National Pink Day: A Giveaway

Today is National Pink Day. I'm not sure of the details behind it or how it came to be, but I'm totally on board with it because

I ♥ pink!

Growing up my sister and I shared a room. We wanted our room to be really pink. Our parents objected to the amazingly, shockingly, beautiful pink we wanted. In the end the walls were pink, but the paint was the palest shade of barely there pink. At age eight, my dream car was a pink Volkswagen Bug.

As I got older, I kind of grew out of pink and into blue. When we moved and I got my own room, I painted it blue. And blue kind of stuck with me. About eight years ago, I had a baby girl and pink made a comeback! As my little girl grew she formed her own opinions about color and pink is not it for her right now. But pink stuck with me. Pink, I'm sorry I abandoned you! I'll never leave you again!

In honor of National Pink Day, I have a giveaway, but first I want to share with you some of the pretty pink things growing in my gardens.

Apple Blossom Tulips

Félix Crousse Peony
(and in the bottom right corner, Desmond Carnation)

Sarah Bernhardt Peony

Pearly Gates Climbing Roses

You can just see a bit of the bricks on my house in the picture on the right (click on it for a closer view). They are pink! I think of my house as Barbie's Pink Dream House (and not because it is about the size of a Barbie house, but because I totally love it and it is pink on the outside). When I go out to garden, I put on my pink garden clogs and listen to music from my pink iPod (it's got a skin on it with pink in it to keep it from getting scratched, but underneath it is all pink!)

While I'm sharing about pink, I have another story to tell. For the last few months every time I would go to JoAnn's this pretty, silky pink polka-dot fabric would greet me. It was just inside the door and was the first thing I would see each time I went in. I would admire it as I walked by, run my fingers across it, sigh because I had no project for this beautiful fabric, and move on.

Then one night I had an idea. Mr. Bug likes to read. A lot. And sometimes he likes to read past when I'm ready to go to sleep. So I wear a sleep mask so he can keep reading and I can go to sleep. Up to now I haven't found one that wears nicely, is comfortable and is pretty, so I decided that this pink fabric that has been calling to me for months needed to become the softest, prettiest most pink-a-licious sleep mask ever.

Pretty, no? And completely machine washable. Wanna know the best part? I got the fabric on sale. We all know how much I love a great deal right? This fabric wasn't 50% off, though. It was 60% off! And if there's anything I like better than 50% off, it is 60% off!

Actually, that's not the best part. The best part is that with the half-yard piece I bought, I had enough fabric to make not one pretty pink sleep mask, but four! And I've decided to give the three extras away! Because I'm the queen of technical difficulties lately and everything always takes way longer than I think, I only got one mask finished in time for posting today. But the other three are almost there and I'll definitely have them ready to send out by the time my giveaway is over.

Here's how my giveaway works.
• I love my followers. So, everyone who is a follower as of this post has one entry into the drawing. I've already printed your names out and all you have to do is make sure that your e-mail is available in your profile so I can contact you if you win. For those of you who are not followers and would like to follow my blog, that is terrific, but it won't get you an entry for this drawing. Here is my reasoning behind this. I followed more than a few blogs just to get an extra entry in to a drawing. Each day when I make my blog rounds, I wonder why I'm following certain blogs. Then I remember it is because I wanted to win something cool. I don't dare stop following them because I'm worried they'll notice I'm gone and feel bad. So, I keep reading their blogs and hoping it'll get more interesting. I don't want this to happen to you. If you're here because someone directed you to my giveaway, please have a look around, read some of my other posts, know that I'm a little weird, I tend to ramble on, I'm not always super funny and although I try to keep religion contained to my Sunday posts sometimes it leaks out on other days. It is just who I am. And sharing who I am is part of my blogging process.

• Leave a comment on this post about something you love that is pink. I'll be reading them all, so pink must be involved in your comment. You'll get one entry in my giveaway for that.

• Post on your blog about my pink giveaway, leave me a link in the comments and you get a second entry. You have permission to use the photos from this post.

• Please, please, please make sure your contact information is available. If your e-mail is not in your profile or you are commenting via the 'anonymous' option, then leave it on your comment in this form: address @ domain name (dot) com. If I can't contact you, you can't win. I will delete comments that have do not have contact information. Also, you don't have to have a blogger profile to enter. You can use the anonymous option to comment, just make sure to leave your e-mail so I can contact you!

• I'll close the comments at noon (MST) on Wednesday, June 30 and select three winners. I'll be doing it the old-fashioned way. I'll print out all the comments, put them in a bowl, mix them up and pull out a winner. There's something about a hands-on drawing that makes it fun for me.

• Questions? Use my handy dandy e-mail button on the sidebar.

Good luck and have a totally PINK day!

P.S. If you love pink too, check out Pink Suede Shoes. She's having a really awesome pink giveaway this week!

I've linked up at a few fun places. Check them out for some really neat finishes.