And the winner is . . .

*drumroll please*

Teagan of Teagan in the T.Dot.O!! Even though the T.Dot.O. is obviously a Canadian blog, she fortunately also has a US address. Teagan happens to be one of my real life friends, and I am so excited for her to win this gift card! Of course, there were a few other real life friends and lots of blog friends that definitely deserved to win.

Although she is much more gorgeous than the blonde in this photo, this dress totally reminds me of a dress Teagan would wear and look smoking in, like she does in everything.

Teagan, I already have your address, so your gift card will be on it's way.

While I have your attention, I noticed a phenomenon with this being my first giveaway. There is such a thing as blog giveaway spammers. People who troll blogs looking for giveaways just to enter and move on their merry way. Troll is a harsh word, and I mean to use it. Spamming blogs for giveaways is so far from the spirit of blogging that it hurts my heart. It takes the privilege of blogging and leaving a comment on someone else's blog down a notch to more general internet fodder. I've seen a few friends leaving spam blog giveaway comments on facebook, and I noticed it in spades here. Easy to find - just google their email address and the search results pop up with the email address as a comment on blog giveaway after blog giveaway. I almost fell for spamming giveaways myself when I was offered this sweet giveaway of my own - I googled a few giveaways and entered so I could win my own Shabby Apple gift card. The friends I've seen spamming blog giveaways on facebook aren't malicious friends, and I believe they are doing it innocently enough, as I was, but being on the other side and seeing how far removed spamming giveaways with comments is from the spirit of blogging, I'm sad I got caught up, even for a moment.

That being said, and to end on a high note, I am loving these giveaways! I have been approached to do a few reviews and/or sponsored posts for products I haven't heard of and wouldn't support if I had and have turned each one down. Hearing from Shabby Apple was a delight and a win-win - my readers got to hear about a product I LOVE, got a chance to win a gift card to said store, and I'm crossing fingers I discovered some fabulous new readers :) !

Shabby Apple Gift Card Giveaway

How would you feel about a Shabby Apple give away?

I hope you said extremely happy, because that's exactly what's in store. Shabby Apple has offered to give one of my lucky readers a $50 gift card, and now is your chance to win it.

If you haven't heard of them yet, Shabby Apple makes the most wonderful timeless, classic dresses in the most fabulous designs separated into collections from eras such as the silent era, geographical locations such as Rome and Yosemite, and colorful ones such as Carousel. My favorite is the Set Sail collection. Mostly because I could actually see myself wearing a majority of those dresses. However, my absolute favorite dress of all time that is unfortunately no longer available was in the Paris oh la la collection, the Bonheur.

This dress takes me to the scene where Diane Lane wore a similar dress in Under the Tuscan Sun when she went to meet Marcello in Positano.

Add a black belt to Shabby Apple's version and it's exactly the same dress. Oh, if only I could enter this giveaway and win it if they still had it myself!

I've been a huge fan of Shabby Apple - liking their facebook page, sharing their dresses with friends, and poring over their site - even before they approached me about their giveaway. I could go on and on about their gorgeous collections from their regular breathtaking clothing line, swimwear, to maternity wear as well as new mama nursing friendly dresses - what a concept, even to little girls' dresses which totally makes me melt as my mother used to dress her, my sister, and I, in matching dresses which she made, but I'll stop here so you can actually enter and save the rest of my gushing for another day.

To enter, leave a comment on this post, become a follower of my blog, and 'like' Shabby Apple's Facebook page. Must have a USA shipping address to be eligible for entry.

To make the deal even sweeter use the Shabby Apple promotional code pinksundrops10off for 10% off your order whether or not you win. Code expires July 12, 2012.

The winner will be chosen randomly and announced next Tuesday, June 19, 2012. Good luck!

San Francisco Dreams

In the beginning of May I went to San Francisco for a quick, less than 48 hour weekend trip for my niece's 21st birthday along with plenty of other family.

One of the things my niece wanted to do for her birthday was check out this wave organ that her and her friends had tried to find but didn't succeed. I found the location online, and after a phone call once we showed up and still couldn't locate the actual place, the sweet lady on the phone was able to direct us to exactly where the wave organ was located.  The entire wave organ was built from stones from a graveyard. When the waves come in, the various pipes produce different tones. The best time to go is at high tide and a full moon, one of which we went at, and the other of which had occurred the night previous.

So peaceful to listen to, especially with the view of the Golden Gate exactly as you see it below. I apologize I'm not able to make these panoramas any larger.

On our way back from discovering the wave organ that even people who have lived in San Francisco for years don't know about, even when it's in plain sight by the Golden Gate, we discovered the Exploratorium. The Exploratorium is much more well known, however, I had never been. I was in awe of the beauty with this place as well.

Ocean swells

My MILs current dining room reminds me of her previous guest room. Gives me such a peaceful feeling.

A Visit to the Past? Why, Yes, It Is

I'll freely admit this is a repost of last year's Spring Break. Only because I have not gotten to our insanely wonderful Spring Break trip this year. Enjoy! And if you're anywhere near Pismo Beach in California, you won't regret visiting Sycamore Springs.

For a rundown of the whole trip and links to other activities from our vacation, go here.

Our first day in Pismo Beach we hit up the natural mineral springs hot tubs in Avila Beach at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort. Brando had the brilliant idea of splurging on massages beforehand. Generally they have you use the hot tubs beforehand, but because we were headed to dinner afterwards and Brando wanted to make sure we could rinse the massage off, he insisted we use them afterwards. Fortunately, Ashley (oh I hope that's her name!) at Sycamore Mineral Springs was kind enough to make sure we would have one afterwards as she knew they were not booked at all for the Friday afternoon.

We arrived for our massages and entered the cute little gift shop area,

and then through a walkway to our massage area. We were met in the lobby by Ashley and sent back to change in the lush bathrooms.

Once changed into our robes we headed to our beautiful private couples massage room.

I love the details adorning the door handles.

The entire grounds surrounding the massage room were stunning.

Inside the rooms you could hear the birds tweeting outside.The ceilings were open at one time when the rooms were private jacuzzi rooms and now have gorgeous wood covering them giving them an open airy feeling. The black curtain appears to be used to separate the two massage tables.After our fantastic massages (wish I could remember the names of the masseuses),

we headed straight up to our private outdoor natural mineral springs jacuzzi. The walk itself was lush green, and gorgeous. When we got to our stairs that had the sign directing us to our hot tub,

I absolutely LOVEd that we had a private little walkway to our very own hot tub.

The views of the other hot tubs through the trees was beautiful.

Once we got to our own little place (as you can see, I couldn't be bothered to stop walking to take the picture, thus the blur of action)

we were relieved to see no one could be looking down on us from above.

Brando hopped in right away.

An hour or so of soaking,

taking fun photos,

and taking in the beauty surrounding us, we leisurely headed back to the main shop area to walk around.

We had seen a purple tree orchard and a sign for a labyrinth on the way in, so now was the perfect time to check it out before the sun set.

The labyrinth was mesmerizing.

Yes, I attempted to walk it, but gave up after the first 5 minutes as were on our way to dinner to see my childhood best friend. The purple tree orchard was my priority any way, with it's gorgeous blossoms and volcanic mountains in the background.

Stunning. I love how relaxed my smile looked and felt after the massages and soak.

SXSW Free Event: Glomper Recharge Event

After you've added the below FREE event to your calendar, check out my SXSW Guide.

If you're a local, you know that there are many, many free SXSW events around. So many you may not even have to pay for a badge to be fully occupied. And if you're not, shhhh, don't tell anyone I told you.  If you're marking your calendars now, make sure to put this one on for this awesome free SXSW event this Sunday, March 11th, from 3-7pm at Launch787 next to Moonshine Bar & Grill hosted by my amazing friend, Mai.

Free drinks from Sweet Leaf Iced Tea, Graham's Texas Teas, Treaty Oak Rum, Waterloo Gin, and High Voltage, free food from the super yummy and popular Verts from the Austin Gypsy Picnic, and a photo booth by Generation Domination. Located next to Moonshine Bar & Grill @Launch787. What more could you ask for? Perfect event to stop by to recharge from the weekend's festivities! RSVP not required, but you can RSVP here or on facebook. Go, and, if you see Mai, tell her I sent you!

Also, if you are out and about during SXSW and you find yourself in need of a pedicab, look for the Glomper branded ones and pedicabs wearing Glomper shirts, they'll give you a free ride! 

Here is the media release from my girlfriend with more information on the financiers and creators of a super fun app behind the event, Glomper - see the last paragraph for a chance to become part of the beta group for Glomper:

I'm working with a group making a new geosocial service called glomper. Glomper is designed to help you easily find out what your friends and people nearby are up to tonight, involve into their activities and share your own. Both mobile (iOS & Android) and web versions available to let you always stay updated about your friends' plans, opinions, favorite TV shows, etc. You can tag people in posts/ events and assign location. Social (co-)check-ins can be cross-posted to FB or Twitter. The service is in the closed beta now and will be launched officially at SXSW.

Our mobile app is strongly event-focused - it is more about partying, planning parties and easy adding photos/ videos from a party and comments on them to the appropriate "event". We are planning to focus on that one for SXSW as we know it is a hot issue how to spend your spare time during off-hours.

Here is some screenshots of what we already have and I will try to describe what is to be there soon.

- Place page is a page you would get to by clicking at any location tag within the service. This kind of page has all the info about social activities performed at chosen location - it contains all events that took place there, all people who checked in and all pictures they posted.

- Explore page. This one has everything which is going on nearby - all posts, checkins, pictures, events. You can view them within a list as well as on an interactive map.

As for mobile app - you will see all the events nearby by type/date and you will be able to share your plans to visit them before they have started and then to check-in when you have arrived. Path-looking like interface will help you to share photos/emotions/updates from the event easily.

We aren't trying to compete with foursquare or facebook for check-ins, just integrate with twitter, FB, instagram for all-in-one access to a stream of people's photos so you can see where you want to head to or what cool thing is happening on that date/time. You don't even have to integrate with other social networks, it can be silent as well. We are similar to Glancee or highlight in the sense that you can find who of your friends are nearby and where you should go, I think the interface is a bit more user friendly for both droid and iOs, and again, it is more event focused.

We have an event planned on Mar. 11, at the Launch787 space from 3-7 next to Moonshine bar and grill. Hopefully you can come and learn about the app and use it for the rest of interactive events you plan on going to. If you are interested, we can send you a beta version of the app to try. It's in closed beta and I'm using it on my droid and it's pretty awesome, hopefully you can be some of the first to use it and beta test it during SXSW. Any feedback would be appreciated so let me know if you want me to send you a link to the app when we launch it and twitter.com/glompr would probably be the fastest way to reach me if you are having probs with the app during SXSW. The party invite link is http://www.glomper.eventbrite.com .

For My Son Who Inspires Me

Dear friends,

Shawn has been running in a running club for the past two years. Now, he has decided to run in a fun run next week for his school that will provide their school playground with a shade covering for these hot Texas days. 

His goal is to run 25-35 laps. Will you make a pledge to support him?

Let me know by leaving a comment or messaging me with your pledge per lap or flat donation amount and email address and you will receive a confirmation email. He'll let you know when he's completed his run next week and you can pay for his completed laps by check or online for a $2 processing fee due by March 20th.

Tomorrow, March 2nd, is the deadline for his pledges. If 21 people can each pledge $1 per lap he will meet his goal for pledges.

Thanks in advance. I wish I had the dedication he does for this and love supporting him in his passion for running.


Rose

Sunday Fun Day

Yesterday, Brando and I attended the Austin Monthly Bridal Bash with my girlfriend and her fiancee.

Side note: How hot is my husband? He's prepping for surgery for his sinuses and has been taking Prednisone to prep (an awful drug along with 90% of drugs in my opinion, but him being able to smell again for the first time in eight years has balanced out my worries) which has completely cleared up his sinuses and has even made his face look different - less swollen and puffed up.

I was sort of expecting a Tribeza type bridal event like Brando and I are used to and were so inspired by, but I'm sad to say it was nothing like it. The tickets were a lot less expensive, and that must make the difference. Unfortunately, I'm not even sure they pulled it off well for the price of the tickets. There were three aisles and the center aisle had a strange inward triangular setup that left some of the booths crowded in the center facing each other with barely enough room to walk in between. There was a lot of bumping into each other at the end of our time there and I am glad we came early before there were so many people in such a crowded space. There were a few booths at the end that were completely uncrowded, which I thought was strange to have them there when the space could've been used to make a more free flowing area for all the booths. Then, there was a gentleman's lounge that perhaps could have been better utilized for more booth space as well to allow more space to walk around. As it is, the gentlemen's lounge was almost unnecessary as there were enough cupcakes and other treats as you walked around to keep most gentlemen happy.

Any way, this wasn't meant to be a review of it, but that's how it went down. We had a blast, any way, til' we had a beer just before we left and our stomachs hurt from the over-carbonation of the Miller Lite. We knew it was the beer and not the freshest yummiest gummy bears ever, because my girlfriend was the only one who didn't drink though she ate the gummy bears as did I and her stomach was fine.

Later in the evening, after I laid out at home for a few hours (love Austin weather!), Brando and I went on a date to the Cheesecake Factory. The evening was perfect to sit outside underneath the gas heaters. Brando had already eaten at home, so I ordered a few fun appetizers, fried zucchini, my favorite, and an oh so delicious gorgonzola, pear, and arugula flatbread.

I also ordered hot tea which felt so quaint with the honey, lemon, and basket of bread next to it.

We enjoyed the quiet patio until it slowly filled up at Austin's normal dinner time - 7pm. Since we already ate, we were happily on our way by the time it got too crowded.

Love the Paris cafe feel and lighting of this photo

A gratuitous photo of Brando and I at the bridal event and I'm off for the day!