A Sweet Gift for YOU!

Like any good friend, I didn't return home empty handed from my little trip to Hershey. I brought home a souvenir for my friends! And what kind of souvenir would would come from Hershey, aka The Sweetest Place on Earth? CHOCOLATE, OF COURSE!

That, my friends, is a chocolate bar that I made just for you. There's this place called Chocolate World right next the park that, when I was growing up, only had an Epcot-esque educational ride about how chocolate was made. And even when that's all there was, I LOVED IT. Now you can see a 3D movie, go to chocolate tastings, buy all kinds of Hershey's specialty items....

And...

Build you own chocolate bar.

Here's your chocolate connoisseurs reporting for duty:

And there it's dropping raspberry into your chocolate bar...

The final product & my gift to one winner is a bar designed by yours truly with milk chocolate, almonds, raspberry, and sprinkles on top. And all you have to do to win it is leave me a comment answering this question:

If you could design a chocolate bar using any ingredient, what would you use?

The winner will be drawn at random Wednesday afternoon.
Think sweet thoughts, I can't wait to read your creations!

Our work here is done.

One Lucky Winner

(source)

I'm wiling to bet that the lovely lady who just won my 50th Flashback Giveaway already knows it's her. Want to know why? Because she has the best luck of anyone I've ever known. Seriously, she wins everything, just ask her about it.

To be fair, I wrote everyone's name on a piece of paper for every entry they earned, numbered it, & used random.org as an unbiased way to choose. (I almost wrote them on individual papers & let Natalie choose. But every once in a while... not often... I hear a little voice that says "Lauren, too much.") And it picked lucky #4 which just happens to be....

Amanda

from

Breathing in the Wind

Congrats, girl! Thanks for always playing along & being a great bloggie buddy! Enjoy the gift card & find a way to pass around the luck!

4 in 1

Are you kids ready for this?
I'm about to throw 4 posts at you, all wrapped up into 1. That's right, I said 4! A prize to give, an award to receive, a flashback & a bloghop.

Take a deep breathe. Let's do this...

A Prize to Give
I'm really excited about the winner of my 1 year blogoversary giveaway! She's an old friend from college who I don't get to see NEARLY enough & love very dearly

The winner is... DOVEY!!!!! (aka Helen)
In celebration, you can all join me in the theme song to our friendship (to the tune of "all you need is love")

All you need is DOVE

*bah badada dah*

All you need is Dove

*bah badada dah*

All you need is Dove, Dove.

Dove is all you need.

An Award to Recieve 

A big thank you to Emily for my very first blog award!

As per the rules, I'll give you 7 facts about me & then pass it on. And I want to pass it to Amanda from "Breathing in the Wind". She's just a sweetheart, recently engaged so cuteness has been supercharged as of late, & she's just had a tough week so maybe this will give her a boost? Here's to you, Amanda!

7 Things About Me:

1. I have an addictive personality, meaning when I like something I go 100% obsessed. Glee, running, it happens all the time.
2. I have a birthmark on my hand that people always try to wipe off as dirt.
3. I would eat Mexican food EVERY DAY if it wouldn't kill me.
4. I don't like chicken, people always find that strange about me.
5. People get suspicious of me all the time because I smile without noticing so they think I'm being judgmental or plotting something.  It's happened to me for as long as I can remember.
6. I like nicknames, but can't stand when people shorten my name to Laur. Really? That extra syllable is too much?
7. I like to spoon. Anytime of any day. haha This is to bring it back around to Dovey who really started the spoon movement back at IUP. Which leads us to....

A Flashback

Spooning with Dovey & Matt in the dorms circa 2005

I like to be the middle spoon

Are you all still hanging on? Let's wrap it up...

A Bloghop

Dear Secret Pal:

Dear Secret Pal,
I owe you an apology, whoever you are. I'm sorry that I called you a deadbeat, I judged you too quickly and far too harshly. You're not a deadbeat at all. Thank you very much for my fair-trade coffee beans, I'm sure you went well over the dollar amount encouraged & I appreciate your thoughtfulness. And an extra big thank you for those gourmet dog treats... Natalie LOVES them.. & I love you for not judging me for spoiling my dog rotten.

I feel like I need some way to balance my karma after being hostile & full of myself. I guess the way to balance that is to build up someone else.

Blogger buddy, Emily, is hosting a little competition over at her blog called "Work It Wednesday". Show off you kid strutting their fiercest ensembles & sass, & you just might win a prize. Jokingly I asked if I could enter Natalie & her response was:

Sure! Work It Wednesday does not discriminate, I'm sure you feel like your pup is your "kid" so let the workin' begin!

If that's not the sweetest bit of validation for my neurotic puppy-momma tendencies you've ever heard, I don't know what is! So folks, karmic energies are restored & you just got something fun to do. Start rooting through those photos & I'll see you over there!

100th Comment!

Ladies & Gents, we have a winner!

Last week I got this message from my friend Emma in response to my giveaway...

Is is possible to have a similar but different deal called "purchase Lauren's amazing cards outside any sort of contest cause Emma never wins contests and would just like those cards please"? Cause while it's specific in it's marketing, I would really be on board with it.

Well surprise, surprise.... Emma you won! My 100th comment came yesterday in response to the scrabble blog. It was fun to get participation from both my local friends AND the people I'm meeting out there in blog land. Thanks for playing along, everyone. It always makes my inbox a happier place when there are comments to read from lovely people like YOU!

I Love Comments

I still consider myself to be just a baby blogger trying to figure this thing out... & for the most part I don't care much about who is reading my blog or how many people, it's just something I enjoy. There is one part of being a blogger that I really REALLY do love though... (aside from the look on my friends faces when I snap a photo & announce "I'm going to blog about THIS!") ... & that's comments.

I. Love. Comments.

I love that people have something to say about something I said. It's like carrying the conversation beyond me, which I love, because I don't want to focus on me all the time. I want to focus on YOU sometimes. On what you have to say & your reactions.

The other day I was taking an eye to my blogs stats & figuring out if it meant anything when I realized the total number of comments I've received since I started this in January... & it's a lot! Ok ok, in the grand scale of bloggers it's not actually a lot, I've seen people with 1/2 my total number of comments on just one post. But it's a lot TO ME! Lots of old friend & new blog friends saying I can relate to that or some kind of encouragement or even laughing with me about a particularly embarrassing Flashback Friday. I love them all! ...& for that reason I'm doing my first ever giveaway...

Here's the game: Whoever posts my 100th comment wins the giveaway! That's it! 100th comment takes it. (no I'm not telling you how many I already have, you sneaky trickster) Make sure I can link to you or leave an email address so I can get in touch & send you the prize.

And what are we playing for, you may ask? A set of 6 greeting cards, handmade by yours truly.