Saturday, November 20, 2010

Worldwide Giveaway: Jeanne d’Arc Living Christmas in the French Inspired Home and Ornaments Till 12 Dec. 2010 to Celebrate One Year and One Thousand Followers



I offer my first giveaway, gifts only one of you will receive but my heartfelt intent is to give them to every one of you.   Material things are meaningless compared to the daily cup of joy topped with foamy sunshine you serve me by sharing your visits, blogs, and comments, but giveaways are what’s done in the blogosphere to commemorate milestones.   So, let’s see what I got for ya!

The winner (international entries welcome) will receive handmade gifts including a trio of vintage-style bottlebrush trees flocked in white and silvery glitter.   The pink and white are approximately 4” tall each, and the little white one is 2” …



…a set of five 4”- 6” upcycled plastic pink candy cane ornaments dusted with white glitter or pearly paint…


…an 8’ white garland of fabric rose petals by Ozma of Odds, seen here softening the edge of my loft that I still haven’t decided how I’m going to resolve architecturally…



…a 4” angel wing ornament…


…a trio of Ex-Voto paper gift tags/ornaments also by Ozma of Odds

Photo: Rosemary Foltz
…and the grand prize: the English reprint of Jeanne d’Arc Living’s





To enter:


Leave a comment.

To double your chances, become a follower, too.   (Current followers, please leave a second comment you’re already following.)

To triple your chances, put the 200 pixel wide giveaway button below as a picture in your sidebar as well.

To quadruple your chances, write a blog post using the large button below.   Additional posts on Facebook, Twitter, or other social networking sites count as individual entries also.


Prefer inserting your buttons via HTML/Java from a remote photo host?

The 200 pixel button code is here: 



The 500 pixel button code is here:



International entries are welcome.

The winner will be selected by an online random number generator Sunday, 12 December 2010 and contacted by email whenever I get up and out of bed.

Important!   Be sure to leave a separate comment for everything you do for the sake of the random number generator.   For example, if you comment, already follow, and mention it in a blog post you’d leave three comments.   Questions?   Email me at zuzudotfosteratgmaildotcom.

When I started this blog on my days off between Christmas and New Year’s of 2009, I thought it would be a modern diary for the old hunting cabin on my property I lovingly remodeled and decorated with lots of Rachel Ashwell’s pretty wares.   I don’t have a design background and I’m a pauper.   I assumed only Mom and I would read the boring chronicle.

A year later, it’s changed my life.

I can’t afford a new computer or internet service, so it took three months of long evenings in the public library (where I still post) to get my blog to even begin to look the way I wanted.   What touched me the most was experienced bloggers reached out to me to help, even offering their phone numbers.   “It’s enough to make a good girl cuss,” Charlene of My Heart’s Ease emailed after a particularly frustrating night when I lost the ability to display comments.   Our world is vastly sweeter than the one of ‘haters’ leaving ‘nasty grams’ in YouTube comment fields, n'est pas?

In March, after I left a comment on one of my favorite blogs, My Romantic Home, Cindy contacted me asking to feature my tiny studio.   After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I breathlessly agreed.   One hundred people began following me the day it posted, and then Anne of Fiona and Twig wrote a post, and hundreds more followed.   Encouraged, I went to my first blog party at Kathleen’s White Wednesdays, and it remains my favorite ‘bash’.

I wished to use one of Fifi O’Neill’s pictures for the post to show where I took my inspiration, so I shyly asked permission.   She wrote back stating she loved my studio so much she wanted it in Romantic Country and her upcoming book Romantic Prairie Style.   After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I breathlessly agreed.   The same thing happened with Jo-Anne of Vintage Rose Collection and her maga-book The Feminine Home due out mid-December, and she’s been brave enough to allow me to write and edit on that dreamy project.

In May, I left a comment for New York Times writer Joyce Wadler stating how much I enjoyed her story on a cabin in the Catskills, and she asked for an interview.   After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I breathlessly agreed.   She and photographer Trevor Tondro crafted a whopper of a feature that went viral worldwide.

It’s November, and I’ve shared my twee cottage with The Nate Berkus Show, magazines, blogs published by folks ranging from Claudia Strasser to young girls starting their first Etsy stores, and even a dollhouse replication, and I hope to publish my first book in Spring 2012.   It’s at once thrilling and confusing for me, for I am but a common office worker for the government with an unemployed husband.   The other day Rachel Ashwell’s people contacted me to see how I’d feel about a feature in her 7th book Rachel Ashwell Inspirations.   After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I breathlessly agreed.

But the core of my joy is with you, gentle reader.   You who were there when my blog background was discombobulated (thanks for fixing, Beth!) and my pictures were dark and blurry.   And I’m taking you with me wherever I go.

So.   As I said in the beginning, I offer my first giveaway, gifts only one of you will receive but my true intent is to give it to every one of you.   Material things are meaningless compared to the daily cup of joy topped with foamy sunshine you serve me!

Until next time, stay shabby!




I’ll be sharing this with:


White Wednesday at Faded Charm


Vintage Friday at Common Ground


Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home


Under the Table and Dreaming's Sunday Showcase


Join the party!