Bloggy Giveaway Carnival Continues!

First off, congratulations to Mindy for winning the African batik! But the bloggy giveaway fun is just beginning. Have y'all been over to Don't Try This At Home yet? My word! I just checked and the links just keep comin'. As of this morning there are 563 folks participating in this bloggy giveaway extravaganza!!!

Here's a quick peek of what I'll be giving away the rest of this week. (And I apologize -- my photography skilz are sadly lacking.)
Up for grabs today is this gorgeous African scarf.
It measures about 40" x 42" but this is a stretchy kind of fabric. My female Ugandan friends used scarves like these every day to tie around their heads. They tried, really tried to show me how to do it. But I am completely inept with the technique. I have, however, used another scarf I bought in Uganda over the shoulders with a winter coat. The rich browns and touches of black in this scarf make it a striking fashion accessory.

Remember, all you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment. Someone kindly pointed out yesterday that I wasn't allowing anyone without a google account to comment. Sorry about that! I'm new at this bloggy thing and left everything in default setting when I started. BUT I did go in and figure out what I needed to do so ANYONE CAN COMMENT NOW!!! If you don't have a blog, make sure to leave an e-mail where you might be reached in case you win. It would be just too sad if you win and I have no way of letting you know. I'd have to move on and pick someone else.

And now I'm off to see how many giveaways I can enter and how many new friends I can make. Ain't this a hoot?!

WEDNESDAY UPDATE:
Anyway before I describe what we're giving away today, just a shout out to Kara who won the African scarf from yesterday!!! I think she just may be planning to wear it when they go pick up their little girl from Africa.

Okay, now on to the mate cup and bombilla straw pictured here.
We have an essay written by an Argentine about what mate means to the nation. I'll send a copy of that with the cup and straw to whoever wins. I always think it's nice to know a little of the history of things, don't you? :-)

For those not in the know, mate refers to both the cup and the tea. This herbal tea is from a bush from the holly family. It has a mild stimulant (but not caffeine) so a lot of health food stores in the U.S.A. are selling it now. And my hubby is reading a book right now that was written back in the 1930s by a man who traveled around Argentina. He came across the story of an expedition into Chile to establish a cattle ranch. Being so far away from the rest of civilization meant they had to get their supplies by ship, and unfortunately their supply ship was wrecked before it reached them so the people were starving. The leader of the expedition tried to get everyone to drink mate at the very least. Those who did never got scurvy! Makes one wonder if there have been any long-term studies done on all the health benefits of this tea!

Now the way Argentine's drink their tea is a little counterintuitive to how we drink it here in the U.S. We typically put our loose tea into tea balls or small cup strainers. But in Argentina they dump the loose leaves right into the cup AND THE STRAW HAS A STRAINER BUILT INTO THE END OF IT so you don't get little bits of tea leaves in your teeth. How cool is that?! Don't know if you can really tell from the picture, but the bottom of the straw is indeed a strainer.

Again, to enter to win this giveaway, just leave a comment. I'm picking winners each morning.

THURSDAY UPDATE

This watercolor is part of the Images of Ireland series by Pat Flavell, watercolorist and illustrator living in the southwest of Ireland. The framed size is 8" x 10". [It's still in the cellophane envelope which created a glare when I snapped the picture.] I absolutely LOVE this print that some fortunate person will win today! I brought back *ahem* nine altogether. On our first trip to Ireland we had some money left at the end of the trip (shocking, I know) and it was such a pain to convert the money that we decided to spend it there somehow, someway. It wasn't a difficult choice, really, because I'd been eyeing the watercolors by Philip Gray and Pat Flavell. I bought three at that time. On our last trip I picked up another six.

And now on to who won yesterday's amazing giveaway, the mate cup and bombilla...(drumroll please)...it's none other than Jon & Sara! Congratulations! I'll also be sending them the essay about why mate is so important in Argentine culture.

Actually a number of you expressed an interest in the essay. Soooo...next Monday I'll be posting it on this blog.