The Carnival's In Town! The Bloggy Giveaway Carnival!

I'm pretty excited to participate in my first online giveaway!!! Hosted by Don't Try This At Home, you can browse through a gazillion giveaways and enter as many as you want by just going to the individual blogs. And it's going on all week so more and more people will be offering oh-so-wonderful giveaways so be sure to keep going back! How fun is that?!!! Who doesn't love free things?!

You'll see the button on my sidebar that gives the guidelines for participating. if you'd like to give away something yourself.

So what am I giving away? Actually I'll be offering a few things throughout the week. Up for grabs first is an authentic African batik we brought back after spending a year in Uganda. Measuring roughly 8" x 17" the batik features African ladies on their way to market with their wares. Isn't it fabulous?!

I know whoever wins this will love it!

It is handmade so there are imperfections but that just adds to the charm. I'm showing it on a piece of black fabric so it stands out better. The background is a golden yellow and there's a lot of oranges, black and olive green plus a little brick red. It is African folk art at its finest. I love my batiks! [Nope, will NOT say how many I have 'cause I don't want folks to think I'm a glutton for batiks.] You can frame it in a variety of ways. I've seen them displayed in those glass frames that don't have edges (sort of frameless frames), mounted and framed in rustic frames, and I've given away a few that I sewed on fabric borders and backs (like a quilt).

So leave a comment to enter, and don't forget to keep coming back 'cause I'll be giving away even more goodies throughout the week -- a scarf from Africa, mate cup and bombilla (metal straw) from Argentina, watercolor print from Ireland, and basket from Uganda. Have fun at the Carnival!

TUESDAY UPDATE:
First off, congratulations to Mindy for winning the African batik! Since I'm new to the bloggy giveaway thing, I put up a new post today without thinking that folks coming from Mr. Linky would see this post and not that one. I did add today's post to Mr. Linky but that's not going to help those who come visit from the first one. So I'm adding part it to this as an update.

Have y'all been over to Don't Try This At Home yet? My word! I just checked and the links just keep comin'. There are hundreds and hundreds of 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.)
I'll be adding people who comment on this post with those that post on today's and coming up with a winner for today's giveaway: the African scarf. Which is roughly 40" x 42" (it's a stretchy fabric) in rich shades of brown with touches of black.
My female Ugandan friends tried to teach me how to wrap it around my head like they do with their scarves. Unfortunately I am completely inept in regard to this technique :-( But I have used another scarf I brought back over the neck of a winter coat, and looked, as my African friends would say, "Very smart!" However you use the scarf, it's a striking fashion accessory!

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.

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.