Tuesday 15 May 2012

And The Winners Are...

...oh no, not so fast! Let me build up a little suspense before I'll reveal who won our giveaway and will soon be finding a pair of my Mum's hand-knitted socks in their mail.

First of all, thank you to everyone who commented and/or participated - we were both quite overwhelmed by the response! My blog has now 80 followers, something I never expected when I first started blogging a bit over 3 years ago.

Friko wrote yesterday about her reasons for blogging, and Pete expressed his thoughts on the subject some time ago.

For myself, blogging started out of necessity.
Writing in itself was something I have enjoyed since I was able to string the first words together, in huge capital letters stumbling across a piece of paper, done in crayon at the age of 5, and most likely with the tip of my tongue with all the serious effort showing in one corner of my mouth. My sister and I both loved writing up little stories, illustrating them with photos of dolls and stuffed animals we cut from the toy catalogue that made our favourite reading in the weeks leading up to Christmas each year.
At school, I must have bored my teachers to tears with essays rarely under ten pages; I guess they gave me good marks merely out of gratitude for finally having come to the end of my ramblings.
Learning to type (blind, 10 fingers) was great - it finally enabled me to write a lot quicker than before, and in a way that other people would actually be able to read it! (My handwriting is hardly legible to myself.)
And then, in the late 1990s, I discovered the internet, chat rooms and email.

I made friends over the internet, even found a husband (without having specifically set out to do so), and to this day am in touch with some of the people I first met in the virtual world.
The year 2008, especially the months from October to December, were a particularly difficult time in my life. A good friend pointed me to various means of self-expression, and blogging was one of them. So in March 2009, my blog was started, and although it has since then taken a much different direction (just as my life has changed very much since 2008/2009), I have come to really love the possibilities my blog gives me.
It lets me share anything from holiday snaps to recipes, from deep thoughts to the most mundane, and it is simply FUN to write, read your comments and of course, read your blogs as well.

Enough of that now, I think - let's get back to the giveaway!

Yesterday, I went for lunch at my parents' (which has become a weekly and much loved habit of mine), taking  all the little pieces of paper with your names on them along. My Mum provided a hat, and we were ready for the drawing:

My Mum drew the first two, and I the third lot:

Then I opened them...


And the winners are: Kay, Claudia and Friko!!!



Congratulations, ladies :-)
To claim your prize, please send me an email (the address is shown on my blog profile) with your complete mail address. I will then send a pair of socks from my Mum's stock to you as soon as possible. 


Thank you, Mum, for providing me with not just one, but THREE prizes for the giveaway, and for being so much fun to be with in all this, and guest-posting on my blog!

25 comments:

  1. Hello Meike:
    Congratulations to the winners! We are sure that they will enjoy their hand-knitted socks enormously and, with temperatures dipping across Europe at the moment, this is surely a timely gift!

    Clearly, blogging has brought you much pleasure and the friendship of so many individuals. For us, too, this is such a welcome surprise and something we had not counted on when we began just over a year ago. May your next year of blogging be equally satisfying and successful. You certainly have enriched our blogging experience by 'knowing' you!

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    1. Thank you, jane and Lance!
      Let me hand the last sentence of your comment right back to you, with a curtsy.

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  2. Well done to the winners !

    I'm catching up on blogs and will read other peoples' reasons for blogging. I don't quite know why I blog, need to be more self analytical I think! :)

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    1. Strangely enough, I rarely do anything without knowing why. I do not always feel comfortable explaining my motives, but when it comes to blogging, I have no qualms in admitting that I simply like the almost limitless possibilities and the attention I get from others.

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  3. For me, it was a great pleasure, as well, to write, to get those nice and lovely comments, and for that, and because there have been so many participants, I decided to give 3 prices away.

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    1. And had I not stopped you, you would have even given away more than that :-)

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  4. Seeing that hat and knowing that on one of those pieces of paper was my name gave me an odd feeling. I can't describe it but it sort of turned this from being virtual to being real. Odd. Well done to the winners.

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    1. Graham, your name was actually on THREE pieces of paper in that hat. There were a great many pieces of paper, many more than you'd think of looking at the picture - the hat is rather "deep", and I think I spent about half an hour just writing the names on the bits!

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  5. Squeal of excitement to see my name on one of those slips of paper - thank you so very much Meike's Mum.

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    1. Hello Claudia, got your address, thanks, now I am just waiting for one more, and the socks will start travelling all around the world :-)

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  6. Hello Claudia,
    i hope, you will like the socks we chosed for you!

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  7. Hurra, ich habe gewonnen! Email ist unterwegs. Danke sehr, Meikes Mama.

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    1. Danke, Email ist da, es kann bald los gehen!

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  8. Meike, you said - "It lets me share anything from holiday snaps to recipes, from deep thoughts to the most mundane, and it is simply FUN to write, read your comments and of course, read your blogs as well." I think you've captured the two key words that sum up my reasons for blogging - Share and Fun.

    Meike's Mum - How kind of you to provide three prizes.

    Well done to the winners!

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    1. A lot (if not most) of my life seems to be FUN-ruled, which makes some people see me as shallow and egoistic (which I am), but I don't mind - as long as it is FUN :-)

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  9. Congrats to the winners. I know they will be happy with the wonderful hand-knitted socks from Mum's hands. Lovely idea, the give-away!

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    1. Yes, I know they will get something that is equally useful and nice to look at!

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  10. Lucky winners! If they are anything like my husband they will fall in love with hand-knitted socks. :-) Meike, your reasons for enjoying blogging are very similar to mine and like you I could never have imagined the fun and the friendship I would experience through blogging. Here's to the next three years. :-)

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    1. Thank you, Perpetua! I gladly raise my glass to clink it with yours!

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  11. Love the beautiful straw hat! I wish people wore hats more often.

    Congratulations on your 80+ followers! :o)

    I agree that blogging is a wonderful outlet for anyone who likes to write. Sometimes, I just have to write something or I know I will BUST!!

    Always enjoy your posts. Take care and hugs to both you and your mum. xoxox

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    1. Thank you! As for the 80+, well, I don't know about the +... at the moment, there are exactly 80, one of which being myself (I still don't think it should be technically possible on blogger to follow one's own blog!) and quite a few people I am pretty sure have long since stopped coming here at all.
      Oh yes, I know about busting!!

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  12. Well done the winners! The run up of photos made me smile!

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    1. Glad that I managed that, Macy, can't be easy for you at all these days.
      I wanted to create a bit of suspense instead of simply announcing the names of the winners in the first paragraph :-)

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  13. Wishing can make it so!!! I was so happy to see my name on one of the little slips of paper that was pulled from such a pretty hat! I hope, I hope that it is ME, and not another Kay that left a comment! I am hoping that it is me, and I will send you my info right now! YIPPEE!!!

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    1. As far as I know, there is no other Kay following my blog but you :-)
      And with your address being in my email inbox now, I shall get all three envelopes ready and take them to the post office soon.

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