I WON! I WON!

Shortly before Valentines Day, thanks to something of hers I spotted on Pinterest, I stumbled across a lovely new (to me) blog called Evolutions. The blog is written by Jenn Olson, who does the most amazing art journals, and knitting, and, well, all kinds of stuff! (Go there, now, before you forget. Today she's actually showing off some of her gorgeous journal pages, and talking about how she makes them.) Anyhoo, the day I discovered her blog, she just happened to be hosting a give-away. I tend to ignore those, especially if thousands have already entered, but this one had slightly more manageable odds, and I thought, why not? So I left my comment, and you know what? I just had a feelin' about this one. Sure enough, a few days later I got an email from Jenn saying I won! I WON! What did I win? Well, you're not gonna believe it all, my friends!

I knew to expect the gorgeous hand-knitted Henslowe scarf and the precious heart poster, both created by Jenn, as those were pictured on her blog. But, she also mentioned that there were to be some surprises thrown in, which made it even more fun! In her notification email, Jenn asked me a few questions about my habits and interests. Was I a coffee drinker? Was there a Starbucks nearby? Did I like chocolate? What were my hobbies? Based on my answers, and the fact that there was a Valentines theme to the give-away, I wasn't too surprised to find the candy hearts and cocoa mixes thrown in as well. But wait. There's more!

As if the goodies in the first photo weren't more than enough (think of the work that went into that scarf!), she also included all of this as well -- dark chocolate, chai, truffles, an actual visual journal with proper watercolor paper in it, and just the right pens for writing in it! And the yarn - just look at this yarn.

How could Jenn possibly have known that this "lettuce" green happens to be my signature color? (Just look at the walls behind my dining room table, and even the background on this blog for that matter.) And, see the tag explaining that the yarn is called "Rio" because its four plies twist together like the four winding rivers in Uruguay? Was there any way she could have known that the primary reason I live in the Texas Hill Country is for its rivers, or that rivers have been calling to me since my very first vacation in Colorado as a young child? No, of course not. But there is just something about blogs, and even the pins certain people post on Pinterest every now and then, that is summed up perfectly by one pin I saw there just recently. It said something like: "Do you ever look at someone's pin boards and just know that the two of you could be great friends?" Well, I guess I took one look at Jenn's blog, and just knew.

P.S. Have you hopped over there to visit yet? Well why on earth not? She even hinted today that there might be more goodies yet to be given away this month!