Winner winner chicken dinner!

Mmm, chicken... wait, I already HAD chicken for dinner! Coincidence?? Hmmmm....

Sorry, I'm getting to the winner of my one year giveaway! Random.org hand-picked this number...

And lucky number 3 is...

Amanda!! WOOHOOOOO!!! Confetti and disco lights and the clanging of pots and pans, you've WON! :D Drop me an email at nikineu@gmail.com with your address and I'll ship you your lovely beachy giftjars ASAP!

. . .

Speaking of dropping lovely things in the mail, I was going through some of my crafty boxes today and realized I have way too much cool stationary for my own good! I know handwritten letters are, like, SO primitive, especially with the invention of e-mail and Twitters and iPads (that I really REALLY am not ashamed to admit that I covet badly), but if you'd like a handwritten letter on some really rad stationary, feel free to drop me a line -- again, at nikineu@gmail.com -- and let me know. :)

I have a really fun post lined up for tomorrow ... I took a really awesome and uplifting excursion today, and I'm going to post aaaaall about it tomorrow, complete with many nifty photos!

Stuff it!

So, I woke up this morning to find an e-mail from the place I interviewed last week saying, in similar terms, thanks but no thanks.

Wait, what?? WHAAAAT? The interview that I thought went really well?? So now I am confused, and back at the drawing board. I guess it was nice of them to at least let me know, but I still hope their building burns down in a firey blaze of terror-filled shrieks that can be heard two counties over.

*charming smile!*

So yes, they can stuff it. I hope whoever they pick has really bad body odor!

.. Okay, now I'm done. Honest!!

In my unemployment phase, I have been reading a lot of books. I am BFF with our local library and their online reservations database, so I'm hoping to post some book reviews once I finish the one I'm currently working on. My question to you fellow reader-types ... any suggestions for new books? I'll read pretty much anything, but sometimes historical non-fiction will put me to sleep. Example... I checked out Skeletons on the Zahara a few weeks ago, as the description on the back looked like a great read! Fast forward to a few days later, where I have the prologue and about half of the first chapter under my belt, and I find this book is about as interesting to me as a sack of old boots. Hey, I tried! ;)

Suggest away!

All right, that's all from the seaside for today. It's rainy and gloomy out, so I think I'm going to set myself up with a movie! And don't forget about my giveaway, it ends Wednesday and it's right over there. :)

Blogoversary & Giveaway! It's here!!

Holy crap, guys! As of May 19th, my blog will be one year old!! How freakin' exciting is that?? I never knew when I started blogging that I would have so much fun and be introduced to so many amazing people, but it's all true. So thank you, yes all of YOU, for being your awesome selves and helping Sami by the Sea along through its very first year. (Awwww.)

For my birthday blog celebration I'm hosting a giveaway! It's nothing huge, as I am surely unemployed (hopefully not for much longer!), but I wanted to do this as a way to say thanks to all of you in a hand-made, sea-like way...

I've recently discovered these tiny little jars, and have been traipsing about the beach (the non-touristy areas, I mean, who wants to traipse with tourists and their band-aids anyways?) collecting sand and shells and arranging them just so. It's a great way to bring that beachy feel into your home; as you can see, this one is on my kitchen windowsill.

You can get a better judge of size in this photo with the votive candle! What I enjoy about these little jars is the size of the shells needed. I have a few other glass vases around the house like this, one is long and rectangular, and one is a large glass bowl. I can use bigger shells for those obviously, but the tininess of the shells needed for these jars is what makes it so awesome! I find a lot of times the you'll find the little baby shells completely intact, not broken in half or chipped. I like to use them alongside chipped pieces of bigger shells with really fun colors and textures. :)

Here you can see a little more detail on the top layer of shells. The barnacley piece on the bottom was a really awesome find, and added some fun variety along with the pure black shell and the orange one with the snail pattern. :)

SO! THE GIVEAWAY!

One lucky reader will be receiving two jars of their very own, complete with the freshest beach sand my feet have ever laid eyes upon (huh?) and your own personal assortment of hand-picked fresh outta the tide shells. (I find the best specimens when I walk right at the waterfront.) I'll send you the two jars, the shells packaged carefully in their own little bag, and the sand in another separate bag, so you can assemble them however you want at home.

My jar has about 14 small shells in it, so it's not completely full. If you want more shells than that, like to fill the jar up all the way to the top, just let me know! I'm always happy to hang out on the beach for more time... ;)

Since the winner will receive two jars, you can either assemble them as I did mine, or dump all of the sand into one and all of the shells into another for fun variety. The choice is YOURS! :)

HERE ARE THE RULES!
They are very easy! You won't have to promise me your first born,
or recite Jabberwocky backwards in Pig Latin.
(I don't like contests that make you jump through a lot of hoops!)

RULE 1
Be a follower of SbtS, and leave a comment!
Tell me what one of your favorite things about going to the beach is.

(OPTIONAL) RULE 2
Blog about this giveaway! Leave a separate comment with a link to your post.

DONE! Totally easy peasy. I'll choose a winner on Wednesday the 19th. Happy entering, and happy Friday! :)

Giveaway Winner!

So I know this was supposed to be posted yesterday on the 6th.. and here we are on the 7th...!! Ooooops! Yesterday was just SO hectic that it completely slipped my mind; I woke up this morning, and, AAAACK! GIVEAWAY!!!!!

So I went to the randomizer and out of the 16 entries I had, got my random number, then counted down from the first entry...

O.F.C.J from Overwhelming Fullness Like Carbonated Joy, girl you have WON! Drop me a mailing address sometime at nikineu[@]gmail.com and your yumminess will soon be on its way to your tummy. :D

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I hope a great weekend is in store for y'all; I honestly don't know WHAT we'll do... probably nothing!!!! The house closed yesterday so it is OURS, we have the keys and have already been dancing around like ninnies inside! :) We scheduled a moving truck for the 21st so we will be officially moved in then, but until then we'll bring over what we can, when we can. I am SO EXCITED, you have no idea!

That's all for now... I have to go scrounge up some breakfast.

It's a giveaway!!

There's nothing like warm, tasty treats to get you in the mood for fall. Pumpkin pie, warm cinnamon streusel, hot chocolate... bundle up in your scarf and sweater and prepare to get tasty!



I'm REALLY excited to be able to host this special Fall is HERE! giveaway! :) I was lucky enough to recently come into a decent amount of absolutely decadent drinking chocolate -- yes, it is called "drinking chocolate" because it's THAT GOOD -- so I wanted to share some of it with you!



If you've never heard of or had Schokinag, you're missing out. They are a producer of extremely fine drinking chocolate - think hot chocolate but WAY more decadent. This ain't your mom's Swiss Miss!! Inside every tin is a sealed bag filled with extremely small, high quality chocolate morsels that you microwave with milk to create an absolutely otherworldly hot chocolate experience. :) (The website says you can actually -eat- the chocolate bits out of the tin with a spoon, if you are so inclined!)

I'm sipping on a cup of Moroccan Spice drinking chocolate as I write this, and all I can say is, WOW. This is a thick, luxurious, creamy drink packed full of heady chocolatey flavor. A healthy dollop of whipped cream would do well on this, I think! Okay, I'm in love!

What I have to offer you, fellow chocolate-loving reader, is this: a 12 oz tin of either Dulce de Leche, Extreme Dark, or Chocolate Mint drinking chocolate. (You can read about the flavors here.) Each tin comes with a sealed bag of yummy morsels inside, along with an awesome fold out brochure with recipes that will make you start to drool!

To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment (one only per person, please!) with the following info:

• Add the line "It's chocolate time!" into your comment somewhere, so I know you want to enter as opposed to just say howdy. :)
• Specify which of the three chocolates you'd like to have; Dulce de Leche, Extreme Dark, or Chocolate Mint.
• If you want an extra entry, you can blog about this giveaway and post a link to it, but it's not required at all!

That's it! I'll choose a winner on November 6th. :) Plenty of time to get in on this. Happy fall y'all, and good luck!

29 on 9.9.09 Birthday Giveaway!!

It's that time!

Time for my birthday giveaway! That's right, on my birthday, I'm going to give someone a gift! Everyone can celebrate :)

I recently won a big giveaway from Carolina Pad and now, I'm going to spread the love by offering up the following of my winnings to you:



From L-R:
Top: 3-ring binder, hard-bound lined notebook with high-quality paper inside and plastic folder for other documents.
Bottom: Organizational folder with paper and 8 plastic pockets for documents/important stuffs :), 3 ring folder (perfect for use with the binder!), 5 tab-dividers with pockets (also awesome for the binder), colorful sticky-notes (50) and stick-on flags (200), and 3 stylin' highlighters.

I've brought nearly all of my CP winnings to the office, where they're helping out big time with organizing my crazy desk, so whether these are for the office or for the new semester, or just organizing around the house, you'll be doing it in total style. :)

I may throw in a few extras, depending on what I can find around this beachy town that would be cool!

So if you're interested in spreading the birthday cheer, fill out the form below - all submissions will count for one entry, but you can double your chances to win by pimping this giveaway on your blog and pasting a link to your pimp-age in the proper spot below. :) I'll announce the winner on my birthday, September 9th!





Happy contesting, folks!! :D

Give it away, now?

So my birthday is coming up (September), and I was toying with the idea of doing a giveaway on my birthday. I'm not really sure as to what I'd "give away", though. Thoughts? Ideas? I don't have anything really "giveable" here on hand, and although I love y'all dearly, I can't really afford to be spending much right now either. (I can't wait to get on a regular pay schedule again....!!)

I JUST DON'T KNNNOOOWWW!!

OK, there. :) But seriously, if people have any ideas, please dish. The only thing I could think of was something "local" like a piece of the beach or some freeze-dried grouper (LOL, j/k) but while my city is cool and awesomely amazing, we're not really well known for anything super. (Although we have been called the "Hollywood of the East"; lots of stuff is filmed here, including Dawson's Creek! Trivia: Where am I? LOL) And I'm not terribly crafty to the point of making something other people would want.

I think it would be fun if I had a good idea!

In other news: FRIDAAAYYYY TOMORROW!!!