Are pearls gems? I wasn’t sure, so I
googled the question, and one source identified them as “organic gems.” That
works for me. And these organic gems happen to be nestled in a silver wire nest with
a mama bird hovering above. (I’m sure it’s the mama, as hovering over our babies comes
naturally to us.) Bird and nest are attached to a silver chain, the creation of
Jill Gladfelter of DreamRose Design. She designed it for my niece Amy Bird to sell in The BookNest, her book “nook” in Springfield, OR.
Now that you have all the
information about what’s being given
away, I’ll tell you why. If any of you have followed my posts since
March of 2012, you know I entered this whole blogging experience Screamin’ and Kickin’. I like—make that love—to
write but didn’t want to commit to a blog. Many reasons fed my reluctance, but
the main one was fear. What if I shared some of the zillion thoughts rattling
around in my head at any given time and no one really cared? What if I bared my
soul and no one read my words? The night I launched my blog, I clicked
“Publish” with trembling finger and trepidation. The next morning, I checked my
stats and discovered I had thirty-three hits. Yes, thirty-three!!! I was
thrilled. Even if those hits came from men in Russia needing wives or insomniacs
mindlessly surfing the net, at least my blog hadn’t died from loneliness during
the night. And from there it started to grow—slowly and steadily—to the point I
recently passed my 10,000th hit. (Actually, over 11,000 by now.)
Okay, okay, I can hear the virtual
snickers. I know some bloggers get that many hits in a day...an hour. But I
don’t do this for a living, I’m not selling anything (except my book), and I’m
not Gwyneth Paltrow. All I know about “search engine optimization” is that it
exists. So for me, 10,000 hits is a personal goal realized. I’m breaking out
the bubbly and the noisemakers and celebrating. I’m also giving away this
necklace as a way of thanking followers, readers, and all those who clicked on
“baby boomers exercise” and didn't find the useful exercises for
baby boomers they were expecting.
Now for the how. If you’re a follower, your name is already in the drawing. If
you make a comment (i.e. share a personal goal you’ve achieved), your name goes
in. If you’re a follower AND make a comment, your name is in twice. If you sign
up to follow me, your name goes in once. Sign up AND make a comment, name goes
in twice. The deadline is June 17, 2013.
Hope to hear from you, and again,
thank you for making blogging a gem of an experience for me!
