Celebrating with a Giveaway

It did take a while to get to it but I have finally arrived.  This is post 1000!  It's hard to believe that I have actually written that many words.  Of course, anyone who knows me is probably not surprised.  I can talk a lot, too.

I want everyone to celebrate along with me and so I'm offering a gift.  I have made so many friends - and hope to make more - during the five years I've been blogging.  It started out kind of slow and sporadic with infrequent posts.  I challenged myself to increase my posts per month until I got to one post a day.  That was made easier by a trip around blogland one morning.  It was just a random blog hop based on the followers of a couple of blogs I followed.  And I found some really interesting people and ideas.  And some fantastic photography.

Last year, I participated in the A-Z Challenge and I plan to do that again.  What a wonderful way to find new friends.  And the same for all the blog-hops and blog-fests that can be found.  I will be participating in the Birth year reading Challenge 2012, too.  I love the challenge part of blogging.  Sometimes it's a challenge to write something.  Other times, it's a challenge to get around and visit everyone.  But for me, a challenge is a pleasure.  If there were none, life would be pretty boring.

I have found friends whom I know I would like to meet up with for real.  I'm not a huge traveller, so am not likely to have the opportunity.  But never say never.  And the invite is always there for a meet if anyone is in Vancouver.  The support and encouragement from everyone is amazing.  It's wonderful to have a place to share interests with bloggers doing the same thing.

So, did you guess what the gift is?  Yes, it's some hooking.  A tiny mat - just 6 inches in diameter - that could be a large coaster or a small hot pad for your dinner table.  The design is called 'Celtic Heart' and I remember seeing something like it in a tattoo parlor.  Just window shopping...really!  I've included two photos because I thought the first one was boring but showed the color better.  The second has a more interesting background. I hooked this one back when I was selling quite a few mats on ebay.  When that wound down, this one was left and I just packed it away with about three other items.  And then I got busy doing other stuff.  If you are interested in seeing the hooking I was doing then, you can see it all here. 

If you want to participate, just leave a comment on this post.  I'll do a random number generator thing next Sunday night (Jan 22) and post the winner on Monday morning.  Let's just pretend that I did it at midnight because you all know I wouldn't actually be awake then.