100+ Followers and a Giveaway Draw

Over the past week or so I've been watching the Followers number creep up into the 90s, and every day closer and closer to the 'magic' 100... I've been a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights, not quite able to believe what was happening!

I started this blog in November 2009 after having found the 'blog world' quite by accident. I had bought a UK miniatures magazine and in it was an article about Lea Frisoni's fabulous book Le Grand livre de la maison miniature . I Googled the book title and 'hit on' Linda Carswell's amazingly inspiring blog "Une Petite Folie" - it is no exaggeration to say that that moment has changed my life. From Linda's blog I spent days blog-hopping - I truly thought I'd died and gone to heaven! So much 'eye candy', so much inspiration, so much motivation. And most importantly a community of like-minded souls who I could see were committed to sharing knowledge and encouragement.

My first miniature project I can vividly remember attempting (probably about 8 years old) was trying to make a carpet for the living room of my dolls house by painting a mottled grey pattern on a piece of paper. To my frustration the paper curled up as it dried and I think I threw it away :( About 1984 (when we were living at the New Zealand cottage I've posted about recently) I was excited to find a couple of 'how-to' dollshouse books and launched into the mini world again. It was fun but also frustrating as it was so difficult to get materials and accessories. Basically it meant catalogue mail-order from England, an expensive and slow process and eventually I just gave up and put all my mini things away.

How different the mini world is now thanks largely to the Internet. I can browse online mini shops to my hearts content, and there is inspiration, motivation and fellowship everywhere. I Follow blogs located all over the world and my life is infinitely the richer for it. It seemed appropriate then that rather than just 'take' from the blog world I should make some sort of contribution myself, however small, and it seems that at this moment 103 of you consider it of some relevance and I truly thank you for that.

To show my appreciation I'd like to do a little "mystery" gift draw. It's presently a mystery even to me because your interests and styles are so diverse I've found it impossible to think of something that would suit everyone. Therefore I'll make a small 'tailor-made' gift package for the person whose name is drawn. I've decided to do this draw at my grandson's first birthday party on 6 March, it seems appropriate to mix two special celebrations :) I'll include the names of all Followers of my blog up until the time that I leave for the birthday celebrations. (If anyone does NOT want to be in this draw, please email me at normabennett@hotmail.com - no need to give any reason).

So, THANK YOU to everyone of you for stopping by my blog - I hope you will find something of interest here from time to time :)