What shall we blog about today?

I know - I know! A giveaway! I've never done this before but I have an important reason, so bear with me for a bit as I explain: These days, it's tough enough to find a job as an experienced adult; it becomes pretty much impossible when you're a teen (and deaf to boot). So what's a concerned mother to do? Well, in the case of Cassandra's young man Blake, it's help him start his own business making unique fingerspelled shirts (and I can tell you they are fun, Fun, FUN).  In addition to selling his shirts locally, he now has a terrific little T-shirt shop on Etsy called Say It In Sign, (hey, a guy's gotta diversify, right?) Shadow even has his own shirt there, and you know he's pretty darn proud of it. Anyway, the purpose of this giveaway is not to promote the shop (although I bet he'd love to have you stop by, because duh :o) but something else all together, and since it requires a teensy bit of effort on your part I thought perhaps a bit of a bribe might encourage your participation... 

All right already, get to the point girl - Geez! Okay, sorry.  Here 'tis: Blake and his mom have been talking to the folks over at Provo Craft, asking them for a Cricut Solutions Cartridge with American Sign Language. The cheeseballs in charge want to gauge the public's interest before they will commit to creating this cartridge (but if the interest is there, they will make one and how cool is that??) The cartridge would (of course) feature the sign language alphabet, and some simple handshapes and/or signs like the "I Love You" handshape in the picture, which I think almost everyone recognizes. Aside from the deaf community, I would think that this would be an awesome thing for schools (kids love to learn fingerspelling and it's a great way to get 'em to learn their spelling words!) and a whole bunch of other folks. If you don't already have a Cricut, you really should check them out. They rock!
So spill it sister - what do I have to DO?? Just send an email by 5:00p.m. EST on Friday, February 5, 2010 to aslcricketsolutions@yahoo.com with the following information:
1.Your name (first and last please)
2. State whether or not you own a Cricut Machine. 
3. Indicate that you are either already planning to buy a Cricut and would love to have this cartridge, OR that you would purchase one to use this cartridge.  If you are not a crafter but your church has a deaf ministry or you are in an educational field, maybe your church, school, or home school group would be interested in purchasing one and you can say that instead.
Feel free to tell absolutely everyone you've ever met (don't forget to give 'em the link to this blogpost) and that's it! Pretty simple, eh?

Okay Jen I did what you asked; Whatcha gonna give me if I win? I'll be honest here and admit I burned up quite a few brain cells over this one; I wanted to make it worth your while, but the only thing we're "rolling in" around here is horse poop. So I raided my handmade stuff, and here's what I came up with. *Draws a deep breath*
From the Epic Farms Shop: A DIY color the horses bookmark, a horseshoe and horse diecut, a black and  turquoise gift tag, a mini toon card with Shadow & Blankie, an official Epic Farms bookmark with Katie's toon (that's 2 I know; but hey, I love reading :o) and an itty-bitty fun filly polymer clay magnet.
YA WANT MORE? Okeydoke, here goes...
From the Wysiwigs Shop: A doodlebugs fridgiewidget (origami magnet), a "Miss Sara N Getti" notecard (frameable print), a selection of die cuts, a gift bag set with tissue paper and handmade card, and a pretty crocheted snowflake I made with iridescent thread.
A big cheesy grin for your participation (which you will probably not see).
A happy dance in your honor (which you will DEFINITELY not see).
Oh! and a free business card from each of my shops, as I'm not an idiot (well, most of the time anyway...)
How will the winner be chosen?
Diana (Blake's mom) set up the email specifically for this giveaway. At 5:01p.m. next Friday (Feb 5th), she will compile and email to me a list of names containing everyone that participated in the giveaway. I'll print out the names, cut them up, mix 'em good, and draw one lucky winner. The winner will be announced in next Saturday's blogpost. And guess what else? When I called Diana to ask her if she would mind compiling the list, she offered to send a free Supershadow T-shirt to the winner. Boo-yeah baby! ;o)

Well, that's it for this post - how'd I do? If there's lots of positive feedback, I might even do this again. What do you think? Are you jumping up and down and planning to enter the giveaway (or did you just roll your eyes and give me a raspberry?) Inquiring minds want to know. At least I think they do....