A Little Unknown Gift

I love her. Gifted with her book for my thirtieth, I've made many a project. (That's a plug if you ever heard one.)

I revel in the back to basics eloquent simplicity, making more with less, recycled, homemade (!), reflections of the past, soothing, satisfying creativeness Amanda Blake Soule emanates.

And, as such I frequent her site...and continue to frequent my book.

And each week - yes each one - (perhaps you want to insert "get a life, Ashleigh" here) I enter her sponsors' giveaways. The routine evolved well over a year ago and while nearly each time I roll my eyes at myself and feel it will never happen, I continue to enter anyway. Hmmmm, sound familiar? Continuing to do something to no avail? Ah hem, I digress.

There's always that small inkling of hope that maybe, just mayyyyybe my name will be randomly selected. Let's keep in mind that there are more than one thousand entries each Saturday and every Sunday.

Alas, this weekend I tried again. Both Saturday and Sunday I commented, left my name, and shut the computer.

But Sunday was my day, people. Among over 1500 other entries those eight letters forming my name were selected.

We celebrated (I use that term loosely) 28 months of waiting on Sunday...and as if it were a small "hang in there" reminder, I Won.

And after learning a bit more about the owner of the shop, I must say I believe it was meant to be.

Let's say - just for old time's sake - that perhaps the lessons here included patience, perseverance, hope, more perseverance, and a small dose of that lovely stubborn quality that resides deep within. I'm going to add faith into that mix but not so much for a superficial weekend giveaway as much as for...well...you know.

Lesson learned.