Today We Give Away A Mate Cup & Bombilla!

This giveaway is certainly a lot of fun! Entering to win lots of fun giveaways AND giving stuff away myself. The Bloggy Giveaway Carnival is the best online party I've ever been to! Also the first online party I've ever been to :-) But it won't be my last! Unless I get blackballed or something. Do they do that in bloggy land?

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.

Oh, and now I can show you to loot from our shopping blitz yesterday. And here's a shot of the savvy shoppers when we were checking out. Do we look happy or what?! Every time I use any of the fabric I bought yesterday I will remember how much fun we had together.


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.