Cammy Has a Crush...or Two (a giveaway post)

Happy Tuesday, and congrats on making it through Monday! Let's celebrate!

As today's title suggests, I am besotted. It happened last month while I was in Tampa, when I stumbled across a shop with artwork by Brian Andreas. Am I the last person on the planet to have discovered his amazing Storypeople? Certainly I'm not the first to have developed a fairly significant crush. Although maybe it's the art I'm swooning for, since I've never actually met Brian Andreas and besides, I think he's happily married and I don't do that.

Anyway, the first piece I saw was Imagining World, in the form of a wooden sculpture inscribed with this bit of prose that grabbed my heart:

In my dream, the angel shrugged & said, If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination & then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.

As I do so often, I immediately thought about my weight loss and how I now feel as though I have a brave new world in the palm of my hand, ripe for the taking. ::happy sigh::

Since then, I've visited the Storypeople site and browsed the brilliant stories there. Some favorites:

Big Plans
Your job is to focus on my personal happiness, she said, & I've got big plans, so break time is over.

My sometimes-mantra the past couple of weeks has been "break time is over." Works every time!

Hoping to Fall
Leaning out as far as she can, hoping she'll fall soon, so she can stop worrying about whether it will happen or not.

I think about this one in terms of previous efforts of fitness and wonder if I set myself up for some self-fulfilling prophecies along the way? Probably.

Life Plan
I asked her what she planned to do with her life & she said she was way beyond that point already. I'm just happy I remember to be there when it happens, she said.

This one is good for me when I'm trying to be where my butt is. :)

Hindsight
I didn't listen to her because she was my mother & wouldn't know anything until I was much older.

Finances willing, I found my next year's Mother's Day gift.

I'll admit that some of the stories I just don't get, but they all make me think or feel or laugh or cry or some combination of any of those things. Thus, I sent a fan letter to the Storypeople people, and guess what? They have graciously and generously gifted us with a box of all occasion cards!

Each set contains 3 cards each of the following stories:
1. Imagining World: In my dream, the angel shrugged & said, If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination & then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.
2. Bittersweet : She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.
3. Illusion of Control: If you hold on to the handle, she said, it's easier to maintain the illusion of control. But it's more fun if you just let the wind carry you.
4. True Things: They came to sit & dangle their feet off the edge of the world & after awhile they forgot everything but the good & true things they would do someday.

I bought this set of cards in Tampa, and I've framed three of them (1,2,&3) for hanging in my home office. The others will be shared at special times, with special people.

If YOU would like an opportunity to win this set, all you have to do is leave me a comment saying so. If you check out the Storypeople site and share the title of your favorite story, I'll give you two entries!

The contest will be open until Thursday (6/18) at midnight, US Central. I'll let the random number generator pick the winner on Friday morning. And this time, the contest is open to everyone on the planet, no US-only!

Thank you, Storypeople! (Note: I received no compensation from them for this review other than the cards, which they supplied expressly for the giveaway!)

In other news, you ALL have an opportunity to win $1,000. Not from ME; I don't have that kind of budget. Heck, I don't even have a budget other than postage. :)

Nope, this giveaway opportunity is located at the The 50 Million Pounds Challenge. This initiative, led by Dr. Ian Smith (object of my second crush, because he's cute as can be), is helping to unite people in their efforts to get healthier and lose excess pounds. The site contains tools for tracking food and exercise, as well as a journal and forums for sharing progress. Oh, there's lots of other stuff...and it's all F-R-E-E!

Also, from now (well, yesterday) through June 25th, for each day that you track your activities, you're automatically entered in a daily drawing for $1,000! (I was contemplating joining, but I don't think they'd be amused by my current goal of losing 1/2 pound to get back to my target weight. *G*)

Anyway, check it out for yourself and if you enter and win, thank the PR people for letting us know about this. :)

On a personal note, the first day of my new challenge was a success. Given my assessment results, I probably should have started with week 2 or week 3 but I've always been a bit of an underachiever, so I started with Week 1, Day 1. :) I added in some tricep pull-downs, lat pull-downs, low rows, and lunges with weights, along with some core work for a well-rounded workout! As the weeks progress, I'll probably have to jettison some of the add-ons, but for now it feels great!

Hope you're all having a spectacular week!


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