Yay!

      So today was a great mailbox day, but the odd thing was all three awesome things came from the same company!  Black and Mild (the cigarillos) has a summer sweepstakes taking place right now and all three things were prizes or premiums from L&M.  Even though I am not a smoker, Andy is, so he usually reaps the benefits but all three prizes from today were useful and cool and not only smoker friendly.

      The first thing they sent was an ashtray which is very interesting and is curved steel with a wood laminate on the outside.  "How is that useful to a non-smoker?" you may ask... well, it just so happens that it is the perfect size to keep tiny things like hairpins organized and it also makes a really interesting business card stand because it is just the right size.  When I take advantage of my Klout perk for business cards I will be able to send it and them along with my sister Marcia when she sells my jewelry at craft shows.  I am very excited that she took almost all of the jewelry I had finished and is going to try and sell it next time she does a show - awesome!

      Next was a cool set of wooden ear buds for my Ipod.  They are made of a really pale blonde wood in the casing near the top and the company (Sentry) says that it really improves the sound quality.  We shall see!

      Last I got my ridiculously fabulous Zippo lighter.  It is sleek and gunmetal metallic grey and I LOVE it.  I use lighters to light things other than cigarettes like candles and the tips of my fingers.  I am going to have some blisters for sure but I have always wanted my own Zippo and this one is impressive.

      I also got a notification that I won a VitaVault from the Appetite for Health Facebook page giveaway.  If you think of those neat little dump bins for candy at places like Dylan's candy bar where they load from the top and have a clear lid that lets you pull them from the bottom that is what it's like but on a smaller scale so you have your vitamins and supplements in plain view and you don't forget to take them.  I need the reminder and I have a bunch that I should take but I don't because they are "out of site out of mind".  This should be a really good healthy step for me and I can't wait for it to arrive.

      Last but not least I won the DSW new store instant win game again *I think!  The game freezes after the three icons pop up but again I have sent a screenshot to the shulovers to see if they can fix the error.  Right now I am looking at a whole stack of gift cards and a reward certificate so I am going to get some awesome new fall boots.

      A few small crummy things happened today - I bought a new wok that I was terribly excited about but it got a black spot that I could not scrub off on the very first use, and I didn't even have the heat higher than medium!  Plus the "paint" or coating chipped off the bottom as soon as I tried to rinse it off.  I have always bought Nordicware bake ware, but I am never buying a pan or pot from them again.  It's insane to me that a $30 "Green" wok could be so horrible.  I think there was something wrong with it or it was faulty.  I was going to return it tomorrow but I think I am going to photograph it first and post it for them to see.  Also the beautiful birdbath that my mother-in-law Lana got me started cracking and almost all of the paint that was in the interior of it is now chipped horribly or completely missing.  It started to develop an algae problem no matter how often we changed the water and it has eaten away the colorful finish.  It was also terribly expensive and I hope that I can salvage it in the spring by repainting it myself.  I will have to look into some enamels to fix it.  Cinna also decided to catch a possum this morning and almost caught a rabbit tonight but luckily I was not a witness to either and she is fine and was not bitten, scratched or otherwise injured.

      Much love to you all - I hope you had a very good day and that you are all ready to have a smashing weekend.  Lauren and I are going to visit the grand opening of an Ulta store in Winchester, VA so hopefully we will score some excellent swag and I will have a great makeup post this weekend - wish us luck!