Chapter 7: Savannah Finale...FINALLY! :)

(You can swipe the photo if you'd like, I'm sharing!)

Wow! What a ride it's been!

It's been TWO weeks since I was in Savannah...and I'm still talking about it! But after this post...I'm promising you that I am done because I have some other cool stuff that I've been dying to share with you! (and the fact that The Man is so tired of hearing/reading about Sa-VAN-nah as he pronounces it with that whiney voice)...yes...he does read my blog!

First off, do you remember in Chapter 1 when I talked about my very own chauffeur from the Savannah airport to my hotel? Well, as I stated before...she was MUCH more than just a chauffeur...she was a blog friend whom I'd never met in person and now since I met her for real in Sa-VAN-nah, I KNOW she'll remain a true friend in my heart...not just in blog land anymore.

I'm talking about Theresa of They Call Me Ganky.

I wanted to share with you the sweet things she gifted me with the night I met her. She is truly an amazing and sweet soul :)

I wish I could show you how sweet it was all wrapped up, but guess what? MY photos came out blurry! Trust me, it happens to me too! haha

The gift started with a sweet little envelope...

and a handmade card that melted my heart.

A sweet little book, which the title almost put me in happy tears...

A cute little coozie that made me smile instead of cry...

But the happy tears started welling up again, as I read this beautiful mirrored angel ornament...

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go.

Others stay a while, make footprints on our hearts and we are never, ever the same."

sniff sniff...isn't this beautiful?

THEN, to top it all off, she embellished this cute little matchbox...

And I totally went over the happy edge when I opened it up...

It was full of HUGS!

Isn't that just the sweetest thing???

Do you know how hard it was not to crack up with happy tears in front of everyone?

I have a "tough girl" reputation to keep up here (haha) so I quickly looked at my phone, saw the time and shouted, "oh no, we'll be late for our reservations...we gotta go!" and Theresa, Karen and I were quickly chauffeured to The Old Pink House where I treated them to drinks and a lovely dinner.  I'm pretty slick, huh? ;)

However, when I came back home to Louisiana, unpacked and opened all of this up again...I did go over the happy edge again...including letting the happy tears roll down...all by myself :))

And that wasn't all...

My roommate, Karen of Some Days are Diamonds gifted me too that night. But thank goodness she was smart to give me my gift when we came back from dinner. If I'd have opened this at the same time I opened the gifts from Theresa...I would have blown my "tough girl" reputation right there! I was so ON THE EDGE already!!! We'd have totally been late for dinner as I would have had to re-group myself and re-do my make-up!  ;)

I absolutely could not breathe when I opened her gift...

She knows I LOVE MY SAINTS...(who doesn't know that?)

But most of all, I wasn't expecting something so personal...

with so much detail...

Don't you just looooove this collage Karen made just for me?

Oh Lordy...here come the happy tears again!!! sniff sniff!!!!

Oh! I am sooooo not finished!

If you thought that was amazing...look at this below!

Old letters...

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And the real deal vintage paper ephemera and photos...

All to die for. If you ain't jealous, then you ain't breathing!

When I have the time, I am going to take these and make copies so that I can use them in my art work later on down the road. But for right now, they will be tucked inside a hat box for safe keeping :)

Theresa and Karen, if you are reading this...THANK YOU AGAIN from the bottom of my heart...under my happy tears!

:)

*****

Well, if you stayed with me this long, I have a little something more to say and a little more thanks to give.

I'd like to reveal my "End of Savannah" giveaway winner of Where Women Create's "Book of Inspiration" authored by Jo Packham and Jenny Doh.

As I explained at the end of Chapter 5, it is a special copy as it was signed by Jo Packham during my Sa-VAN-nah trip.

Sooooo...

If you've followed my Chapters of Savannah and you left me a comment, I thank you!!!!

If you've lurked my Chapters of Savannah and you didn't leave me a comment, I thank you also...

but I'm sad that I didn't hear from you.

Why?

Well, I didn't "officially" announce that I was having an "End of Savannah" giveaway in any of the titles of my posts. I only announced it at the end of Chapters 2,3,4,5 & 6.

Reason being, I didn't want my blog to appear on a google/yahoo search of a "giveaway" and have you competing with any old person that's just looking for free stuff. (can you believe people actually do that?)

Instead, I wanted to take you along with me on my wonderful trip to Jenn's event and give something special back to one of you. I wish I could gift all of you but...unless I win powerball, that ain't gonna happen ;)

And also, I didn't "officially" announce what the rules were for the giveaway because since you are my friend and this is my blog, there are no rules here on my blog. This is a happy place and I want everyone to feel welcome and certainly not obligated for anything.

There is no pressure for you to leave a comment, however I love (and look forward to) hearing from all of you.

But most of all,

There is no reason for you to follow me if you don't want to. I would rather recognize the QUALITY of the numbers instead of the quantity. My friends are quality and not just another number by any means!

So with that being said, I had so much fun coming up with the winner of my "End of Savannah" giveaway.

Let me tell you how I did it...it was rather ingenious if I do say so myself  ;)

From my "Honey...I'm Home" post to the end of my Chapter 6 post (at 7pm central time today), I went back and listed ALL of my friends who came to visit me and took the time to leave me a sweet comment.

Some of you did so once, some twice, some four times, etc. and I so appreciate that you did!!! I loved reading each and every one of them!!!   :)))

Breaking News: Attention: Debbie at Talking Trash: Just because your computer broke...that's NO excuse. You really need an iPhone (but because of it's size, you'll have to find another place to store it ;)

Sorry for jumping off the track there...

Out of 108 unique friends that stopped to leave a total of 224 comments,

only TWO friends visited and left comments on each post of my Savannah trip. Wow!

Those two friends would be...

Julia of Vintage with Laces

&

Debby of The Gathering Nest

Now the hard part...deciding how only one will receive this ONE book (& some extra goodies).

Well, it was easy actually...

In no particular order with Julia being no. 1 and Debby being no. 2, I walked up to The Man (who is sick of hearing me talk about Sa-VAN-nah) and I asked him to pick a number, number one or number 2.

He picked number 2.

I said "Alrighty then" and I walked away.

He said..."Hey! What was that for?"

I turned around with my hand on my hip and said, It's about Sa-VAN-hah...you don't want to know."

;)

Congratulations Debby of The Gathering Nest!

You win!

And as for you Julia, I'm still sending you something special too!!!!

Thank you to all who read my "Sa-VAN-nah Book"

As always, it was fun taking you along with me!!!

:)

Now I'm off to REST, catch up with my friends and make sure that nobody had fun without me while I was gone! I hope to be in your comment box soon :)

*****

Aunt Belva, if you are reading this...I've never forgotten about you...I love and miss you terribly...sniff sniff!  :)