The post you've all been waiting for.

Yes, that's right; it's contest/giveaway time! I'm sure you've all been waiting in breathless anticipation since Matthew mentioned that he wanted his contest to be better than mine. I mean, since I hadn't even said I was having one yet. I think, when all is said and done, that you'll all agree that mine far surpasses his, because I'm actually giving something away.

The reason I'm calling it a contest/giveaway is because I'm giving something away at random and someone will be winning my contest. Hopefully, that is. Confused enough yet? Excellent. On we go!

The House-Naming Contest/Giveaway Rules:
In order to enter, you must...
1) Leave a comment suggesting a name for our house. We've decided we want to be cool like the Brits, who name houses left and right. We're having trouble picking a good name, though. We need your help.
2) Leave a post on your own blog/facebook account/bulletin board, announcing my contest/giveaway and how to get here.
3) If you'd like an extra entry for the giveaway, be/become a follower.

The winner of the contest gets the joy of naming our house; Matt and I will be picking that one out based on our own preference. Hopefully we can agree on one. Winning this part of the contest is a pride thing, really. Probably this part will be more popular with my male readers, who seem to be slightly more competitive than most women (except my friend A.W.--you know who you are).

The winner of the giveaway part will win by chance. I'll be writing every entry's name down on cute little pieces of torn-up notebook paper and putting them into a teacup, then drawing one out. Remember, if you're a follower, you get two little pieces of paper.

It's possible the same person could win both. If that happens, I promise I didn't rig it, unlike my husband who does that sort of thing unabashedly.

Here's what you win for the giveaway:

They're little labels for gifts. They're really cute, even if you never use them, but merely sit and look at them, like I often do.


These are punch out labels, also suitable for gifts, or possibly labeling your spices. There are a lot of them.


You will probably never run out. I didn't know this when I bought five packages of them on clearance. Realizing that I would never run out, I decided to share my bounty with my darling readers. By the way, those 88 tags are NOT duplicates. Choosing my first tag to use was a really long, delightful business.

Note on Naming the House: Evidently naming your house takes into consideration the type of people who live there, the type of things they do, the personalities of the dwellers: Cozy Cottage, Chaotic Villa, etc. If you've never heard of such a thing, you might peruse this site, bearing in mind that I've seen all the suggestions on that page already and none of those were quite right on their own. If you need inspiration, you might visit: here, here, and here to see the inside of my house. God speed, dear House Namers!

One More Note on Naming the House: Honesty compels me to tell you that Matt did pick a name for our house last weekend, but I had to veto it due to the difficulty in pronouncing it for everyday use. I'm hoping to be able to say "Let's go back to The Winning Name." He picked out: La Casa de la Gente Ridículo Apuesta, which translated via Babel Fish is: "the house of the ridiculously good-looking people." See what I mean? Just not very homey.

I think I'll run this contest/giveaway until late Sunday night and then post the results Monday morning.

Have a great weekend!

p.s.--No, Doug, you cannot just suggest the name "Bob" with any hope of winning.

***Rule Modification:

If you don't have a blog, facebook account, other public outlet, but you really want to play, you may enter if you tell 2 or 3 of your most computer-minded friends about the giveaway and maybe slip them a piece of paper with my blog address written on it. Assure them that it will be worth their time because I'm just so funny, smart, photogenic, or something like that. Encourage them to find the splinter story if they like gore or the Mexican casserole if they like guys who pretend to be hispanic. That'll do.