Birthday Week Celebration - Give-away Three

Happy Birthday to me! (Well, on Saturday.)

Hello to the new followers. Now I'm only six away from 200. But there's only one more day. So spread the word for me. All three of these give-aways are open for a week so you can still enter them. This one will be open until next Friday.

Today's give-away is not only celebrating my birthday, it is also celebrating one year in Germany. So there is a choice of prizes between my two favorite things. The winner will either get to pick from my library of photographs and have an 8X10 printed, or they can pick any two from my library of books.

The books I have to give away (they are all soft cover and in very good condition):
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman (aka Golden Compass)
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Vampire Diaries 1 & 2 by L.J. Smith

My flickr library is here, but I have so much more than that. It will give you the flavor of my photography and we can talk further if you choose to get the 8X10. (I'd even be willing to capture a new photo specifically for you. I'm feeling rather artsy at the moment and would love some new inspiration.)

Now just fill out this form; it's easy, I promise. You can answer the first question by reading this blog post. And this is the end of the crazy birthday week. Thanks for joining in!

Birthday Week Celebration - Give-away Two

Just a little side note before we get to the give-away: I would really love to get to 200 followers for my birthday. I'm only 8 away, and I have until Saturday. That would be a great way to end the week!

This give-away is focused on travel. I have been a lot of places in my life, and especially in the past year, so I decided to give-away a travel journal made by the lovely Katie at Gadanke. Katie moves between the Rocky Mountains and Germany with her husband. I found her through another expat and couldn't resist getting in touch with someone who lives in the two places I have lived!

I will be purchasing this journal from Katie and having it sent to the winner. The contest is open until next Wednesday. You just need to fill out this form; it's easy, I promise. Answer the first question by reading my blog post on where I have traveled. Come back on Friday for another give-away, and make sure you enter Monday's give-away.

Birthday Week Celebration - Give-away One

Hi! At the end of this week is my birthday. So I'm going to have three give-aways for you. My birthday presents to my readers.

Today I'm going to give you an update on my writing this month and give away a set of my postcards so you can do some writing of your own. Twelve Frozen Flower postcards in their own box.




























I'm only one quarter of the way through my manuscript. At least so far. I have one week left. I don't plan on finishing my manuscript this month, but I haven't given up on the whole thing. I still have ideas; it hasn't died yet; it does feel really raw. I'll keep you updated, but for now I'm just plowing through the first draft.

So now, for the contest. You have to fill out this form; it's easy I promise. The first question is something you can answer by having read this blog post. Then fill out the form and you're entered to win the postcards. I will announce the winner for this give-away next Monday. Come back on Wednesday and Friday for more give-aways!

Three Things Thursday - The Past Year

I'm going to incorporate Three Things Thursday with the year anniversary of my husband and I being in Germany because exactly a year ago we landed in Stuttgart. So take a look at yesterday's post for my three things. I want you to look back on the past year and tell me three things about it. Maybe three things that have changed you or even just random things.

Three things about...

the past year.

Blog your own post and link in the linky below or tell me in the comments! I have to clean the house today and then get all fancied up to celebrate a great year.

One Year in Germany

A year ago today my husband and I left the United States for Stuttgart, Germany. It has been quite the adventure. I really believe it has brought us closer, but I wouldn't say it's a good form of therapy for the light-hearted. Stress is our constant companion. We are just now starting to untangle its fingers from around our necks.

I'm surprised to see that I understood Germany pretty well when we first got here. I'm reading through the old blog posts. Here is a photo I took of the farms behind our first apartment. Lovely Bonlanden, the place that smells like farts when the cabbage rots.

The adventure of going through buying a car. And then having that car break in the IKEA parking lot and be broken for another few months. (It's now having the same problem, oh yay.)

Finding a beautiful apartment, renting and decorating it, and very soon after moving in locking ourselves out of said apartment.

We've gone to fests and made a ton of new friends. As well as had my family visit. A lot of friends and family are planning on coming out next year, it will be another crazy year!

We discovered the Nürburgring car-racing track and have traveled so many places. I think Albert has seriously been bitten by the traveling bug, he's constantly wanting to go somewhere new now! (And it's funny because he's only been to Europe once...even though it has lasted a year! He's never even dealt with the jet lag on the way back to the U.S. so he doesn't have an opinion when people argue over which way jet lag is worse.)

It has really been a good year. A stressful one, but a good one nonetheless. I'm looking forward to many more either here in Germany or elsewhere. Tomorrow night we are headed to the restaurant we ate in on our arrival. Only this time we can actually order in German!

Three Things Thursday - Travel Wishes

Last week I asked you about where you have been. This week I want to know where you dream of going. I really wish someone would invent teleportation so travel would be so much easier. I'm not the best flier, but I love to travel places. If I could hop from one place to another with maybe a little dizziness and cotton-mouth as the only side effects, I would be set.

Three things about...

where you dream of traveling.

1.    I would like to someday see Japan. I have a strange fascination with the history of Asia and the beauty that can be found there.
2.    I need to go to Australia and South America, then I will have been to all the continents except for Antarctica. I’ve been a lot of places, but it would be fun to be able to say I’ve been to six of the seven continents.
3.    One of my dreams right now is to go as far north as is comfortable in Sweden in the summer to watch the sun never set. That or go to Iceland in the winter to visit the hot springs they have. I just like to travel; I want to experience as many places as I can in my life.

Piepsen Went to London

Piepsen went to London with us in August. He really enjoyed the tea and the shepherd's pie at the pub. He refused to go in the London Eye (the fear of heights and all that). But he loves palaces and the architecture of London.

We're still working on his photos from Vienna. (He thinks he looks like a rat in them.) But we should have those up soon.