:: holiday card giveaway ::

i mentioned that i was going to do a majorly huge giveaway this month, and here i am to finally announce it: the long-awaited  sapsucker™ holiday card giveaway. and oh, baby - it’s a good one.

there will be 3 winners:

GRAND PRIZE: 50 (holy crap, fifty? yes!) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop PLUS one custom Sapsucker card. (Total package is worth $170)

1st RUNNER UP: 20 (whoa! still pretty good!) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop (worth $60)

2nd RUNNER UP: 10 (hey, it’s a start) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop (worth $30)

YOU MUST VISIT MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE TO ENTER. FIND DETAILS THERE.

WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2010. entries close at noon EST.winners announced sometime that afternoon. winners will be chosen randomly from all entries. you may have up to two entries total (see “extra entries” above) but you may not win more than one prize.

:: no really, it's spring time ::

apologies for my brief absence. it's not so much that i haven't been around as that my husband has been. he took this week off and i'm soaking it up - working a bit, playing a bit, doing some house stuff with him that we've been meaning to do. we're coming up on one year in this house and have yet to hang a single thing on the walls save in emily's room.

anyway, i interrupt this brief absence to tell you that now's the time to get thee over to the spring blog in order to enter for a chance to win some up up creative feelgood™ booty.

technically you have until monday, august 9, 2010 at noon est to leave your comment, but come on. you'll probably forget if you don't go do it now.

:: :: for you :: ::

i felt like making something to share this week. this is for all you twitterers...




one button in four different color options. all on white backgrounds. original julie green illustration. just right click (or whatever you do on a mac) to save the file of your choice to your own computer. then upload to your own blog with a link to your twitter feed.

link back to me if you think of it. if not, no big deal.

:: :: lucky number four :: ::

i ended up having fourteen entries in the giveaway, and now it's time to announce the winner...



linda, you will be hearing from me later today.

:: :: giveaway time :: ::

so here's the deal with the giveaway. basically, i decided to let you drive. winner gets a $15 gift certificate in my shop at upup.etsy.com to spend as he or she wishes. like on anything in the shop. **

to enter, leave me a comment here on this post by friday, may 8th at 10:00 a.m. EDT (that's my local time here in ny, y'all). your post should include your email address and must answer the following question (which i am totally paraphrasing from a question i saw in a bright side project giveaway recently):

if you could be more something, what would that something be?

the winner will be chosen randomly and announced here on the blog on friday.

to earn an extra entry in this contest, tweet this giveaway (using @upupcreative) or blog about it on your blog (making sure to refer to upup.etsy.com so that i will get a notice in my google alerts that you blogged it).

each person can have up to two entries.

**here's the fine print on the gift certificate:

I will send this gift certificate and a unique redemption code via email to the winner (the certificate itself will arrive as a pdf file -- please be sure you have a pdf reader installed (you can download one for free from adobe.com).

If you want me to email it to a different person, we can iron out those details after you win and are notified.

To redeem this certificate, the certificate holder can simply enter the unique code in the "message to seller" box at checkout.

This gift certificate is only good towards purchases (and shipping for those purchases) made from upup.etsy.com. Any amount remaining after your purchase has been made can be used toward subsequent purchases at upup.etsy.com. If purchase exceeds amount on card, a revised invoice will be sent via Paypal.

This gift certificate is not redeemable for cash because buying yourself beautiful handmade gifts is way more fun than holding a wad of cash.

It really is.

(The gift certificate expires six months from the date of issue.)

:: :: blue yonder :: ::

stefani from blue yonder is hosting an up up creative giveaway this weekend. you could win a printable stationery set or a custom feelgood list. go, enter. and while you're there, check out stefani's blog. it's charming and sweet and wonderful. and sometimes it features chickens.

:: :: two funny things (and two winners announced) :: ::

Funny Thing Number One:

We had a terrible windstorm yesterday, as my mom’s comment on this here blog informed you if you by any chance read that comment (thanks mom), blowing shingles and gutters off buildings and taking out trees and knocking out our power at about 4:00 yesterday.

When we awoke this morning it was still out, but we were fairly certain that there was power downtown so Brian and Evan left to go to work and daycare, respectively, and once everyone was settled in Brian called with an update: 54% of Franklin County (my county) was without power and the power company (here’s the funny part) couldn’t be sure when it would be back on because, not expecting Ike to wreak any havoc as far north and inland as Central Ohio, said power company sent its repair folks down to Texas to help restore power there.

And now they’re being called back.

Although my power’s back on now so maybe they won’t be needed after all.

Funny Thing Number Two:

I used the random integer generator at random.org to determine the two winners of my pendant giveaway. The numbers that came up were 8 (of 10 comments not including my mother’s on the giveaway post) and 26 (out of 44 comments on the ten posts prior to the giveaway post), meaning that the same person won both pendants.

So I decided to choose another winner, allowing random.org to generate a new integer for me. I put in my parameters (telling it to choose a number between 1 and 10, inclusive) and it gave me back the number 8 again!

Third time’s a charm, though. I got a 3.

So: jennylynn and Pam, you lucky girls, email me (julie@letter9.us) with your address and your pendant choice and I will send those out to you ASAP.

** As stated in the original rules for this giveaway, in the event that the two winners want the same pendant, I will flip a coin to see who gets it and the other person will get her second choice.

:: :: getting better giveaway :: ::

finished pendants (without their hooks yet — the hooks are the most expensive parts and I can’t get them locally so I don’t want to use them all up too quickly!). these are all made from recycled magazines with the exception of two (my two least favorite ones here, but i won’t tell you which ones they are).

This week my therapy has included yoga each night before bed, several long walks, work on my just-for-me quilt, and lots and lots of pendant-making.

The result of all my therapy is that I’m off the twice-a-day heartburn medication (yay!) and haven’t cried or had a panic attack in a week. And I’ve got twenty-some pendants that I want to wear all at once, making me the Crazy Pendant Lady (distant cousin to Crazy Cat Lady and Coupon-Hoarding Lady).

So I’m giving two away.

Here’s the deal:

The first one will be given to a randomly selected person who has commented on THIS post (meaning the post you’re reading right this very second) indicating his or her favorite pendant(s) in the above image.

The second one will be given to a randomly selected person who has commented on one of the ten posts prior to this one. If you left more than one comment, you’re entered more than once. Those ten posts include the following:

* The Lost Art of Fake Smiling
* I Have Everything That I Need
* Counter Pose Necklaces
* Thanks A Lot, Liz Gilbert
* More Strategies, Less Medicine!
* Elp, Elp, Elp
* Apparently They’re Touring Ballerinas
* Thumbelina Dance
* Real Happy Versus Fake Happy? Really?
* In Which I Complain About How Much Postpartum Depression Sucks

The randomly selected winners will be chosen on Sunday evening (Sept. 14th) at some hour well before midnight. The winners will be allowed to choose which of these pendants they would like for their very own. In the event that the two winners want the same pendant, I will flip a coin to see who gets it and the other person will get her second choice.