Giveaway winners

I've finally got round to looking through the entries to my giveaway.
Thank you to everyone who entered, I really enjoyed reading your descriptions of places to visit and am very tempted to see them all now!
The competition is close, with people winning by half points but I did finally pick a winner for each prize;

The winner of the necklace is...

Perdita! She described London in all its glory.

Why visit London? Why bother staying in the UK... well, I would have said that a few years ago myself. Then we had to save for a wedding and home, so no holidays. Over the last few years my home town has thrown up, time and again, new opportunities and interests: quirky museums, thriving markets, kooky bars, lectures, free theatre, wonderful parks, libraries, churches/temples/mosques, shops and of course every type of food in every price range. Dr Johnson was right. The one downside of this city is that there is simply too much to do in a weekend: beyond the Eye and Tower, in the hidden streets and corners, there's a whole world to be found.

The winner of the book is...

Erika. She painted a very romantic picture of Sweden.

You should visit Sweden for the beautiful nature and the wonderful dancing! I would suggest a week at Herräng, the worlds biggest international swing dance camp (about 800 people calls it home each of the 5 weeks the camp is running). The camp is situated close to the beach, in the stunning archipelago of Roslagen, which in itself is worth a visit. 24 hours dancing a day for 6 days! The only bad thing to be said about Herrang is that one have to miss out on something in order to get any sleep =)

Before Herräng, as close to the mid-summer night as possible, I'd recommend a trip to northern Sweden. There's just no words beautiful enough to describe the light at night up here during June / early July! It's not the harsh daylight of the south, not even the softer daylight of the north. It's a cool, grayish, calm and somehow fragile light.
The midnight light is something no pictures can do justice, and words fall short. At least once in a lifetime one should see it... (Oh, how I'm longing for summer nights now! Writing this makes me wish for vacation when I can stay up late and just be). Just check out this post.

Then, of course, there's Stockholm, a very pretty city with lot's of nice tourist attractions, like the outdoor museum of Skansen. For anyone interested in history, it's bliss! If you have a week over after all this, I'd take the boat to Gotland, the island often referred to as "Swedens Riviera". Hot and sunny weather, long beaches, always close to the ocean. The island's medieval city Visby is absolutely charming!

Sweden is a beautiful land - but the selling point for me is the light. I don't even long for sun-vacations" in southern Europe! It gets dark there, after all =)

And last but not least, the winner of the purse is...

Ana! She described Route 66 and the America of neon lights and the Rat Pack.

While I don't think the central United States is at the top of anyone's dream vacation spots, there are lots of great vintage and antique shops here -- right in the path of the old Route 66. Its also more of a true American picture than visiting New York City or Los Angeles or Florida -- which are the more glamorized visions of life in the US. Though given my choice, I would recommend seeing old Hollywood in California and Miami in Florida, Chicago for the architecture and "big shoulders", Las Vegas for the neon sign graveyard and the thrift stores which are chock full of old showgirl costumes and Rat Pack wonders. Heck, make it a road trip from Chicago, to LA.... just like the song!

Well done ladies!
If you could pop me an email at nementai *at* gmail *dot* com I'll get your prizes in the post!

Giveaway gifts

It's giveaway time!

I've hit 100 followers via blogger, which I find frankly amazing. There are 100 people from across the world who are interested in my ramblings. Incredible! I'd love to say that I'm above such petty concepts as having lots of followers, but clearly I'm not. I like feeling loved.

What I find the most incredible are the range of countries the you all come from. Australia, New Zealand, USA, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, South Korea... I wonder how it feels to sit in some of these far away places and read about me picking ivy in my local park. I wonder what you can all see out of your windows.

I understand that it's traditional (can something so new as blogging have traditions?) to give something away upon reaching such a landmark and I'm not one to flaunt tradition. As such, I am offering a present to the three people I judge as giving the best answers to the following question;

Why should I visit your country, region or town for a holiday in 2011?

There are three prizes up for grabs.

Prize 1. A vintage coin purse. I don't know how old it is, but it has a very classic look. Not quite big enough for a credit card, it will hold your coins very stylishly!

Prize 2. A copy of 'Romancing the Ordinary' by Sarah Ban Breathnach

Inspired by Sunni giving away a copy of another of Sarah Ban Breathnach's books recently, I thought I'd spread some happiness myself. I love how this book helps you to get to grips with enjoying the small pleasures in life, a month at a time, and I always find it uplifting to read.

Prize 3. Singer sewing machine necklace

I made one of these for me this week and thought I'd run up a second to giveaway.

Just let me know when you comment which prize you'd like (you can enter for as many as you like!). I'll give you a few of weeks to think about it, so I'll close entries at midnight (GMT) on the 31st March.

Small print;
This competition is open to anyone, in any country as long as they're a follower of this blog
Everyone gets a maximum of one entry per prize - if you do want to enter for more than one prize, please specify which order you'd like them 
Entries may be via the comments section on this post, or better still on your own blog (please leave a link in the comment section though!)
Offers of free accommodation and tour-guide services should I choose to visit will sway my vote ;)

Sick cat stress

 Warning - entirely cat related post

Me and my teddybear

What a week.
I've been dealing with a sick cat this week and it's really taken its toll. From staying up through most of the night on Sunday as I was so worried about him, to spending a stressful hour at the vet on Monday (happy Valentines day!), we then spent several hours wringing our hands waiting for blood test results after a trip to the emergency vet on Tuesday around midnight.

What?!

With a £160 charge before you even get through the door of the emergency vet, all I can say is 'thank God for pet insurance'. He's been in the vet's on a drip for 2 nights now and had every test you can imagine, including an ultrasound scan! The charges shot past £1200 last night and I honestly don't know what we would have done if we weren't insured.
If you have a pet and you don't have cover PLEASE get some. We're paying about £8 a month, so the cost has already more than paid for itself.

He does love to sleep

It looks as though he has an inflamed pancreas, so he should get better soon. He's still not well, though, and is having a feeding tube inserted so that we can get some food into him. All that said, he may be able to come home today and we can look after him ourselves, though the prospect of having to tube feed him is rather daunting.

Pet owners and animal lovers won't need any explanation of how I'm feeling right now, and non-animal lovers won't understand it even if I give one. Suffice it to say I've barely slept since Saturday night and am spending my days worrying about him.

How did you get so dirty?

Socks is a rescue cat and we've spent the best portion of his 18 months with us getting him to relax and trust us. He spent the first 3 months or so behind the sofa and was scared of everything and everyone. He's still a skittish cat but has recently relented to being picked up and stopped running away when the front door opens. I'm seriously worried about what this stay in the vets is going to do to him mentally.
I'm sure once we get him home things will improve, but right now I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by it all.

I am planning a couple of happy posts soon (and my apologies at the morose tone to this one), one being a general 'cheer us all up' post and the other being my first giveaway (welcome to my 100th and 101st followers!). Stay tuned!

Fabulous giveaways

There are 2 great giveaways that are worth having a look at soon;
The first is over at The Long and Winding Bobbin. This is a lovely giveaway of some patterns, some very pretty fabrics and a beautiful handbag.
As part of the giveaway she's asked entrants to post a picture of their current project. I figure that this is a chance to commit to finish one or two projects, so here they are. Number one is lining a suit I bought a while back, number 2 is Simplicity 3688, from which I'm making the skirt. This pattern calls for fusible interfacing on the waistband and this is the first time I've used it, so it'll be a learning experience for me.
I'm off work with a horrible cold at the moment, so if I can get myself off the sofa for long enough, I'll do an hour or so on these today. Wish me luck!

The second giveaway is from The Last Piece where Sarah is giving away packs of fabrics. They're such lovely designs, they're well worth looking at. I've been planning to make a quilt and I think that these prints would add a great splash of colour.