I'm a Winner and have been for a long, long time!

Back in April of this year I was minding my own business, cleaning my closet; sorting clothes to take to Goodwill when all of a sudden I noticed a small pain in my buttock on the left side and I thought, "Hmmmm, that's weird". Well within a half hour it turned into a stabbing, radiating, unbearable pain that knocked me flat on my back for almost a month. What was it you ask? It was Sciatica! You can read more about it here.

It has taken a long time for me to get back to normal and in fact...I'm still not back to normal. My left leg is still very, very weak and gives out when I least expect it to. I've fallen a couple of times and I can't climb stairs, but I'm hopeful that with every passing day it will get better.

It was a long time from that day until I was able to even sit long enough to check my email. When I did I was thrilled to find out that I had won a Giveaway hosted by Flory at Living Creatively! I immediately emailed Flory and let her know how happy I was and also that it would be a while before I would be able to photograph my winnings and post about them. I sent her that email on May 2nd and today I actually took photos and now I'm posting about winning.

Here's a photo. I received the package on May 26th. Flory sent it to me from the Philippines which is where she lives. I don't believe I've ever received a package from outside of the United States...it's was pretty thrilling and my mom was very curious about why I was receiving a package from the Philippines!

Flory also has a photography blog and when I won I was able to choose from several different photos she had taken. I fell in love with one she captioned "Pasta and Ikea". I just loved the way the light hit the pasta. I knew it was something I would love to hang somewhere in my kitchen.

The great thing is that when I received it Flory had already mounted it, ready to hang with magnets on my refrigerator...and it's been there ever since, brightening my day every time I open my fridge.

The small drawing was a gift from my precious niece Clarissa when I had my 1st surgery for Thyroid Cancer in 2008. I've had it there to remind me every day of the message Clarissa wrote:

You are going to feel great. You are free!

I think what she was saying was that I would be Cancer free...and so far I have been! I love you Clarissa!

But back to my winnings. Besides that gorgeous photo on my fridge, Flory also sent me the gosh-darnedest, cutest, hand-made notepad ever!

She hand-painted those "beans" on the front cover. She calls this "Beans for a Cause". She has an Etsy shop where she sells them. She says this about them:

I wanted to do my part by offering a Beans for a Cause Notepad. 

It's for Uncle Rey on dialysis and desperately needs 

help raise money for a kidney transplant as soon as possible.
My 3.5x5 inch colored paper notepad has a 

hand drawn kidney beans on a hard yellow and blue cover. 

With 100 colored and/or white pages whichever you prefer.

She sent me the colored pages as you can see in the photo. The kidney beans she's hand-drawn of course are a symbol of the kidney transplant that her Uncle Rey desperately needs. If you would like to purchase one of these note pads you can do so here.  

Thank you Flory and thank you for being so patient in waiting for me to finally post about this giveaway. I hope your Uncle Rey is doing well and that he heals completely.