Simply A Musing Blog

Time's Up! The winner is #19 - Six in the Northwest! Congrats and thanks for entering, everyone! Several weeks back, Arianne, from the One2One Network asked me if I'd like to review a cd/dvd of Yanni's newest project, "Voices" - and I jumped on the chance to review and co-sponsor a giveaway on the little old blawg. Then life got in the way and well...it's just getting posted...but with no less love, I assure you. Yanni, in collaboration with legendary producer Ric Wake, has discovered and developed four of the most extraordinary young voices in music today. Two years in the making, Yanni returns to the global stage with a dazzling new tour. For the first time ever, Yanni re-interprets his classic compositions and debuts new music introducing show-stopping vocalists Nathan Pacheco, Chloe, Ender Thomas and Leslie Mills. I wasn't sure what to expect, especially after checking out their site, Yanni.com - it looked like a bunch of really pretty people, but I...

****Contest Closed - scroll to bottom of post to see who the winner is!**** So is your Christmas shopping done yet? (I haven't even begun, which is not unusual for me) If you're anything like me (read: procrastinator), you definitely read on to find out how you can win something for your own Christmas stocking this year! While the majority of techy-type gadgets get more complicated with time, (think Blackberrys), the Peek mobile email device is one of the simplest I've ever used. I love mine and never leave home without it now. You can add multiple email address to it (think: personal, blog, etc...) and it will check them all, keeping you in touch without ever having to be near a computer. There is a $20 monthly fee, but there are no contracts to sign and no hassles - if you like it, use it. Besides, have you checked the prices of a phone contract with internet or email capabilities? Hello? This is much more affordable for the average person who doesn't need constant i...

Well, it's an hour later than I intended...I was going to be all "smart" and draw at 11:11 pm on 11/11...get it? I love that kind of stuff. Instead, it's 12:11 and I drew via the random number generator....drumroll... There were 16 entries for the contest - Commenter #9, MzTerry is the winner! Congrats! Please email me your mailing address so I can contact our generous sponsor and let them know who to send the prize to! (Also, please let me know whether you want a hat or a tee to go with that music!) Thanks for playing along everyone - watch for more fun giveaways soon... Look on the bright side! Subscribe via my RSS feed.

It's Monday and it feels like a wonderful day for a giveway! Who's up for a giveaway? Anyone? Anyone? Last week, I received the newest Linda Eder cd "The Other Side of Me" in the mail for a review. Anyone who knows me is well aware that I'm a sucker for anyone who's been on Broadway because I adore music and have extremely varied tastes. That said, I wasn't sure what to expect from this cd, because I had read it was a deviation from the style that fans of Linda Eder had come to know and love over the last 15 years. (I first saw her as "Lucy" in the Broadway rendition of "Jekyl & Hyde" in the late 90's) I was not disappointed, however. Her newer style is infused with just a touch of country flavor and I truly enjoyed the album. My favorite song was actually written by Linda and is called "Waiting for the Fall" - which has an unexpected mix of hip-hop accompanied by a bouncy beat. (Can you tell I'm not a music revi...

Before I announce the winner, may I just say that I really, really, really wish I could give away ten copies? (are you listening, Adobe ?) But that said, thanks to all who entered the "Photoshop CS3- slightly used" giveaway! There were 410 commenters - so many that I had to number the comments, because I wasn't about to count through 410 comments to locate the winner. Without further ado, here are the results: Can you believe that? All that numbering and I could have counted to 73! Congratulations, Dianne! I hope you enjoy it! Please contact me with your mailing info. Look on the bright side! Subscribe via my RSS feed.

Okay, so I'm not working eight days a week...I'm actually trying to take weekends off now so I can spend time with my kids (not that I don't see them every day...but there's a definite distinction between mom and teacher). I designed a memorial blog for a friend's daughter (and I must tell you there was no charge - it was for personal use - that's so the bad guys don't come and try to take me away!), and since I won't be showing it in my portfolio (it was a freebie and made with items that are for non-commercial use, plus she's my friend), I wanted to show it here. So Jeanette, this is for you, sister. I know you miss your sweet Lezlee Ann and it brought me great joy to do something for you so you can write her story on its pages. I also finished and installed another design today - for Christy at The Road to Home , and I'll be profiling it over on my design blog in the next day or two, but here's a preview of what her new design looks like: ...

***If you're here via Bloggy Giveaways - please go to item #3 - that's the giveaway!*** Mondays are good days for announcing things, don't you think? It's long been known that I'm a maker of lists and enjoy the pleasure of accomplishing tasks and marking them off of said lists, if for nothing else than just the satisfaction of seeing something was actually completed. 1. My brand-spanking new Design Blog is finished. I am so excited about it - I coded it myself (which explains why some of you who have MSIE6 and FF2.0 will have viewing issues - working on the bugs still). You can visit it if you like, or not. I still have some work to do on it and there are still a few pages that are either buggy or not complete, but honestly? I just wanted to get it out there so I could announce part two of my list. 2. My order pad is open for business. Yay! I already have a wait-list of five people, but I will accept new clients as well - please go to my new Design Blog for the ne...

***The winner of Saturday Mystery Photo and a $5 Starbuck's gift card is Michelle from MichellePendergrass.com . Congrats, Michelle! I'll be emailing you - need your snail mail so I can send your gc to you! Thanks to everyone for playing along.*** So today's mystery photo actually comes with a prize, can you even believe it? The first person to correctly identify the object in the photo will win a $5 Starbucks gift card - not a bad prize for a click and a guess, if I do say so myself. If you don't like Starbucks, or have it where you're at, then you can choose another store. So get to guessing! My guess is that it's going to go fast, so you'd better get your guess in while you can! ****Save the Date! On Tuesday's edition of Behind the Blog, Melanie and I will have Michelle from Scribbit on and we'll be talking about a wide variety of things - so be sure to tune in at 12pm central time on Behind the Blog. Look on the bright side! Subscribe via my RS...

Congrats, Kara! I've emailed you and I need your mailing address. If Kara does not respond within the next 3 days, another winner will be chosen and notified. Thanks for jumping through the hoops, everyone! It was a blast - I hope to see you all around my blog in the coming weeks. Look on the bright side! Subscribe via my RSS feed.

*****CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED***** WINNER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED VIA EMAIL!***** I have been saving this $100 Target Gift card since June in anticipation of this Bloggy giveaway. Who doesn't need a HUNDRED BUCKS to spend on themselves at Target? Seriously? This time around, I'm doing things a little differently - if you want to play along, great! Here are the hoops you'll have to jump through in order to win: * Subscribe to my blog via feedreader at the end of this post or via email to the left and leave me a comment stating that you subscribed . (If you are already subscribed, just leave a comment and I'll include you in the drawing). Do not leave a generic "oh! I'd love to win this" or you will be disqualified. * I can tell if you have subscribed or not through my feedburner pro account, so please don't tell me you have subscribed if you haven't - I can see who has and who has not. *One entry per person per day . You may enter daily until the contest ...

I was on a conference call at 12 noon, so I'm just now getting a moment to post this month's winner of the Palm Tungsten PDA - thanks to everyone for posting to your blogs - everyone received their extra 5 credits that posted. If you didn't tell me in the comments you posted on it, and it didn't show up in the links, then I didn't know about it. There were just too many entries for me to check every single one this time...without further ado, the winner is... An email has been sent to the winner and if she is unable to respond within 3 days, we go back to the drawing board and draw again. Thanks again to everyone for playing and keep your eyes open for July's giveaway! Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS.

***This giveaway is now closed*** Alrighty...this might just be one of the biggest giveaways I've done here yet. No, it's not $1000 cash, but I get excited just thinking about it myself. Fortunately, we already have two of these in our family. I received this one from my nephew and it has sat in its purdy little box on the shelf for such a time as this. Are you ready to see what it is? You can go here for more details and to see what it actually does. Want to know how you can win? ~The contest begins today and ends Monday 6/30 at 12pm CMT. ~One entry per person, please. ~You do not have to have a blog to enter - just be sure to leave me your contact information in the comments. If you do not leave contact information and there is no email on your blog I will draw someone else ~No Anonymous comments will be entered for obvious reasons. ~Random Number generator will choose the winner and winner will be contacted via email as well as posted on ...

I like pictures. This being said, I'm going to use pictures to announce the winner. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, it's only worth about $33 bucks from Target, but still. Using Random.org, adding all the extra entrants in and entering the numbers....And the winner is: But just who is commenter #66? Anonymous? No! Wait...she left a name! Congratulations, Diane. You should have an email from me in your inbox - send me your address so I can send you your Target Gift card, okay? And for all of those who entered and didn't win? Well, fooey then. But seriously...don't despair - nothing rivals my love of the ellipses like a good contest. Check back this next week for June's giveaway! Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS.

*** Time's up! This contest is now closed *** It's that time again...yes, the Monthly Giveaway is here! And only two weeks into the month! Don't you think I'm doing so much better? (Don't answer that.) I know how much I personally love this store, so I thought to myself, "Self...why not give a gift card for this store away?" So that's what I'm doing - what's the store, you ask? Lookie here: Why in the world $33? Because I can. That's why. I like odd numbers - why be normal when you can have more fun being the opposite of normal? The Fine Print: ~The contest begins today and ends Saturday 5/31 at 12pm CMT. ~One entry per person, please. ~You do not have to have a blog to enter - just be sure to leave me your contact information in the comments. If you do not leave contact information and there is no email on your blog I will draw someone else (if you want another entry, just grab the little birdy photo from above and paste it somewhere on ...

Thanks to everyone who commented today! That was fun - hope you all had a blessed and wonderful Mother's Day (even those of you who aren't yet mommies!) And the winner is...(having been drawn by the random number generator with my husband looking over my shoulder at 12:00 midnight -- sorry -- we were at my mother-in-laws LATE): Because Emily didn't want to enter since she doesn't have kids, I didn't add her into the mix, but I did enter everyone else. And the lucky number six goes to: Congrats, Megan ! I've emailed you with the details. That was so much fun, we'll have to do some more silly little sneak prizes this month...I love giving things away so so much. Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS.

Leave a comment on my blog up until 9 pm central time tonight for a chance to win your very own personalized "Mommy Cards". Browse through Simply Amusing Designs and tell me your favorite and leave it in the comments. I'll choose one winner via the trusty old random number generator. One note - you MUST leave me a way to contact you in the comments if your email address is not attached to your blog profile. Good luck! Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS. Technorati Tags: simply amusing designs , Mother's Day giveaway , Texas

I've been keeping it a secret for weeks and it's been killing me...so without further ado...{are you getting tired of the ellipses yet?} I'm featured on Bloggy Giveaways this week and, well, if you want to know the details, you'll just have to head on over there and see for yourself what the hoopla is all about. {I know, I know...I am SO mean to make you follow a stinkin' link -- but not nearly as mean as I was going to be. I was going to tell you that I was pregnant in the first sentence, but I just could not bring myself to do it, because, alas, I am not. And because it would be mean. So I didn't. Because I'm nice like that.} By the way...I completely overhauled my design blog in an attempt to get ready for Tuesday's giveaway: And one more thing. I promise to update this blog more often now that I have the pressure of completing my design blog done. That is all. Thank you. Now, go enter yourself in the giveaway. Look on the bright side! Subscribe via R...

Obviously, this means nothing to anyone until I explain it. If you go back to the original post , you'll see there are only 140 entries (one of which is a duplicate, which I didn't count)...so how the heck did I come up with #181 as the winner? Well, everyone who posted or linked to my blog about the contest got 5 extra entries...and I went through personally and checked every single blog where someone had said they linked and there were eleven. (backlinks doesn't show that many, but there really are!) I added those ladies on at the end in multiples of five in the order they commented and commenter # 181 would go to...(drumroll please) Congratulations to Ginny from Daily Thoughts ! I will need your snail mail address so I can get these out to you! Thanks to everyone for participating - here's a little link love for those who linked back to me for the contest: ~Elaine from Home But Not Alone ~ Mssterrzy ~Jeanette from Always Been Different ~Elaine from The Miss Elaine-ou...

Hi and welcome to my giveaway for the quarterly Bloggy Giveaway Carnival! I'm so glad you stopped by and I know you've got six gazillion other giveaways to enter, so I'll make this easy for you. ( Why don't you just bookmark me or add me to your reader and come back for a visit - I have monthly giveaways too!) I've got a little something I made up for grabs. Pictures just cannot capture the cuteness that is this apron - here's my daughter (who is 11, modeling it): Close Up: The Details on How to Win: 1. To enter, just leave me a comment. You don’t have to be a blogger to enter, but you do need to leave your name - I can’t contact you if you win if you enter anonymously. 2. One comment per person, please. 3. Open only to those with U.S. mailing addresses (this includes Alaska and Hawaii - not just the lower 48!) 4. I will use a random number generator to pick the winner and you have until Saturday, April 26th at noon to enter - so if you leave your comment after...

I love coffee. In fact, I think my blog is powered by coffee...and very little sleep. I'm a sucker for freebies and giveaways as much as the next person, and this one is too good to keep to myself. Want to know how to get a free Starbucks coffee sample? Go to their website and let it completely load. Look to the left and click on "Explore our coffees", then look up to the upper right corner and click on "Enjoy a complimentary sample", fill out the form and it's on its way. Easy-peasy, right? Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS. Technorati Tags: starbucks sample , Free Starbucks Coffee , Texas