We have two winners for Red Clay Giveaway #1, from Great Cakes Soapworks!

To choose two numbers, I tried out this nifty site:

Random Integer Generator

It gave me these two numbers: 34 and 15. I matched those to the comment numbers.

This means that the winners of the Asian Spice Gift Set are…

34:  Joan Tognoni and

15: Amy

I’ve sent an email to each of you. Please email me (redclaydiaries (at) gmail (dot) com) in the next 48 hours with your snail mail address to receive your prize.

Thank you to everyone for participating. I especially appreciated all the commenters who have experience with Great Cakes. Your testimonials made me want her stuff even more. Now I’ve got a soap shopping list a mile long!

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Besides hosting a giveaway, I’ve spent this week taking care of sick kids and preparing to go to a weekend conference. I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned from the experience:

1.

If I choose to keep a child home from school and not take her to the doctor because I’m sure she has a minor virus, then when I eventually DO have to take her to the doc, her condition will be diagnosed as some crazy rare reaction to strep throat.

2.

If I choose to be proactive and take my two other children to the doctor for a strep test the next day, it will be diagnosed as a virus.

3.

My sister Suzy needs to be the next fashion expert on What Not to Wear. Thanks to her, I will look faaaaaabulous! for my conference.

4.

Maybe, possibly, I DO have a personal style. And now I have a name for it: boho-chic. Doesn’t that sound cool? Yeah. I don’t know what that looks like either. Fortunately, Suzy was able to interpret it into some clothes that I feel great in. She didn’t even make me try on any maxi dresses.

(Is it just me, or does the phrase “maxi dress” make you think of Stayfree commercials?)

(“It’s got wings!”)

Suzy also helped me buy the fewest quality pieces necessary to create all the outfits I need. If I’d shopped alone, I would’ve come home with eleven random items – none of them matching. And figure out while packing that I didn’t have pants or something.

5.

I have no cute pajamas. At the conference we’re having a “pajama party” Saturday night. But I tend to wear the same type of clothes (yoga pants + t-shirt) to bed that I would pick to wear during the day. Thus, MY pajamas for this event will simply be a color-coordinated yoga pant/t-shirt combo. With fluffy slippers. Which won’t match. But they’re my favorite cozy slippers.

I need new sleep stuff.

6.

I love love love love love doing reviews and giveaways. If I love a product or service, I love to tell everyone. Have I said “love” enough? Well I do. Love it, I mean.

Anyone got anything they want to give away?

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Today I’m driving up to Blissdom 2009 in Nashville. It’s my first blogging conference, and I’m feeling a mix of excitement, shyness, confidence and dread.

I’ll try to post updates during the weekend. (Unless we’re spending too much time talking about blogging to, you know, actually blog.)

Wish me luck! And zenlike calm. And no snoring. (I’m worried about me, not my roommate.) And really cool swag!

Oh yeah. And some new bloggy friends. (I kid! Meeting friends is the part I’m most looking forward to!)

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For more of the  What I Learned This Week Carnival,

visit Musings of a Housewife.