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!