictures of your favorite nativity scene…pictures of your front door…and pictures of your outside decorations if you’d like to share them.

So basically, you know, whatever.

And really, it’s only fair that you should provide some refreshments (I mean, you ARE inviting us over and all), so I think it would be great fun if everyone posted his or her favorite quick and easy holiday recipe along with the pictures.

Seems easy enough to me.

Deck the halls, y’all!

Now I will tell you up front that I am not, by and large, a jewelry person. I mean, I like a cute pair of earrings as much as the next girl, but I’m not someone who dreams of amassing a large assortment of precious stones or even of owning a really nice watch. I’m perfectly content with whatever Steinmart has on the sale rack, and if I had a choice between having a new diamond ring or taking a fabulous trip with my husband, the trip would win out every single time. It’s not even a contest.

But oddly enough, for the last several months I’ve found myself wishing that I had a simple, pretty necklace that I could wear with almost everything. Life with a four year-old dictates that I’m sort of past the point of wearing anything with a delicate chain, but a few months ago I saw one SASSY necklace in particular that really struck my fancy. Big, chunky beads – simple design – lots of color. I looked at it online almost every single day, but there was no way I could justify buying it during this “season of waiting” we’re walking through right now.

And so I had to let it go.

Well, a couple of weeks ago – right after my birthday – I got an email from Lisa, one of my readers, and she said she wanted to make a necklace for me, and OH, BY THE WAY, she even MAKES HER OWN (CHUNKY, COLORFUL) BEADS.

Somebody give the Lord a handclap. Give Him a handclap of praise.

The necklace arrived a little over a week ago, and y’all, when I finally got it unwrapped, I gasped. And then I said, “I LOVE IT!” about seventeen times in a row, never you mind that I was all by myself. It is absolutely perfect for me, and I really will treasure it forever. I smile every single time I put it on – and I just have to share the sassy jewelry goodness.

So: A GIVEAWAY!

Lisa has been working like crazy to get ready for this giveaway, and she has made some absolutely gorgeous pieces. As a person who could not string oversized wooden beads onto yarn without having a small nervous breakdown, I cannot even imagine the intricacy and attention to detail involved with making jewelry. But I know good stuff when I see it, and Lisa’s jewelry is good stuff. It’s great stuff. No doubt about it.

Here’s how the giveaway will work. Go here to look at Lisa’s fabulous designs, and pick out your favorite. Then come back here, comment, and tell me which one you like the best.

On Friday I’ll use a random number generator to pick TWO winners, and those winners will be able to select the necklace of their choice from Lisa’s collection. And if you want to buy something instead of taking your chances with the drawing, you can certainly do that, too. I think you’ll be surprised by how affordable these one-of-a-kind pieces actually are.

So go. Look. Window shop. And then come back here and tell me which one you like best.

I AM ALREADY SO HAPPY FOR THE WINNERS!

So once or twice every single day I run across posts and other bits of interweb goodness that I want to share with y’all, but then I think that if I get in the habit of posting lots of links on my main page I’ll never actually write anything original.

Because posting links is way easier. And I enjoy the posting of the links.

Well, yesterday it occurred to me that I could just set up another page on the blog for links, and I can update it countless times a day if I want to, only truth be told I’ll probably only update it once a day because heaven forbid I set some sort of unreasonable expectations involving the frequency of the linkage.

Anyway, you can find this new little section over to the left in my sidebar where it says “Daily Linky Interwebby Awesomeness.”

I have absolutely no defense for the title other than the fact that I enjoy adjectives. Especially when adjectives end in the “y” sound.

Hopefully I’ll be able to spotlight other people’s blogs a little bit more than I have been doing, so by all means feel free to send me a link if you run across a post or article or video that you think is particularly, well, awesome. Just make sure to put “Awesomeness” in the subject line so that the link doesn’t get lost in vast maze that is my inbox.

And please – pretty please, I beg of you, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD – if you can possibly refrain from sending me links to your own posts for this particular little interweb feature, that would be much appreciated. Otherwise it could get a little awkward.

Remember, I’m Southern. And as such I do not enjoy the awkward. Because then I feel compelled to fix the awkward and smooth everything over and bake you a pound cake. Which can get a little time consuming.

I’m sure you understand.

And I believe that is all.