*Clap-clap* Okayyyyyy, people!
Where was I? Oh, yes! I was being perky and enthusiastic while clapping sharply. Because today is the day you should email me (swistle at gmail dot com) if you have tried (1) emailing your contest winner and (2) leaving a comment on your contest-winner’s blog (if either of those is possible), and still you haven’t heard from your contest winner. I’ll make a YOO HOO! post and we’ll see if we can get everyone in touch.

Also: if you have opinions on when/how to discuss The Facts of Life (that term will ALWAYS make me break into mental song: “You TAKE the good you TAKE the bad you TAKE them both and THERE you have…”) with children, scoot your expert and/or opinionated buns over to Milk & Cookies.

I don’t want to overwork the contest thing until you all are so sick of reading about it you faint and then die, but Bikini and I were trying to think of a way that those of us who are a little on the nosykins side can see what everyone GOTS. Plus, maybe some of us would like to enter more contests.

So what about this: IF YOU WANT TO, when you receive your giftie and take a photo of it and post your own Pay it Forward contest, email the link of that contest to swistle at gmail dot com. I won’t make a big tiresome deal of out every single contest (I’d do one single big-deal post, but all the contests will be starting/ending at different times so that won’t work), but I’ll tack them on to the ends of posts for awhile. Just until the post-holiday blues fade.

And remember, tomorrow is the day you should email me if you haven’t been able to contact your contest-winner.

Well. Last night I colored my hair an ill-advised color, and are you noticing what an excellent term “ill-advised” is? It implies that it was not MY independent decision to use a color called “Tempted Peach” when I know perfectly well that anything in the apricot/peach range clashes with my skin tone, which is “Rosy Non-Peach.” No, it was my well-paid ADVISERS who screwed up.

And sure enough, thanks to those idiots my hair is now the exact color that too-dark-for-blonde hair turns when you try to dye it blonde: a golden orangey-yellowy color, the kind that looks damaged even when it isn’t. The word “trashy” “brassy” springs immediately to mind. Furthermore, my eyebrows are the exact color of “too nervous about permanent blindness to color them.” Which is also the color my roots will soon be. There is really nothing like that combination of cool-toned light-brown hair with warm golden orangey-yellow.

It is a senseless waste of time to post a hair report without including a photo. I know whenever I see anyone trying to pull that crap, I immediately start the whining and nagging, and I keep it up until I get to see a photo. So I tried to get a good picture of my golden orangey-yellow hair, but the pictures kept coming out too forgiving. “Gee, maybe it’s not as bad as I think,” I’d say to myself, looking as the photos downloaded from the camera. Then I’d look in the mirror again.

This is the best I could get: the foreground of the photo, where you can see the back of my head, gives a moderately accurate idea of the color; and then you can also see a sample of the “too forgiving” effect on the me in the mirror. Also: rueful expression.

Good night’s sleep, little chocolate-creamered coffee, things look a little happier now.

OMG, were those Pay it Forward contests SO FUN!? I do indeed seem to have a little case of what Michelle aptly terms “post-holiday letdown,” but I think it will pass. It was just so fun to wonder who would win each contest, and then so fun to put together a box for SaLy, and then…..now that part’s over! Sad! No more gifties to buy!

I am reading a book about clutter-reduction by that guy who was on Clean Sweep. I don’t know if I can give him my full attention, since one of the episodes I saw of that show had him mocking a woman who was saving handmedown baby clothes. She had a toddler and they were planning to have at least one more baby. He made her play some stupid competition game for the privilege of keeping such a ridiculous, frivolous, space-hogging item as perfectly good baby clothes for a soon-upcoming baby.

Still. Clutter. A problem. So, I’m giving the book a chance. Paul doesn’t always understand about saving baby clothes, either: he’s all, “These take up so much space! Why do we even HAVE all these clothes!? You’re only 6 months pregnant! Is it really worth it to save the clothes when we’re not going to need them for SO LONG?”

I can already tell that one of my biggest problem areas is going to be “stuff that’s too good to throw out, but I have no one to give it to.” I might have a free yard sale: I HATE managing regular yard sales, but I can put stuff on my lawn and let other people take it away. Or I can do Freecycle, but it drives me crazy the way people will say they’re coming to get something and then they never show. And I think in the future we should do another batch of Pay it Forwards, this time for “stuff that’s too good to throw out.”

William went to a kindergarten where the pick-up policy is that the parents wait outside the classroom and the teachers send the children out—so you had to be there a little early. This meant there was some stand-around time before the class dismissed, and it was a fun time for chatting with other parents. Some of us started arriving even earlier, on purpose.

Statistically speaking, about half of the families on a class list are going to split up. Out of the twenty families with kindergartners in the class, only two had split up so far. Once this had occurred to me, I had several times when I would be looking around at all of us, thinking, “Which?”

Recently the same thought occurred to me about the blogs I read. Some of us are divorced and some of us are divorcing, but not as many as statistics estimate WILL BE divorced. Over the years, if we all keep hanging out, it’s going to keep happening. Pa-chow. Pa-chow. Pa-chow. Some of us may already have an inkling that we may be in that group, and others of us are going to get blind-sided.

I don’t even find it depressing so much as interesting. Like looking around your graduating class and thinking, “Some of us are going to be happy, and some will be successful, and some will struggle their whole lives, and some will have sad tragedies, and some….” etc. It’s that feeling of knowing the future but not yet knowing how things will be assigned or how they’ll happen.

Well. *brushes hands briskly* Enough of that! Carpe etc. Gather ye etc. Eat drink etc. Don’t borrow etc. Sufficient unto the day etc.

1) Book about a mother who lost three babies in infancy AND has to submissively allow another daughter to be sold to a silk factory.

2) An hour with the Registered Sex Offender list. There are two RSOs in our neighborhood. Both were convicted for crimes involving children under age 13.

3) Ending of miniseries, carefully recorded, cuts out. Nothing seems to be wrong with the DVD. Nevertheless, the last 2 minutes are unviewable.

4) Mosquito bites.

5) Reeky house.

6) We really should be saving for retirement.

7) Target seems to have a new policy about filling their aisles with pallets.

8) Fun pay-it-forward contests are over.

The Group Effort Pay it Forward Contest ends today! It is over NOW on this blog, but different contests have different end-times, so some are still accepting entries.

It is time to announce a winner! I used the customized random number generator my brother made for me, and it chose SaLy of Incubation Nation—and that starts us with a loop right off the bat, because SaLy also threw a PiF contest. Yay for loops! Congratulations, SaLy! I’ll be emailing you for your mailing information…..NOW!

I needed to choose four additional winners for our four blogless participants, Dynamita, Lee, Andrea, and Libby. So here are the four blogless contest holders, and their four winners:

1) Dynamita’s contest won by: May, of the June 30th, 11:22 a.m. comment.

2) Lee‘s contest won by: Kelsey of Midwest Mom. Ha ha! Our second loop!

3) Andrea’s contest won by: Clarabella of Baby Liam’s blog.

4) Libby’s contest won by: Amanda of My Version of the Story.

Yay, winners! I’ve found Kelsey’s email address and Clarabella’s, but May and Amanda should email me at swistle at gmail dot com and I’ll connect you to the contest-holders.

Now. Let’s address some possible situations:

Gol-dangit, I won, like, FIVE contests! Worry not! You have several options. Option the first: choose one or two to accept, and email the other bloggers and tell them to choose a new winner. Option the second: accept them all, and have one big Pay it Forward contest where you have as many prizes as you won contests. Option the third: accept them all, and have one Pay it Forward contest for each time you won, but spread them out over the next year so you don’t go berserk.

Gol-dangit, I didn’t win a single contest! I KNOW, this is sad! I suggest going shopping for your OWN little giftie: if you’d won, you would have had to buy a giftie for someone else, so take those funds and buy something for yourself. We are nothing if not flexible.

I don’t know if I won any contests or not, and suddenly I realize I’m going to have to click through over 60 links to find out! Halp! Bloggers who threw contests, will you try to email winners? Entries without email addresses…hm, that’s a problem. If you entered a whole bunch of contests and didn’t leave your email address, you are a little bit up a creek, aren’t you! See next issue, below.

My contest is over. How do I contact the winner? Start by emailing, if you have an email address for your winner. Whether or not you have an email address for the winner, put the winner in a post. If the winner has a blog, go leave a comment on their blog saying they won, or harvest their email address from their blog. If you don’t hear anything from your winner by Tuesday the 8th (I’m allowing a few days, since people sometimes go out of town for 4th of July weekend), email me (swistle at gmail dot com) with (1) your blog’s URL and (2) the info you have on your winner, and I’ll do a post sometime next week that includes the list of winners who haven’t yet contacted bloggers. I’m reluctant to do this early on, because the idea of creating that post makes me feel like running screaming into the sea. Which would be pretty refreshing, but that is not the point.

OMG, someone won my contest and now I don’t know what to send!! Everything will be fine! If your winner has a blog, go snoop around it and see if you get any ideas. Otherwise, go to wherever you usually shop and poke around looking for something to leap off the shelf into your cart.

I won a contest, but I don’t know how to throw a Pay it Forward! Everything will be fine! First, wait for your giftie to arrive. Second, photograph the giftie you received. Third, post that photo on your blog with a link to the person who sent it to you. Third, include a description of what a Pay it Forward contest is, and how to enter. Fourth, choose a winner and mail them a giftie. Fifth, brush off your hands briskly.

I won a contest, but I don’t have a blog! Different bloggers are handling this different ways, so check the contest you won. If it’s not specified, one way to handle this is to ask the blogger to select a second commenter from their contest. You send a giftie to that commenter, and then that second commenter throws the next Pay it Forward.

I threw a contest, and I also won someone else’s contest. Wait, does this mean I now have to throw ANOTHER contest? If you don’t, the other blogger’s pay-it-forward trail fizzles out, and that is a little sad. Perhaps those who throw and also win might feel more like throwing another one if they can take a little breather first? Maybe wait a month? Or, The New Girl had a good idea: “If you already threw a PIF contest and also won one, couldn’t you, theoretically, just choose another random winner from the contest you already threw to count as your second contest?” YES, The New Girl, and great idea!

Other situations? Leave a comment!

Last chance to enter the Group Effort Pay it Forward contests, which all end today. There were still a couple more contests added late yesterday, and so you’re practically a shoo-in to win those if you quick go enter.

I’m spending the 3-day weekend trying to figure out why my house reeks. It REEKS. It’s a sour-milk kind of reek, so I’m suspicious of the laundry piles, which are indeed hilly. But, like Jonniker’s, my washing machine has been repeating on me recently. The other day, I got out of the shower, dried off with a fresh-from-the-dryer towel, and had to get back in the shower and re-shower, because the towel left reek all over me.

Why the sudden reek? Is it my new laundry soap? I got a bunch of Tide on clearance, and it does smell kind of like men’s deodorant (it’s a mountain-related scent), but that shouldn’t be too reeky, and I stopped using the Gain fabric softener I didn’t like.

I’m going through Jonniker’s comment section now, looking for more substances to throw at the problem: so far I’m armed with baking soda, vinegar, and bleach.

Little TIP here: the contests at the bottom of the list are newer, and have fewer entries. Better chance of winning!

Another little tip: if you mix sweetened shredded coconut with melted chocolate chips, so that the shredded coconut is fully coated (but still fluffable, not adrift in a sea of chocolate), and then you add butterscotch chips and fluff it up a little, and then you put it in the freezer—well, let’s just say you will eat more than you intended to eat.

Also: have you ordered from The Something Store? If so, would you email me (swistle at gmail dot com) and tell me what you got? I’m really trying not to place an order for what would surely be a disappointment (size 4 jeans! a dog toy! a book about physics!).

Good morning! and welcome to the Group Effort Pay it Forward! In case you have been SKIMMING, here is what’s happening:

1) A whole bunch of us are starting fresh new Pay it Forward contests, all together, all at the same time. Anyone may join in. (Email the URL of your contest to swistle at gmail dot com so I can add you to the list.)

2) All the contests will end Friday July 4th. Keep checking this post for more contests: I’ll keep posting them here as more start up.

3) Each winner will get a gift in the mail. Each winner will then continue on the grand tradition, holding his or her own Pay it Forward contest. Typically such a contest starts with a photo of the received loot, so we can all snoop nosily.

I will link below to all the contests, adding more as more start. Please feel free to click right on down the list, entering every single one: that is in fact what we have in mind here. Please feel free to enter even if you are also throwing a contest: this has the potential to create fun little loops.

If you win more than one contest, you can throw a single Pay it Forward contest of your own, choosing one winner for each time you won. OR, you can accept one winning and ask the other bloggers to choose a new winner.

A few people wanted to enter the contest, even though they don’t have blogs. For those, I will draw additional winners from my own Pay it Forward contest. The blogless participants are:

1) Dynamita, who lives in LONDON, and that immediately makes me wonder about COOL LONDON STUFF.

2) My good brick-and-mortar friend Lee.

3) Andrea, who lives in AUSTRALIA, and that immediately makes me wonder about COOL AUSTRALIAN STUFF.

4) Libby, who once thought I was British and therefore was immediately on my good side.

And now here is a list of blogs running Pay it Forward contests (I’ll keep adding to it as people keep emailing me) (hint: the ones toward the bottom of the list have been up for less time, and therefore have fewer entries and a greater chance of winning):

Parking at Home
Mimi All Me
My Little Monkey
and the duck said…
The New Girl
Cookiemonks
All Dressed Up
Pantsfreesia
Twists and Turns
Incubation Nation
Our House
Everyday Life
Andrea Unplugged
Alice’s Wonderland
Messing With Texas
Cerebral Palsy Baby
Sublime Bedlam
Smiling Mama
Splendid Sustenance
The Creamery
Move Along – There’s Nothing to See Here
It’s Not About That Anyway
Just a Bunch of Silliness, Really
3 Giraffes
Life of a Daycare Girl
Eleanor Q.
Midwest Mom
As Many as We’re Given
Keeping Up With the Laughlins…
Emblita’s External Monologue
Honest and Truly!
Everyday Bailey
Totally Serial
It’s My Life
Get Up and Play
Clueless but Hopeful Mama
Sunday School Rebel
Tina Hearts Adam
Emily is Enceinte
Yes, I Would Really Like to be Thin
Amelia Sprout
A Little Left of Lost
Random Rantings
Mommy Daisy
Bethtastic
Under Construction
The True Adventures of Axel and Outlaw
aibiffity
Bethiclaus
Blondie Speaks
Houndrat
This? Is Not the Life I Ordered!
No Whey, Mama
Life in the Fast Lane
stickyfeathers
A is for Beautiful
Learning to Love Life in a Tiny Town…
Bebellyboo
Swistle: Baby Names
The Princess of Quite a Lot
Jennifer’s Mommyblog
Today is a Different Day
My Life
Thank You For Not Being Perky

Enter, enter! And don’t forget to enter mine as well, by leaving a comment on this post. You can say anything: “Me, me!” “I hereby enter,” “ENTERING,” “You are a goddess to me,” whatevs. If you need help coming up with something, you can tell me if you know how to swim. Okay, go!

Now don’t be NERVOUS about the Group Effort Pay it Forward! This will be easy and fun, you will see! And don’t be worried that you will throw a contest and no one will show up: I will be linking to all the contests here, and I suspect that large masses of people will be clicking right down through the list, entering one contest after another; at least, that’s the PLAN.

Here is what you will do if you want to participate and you have a blog:

1) You will begin to write a post. You will write that you are doing a Group Effort Pay it Forward contest. You will say what that is. You can copy and paste my description, or you can write something that’s shorter and makes better sense. Up to you.

2) You will spell out the rules: you will mention that the contest ends on Friday July 4th. You will say that the way to enter is to leave a comment. If you feel like it, you will come up with a thing people can say in their comments (“Do you prefer Coke or Pepsi?” “What do you think is my most charming quality?” “Who’s cuter, Hugh Grant or John Cusack?”).

3) You will post the post, either Monday June 30th or Tuesday July 1st.

4) You will email me at swistle at gmail dot com, and you will send me the URL of your contest post so I can include it in the list.

(If you want to participate but DON’T have a blog: Email me at swistle at gmail dot com and tell me you want me to draw you a random winner from MY Pay it Forward drawing. And I will say yes.)

And then you are done with the first leg! See? That was not so scary! And now you have plenty of time to work on the second leg. The second leg is even less scary, because there are no deadlines. But the second leg has more words, because it has more interesting things to discuss. People with blogs, start with step 1; people without blogs, start with step 3:

1) Sometime after the contest ends (maybe within minutes, maybe not until you return from vacation), you will assess your comment section. Open a random number generator. Tell it to generate 1 random integer, with a value between 1 and the number of comments you have that came in before the deadline, and format it in 1 column. Click “get number.” That’s the number of your winner.

2) Write a new post. Announce the winner. Say that their prize will be going out soon. Make a little joke about how long it will probably end up taking you. If the winner left an email address, email the winner and ask for his/her mailing info. Otherwise, in your post instruct the winner to email you with his or her mailing info. Mention your email address.

3) Decide what to send as the prize. The prize can be anything. Anything! It can be something you made, or something you bought. It can be an assortment of random stuff, or it can be things on a theme. It can be something from your regift shelf. Whatever is most fun to you.

4) Ship it. I’m only familiar with U.S. shipping, but if you’re in the U.S. and you’re mailing something heavy but small, flat rate is a great option. You can also consider ordering something from a site that will ship it for you for free: if you have Amazon Prime, for example. If your winner is from a different country than yours, talk with them ahead of time about what they might have to pay customs on, or what things shouldn’t be shipped.

There! It is a lot of words, but that is only because I am so wordy! The steps themselves are easy: (1) say what you’re doing, (2) pick a winner, and (3) mail them something fun!