Hawthorne & Wren Another Grateful Win

Last week I attended a #HWHoliday Twitter party hosted by @AudreyMcClellan of Mom Generations  I had no idea what H&W was until this party and what I learned was quite a treat! H&W stands for Hawthorne & Wren and what they are is a company that sells unique and memorable gifts for you to send to friends and family during difficult or sensitive times. This is a wonderful concept and the gifts offered on their site are absolutely stunning.

I had won the first prize of the night, the Sun Kissed Moments Gift. The description stated

"Trees thick with juicy apricots fill the orchard, their heavy branches bending with ripe fruit that remains untouched until the perfect moment. When the sugar of the apricot kisses the sun, then and only then are they delicately removed to be dried. These apricots are delicious symbols of the beauty found in a little patience--and a reminder that good things come to those who wait for the right moment. May you, too, find the perfect sweetness in every moment as you enjoy this gift of Provence tea and dried apricots ripened to perfection."

Sounds amazing right? Well it was more than amazing and quickly became one of those WOW wins I have had. It hit the ranks of the top 10 for sure. The package arrived yesterday and I waited probably half the day before I got around to opening my packages for the day, I wish I had opened it as soon as it came. Rather than describe the indescribable I'm just going to post the pictures of the gift. It all came wrapped in beautiful Hawthorne & Wren tissue paper, and included a card that told the story of what the gift was.. where it was from and what was within it! As I type this post out, I sit here drinking the tea out of the beautiful tea glass! A HUGE thank you to @AudreyMcClellan for this amazing winning gift! What an amazing company that has a wonderfully comforting mission when it comes to gifts from the heart.... 

 Wrapped up in tissue paper - then unwrapped - beautiful tins & glass

 Dried Apricots were in the red tin & the left photo is the tea

Finally the Glass Tea Mug! It seems so delicate and beautiful!

Indeed I Was First To Answer

It appears there was some controversy over my last Time To Play win on Wednesday. Of course the Wednesday twitter parties are always first answer.. and on first answers I always split my screens. Their parties are mostly search for an answer, but this past one was pick a prize. Within the list of pick a prizes was also the answers to all ten questions. So I split my screen half with Tweetdeck and the other half with Time To Play's website that listed the prizes, so I could just simply copy and then past into TweetDeck. If you want to win on first answer.. the last program to use is Tweetgrid. It lags and loads answer tweets before questions or skips tweets all together.. hence that seemed to be the issue. People on Tweetgrid seeing my answer before TTP's question even showed loaded... Hello this is a known issue why would you keep on using it if you know it's not loading tweets right away?? Good old fashion twitter or TweetDeck work wonders for first answer parties..  As proof that YES I answered AFTER the question was tweeted here is my justification to those people bitching, moaning, complaining... and by the way go get a life.. you can't win in every party. (Why is it a certain select group of people are always bitching when I win something? Jealousy is a bitch and karma will nip you in the butt three-fold..)

Being Appreciative Of Wins

I'm an avid sweeper and I am also pretty sure everyone knows that. I make the point that I am crystal clear to most on my social media pages, to friends, family, and of course my UPS and FedEx guys. I have won so much, so much that I am very appreciative for, but it wasn't until lately that I was just totally blown away by what I've won. There have been two nice wins that I've received within the past week that have really taken my breathe away and made me step back and appreciate all that these companies do for us sweepers/twitter party goers.

Late Night Sweeping

As I was up until 7am this morning I found myself going through all the instant win games and some daily entries into the sweeps I normally do.  It seems as if my late night adventures paid off to an extent. As I was going through the instant win games I have bookmarked in my Google Bookmarks I found myself winning three separate times!

First was a coupon for Dove Ice Cream Bars - valued up to $5.50

Second was a coupon for Sour Patch Kids - valued up to $2.20

Lastly was coupons for Barilla Pasta and Sauce - valued up to $2.00

I haven't won on the instant win games in what seems like forever so these three wins were a welcome site! Even though they were not big wins, they were wins I will get good use out of. I can make dinner with the pasta and sauce and then enjoy a nice ice cream bar after wards! Then maybe later on enjoy a sour snack too!  Sometimes it pays to stay up late and do your entries.

My Grill

During my sweeping I have been on a mission to win a grill, but not just any grill a Weber Grill. I've won a tiny Masterbuilt charcoal grill previously and this thing is great for taking to football tailgating parties, but to cook on it barely fits two big steaks on it.  So the mission was to find every contest I could that a prize was a Weber Grill.  I've cooked on friend's Weber's and loved them! I wanted a Weber Genesis, specifically the red  one because the patio furniture for the new house is red and orange mix.  A Red Weber would complete that look.

On my birthday I received an email from a sweep that I had been chosen as one of the grill winners! YES a grill finally! Keep in mind I had a Charbroil Gas grill that I had given to my cousin when we moved. I had all intentions of replacing this grill and honestly they needed a gas grill. So off my old grill went across the street the day we left.  Just for me to get this email that I won a grill was like karma coming back to me as a good pay it forward. Again, I wasn't sure what type of grill this was going to be other than I looked back at the sweeps and saw it has an ARV of $100. I would have been happy with the two burner Charbroil that sell for $87 right now.  For weeks I sat anxiously awaiting for the next email to tell me my information had been verified and I can come pick up my grill. See, with sweeps that involved Budweiser you have to fax or email a copy of your license to verify you are over the age of 21 and this sweep was no exception.

Yesterday that email finally arrived telling me where to come pick up the grill. I knew it was going to be at the local Bud distributor, because I have previously won from this local sweeps and had to pick up the items at the distributor before.  I raced to get dressed and out the door to go and get my grill all the way thinking "my god I hope it fits in the car". Previously I had been ten minutes from this place, but now that I am moved I am a good 40 minutes away in good traffic and here I was leaving at 4pm when it was close to rush hour. I was anxious to get there and see what grill it was!

Upon getting there I had to show my ID to verify it was indeed me that had won. The receptionist (who I think knows me by first name now) was there to great me Hello (yet again). Once my name was verified as being on the list she went to the grill I had won. Much to my surprise it was a Weber Kettle Grill. I had said I wanted to win a Weber, well here indeed I did.  I was excited yet disappointed all at the same time. I really wanted a gas grill, but this was a Weber Kettle grill and I was happy to take it. I had to take off the lid and grill grate to get it into the car, this grill was already assembled! Whew thankfully that was a time saver having it already put together and of course it is branded Weber and Budweiser right on it.

I just thought I'd share my grill story. Here is a picture of my grill now sitting safely on my patio next to my favorite lawn ornament, the wooden Moose! I can't wait to cook steaks, burgers, and veggies on it. Maybe one day I'll win a Weber Genesis Gas Grill, but for now I'm happy with my Weber Kettle, after all I did say I'd like to win a Weber Grill maybe I just never specified what kind!

Success with Sweeping & Twitter Parties

I've decided to share a little of what I've won over the past 10 months thanks to sweepstakes, instant win games, twitter RT contest, twitter contests in general, and twitter parties. I will later touch on the rules and regulations of some of these things and what my thoughts are on them...

In December of 2009 while signing into my PayPal account I noticed they had a snowflake game going on. So every night for a few nights in a row I would sign on and play the game. After about the forth night I signed in choose my snowflake and low and behold I won an iPod Touch 32GB. I honestly thought it was a fluke.  A few weeks later my Mother gets an over night delivery from UPS, see she had entered the Dawn Wildlife Sweepstakes and had won! She wasn't quite sure what to make of this letter asking her to have some papers notarized. We were skeptical at first until she later confirmed that she was indeed a 1st place winner in the Dawn Wildlife Sweepstakes and had won $1000! WOW I thought imagine if you could win like that all the time? Was it possible? If so how would I even begin? Honestly it never went any further than that.. I had no idea where to or how to find things to enter, so it slipped my memory for a few months.