Blogiversary & Surprise Giveaway

Today's my blogiversary. It still needs a bit of sinking in to fully realise that I've been blogging for a year. Feels even weirder to know that my sewiversary is only two months away. Come May it'll be three years that I first touched a sewing machine and learned about the basics of sewing skirts. It's been quite the journey in both instances and I've met a lot of lovely people along the way, not only in real life but also, even especially, here.

There's so many people who inspire me, many who drop by now and then, and, above all, a couple of loyal regulars who not only freely share their opinions and tips but have become long distance friends. You, and it all, mean a lot to me and my months-without-proper-internet only made that all the more evident.

Do you care for a few examples?

Just yesterday I finally spruced up my header following Jennifer's Blogging technology 101 tutorials over at ghquilting. I've been meaning to do this for ages and always put it off. Jennifer's tutes came at exactly the right time to save me hours of frantic searching and I'll have tons of fun playing around some more.

My comments are finally numbered thanks to the snippet of info provided by Jenelle of Echinops & Aster. Been meaning to do that ever since she posted about it in May last year. Laaazy. But I knew it was there for me to use and I finally did.

This week I've had a very hard time falling asleep several nights in a row because my head was swimming in ideas. For a baby quilt for my nephew inspired by Angela. (He's been good at hiding the fact until yesterday but now we know!) For a wedding quilt for my sister next year inspired by one of Kristy's gifts for her nan (and you should have a look at the second, too!) and Dana's wedding quilts. For a quilt for my beloved husband that I'm keeping mum about for the moment but that's got input from something Vicki's making over at Hitch & Thread. And these are really just a few examples.

Congrats if you've made it through all that! Now onto the giveaway.

This is a sneak peak of something that I've been working on the past days. It isn't quite finished yet, but even before I started I kept thinking that it might be just the thing to give away for my blogiversary and now I'm liking it enough already to actually do just that. That's right, I'm happiest giving away things that I really like. Surely some of you can relate?

I doubt it'll travel all by itself but rather will be accompanied by whatever else finds its way into the parcel, e.g., German chocolate, anyone? I'll not tell more, though, to keep it a surprise giveaway.

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment. How about telling me of a favourite recipe of yours? You wouldn't be able to tell from this blog but I love to cook from scratch (and eat) and would love to try new things. Follwers get a second second entry - just let me know in another separate comment. Giveaway is open to readers internationally and will be closed on March 16, 12 p.m. CET. Now that I've got numbered comments, I'll draw the winner using the true random number generator at random.org instead of literally drawing it from a hat. Please make sure I can contact you via email or I'll have to re-draw.

Good luck and happy sewing!