Total of 20 entries earned by people who commented as well as the people who did join and confirm their mailing list sign-ups (which earned them 3 entries).
Winner is #2!
Danielle Velentzas aka twist21 on Etsy!
Congratulations on winning this awesome prize and I will be in touch at your email to let you know when the coupon code will be sent to you.
Thanks to all who participated. Please keep visiting my blog for more giveaways.
Recommended Rooms:
My secondary style preference is . . . . [drumroll] . . . .
[DUH!]
All about the international mix. An adventurous blend of British, African, Asian, and tropical touches. Juxtapose, and see the drama unfold. Brought to life with varied textures, hand-crafted accessories, fascinating woods, and natural fibers. For the eternally curious. [Check! Check! Check! No surprises here.]
Go take the quiz, and if you can get your significant other to take it with you, you can have a chuckle at how similar or different your styles are.
On Friday evening, we went to our church's Kids Harvest Bash where they were having games and giving away candy as prizes. Throughout this entire event, Noah and I held on to the candy bag of Naia's winnings since we knew there were items in there with peanuts and tree nuts which Naia is very allergic to. When we get gifts of candy at parties or when we do trick-or-treatin' doing Halloween, we usually just separate the candy when we get home and give Naia the safe candy for her enjoyment. It's worked fine so far and Naia's so used to the process, she doesn't get upset or anything.
Well, somehow, she still managed to eat something with something she was very allergic to, because once she got home, she seemed uncomfortable and kept scratching at her throat. I knew from experience, that she was having an allergic reaction but she has also done the throat-scratching thing when she was just exposed, and not eaten anything, so I adopted a wait-and-see stance. About an hour after, she threw up everything she ate for dinner and then some. Yup. Definitely ate something she should not have. Now in most of the other cases when she has eaten something she was allergic to, she had thrown up and then was alot better. So I thought the worst was over and she was behaving fine so we got her ready for bedtime and then she went to bed. 15 minutes after, I noticed that she could not stop coughing so I went into her room to check on her. She couldn't seem to lay still and kept coughing or scratching herself so I brought her downstairs into the living room. Thank goodness because she threw up again (we had a bucket nearby) and by then, I knew this was not her standard allergic reaction. I contemplated administering the Epi-Pen (it's a pen-sized medication in a ready-to-administer syringe that delivers epinephrine to reverse the anaphylaxis that a person goes through when exposed to or has consumed food that he or she is allergic to) but she was breathing fine and so I thought I would bring her to the Urgent Care close to us. [BAD MISTAKE NOT ADMINISTERING THE EPI-PEN. . . . ]
Gianna was asleep so the plan was to have Noah stay home with her. I quickly threw on our coats and here's where the series of miracles happened. First of all, I drove through Westerville Uptown, which I wasn't even thinking at that point, was filled with Halloween revellers so the traffic was going a little slow. Just when I hit the slowest portion, I saw an officer directing traffic and I rolled down my window and explained what was happening (I could hear the shakiness in my voice) and asked if he knew if the Urgent Care was still open. He told me it was, and as we spoke, and it looked like he was trying to look to his colleagues to clear the traffic, right then, the car in front of my went and suddenly the road in front of me was clear. So instead of having to wait for him to clear the traffic for me, the road oddly enough had a clear path for me, so I just said thanks to the officer and kept driving on to the Urgent Care.
When I got close to the Urgent Care, I turned into a section of the business park where it had indicated, "Urgent Care" was there. But all the buildings were dark and closed so I was getting so frustrated. As I was driving out of that section of the park, thinking that I was going to have to drive Naia to St Ann's Hospital's emergency room instead, having wasting all these precious time trying to get to an urgent care which was closer to us, I saw a lone car coming out from the opposite side of the road. I mean, what are the odds? The business park looked absolutely deserted and it was late Friday night on Halloween's weekend so the odds of someone being there was just slim to none. But I flagged the car down and the lady told me that the Urgent Care is in the section of the park across the street from where I was. So I thanked her and I started driving towards the Urgent Care and did find it.
But when I got to the front door, the sign on it said, "CLOSED". But I saw some people standing outside of it so I thought I would try my luck anyway. I carried Naia in my arms and ran up towards the clinic and asked the people if the place was closed, and they said yes. I took a few seconds to think about my options but just then, a nurse walked out of the doors, looking like she had ended her shift and was leaving. I asked her if there was anyone that could help us and she took a look at us and heard that it was an allergic reaction and promptly signalled us into the clinic.
They were just shutting down the computers, the staff was just leaving, but thankfully there was a doctor and another nurse, plus the nurse who I bumped into. They just got things in motion and when they lifted Naia's shirt to change into the gown, I was shocked to see all the hives over her body - hives that were not there just 30 minutes ago.
They immediately administered the dosage epinephrine by a needle. Naia screamed and cried because everything was happenining so fast and she saw the needle and so we had to hold her down which only made her scream even louder - the concern and worry in me just hit a peak and seeing her cry and scream just broke me and I started crying too. Then they had to give her another shot and the holding down, screaming, crying happened again.
They gave her some oxygen and after the promise of no more shots and the medication kicking in almost immediately, Naia calmed down alot and just laid there looking defeated but breathing in the oxygen. Because the Urgent Care was closing, and because she needed further observation, they arranged for an ambulance to take us to the Children's Hospital downtown. By then Naia was significantly better and not scratching (as much) and she had stopped coughing. I asked if I should have administered the Epi-Pen since I thought I should "reserve it" for when she looked like she was having difficulty breathing and was exhibiting much more serious symptoms than her typical ones, and they said that I should have. This really made me feel so guilty but I think this is the lesson for me to take with me and to know what to do the next time. Apparently, as soon as she starts exhibiting allergic reactions, I should have administered it, then call 911, instead of bringing her in on my own. I can tell now, having seen her progress through the different phases of her anaphylaxis, that they are absolutely correct. It started out less severe but very quickly went into something quite serious, and while we were lucky that we had time and that I was keeping such a close eye on her, we may not be so lucky the next time.
The ambulance ride was when I had a few minutes to digest all that had just happened. The guys on the ambulance were so comforting and nice to Naia, her spirits improved significantly by the time we got to the hospital.
So we stayed there for about 10 hours after that to allow Naia to remain under observation for further reactions, and Naia fell asleep from the Benadryl they gave her. I laid beside her and couldn't sleep because I was so worried that she would have some kind of a relapse. In the morning, we were cleared to go, and Noah came to get us (since my car was still at the Urgent Care). I was so exhausted when I got home, I think we all were, that we had a light lunch, and then all of us took a long nap.
Through this entire ordeal, Naia was such a trooper. It was so difficult to see her little body go through so much and yet at the same time, her spirit was so strong and positive that it made me so proud of her.
I also hate to be one of those people who sees signs everywhere they go but this was just too surreal that we caught so many lucky breaks - the traffic, the lone car, the nurse . . . . And although this was a tough way to learn about the proper moment to use the Epi-Pen, I take the knowledge now and know what to do differently should we have to go through a similar situation again. More importantly, I still have my little girl with me, and THAT is the best miracle from the evening and I cannot stop thanking the Lord for it.
I also want to say to parents who have expressed outrage at not being able to send in peanut/ or tree-nut-based items to schools or daycares or parties, or who have retorted, "why can't my child bring it and just separate the kids with allergies from the food?". Although I understand your frustrations at having to watch what your kid can or cannot bring to eat in a nut-free facility, I appeal to your emotions as a mom - that once you've experienced one night like the night that I have experienced, that you would not be so quick to fight the notion. All it takes is exposure, without even eating the food, and a child could go into anaphylaxis and die from it. Also, when you are four- or five-years-old, you may not necessarily exercise the best judgement in offering, or accepting food especially since kids like to discuss and share their food items from home. Then parents and school administrators have to make the call to support a nut-free facility policy. The benefits far outweigh the inconvenience.
On a lighter note, by Saturday, Naia was Tinkerbell and went trick-or-treatin' in our neighbourhood and was her jolly self all over again. Welcome to my life. *tired smile*
Aside from selling my prints on etsy, I am also blessed enough to have a few stores carry them and I have found that when you are a small representation in a store of many unique items, each beautiful in its own right, sometimes you need to relay your value message to the customer before they "GET" why your item is the one to choose. Obviously, I cannot be everywhere at once and it also defeats the purpose of collaborating with the stores be a channel of distribution for my work. So two things I am working on right now, is (1) Labeling and packaging my work more appropriately so it lists the "intangible" benefits, and (2) Telling the story behind the design, and behind the brand, by providing a set of materials like brochures, flyers, or postcards that the browsing customer can review.
When I work on my ideas for marketing collateral, I am reminded of time when I was using a popular printing vendor for my materials and thought that paying $5 to see my proof was normal, that the fact that my materials came back to me on low-quality cardstock was what I had paid for, that I was getting a great deal on their "free" deals when really I was paying for the item anyway with the ridiculous shipping rates applied to the order. However, and at the risk of sounding like one of THOSE ads, ( . . . since I have FOUND UPrinting.com . . . .) I have not had to worry about the quality of materials used or lacklustre print quality for my marketing materials with UPrinting.com. Needless to say, I also love their free proofing service.
To add to their "cool factor", they have kindly offered me a gift of 100 brochures to help me realize this plan which I well intend to take advantage of when I have completed the design. Thank you UPrinting! *happy dance*
AND the love extends to my readership too! I also have a prize of 100 brochures to give away to one lucky winner! I used their instant price calculator and this prize is worth over $100! *yippee jig*
Here are the giveaway details:
Giveaway Prize: 100 8.5 x11" Brochure / Flyers on 100lb gloss text paper ; 4 color printing on both sides
Folding Choices: Half fold; Trifold/Letterfold; Z-fold; Accordion (4 panels) Roll Fold (4 Panels)
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents
Giveaway ends November 8, 2009 8 AM US Eastern Time.
Each of the following will gain you an entry or entries to this giveaway,
Due to the quick turnaround on this giveaway, we only had 8 entries this round BUT we had one Facebook entrant! (Yay!) I made sure all entries were lined up by their submission time . . . .
the winner is number 3!
Who is Karla aka AdornmentsbyKarla.etsy.com!
Yay! I actually know Karla in person so she can thank me with chocolates or the likes the next time she sees me. (Hint Hint) Well, thanks Karla for participating and congrats!
For those of you who did participate but who did not win, thanks for participating and keep trying! I have a couple more giveaways up my sleeves so stay tuned!
Ann from Baby Boyd Blog has impeccable taste so if she says she likes something, you must be doing something right. (The cutie-patootie on her blog banner is her adorable son Drayden.)
So imagine my glee when she selected some of my store items as her Yummy Mummy Fab Finds! (Woot!)
If you're wondering what StubbornSnails.com is all about, it is Ann's Singapore-based business, where she designs and creates these UNBELIEVABLY gorgeous baby, wedding, special occasion cakes (similar to the traditional diaper cakes here in the US but you have not seen a well-made diaper cake till you see some of her creations!).
Cloud Nine Pancakes Kids' Meal for Gianna. Buttermilk Biscuit and Fruit Cup for Naia. She also had an order of the Applewood Smoked Bacon which she declared after the first strip, "That was good bacon!".
Photo taken by Naia.
Mushroom Frittata - the sweet onions and gruyere was really a nice blend of savory flavors. I also had the Shooting Star juice blend of orange, carrots, lemon, and ginger - divine!
I have a winner for the 24" x 36" high-quality vinyl banner from UPrinting.com! (US shipping included!)
An unprecedented 43 entries . . .
the winner is number 41!
Who is Suanne aka PaperAffection.etsy.com!
Congrats Suanne! I will be in touch via your etsy convo to get your email and provide instructions on how to redeem your banner credit around November 1st!
On a side note, have you seen some of her stuff? I clicked on her store link hoping to find an email address and had fun checking out her store instead! ;o)
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If you did not win, I still have a giveaway for 100 postcards on my blog, which ends in 4 days!
This giveaway has ended and the winner was announced here.
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One of the best things I have done for the overall marketing for my prints business and which was also really helpful for my first craft show was to design and print postcards that show a selection of my prints and artwork. These postcards go out with every order with a handwritten message on the back thanking the customer. I have also seen where designers have place a frameable print on one side and I think I may adopt that format for a couple of other marketing material I have in the works to put together. Here's the front design,
and here's the back,
I included the lines so I could write the mentioned handwritten note. Or if someone is picking this up, they can write a note on any specific prints that they liked.
And now, thanks to my blog sponsor UPrinting– I have one (1) set of 100 4X6 postcards to give away! We're talking postcards that are printed with soy/vegetable based inks, full color on both sides, and on 14pt glossy cardstock. And you know how some companies attract you with free business cards but you have to pay for an insane shipping amount? Well not with this giveaway! The prize includes FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US, with Canadian residents pay shipping and taxes. (Sorry, offer not available to residents outside of the US and Canada.)
All you have to do to enter to win this, is to leave a comment on this post before OCTOBER 27TH 12 PM Eastern Time on how what image you would print on the postcard - could be a photo of your family, of your latest handmade creation (and share the link here too!), or of your latest Halloween costume.
You can also win extra entries by promoting this giveaway. Each shoutout earns you an entry, just come back and let me know what you did and where for an entry.
Prizes, courtesy of UPrinting.com, will be awarded by coupon code on November 6, 2009.
