And the winner is.....

Drawn under fairly poorly supervised conditions, the winner of my 'thank you for following' giveaway is.....the lovely Ms Cindy from Bugandpop. Yay, hurrah *round of polite applause*. Thank-you to the lovely Peeps that joined in and a big "hello" to the newest additions on the conga line, I do hope you'll stay and play, I hope to be much more forthcoming with rambling little blog posts when the conclusion of the school year dust settles.

In the meantime I hope you are all enjoying dance concerts (oh yes, we will be so much wiser to all that next year and I hear that g&t in a plastic drink bottle is the current beverage of choice for the discerning dance mama), various class presentations (still trying to work out how the Thriller zombie inspired dance performance from Le Artiste fits in with any sort of Christmas theme. Although it must be said that I am probably doing a masterful interpretation of a zombie at the moment, so perhaps those nine year olds are more on the mark then they realise) and gnawing on the hundred or so spare candy canes collecting at the bottom of your children's school bags.

Yep, the countdown has begun and the smell of Christmas is in the air. Do you know that smell ? Part cinnamon and nutmeg and part frantic desperation with a top note of childish glee. It's all Eau De Christmas Peeps, take a nice big lungful and enjoy.

Ooooh yes Peeps, it's time for......A GIVEAWAY.

Lately I have been feeling big old waves of blog love Peeps and it got me thinking that it was high time to give some of that love back to all you lovely folks who stop by, leave comments and even go so far as adding my little blog to your blog rolls and becoming regular followers.

You may have noticed (or perhaps it may have skipped your attention, but that's okay, I understand, it's rather a busy time of the year) that last week the Waffling Along conga line grew to over 100. I know it's rather silly, but that gave me such a little jolt of happiness, so thank-you :)

In celebration of this rather monumental event, I would like to offer this little box of mish-mashed (figured it was in keeping with my blog style really) gifts which all get the Waffler Seal of Approval. But I'm afraid there is one condition Peeps, as this is a very special thank-you giveaway, you must actually be a follower of my blog in order to enter. I know, I know, look at me going all rules and regulations on you, but sometimes a gals gotta do what a gals gotta do, you know.

Anyway, here is a list of the items I have included :

An excellent book - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, you may have heard of it, unless you've been living under a rock in a cave that is.

Bumble and Bumble alojoba hair conditioner - have you tried Bumble and Bumble yet ? It's rather delicious, and this conditioner contains aloe, jojoba, cucumber and chamomile which should leave you with silky soft tresses.

Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates - Nom nom, need I say more ?

Payot small make-up bag - I love Payot products and this is one very cute little bag to pop your favs into.

Lancome - Primordial day cream with SPF 15 - I must confess I flit between Lancome and Payot skin creams, but both are really lovely.

Lancome - Gel Eclat clarifying wash of cleanser - ALWAYS wash your make-up off Peeps, even if it's 5.30am and you can barely stand up, cleanse, cleanse, cleanse.

Lancome - Genefiqie Youth Activator serum - gotta love a serum that activates your youth right ?

Payot - Smoothing re-activating weekly mask - combined with the Lancome serum, you should be looking years younger in no time, just make sure your kidletts don't get their hands on it or they might disappear altogether.

A pot of Blistex Lip Conditioner SPF 20 - I can vouch for the fact that this is the make-up balm of make-up artists.

And last but not least, a little hand painted Caroler wooden doll, in a lovely summer dress to reflect our toasty Aussie Christmas. And she's a Waffler one off original Peeps, so I hope you like her as much as Petal, who I will have to console with a Caroler Mark II.

*Phew* So there you have it Peeps. Did you find something that tickled your fancy in the list ? I do hope so. Now all you have to do is leave a comment (anything you like, even if you just want to say "hi" ) and make sure that I can contact you through either a blog link or an email address. I will announce the winner on Sunday 5th of December. That's it, easy peasy no ?

Oh, and just one more thing, sadly I can only offer this giveaway to Aussie Peeps, the clay and gold paint coins Le Artiste made haven't fared nearly as well on the currency exchange as we had hoped. But I promise I will put together a little something special just for the overseas visitors soon, 'cause you know I loves you all.

A Package of 'Ahhhhh'.

A small parcel came from far across the sea,

A sweet little package addressed especially to me.

Lola Nova, she's the best,

Lola Nova, chuck out the rest.

Only joshing my lovely peeps,

I could never chuck any of you away,

but thank-you gorgeous Ms A,

I just adore my beautiful wallet :)

And the winner is.....

With an air of anticipation but surprisingly little fanfare (where is that little drumming man when you need him ?) Miss Petal reached into the really, REALLY big yellow bowl and drew out the winning name for my giveaway. And the winner is.....

MS COPPER PATCH

2nd runner up is Amy Paul from LIFE WITH SOUL

3rd runner up is Cathy from M.E

Congratulations gals, I shall be in touch with all of you. Oh and for those of you scratching your heads and saying "Well that's lovely, but what does a runner up receive ?" Well, um, I would love to show you, but they're *ahem* not quite finished yet. For Amy and Cathy I will be sending off a wee ink and gouache illustration, one is a sweet little girl, the other is a pretty friendly looking pirate lad.

Thank-you to everybody who entered the giveaway and left such super sweet comments, you really are a rather lovely bunch of Peeps.

100th Post and a Giveaway to Boot.

Prepare for the fanfare and pull out your leftover New Years Eve poppers y'all. This is it....my 100th blog post in this little patch of Blogland that I like to call my own. Who knew I had so much useless information to prattle on about ? Um...actually...I think one or two people may have had a fair idea, but do we listen to those who put their hands on their hips and say "We told you so," No, we do not.

I thought my 100th post would be the perfect opportunity for my first ever little giveaway. Sadly this will not consist of gold bullion or a new home decked out in naff but no doubt expensive furniture. For you, my dear reader, is something much more personal and well...sort of useless...but darn cute nonetheless. The ever-so-clever Ms Loobylu gave away some gorgeous tree ornaments just before Christmas, and I was so taken with these little darlings that I rushed online and picked up some wooden Dolly bases for myself.

There's something about little pieces of smooth painted wood that makes me smile. I like the way they feel in my hand and the gentle tapping noises they make when Le Artiste and Petal play with them. This may possibly make me a little strange, but I have an inkling that there are many other wooden toy lovers out there, am I right or am I right ?

So here she is, my little gift to you to say thank-you for stopping by and reassuring me that I am not, in fact, just talking to myself.

Now to the giveaway part, it's super easy, all you have to do to be entered into the draw, is leave a comment. Make sure you leave your email address if you don't have a link back to your blog and pop back in next Friday when I shall announce the winner. Too easy right ?

And who knows, I might even have a couple of little runners-up prizes.....a set of super sharp steak knives ? Well you'll just have to wait and see.

Thank-you Peeps, without you all it would just be...well, me. xx

Winners are Grinners.

If you are most anxiously awaiting the second installment of my adventures in Paris, then I'm afraid I must apologise. Today I fell into that frightening abyss that is ebay...eek....I feel like my brain has been shredded and fried like a Masterchef challenge gone awry. So the words are a little mumbly jumbly at the minute but I have managed to get the camera back off The Coach just in time to show you an absolutely divine little bundle that arrived in the mail on Friday.

Yes, I won a blog give away, on my birthday no less, from the oh-so-clever Sherrin at Starashan. Such a thrill I have to say and I'm thoroughly delighted with all the luscious little bits and pieces, the kimono fabric bag, the lavender, orange and rose geranium soap and the surprise brooch, so yummy. And just for the record, Sherrin has the most insanely beautiful handwriting, I'm terribly jealous.

Anyway, before someone announces that they are plating up, I shall continue on to the next job on that never ending list. I hope you had a perfect weekend and I plan on considerable more blog love during the next week. (Yeah, yeah, promises, promises.)