The Winner!

Hello, my friends!  I have used random number generator to select a winner of the "London Treasures" giveaway, and I'm excited to announce that the winner is the amazing prairiegirl!  I was stunned when her number came up on the generator.  It just seemed so perfect.  Pg was one of the people I met during my first year of blogging, and we have been friends ever since.  In addition to being one of the most gifted photographers I know, she is also one of the kindest, funniest, and most supportive people I have ever met.  I use the term "met" in a bloggy way, since we have yet to meet face-to-face, but I feel like I have always known her.  I know that any of you who blog understand just what I am talking about.  It will be a joy to think of Miss prairiegirl while I am making my rounds at the London markets (although I may have to let you down a wee bit, pg, since I'm going to have to eat all the fish and chips myself)!

And because I wish, wish, wish I could bring back gifties for everyone, here are five more folks to whom I'll be sending postcards upon my return from the UK: Jillayne, Marlowe, Oliag, Sunday, and Cathi.  If your name is on the list, please send me an email (see Contact and Links) with your mailing address.  I'll be pleased as punch to write you a pretty postcard.  

Here is a big thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway, as well as to all those who sent sweet notes via email and Facebook.  In most parts of life, three years isn't very long, but in the transitory world of blogging, three years seems almost a lifetime, and I feel a lucky magpie, indeed, to still be here, typing away.  

x Gigi

Three Years and a Leap and a Giveaway!

"With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?"  ~Oscar Wilde

The Magpie's Fancy turned three years old on February 26th, but I decided to wait until today to mention it.  What better way to celebrate than with a leap?

While anniversaries usually make me pause and reflect, this year I simply want to move forward.  Blogging helped me muddle through one of the most painful periods of my life (there I go reflecting anyway), and now I feel it guiding me during a time of renewal.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the amazing friends I have made here in the blogging world, and to my dear friends from the face-to-face world who have long supported The Magpie's Fancy.  You inspire me every single day.  I have no idea what the future holds for this blog, but I'm so happy that you have shared the journey with me this far.

To celebrate, I am hosting a GIVEAWAY.  Those who have won my giveaways before know that they are very much in keeping with my magpie tendencies.  I select a winner at random, and then collect various magpie treasures especially for the individual who wins.  I gather them up in a unique package, and ship them off to her or him.  

This giveaway is an extra special one, because I will be gathering the giveaway treasures during my trip to London!  That's right.  All the goodies will come from my favorite markets in and around that glorious city.

If you would like to enter to win a parcel of magpie treasures from me, simply leave a comment on this post between now and March 6th, 2012.  I will draw a winner on March 7th.  

While only one person can win the big prize, I will also be drawing five more names to receive a postcard printed with one of my flower photographs.  

Thank you, dear ones, for giving me riches beyond compare.  x Gigi

Anniversary Pavlova

Yesterday, Mr. Magpie and I celebrated our seventeenth wedding anniversary with a stroll through the farmers' market in Deering Oaks and an afternoon of cooking together.  It seemed only right since on that very day seventeen years before we cooked all the food for our own wedding.  Well, it took more than a day--and lots of help from friends and family--but we did, indeed, cater our own wedding.  And my Aunt Jan did our flowers, and my uncles took our photographs, and loads of people we love lent their talents to making it an extraordinary day.  

So last night it was a joy to cook for my mother and sister and our nephews.  At the center of the meal was a steaming, heaping bowl of mussels cooked in white wine and olive oil with garlic, hot pepper flakes, and a handful of chopped parsley.  And of course there was plenty of bread for dipping in the broth.

Dessert was a pavlova--one of my very favorites: chocolate and raspberry.  The recipe is a Nigella Lawson one, and it couldn't be easier.  If you can't eat wheat, this is a perfect recipe for you, as a pavlova is essentially a giant meringue with cream and fruit on top.  It's not a dry, chalky meringue, but a wonderfully chewy one with lovely, bittersweet chocolate bits folded in.  I topped the whole thing with edible flowers from the farmers' market.  If you're worried that your kids might not like it, I can tell you that my nephews ate two helpings each, ignoring all silverware in the process.  

I want to say something wise and profound about marriage to close this post, but when I look back over the past seventeen years, I feel neither wise nor profound, just fortunate.  My husband is funny and smart and kind, and we both have one very important trait in common: curiosity.  Whatever else is difficult or challenging or stressful, we hold onto this tenaciously.  It makes every day new and makes the best of our dreams possible. 

  

A Giveaway . . With Love and Thanks

The Magpie's Fancy will be two years old on February 26th!

More than 280 posts into this adventure, I am still delighted, moved, and awed every single day by the people I encounter and the talent I see on blogs all over the world.

Thank you for inspiring and challenging me, for encouraging my crazy ideas, offering support when I've been low, and for kicking me in the pants when I've needed it, too.  In the blog world we make amazing friends, often without ever meeting face-to-face.  As Archie Bunker once said, "I got a lotta best friends--some of 'em I don't hardly even know!"

To celebrate two years, I am hosting a giveaway.  Please leave a comment between now and noon EST, Friday, February 25th, to be in the running for the prize.  And what is that prize?  Well, in keeping with my magpie nature, it will be a collection of wonders and curiosities that I am gathering together.  It will include something that glitters, something to read, something handmade, something vintage, and any other delicious treats that capture my heart.

I will announce the winner on Saturday the 26th.  Please feel free to enter no matter where in the world you live, whether you're an old friend of The Magpie's Fancy or a brand new visitor.  I'm just happy that you all are out there, making magic, and I thank you from the bottom of my magpie heart.

xo Gigi

When Dreams Come True

As I was packing for the move last week, I discovered this series of photo booth shots that Todd and I did sixteen years ago.  That was back in the time when "photo booth" still meant a little closet you sat inside to have your photo taken on a boardwalk or in an arcade--long before it became a macbook app.  It was also back when we lived on whatever food we could scrounge from the restaurant where I cooked and he tended bar. I think there were many days when I considered a pickle my lunch, followed by a stale piece of French bread for dinner.  Ah, we were so bohemian.  Not really, but we were in love, and later that same year, on this very day, August 6th, we were married.  This fall it will be twenty years since we met, and like any couple who has been together for more than a few years, we've weathered our share of storms, but it fills me with joy to say that we are still pretty darn crazy about each other--and we're still the best of friends.

And now we're back in a city we love.  Let me share two quick dreams: 

Yesterday morning Todd said, "I dreamed early this morning that I was listening to a really beautiful piece of classical music.  Then I woke up and realized that the music was really the cry of the seagulls outside our bedroom window."

Just before waking this morning I dreamed that it was winter--one of those special bright winter days when the air is crisp and the whole world looks like it is made out of crystal.  I looked out my window and realized that the street was glazed with smooth ice, so I threw on clothes, laced up my skates, and ran gingerly down the stairs.  Once outside, I glided onto the ice and skated straight into the center of town, passing other skaters twirling, spinning, and leaping as I whipped past them in my perfect skates.  A man called out to me, "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

"Yes," I replied. "It's the best day ever."

xoxo Gigi

C is for Cadeau

A special parcel arrived last night--special because of what was inside, special because of how it was wrapped, and , most importantly, special because of how it came to arrive at my doorstep.  Sande, the woman behind the amazing blog and online boutique, A Gift Wrapped Life, hosted a North American giveaway in celebration of her one-year blog anniversary.  Dustjacket Attic, the woman whose blog we all visit for fashion, beauty, humor, and a large dose of wit, was one of the winners of Sande's giveaway.  DJ, who lives in Australia, shared her beautiful gift with me.   

First, I need to say that I tried to resist.  Really, I did.  I tried to wait until morning light to open this package in order to photograph it in natural light, but when the delivery man arrived in the evening with this parcel--well, let's just say I'm only human.  Even the brown shipping box was decorated with Sande's gorgeous blog-header photo.  I dove in, pausing just long enough to snap a few shots.  Please excuse the less-than-stellar photos.  My hands were shaking (Who has time for a tripod at a moment like this?), my knees were knocking, and the lighting--ugh.  

Yet the package, even under the circumstances, was glorious.  Let's begin with the photo above.  That was the label on the envelope just inside the box.  I photographed it behind a few of my own peach blossom branches.  

Inside the envelope was this knockout card from Sande.  Underneath the card lay perfectly pleated pink tissue.  Sigh.

I lifted the tissue to discover this ruffled peony tucked into a satin wired ribbon bow in a deeper shade of pink.  This was tied around a box impeccably wrapped in dove-grey patterned paper.

I lifted the lid (the box, by the way, is gorgeous, too) only to discover more pleated pink tissue fastened with this delicious tag.  At this point, imagine me talking aloud to an empty room.  I was so excited that I needed to comment on every stage of the unveiling.  There I was exclaiming, squealing even, with no one but the cats to hear.  I think they were just hoping I'd drop some tissue on the floor for them to play with.  They were out of luck.  It was too perfect to just toss on the floor.  I carefully laid each piece in a stack on the table as I went.  And look what I found next:

Beneath perfectly creased tissue triangles were two paper roses tucked into more ribbon--grey this time.  And these ribbons were wrapped around my giveaway gift:

a trio of exquisitely-scented Left Bank candles from Charlotte Moss.  The candles are stunning, the silvered glass is perfection, and just look at that marbled paper inside the lozenge-shaped box!  Swoon.  Serious swoon.

Thank you Sande and DJ, for generosity and beauty and un cadeau much loved by me.  When I started blogging a year ago, I wrote a post called The Art of the Parcel about how I often love the parcel, the wrapping and card and ribbons, as much as I love the gift itself.  When someone takes the time to make receiving the gift such a delight for the senses, it adds layers of meaning and memory that I treasure.  

I've received a few other magical treasures recently, but I'll save them for another post.    

The Winner is . . .

. . . Ange!

Scout and Dill were both asleep, and Todd was teaching, so I had no helper for the drawing.  Instead, I used Random Number Generator.  What a joy to discover that the beautiful and gifted Ange had won my giveaway!  She is a calligrapher, mum, and thinker extraordinaire.  Here's just a taste of one of her works below.  Hope you'll pop by her beautiful blog, Signed by Ange, for a visit.

Find more of her beauty here.

I have been having a ball collecting treasures for the giveaway.  Some of the treasures are from Nesting on Main in Concord, MA; at least one is from a recent walk; another is from Black Ink in Cambridge, MA.  The box itself is a cigar box I bought at a flea market and that I've customized just for this giveaway.  Wish I could send off boxes to everyone who entered.  Your words and wishes mean the world to me.    

Ange, drop me an email with your mailing address--oh, and let me know which photo you'd prefer.  I'll print it, tuck it into the giveaway box, and send it all your way.

Be on the lookout for my next post: B is for . . .

Anniversary and a Giveaway!

Hooray!  My little blog is one year old today.  

This time last February I had only the vaguest notion of what a blog was.  At the same time, I knew that many of my favorite artists and writers and photographers and crafters seemed to possess them.  I went online and took a peek at one and then another and then several more.  It was a bit like sampling every flavor at a truly great roadside ice cream stand, but without the bellyache afterwards.  Each new flavor had something unique to offer.  Most were pleasing.  Some were mind-blowingly delicious.  I wanted more.  In fact, I wanted a flavor all my own.

So, I took the plunge.  My first post (still a comment-less waif, poor dear) talked about why I'd chosen The Magpie's Fancy as my blog title.  I had no idea what I was doing, but it was a bit of a thrill to hit "publish post" that first time.  The funny thing is that I've been writing professionally for twenty years, but this was different.  For the first time, there was no editor saying yes or no or maybe, but only if you change these ten things; and there were no deadlines, except the ones I chose to impose upon myself.  There was also no audience--at least not at the beginning.  I think many of us start blogging in a fairly secretive, or at least a quiet, way.  My husband knew, and my mother, and a friend or two.  But other than that, it was just me out there in the ether with my words and photos from a handy little Canon Powershot point and shoot.  I knew nothing about photography other than what I'd learned in high school as a yearbook editor back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and we worked in a crazy little thing called a darkroom.  (Confession: I'd still like my own darkroom now.  Film has an appeal all its own.  I guess the darkroom will be another item for the dreamhouse checklist, along with a laundry room with a big window, some built-in bookcases, and a cozy reading chair.  What can I say?  I like listening to laundry tumbling away in the dryer when I read.  I find it comforting.)

All I really knew in those first few weeks and months was that blogging was fun.  I began to meet a few people and to follow their blogs.  And then a few people followed mine, and then I noticed my blog name on a few sidebar blogrolls, and then, before I knew it, I started thinking about my blogging friends sometimes even when I wasn't blogging, wondering if one's dog was recovering from his surgery or if another was back from her trip to Paris.  Just a click away there was this whole community of creative and caring people from all over the world, typing away at their keyboards, knitting their scarves and socks, snapping photos, writing poems, celebrating birthdays, baking cakes, mourning losses, and making time for one another in the midst of busy, trying, fulfilling lives.  Schedules don't matter a whole lot in the blog world.  We tuck it in where and when we can.  Some weeks we have more time than others, but it doesn't matter, because each of us can come to it when we have a quiet moment or two to ourselves.  For me, it is often a reward after long hours of writing my own work or editing someone else's.  And it is still as delicious now as it was when I began.  Maybe more.  (My own ice cream flavor, by the way, is probably something like vanilla bean with a ribbon of dark chocolate and a raspberry-currant swirl.  That sounds about right.  What's yours?)

And so, this is a big thank you.  You inspire me every single day in more ways than I can count, and I can count pretty high.  

To celebrate my one year blog anniversary and say thank you, I'm hosting a giveaway.  I'm crafting a special wish box full of magpie trinkets and treasures that reflect my blog and what this whole blogosphere means to me.  I'm also going to include a print of one of my photographs in the box.  The winner will receive her choice of one of the photos in this post.  To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post between now and Tuesday, March 2.  I'll be drawing the winner at noon Eastern Standard Time.  Maybe I'll have Dill draw this winner since Scout got to draw the last one.

P.S. I bought a Canon Rebel today.  Laissez les bon temps rouler!