the winners of the march tea giveaway

Better late than never, the winners have been chosen, by the small sized woollies of course.

Into the tin they went, all fighting to get to the winners - or at least most of them, some liked posing for the camera better.

The bobbaloos who managed to snatch two pieces with names first were Gingerbob and Knut. And the winners are...

ikkinlala and Tracy

Congratulations, you'll both get a bag of Swedish tea blends, either Vetekatten or Guteblandning. If you send me an email - you'll find my email at the about me-page - with you address I'll have it in the mail asap.

Thank you to all who participated and told me about your favourite thing/s about Spring, I hope they have all come true in an abundance this year too!

a march tea giveaway

The two newly arrived rather special and a tad quirkier than usual bobbaloos thought it would be quite appropriate to have another tea giveaway - in celebration of their arrival perhaps, but more in celebration of March, of spring, of lighter days. And who am I to say no to such a demand suggestion? It has after all been a while since last. So I got two bags filled with lovely flavourful teas of Swedish origin, well at least the flavours are, and all you have to do to win one of the bags is to

leave a comment in this post and tell me what your one most favourite thing about spring is (and I wouldn't be the least bit sad if you told be what your favourite tea is too of course) - last day of entry will be March 15

The tea in the red bag is a wonderful winter-ish flavour from classic Stockholm bakery/café Vete-Katten ('The Wheat Cat') called Vete-Kattenblandning (the Vete-Katten signature tea-blend).

The tea in the white bag is from the sweet Swedish tea company Kränku from island Gotland, their classic blend Guteblandning (Gute means 'Gotlander') with hints of anise and citrus. Oh, I'm sure you'll love any of the flavours.

the winners of the winter tea giveaway

I bribed the bobbaloos with cake (they're easy that way) and got them participate in the tea drawing. Outdoors, it was pretty cold. Into the green drawing pot squeezed themselves the most cake-delighted bobbaloos.

Two of them (Byno and wee Hubbard) managed to squeeze themselves out of the pot the quickest and with them came two names. The names of the lucky winners of tea this time are.... *drum roll* ~

viridiana and Lost Star

I hope you'll enjoy the tea and that it'll start your new year of in the best, flavoursome and most warming of ways! Please e-mail me your address (my e-mail can be found at my blogger profile page --->) and I'll have the bags in the mail asap. And thank you so much for playing along all you who participated.

Have a continued fine long Epiphany weekend all ~

kitten update and other short stories

~ I had hoped every thing would be fine and dandy during the weekend, turned out that Siri apparently has a bit of a problem with her milk and the kittens have far from gained the weight they should have. Both mummy cat and the two kittens seem very content and happy with status quo - I am not. They really need to gain a reasonable amount of weight grams each day so we (ie mostly I) have been additional feeding them. Every second hour. The kitties aren't to happy about this more or less forced feeding. And if this new food for Siri doesn't improve matters, the next couple of weeks will be pretty... tough.

But of course, I wanted to have kittens, you have to expect everything and anything I suppose. Though honestly, after my 20 plus litters since the early 90ies, this one, so far, definitely top the list of strangeness. I am in no position to complain about the whole situation, I totally brought it on myself, but well, with very little sleep for a week now I feel knackered and whiny. Obviously.

Not exactly the way I had looked forward to rounding 2011 off - but well, things just have to get better from now on, right? Right. Including 2012.

~ By the end of last week I also got the information I had so looked forward to; my business has now finally an official registered name. Pia 1 - Bureaucracy 0. But with all the above things going on it felt rather matter-of-factish, anticlimactic. A piece of paper with my name, the company's name and number, no drums and trumpets, serpentines and balloons, nothing hoity-toity at all.

But of course I'm more than well pleased. Very, very, v e r y  much so. More of later.

A friend and I had booked a celebratory luxurious afternoon tea tomorrow. Something we've talked about for years, to celebrate when I got a new job. Now I have created my own job, being my own boss, what better to celebrate than that? But I've now cancelled the table reservation, kitten feeding comes first. Celebration will have to wait until January. Alas.

~ And then the snow fell. Pretty in fluffy white. But it also feels surreal, after a long, mild, dark autumn and winter so far. On December 19, suddenly the world is covered in white. Not sure how long it will last, it's wet snow and not very cold.

At this point, admittedly I don't really care. I just want the kittens to gain weight properly. And get many many hours of interrupted sleep for at least a few days in a row again.

~ I will now continue to write my Christmas cards. Due to kitten force majeure most of them will arrive a tad late though. I hope that won't put a serious dampen on any Christmas celebrations.

~ By all means, don't forget to enter the tea giveaway, for a chance to meet the brand New Year in sweet tea flavour style. Last day of entry, Dec 23.

third advent sunday tea giveaway

On this third advent Sunday the time has come to have another tea giveaway, this time a slightly more seasonal one as one of the teas is the lovely Christmassy gingerbread tea I was most fortunate to make the aquaintance with a year ago.

The other tea is a special Stockholm tea blend - equally lovely in flavour, but more of an all the year round tea - made by the Tea Centre of Stockholm since 1979, called Söderblandning (South blend, the name deriving from one of the districts in Stockholm, where the Tea Centre also is situated). It smells heavenly and is flavoured with tropical fruits and flowers.

One winner will get the gingerbread tea, the other the Söderblandning tea.

All you have to do to take part in the giveaway is to leave a comment telling me what your favourite beverage this time of the year is (and if you happen to have a favourite winter tea, please do tell too). Last day of entry will be December 23 - winners will be announced shortly thereafter and I'm planning to have the respective teas on their way soon so they should be arriving as a little, warm welcome to the new year 2012.

As usual the little tykes called bobbaloos have communicated that they think 'the more the merrier' is a dandy and fun thing, they want lots of name tickets to carefully chose two winners from.

and the winner of my first book is...

Three little woollies braved the harsh winter winds and volunteered to draw the winner of a signed copy of "food and drinks with bobbaloos". To make a quick operation of it, we used the bobbaloo travel cabin for the drawing, Wilco - who did a great job the last time - was sent in to rumble through the tickets and chose a winner.

"hurry up now, it's cold out here"

Congratulations, Maria B ~ 

If you send me your address - my email can be found at my profile page - I'll have it in the mail asap.

Thank you all for participating, but most of all thank you for your kind and encouraging words about the book and everything else really! (If it was possible I'd give you all a copy of the book of course.)

Remember, you can still get the book in the Blurb shop, if I may say so, a perfect little feelgood Christmas gift for yourself or anyone special.

win a signed copy of my first book : food and drink with bobbaloos

My own copies of my first book arrived much earlier than estimated. In fact I have been marvelling over it for over a week now. My. First. Book. It's quite adorable, if I may say so myself, very giggle- and awww-instigating. The are also some things I'd like to tweak and make different with the next book, but all and all, not bad for a first go.

The bobbaloos are excited - like always, but perhaps a tad bit more now being immortalized in a  b o o k - I'm excited and hopefully you will be too by the prospect of being a lucky (oh yes) winner of one signed copy of "food and drinks with bobbaloos".

All you have to do to enter the October giveaway is this;
leave a comment in this post and tell me why you'd enjoy having a signed bobbaloo book in your hand. Last day of entry is October 31st.

Book is of course also available in the Blurb bookshop -
just follow the link badge in the right margin --->
A pretty cute gift to self or others who need a bit of bobbaloo jolliness in their lives - and seriously, who doesn't? Printed on demand, this Staff Picks wee feelgood book is just a click away!

and the winners of the 6th blogoversary giveaway are...

The littlest bobbaloos were chosen for this special task - and the new family pet, Burble Blue, although granted he was more interested in playing silly in the autumn leafs - , the drawing of the three blogoversary giveaway winners. As is obvious they were, as usual, enthusiastic in a way that only bobbaloos know how to be.

The three winners chosen, by the quickest bobbaloos - Wifflesteinborgen, Kinklewort and Miffwinkle, who all of course proudly wanted to pose with their winners, lens louse bobbaloos as they are - were;

~ Angella ~

~ Katie ~

~ Sienna ~

If you email me your adresses (you'll find my email at the 'about me' page) I'll have your respective postcard/bookmark set in the mail asap.

And again, thank you all so so much for all kind comments left in that blogoversary post, in any post really. Always appreciated. Lots.

6th blogoversary ~

Another year in blog, with blog, has passed. It has hold a plethora of high- as well as low-points - I'm still waiting for 2011 to show its true face of light, heart and butterflies... - one high being the Blog of Note acknowledgement. Which was definitely truly lovely, even if things have since calmed down to pretty much the same as before BoN-day, via that came new fine friends, so for that I feel only happy gratitude.

To celebrate this 6th blogoversary I'm having a little giveaway again. Three readers who leave a comment in this post, and it would of course be nice to hear why you like to come here and spend some reading time, will take part in the draw to win a set of 3 postcards and 1 bookmark -

similar to the ones for sale in the Prosit shop on Etsy, yes you can always hop over there to find something to fit your mood, I'm about to list new motifs and you're always welcome to ask if you have something special in mind, I will do my best to see if I can find it in my photo-stash

Please leave your comment no later than September 22, 2011 and you'll participate in the draw (the little drawers will be, depending on their mood du jour, bobbaloos, little loafie or plush kitties aka snoopervisors).

Happy 6th blogoversary
in "The World According to Pia" ~

the winners of the tea giveaway

Well overdue, time to announce the winners of the tea giveaway! The drawing took place in the cutest of hedgehog tins (from Blafre). Many bobbaloos were willing to 'help', few were chosen.

 

'This is how we do it' explains Kismet and jumps into the tin, while the rest more newly arrivals watch in amazement.

Kismet didn't have to explain or convince them much though, he was shortly followed by the rest of the chosen bobs.

Wilco - the horned ursabob - and Zanna were the ones who were quickest to snatch a piece of paper each. with the winners. The others weren't too happy, but at least they got to have a fun in a tin, swimming in paper for a while.

And the lucky tea winners are....

Shaheen and Dahn

Congratulations! If you email me your adress/es (my email can be found at "my profile page") I will get you your tea asap. I hope it doesn't matter which one of the two teas you will get, they will both be sent from Sweden with many kind thoughts.

I'm planning another tea giveaway when the autumn wind whines around the corners of our houses, so if you didn't win this time - were chosen by the fastest bobbaloos - I think it would be lovely if you want to enter the next time.

Happy tea-drinking!

tea giveaway

I had planned a tea giveaway in blog for a while, but given the most kind and thoughtful comments recently in different posts, I thought it would be a nice gesture to do this sooner than later. And sooner as in right now.

Thus two recievers will get one of these teas, both are black teas. The left one I haven't tried, it's from picturesque smalltown Nora and has an aromatic scent of citrus and flowers. The right one is the wonderful chocolate tea from Malmö Chokladfabrik (chocolate factory) I blogged about a couple of years ago.

All you have to do to take part in the bobbaloo drawing (needless to say they will do the job this time too) of tea winners is to leave a comment in this very post telling me one of the following:

~ your favourite tea AND your favourite chocolate
~ your favourite tea AND your favourite citrus dish

Last day of entry will be August 10. Easy as that! The bobbaloos have communicated that they think 'the more the merrier' is a fine thing, as in they do appreciate having to chose carefully between lots of lovely chocolate and citrusy tea comments. In fact, they do lots of happy dancing (and standing on head) with every comment.

the pippi kettle-holder

Remember that on that pleasing Pippi pattern day I spotted a kettle-holder I felt an urge to make myself? As luck would have it, when we did a little post-afternoon-tea-walk-around in Söderköping I stumbled over a yarn shop that had both the pattern and the yarn for it.

It's a super-easy pattern and I think the result is quite fetching. But as my hand is still sore - I'm still hoping I will be able to rest it away, but it's now on its third week of soreness so I'm guessing that a doctor's visit might be a thing for next week if it's not better by the weekend. Although I have to say, a bit of whining in blog has been known to miraculously heal all sorts of ailments... - it took *forever* to finish.

When hand is better I'm thinking it would be a nice thing to make another kettle-holder like this and have a little summer give-away here in blog. Not now, not in this post, but a real give-away-post when hand is able to crochet properly again. Would that be of any interest to an blog-reader I wonder?

the winners of the perky mushroom giveaway

Time has come to announce the three winners of one perky psychedelic mushroom each - I was really touched by the sweet comments left in that post and in an ideal world everyone should have their own perky psychedelic mushroom, but until that's a true thing, here are the winners chosen by three trustworthy bobbaloos, Jojo, Scarlet and Rodney.

Exciting stuff...

And the winners are ~ 

Julianna, The Curious Pebble Project
Becky, Growing up "Gramma"
- oh, I will get you to stop eating pepperoni, sure I will...
Elephant's Child

If you three (hopefully lucky) winners could email me your address (my email address can be found at the "about me" page) I will have the mushrooms on their way asap.

Plus if you could tell be if you'd like the mushroom as is or in a mascot keychain.

And, last but not least, if you like, chose the colour group from the three I've made (or if you prefer it to be a *surprise*);

Colour group A - pink, orange, applegreen

Colour group B - yellow, purple, violet

Colour group C - magenta, teal, red

perky mushroom giveaway

Given it's most probably springtime for real, the blog-of-note-thing, I can't be the only one who needs a proverbial perk-me-up injection, etc etc and so forth, I'm thinking it would be nice to have another little giveaway here in blog. This time there will be three perky magic mushrooms (the kind and healthy kind only) amigurumi-style in the pot.

Definitely not necessary these three pre-assembling ones shown in photo above. I have many other colour combos up my yarn sleeve (purple, violet, turquoise, yellow, blue, red, other green and pink hues...).

What I can say is that it'll be a psychedelic mushroom in three colours, the winners will be able to chose if they want their own mushroom as is or as a keychain-mascot and quite possibly, if I'm in a good mood, mention their favourite perky colour and I'll take that in consideration when I create the mushroom.

This is what the little mushrooms will look like finished - the original one

Leave a comment here in this very giveaway-post and tell how you find your way to this blog and what has kept you returning. Last day of entry will be next Sunday April 17, midnight CET. Everyone who has left such a comment will be a part of the drawing. Needless to say there will be eager little bobbaloos helping with the drawing. Winners will then be announced before Easter and, if all goes well, the perky psychedelic mushrooms will be sent to their new homes the following week.

pretty wordless wednesday

Busy, busy, writing, writing, Christmas cards and other important things. Drinking tea, eating the odd lussekatt. Accompanied by the one whom snow becomes. Therefore only the shortest of posts today.

And yes, the blogoversary giveaways are now in the mail, out of my hands and in those of the Postal Service. May good luck be with them all and reach the five winners before Christmas. Ho-ho-ho!