My Give-aways – This Old House 2

Getting it out of the house

As I sit here typing, the snow flurries float past my windows and shortly I shall be pulling up the bootstraps and putting on the layers to trudge up the hill to the barn. While I adore my horses and chickens, these are the days when I say… “why am I doing this, again?” *sigh*

I got the rest of WINTER out of my house. I don’t need to see it INSIDE as well as outside. This here is the stretch of New England Grey days that could drag a spirit down if you let it be so. I bring out the hearts right about now every year.

My Christmas Cactus is a little confused… but I like the result.

…and who doesn’t love crocus in bloom when snow still rests on the lawn.

(thank you Raven)

Last years Hydrangea dried beautifully… all I did was snip the blooms in early fall before they

withered, and stuck the stems in these vessels… They’ve held up very well.

My winter mantle and side board table are now something a little more cheery,

a reminder of the gardens that will bloom again.

Bailey’s favorite spot – winter sun on the hearth…

Amazing, how well they dry and hold up.

I love the old plow horse shoes we find now and then on the farm..

some are buried in the old stone walls, some were used as fence rail holders.

If I were sew-handy I would make a skirt to attach under this side table.

Any recommendations?

Maybe I can tack a curtain along the underneath? Hmmm…

Many dog day afternoons lately, too cold to stay out for very long,

too lazy to do the bundling up required to go for those nice long walks.

Off to the barn and coop –

It’s a new day, all! – you know the drill…

SALLY in Florida.. had the correct ending to my post yesterday..

It’s a Beautiful Thing!

She’ll be getting a few fun gifts in the mail shortly.

On kindness

My goal for my 1,000th post was to have

gathered 50 or more random acts of kindness from folks

who came across the blog post either randomly or as frequent readers.

In the past three days alone, more than 700 people stopped by to read it

according to site stats.
200 today!

A dozen of you wonderful people told us what you do or have done

as an act of kindness, and I thank you for your particpation in my little “project”.

The world is a better place because you are in it.

I learned something here too….

I had better not ever quit my day job to become a motivational speaker…

🙂

~~~~~

It only takes a little ripple to impact the world for the better.

You don’t require a fat bank account or even spare change.

A simple smile or a compliment or the bringing in of a newspaper,
the returning of a shopping cart,
can be worth a million dollars.

Believe it.

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
― Mother Teresa

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

― Dalai Lama XIV

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
― Anne Frank, diary of Anne Frank

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Using random generator online,

comment number 7 was chosen.
Susie2, you’ve won the give-away!
Please e-mail your mailing address and full name
to karenthisoldhouse@hotmail.com
and I’ll send it out to you right away.

Thank you all –

The Kindness Project

What you are reading right now is post 998 at This Old House too. Holy wow. That’s a lot of posts! To honor the 1,000 milestone, I want to have a give-away. I’ve started putting together a package to send out to the winner chosen using the random generator. Below are items I’ll include …and there will be a surprise or two as well.

This is a really neat little -five year!- One sentence journal –

No big time sucker here – the goal is to write one sentence

each day about what brought you happiness on that day.

The dates are already in it.. you just have to write your one sentence.

Even in the most trying of times,

if you Look for the Good, you’ll see it.

Reading back over your journal entries years down the road

will trigger good memories too 🙂

Two Autumn Owl Hand towels –

and this awesome Evelyn & Crabtree Lip Balm…

So.. what do you have to do to enter the give-away?

It’s real simple.

Commit a random act of kindness, come back and report it here

in the comments section of this post.

If you can’t leave a comment for some reason,

send me your random act of kindess in e-mail and I’ll post it below.

karenthisoldhouse@hotmail.com

What acts of kindess will count?

Anything you come up with.

Need ideas?

Pay for the next persons coffee in the Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks line.

Donate some books to your local library.

If you use tolls on the highway or bridge,

pay the next persons toll.

Drop off hand lotions to your local hospital Intensive Care unit.

The nurses will thank you profusely.

Give the next person in line your silver coins from Big Y.

Take your elderly neighbor a hot meal.

Bring in their paper on a rainy day.

Adopt a cat or dog from your local shelter

(ok, that’s a BIG one.)

Bring some canned goods to your local food pantry.

You get the picture.

Now GO.

DO.

And come back and tell me about it.

Spread the word about this blog post too..

My goal is to see atleast 50 acts of kindness in the comments.

Help me reach that goal, won’t you?

Dirt

Some of you might remember the Chicken Sh*t saga.

This fall we finally spread the last of it, then regraded the entire field behind the

horse barn, and left a big pile of the extra dirt from the regrade

on the edge of the field to ferment futher.

We fortified the soil in the field with lime too, for better quality hay growth this coming season.

Valentines Day was spent redistributing the extra dirt,

with a hired dump truck to haul it to another farm that is using it to dry out their fields.

Since I don’t run with the big dogs when they’re digging in the dirt,

I wandered off to the old bottle dump behind the farm with my camera.

Back at the house, I noticed such rich purple/gold hues in my chocolate coral bell patches…

during a normal winter season these would be crispy brown leaves under snow.

If you’re still with me here, I forgot to announce the winner of the Peanut Butter coupons from

Peanut Butter and Company – Tgannon!! He’s already been notified.

Thank you for all your kind words on yesterday’s post regarding the many

different views of Love. It was so much fun.

And just so ya know, often I try to reply to a comment left here,

so many of you say such nice things or ask a question.

But there are still quite a few readers who have that function turned off,

so I can’t reply. If you wish to change that… here’s how.

A Chipper Chip and a Winner!

Actually, Chip IS the winner… he is doing fabulously, folks. Running, jumping, playing, eating, growing a COAT!!!.. He loved my sneaker laces last night… it was so good to see him acting like a puppy. Lorin is doing a fantastic job with meds and lotions and oils and whirlpool epsom salt baths, etc. etc…. Thank you again for all of your monetary and good wishes contributions. Look what we’ve all accomplished!!!… For those of you who are new, just look to the right and you’ll see where Chip started, at a kill shelter down South in horrible condition.

And the winner of the give-away, via random.org, and I’m sorry but I couldn’t figure out how to post that widget result on my blog… is No. 25, which is a comment left by Cait Throop!! Cait, e-mail me with your address and I’ll ship it off right away 🙂 I loved all of your responses, what a hoot! I think it’s safe to say none of us will EVER jump out of a plane or bungee jump. Ditto!!… I plan to do this again because you guys are so much fun with your answers.

My responses:

1. I’m pretty certain that I will absolutely NEVER drink peachtree schnapps, ever again. Ever.

2. I have a bad habit of worrying, way too much.

3. I never leave the house without my underwear.

4. The last time I thoroughly cleaned out my refrigerator was ….ummm…. well… I think.. it …was… .maybe…
5. If I had a tattoo, and I’m not saying I do or would or will, I think I would put a rising phoenix of my own design with my kids names on the wings somewhere that no one can see it unless it’s intentional. Not that I do or would or will.

6. Three things I can’t live without…. My animals, love, evidence in the human race of kindess, compassion, empathy.

7. I like my coffee to be a good quality coffee with heavy cream, no sugar… but with Acid Reflux I usually drink honey and apple cider vinegar “tea”. Yeah. Fun.

300

Thank you to all you folks out there

who pay any attention to my ramblings

here at This Old House 2.

You make my day with your comments!

Here’s what I’d like to give the winner,
who will be chosen by the random generator,
once you’ve entered by leaving your answers below
in the comments section.

Two Autumn mugs and a big bar of Pumpkin Spice soap.

Fill in the blanks….

1. I’m pretty certain that I will absolutely NEVER ____________________.

2. I have a bad habit of _____________________.

3. I never leave the house without my _________________.

4. The last time I thoroughly cleaned out my refrigerator was ____________.

5. If I had a tattoo, and I’m not saying I do or would or will,
I think I would put a ____________on my _________________.

6. Three things I can’t live without….

__________________

(You’re not allowed to mention your family members, that’s a given.)

7. I like my coffee ______________.

Yum :-)

So… I made the candy corn cookies…and I gotta tell ya… they are so delicious.. especially dunked in your morning coffee. Easy and actually fun to make, too!…

Not that I try to collect followers..

But..

it’s so cool that 300 people have liked what they see here

enough to click on the follower link!

In honor of this, I am having a 300 follower give-away.

My next post will reveal the give-away item,

and no new followers are required.

For those of you who have already clicked,

you’ll just have to answer a few fun questions.

Stay tuned….

Spring Give-away Winner – and You Guys Totally Rock

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes, you make my heart sing with all your kind words, truly.
No, I didn’t get a pony.

Sandra of Thistle Cove farms… You have won my Spring Give-away!! Send me an e-mail with your address – I’ve had fun putting a package together for you.

Have you heard? Today the moon will be at it’s largest, and the Tides will be at their highest. Get your cameras out!

Yesterday I took Ben for a walk on the beach and for the first time ever, I saw a seal sunning himself on a rock nearby. In my 26 years of living in CT, I have never seen a seal in the waters here before. Then, making our way back up the beach, there were two swans just out of dogs reach. Always an odd sight to me in salt water. But beautiful. When I wrangle Ben, the camera is too much… so many photo ops, and NO CAMERA!! The dilemna of being a camera lover is, you ALWAYS see something you want to capture… hard to be without it!

Have a wonderful weekend 🙂