Monthly Giveaway Winner

Using an on-line randomizer, I have determined that the 8th commenter is the winner this month. So, the magazines and tea will soon be winging their way to Mary. As is usually the case, I don't seem to be able to predict what will be a popular giveaway and what will be a ho-hum flop. Things I think ever so clever garner almost no attention whatsoever and things that strike me as rather ordinary go over quite well with the readership. I confess, I wasn't sure how well this particular giveaway would do ... I thought it really appealing and that is usually the kiss of death for my giveaways. But there were 13 comments. So I guess it was neither a wildly popular success nor a total flop ... simply a giveaway that coasted a smidgeon below the average response.

I am closing in on two statistical blogging landmarks, worthy of being marked by unique giveaways in the future.

The first, my 500th post, will probably be reached in time for the January 2011 giveaway. Something that special ought to be marked by a more personal giveaway, a stitched item of some sort. I was thinking of an Ort jar with a padded lid or a cupcake pincushion, a piece I could stitch up now and hold in reserve for the giveaway.

The second, my 100th follower, is much more difficult to predict but if the list continues to grow as it has over the past few months, sometime before June or July 2011 is the likely time frame. I am aware of just what a compliment following is. I myself follow about 35 blogs through my blog list and regularly drop in on another dozen or so that are bookmarked on my favorites list ... I devote some of my precious computer time to this because I respect the creativity of the bloggers on my various lists, as writers and as textile artists and as modern day philosophers/diarists/storytellers. I admit it gives me something of a thrill that a blog I started mainly to have a visual record of my stitching over the years [replacing my hand-written and unillustrated stitching journals] might be entertaining others. A more practical and realistic voice whispers that most come for the giveaways and the photos of finished projects and probably pass right over my golden prose. Whatever their reasons for visiting, I welcome all my readers and I have a special place in my heart for all those who take the time to comment or who participate in my giveaways. I find all this very affirming. And when the 100 mark is reached, I'll have to come up with a significant way of celebrating.