Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Another Bloggy Giveaway Carnival!

I really had fun with the last Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. Even though I'm insanely busy these days and I'm getting a late start, I can't pass up the chance to participate!

What You Can Win
Instead of offering products from my Cafe Press Shop this time, I decided to offer up some extra photo products from various online photo services that I've ordered over the last year. I had a hard time describing them all in words, so I took a quick photo (sorry for the not so great quality).


The items include:
  • A Photo Calendar
  • 8 photo stickers
  • 10 photo postcards
As last time, these are all photos I've taken!

How to Enter
Just leave a comment on this post and make sure I have a way to contact you (either via a blog or email address)

Who Can Enter
Contest open to anyone, anywhere on Earth :-)

Deadline
Contest ends at 11:59pm Pacific Time on Saturday, August 2nd. I'll post the winner on Sunday.

And if you like my photos, please feel free to browse through my Cafe Press Shop (http://cafepress.com/michellebphotos). I have various photo products using many of these same photos there for sale.

Enjoy the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A New House, a Sparky Car, and a Giveaway Coming Soon!

I can't believe my summer break is almost over! I go back to work in just over 2 weeks for the fall semester. So much has happened that I haven't blogged about, I don't know if I have any hope of catching up. I'm going to at least try to catch up photo-wise (though it's been a while since I last took any photos).

The major difference since I last blogged is that I am now living in my new house! My mom was here for most of July (she just called to tell me she made it back to San Diego) to help me move in. I still have boxes to unpack, but it's been so nice having help! And wow, do I have a lot of crap. I can't believe how much stuff I've accumulated over the years. I must admit a lot of it is books. I'm a book-a-holic, I admit. I'm using one of my 4 bedrooms primarily for my books!

And then I had a fun eventful weekend with my car this last weekend. One of my spark plugs decided to disintegrate and explode the cap off creating a hole in the fire lining of my hood, a dent in the exterior, and a horrendous noise that made me pull over to the side of the road immediately. Thank goodness I did since with the sparks shooting out from the plug wire, the engine could have caught fire.

This was my first major mishap with my car and the first time I ever had to call AAA to have it towed-- a major accomplishment since we (my car and I) just celebrated our 10-year anniversary on July 15! Anyway, I was thankful to not be alone since my mom was visiting. It was after dark, but in Arizona in the summer, that is really a blessing since we couldn't start the engine safely.

We had just gotten off the freeway when it happened so we weren't stranded on the side of the highway. And a Good Samaritan stopped to help (he noticed the missing spark plug before my mom or I did). He told us he had just come from the lake and his boat had to be towed earlier that day so he stopped to help thinking it was karma. I am definitely a big believer in karma!

The tow truck arrived quickly and we got the car home safely. My luck along with my positive visualizations helped along the way. The dealer was open for me to drop off my car on Sunday (a rare occurrence), and I got my car back yesterday and only spent $400 on it rather than the $10,000 of my dad's dire prediction.

All in all, it's been a very eventful month for me!

This week is the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival . I wasn't quite as prepared this time with the all the craziness going on, but I hope to give away at least a little something this week. I hope to have the post up tonight or tomorrow, so be sure to check back!

Friday, July 04, 2008

Bad, Bad Blogger!

I've been such a bad blogger lately! And I have so much I should be blogging about. I can't believe it's been over a month since I've blogged. Things have just been a bit crazy with crazy events, visits, and buying my new house. Yes, that's right...I'm officially a new home owner! There have been some issues to work through and time has flown.

My landscaping was completed Wednesday, and since I had to be up at the ungodly hour of 6:45am (for me when I'm not teaching at least), I took some photos of the yard. I'm including the best two so far below.

I have more pictures to post when I get around to sorting through them all and such. It may take a while since I'm planning the big move in the next 2 weeks and well I'm not even packed! Yikes!

Anyway, enjoy the photos and Happy 4th of July!

Front Yard (most of it anyway)


Back Yard (as much of it as I could get in one shot)