The winners are....

Yes I do have two winners, are you ready for the names.

I was pretty excited.

The names are

Judith of Zanylife & Crazy Faith
and Margaret of Meditation.

Please e-mail me at balsamponds@brainerd.net and tell me what card from either shop you would like. Be sure to put contest winner in the subject line for me. Congrats to the both of you.

When you really need a friend.

I have been working the Internet for about one and a half years. I started up with my small greeting card business on etsy, then artfire, traveling to social networks, starting a blog all to get people to see my product.

I was told to go out and be seen, I found a few social networks. All were fun but I wasn't sure why I was spending time there, was it doing me any good? The time I spent was to me, very valuable and I had to think this over, will I stay at the social networks? The funny thing was that I had joined one social network that was for friendship only. It claimed if you wanted to meet positive people then this is the place for you.

A week and a half ago we lost a dear friend. You might have read it in my previous posts. Seeing that I have lots of friends on my social networks I said I wouldn't be around to talk for a week due to Mike dying. This social network called Friendship Society was so supportive, not the site but all the people that make up this site. I had more virtual hugs then you could imagine. I decided I had to stay there and support others and laugh with them when the occasion arises.

There is a person with such a big heart she had to start this site. Katie you are amazing and I am glad I found you and your site.

For all you who love meeting people that make your life more joyful this is the site for you. Here is the site address http://www.friendshipsociety.ning.com/

The winner is.....

Oh boy, no one won, was it too hard or are you like me, crazy busy. Well lets say crazy busy. I would feel better. So a new plan is in the making. I promised that I would give two cards away and I am still going to do just that. I also said it was for the celebration of my 100th follower. And it will be two followers out of the first 100 friends.

I gave my husband the hard duty of picking two numbers. One number will be between 1-49 the other will be 50-100. He has given me the numbers but now I have to figure out who you are. You will see the two winners on my site by Wednesday. The winners will e-mail me with your choice of card, your address and I will send you a card with love.

I will hold another with my 200th followers for the 100 and over followers. This is so fun. Good luck guys. Oh ya, this photo of a bone was displayed with a card in both sites.

It's a Party

I would love to give all my friends and followers a free card from my collection but you would truly deplete my inventory. So to celebrate my 100 follower here is my plan. I will give you a clue, and you will go to either my Artfire or Etsy site and do a search. This clue will give you what you need to find the hidden item.

When you find the item in my card photos you will go to the e-mail address and let me know where you found it. When the week comes to a close I will choose a winner, if there are more than one winner on either site I will do a drawing. Both sites will have a winner.

When the winners (2) are announced via the e-mail and on this site, I will delete your e-mail addresses and the address you are to send the answer to.

Who can apply? Anyone who reads this blog.

Time allowed for the party: July 6th through July 13th.

Winners will be announced on July 15th on this blog.

The clue is: Sniff it out and you will get a treat

e-mail address: balsamponds@brainerd.net

Subject line on e-mail should read - lets party, mostly because I don't open everything I get.

When the winners are picked I will ask what card you want. There is no cost to the winners. Just a simple thank you for those who warm my heart.

The party is on. Good luck to all my friends.

A Community in a Community

When you live in a small community you find out how much support you have when a loved member of the community dies. Everyone plans to come to the service and here in Minnesota we always serve lunch. The menu is simple, ham, buns, salads, and my favorite cakes.

The reason this story is different from all the others is the quantity of people, this small hard working community, of church women will feed. Me, being the new chairperson and green behind ears gets the call, 300 guests. Three hundred guests. Our church is small and without the community hall we could not seat three hundred. I needed to find a new place to serve lunch. The Emily City Hall was available. That part was simple.

We rely on our church community to donate the cakes and salads. Usually it's a small number of each and a few calls do the trick. Today I had to find 30 salads and 20 cakes. Just then your heart beats a little faster and I got a little nervous, then the phone starts ringing. The community around our church started to make calls. It wasn't for me but the sheer need to support the people who live here.

At the end of the day, I am tired, but satisfied. The surprise was that they weren't called they called us. Wow, just when you think our nation is in such trouble, the real people that make this nation great show themselves to us.

God Bless those that made my day a pleasure, not hard ship. To those who wrote nice comments of prayers thanks, I love my interent friends. I hope to be back reading your blogs very soon. I miss them and you.