Friday, February 19, 2016

Congrats to the Necklace Winner!

First of all, sorry it took me nearly two days to draw a winner ... I've discovered a wacky issue with mobile comments on the blog, and the wacky issue is that you simply can't comment on a mobile device. I attempted to make it happen, it failed, and I'm sorry. In 2016, mobile reigns supreme, and the inability to comment on mobile really bums me out. So. Sorry!

Anyway, congratulations to Mor S. (a Denver friend and most-excellent mama) for winning the giveaway! In case you see this,  Mor, please send me an email at kvetching dot editor at gmail dot com.

In other news: I'm now Facebook "verified" as a personality. Eegads. I'm like, famous or something. Wait, no, I just went through the Facebook Mentions process of verification. But a girl can dream, right?

Shabbat Shalom y'all!

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Giveaway: Personalized Silver Name Necklace!

For a long time, one of the classic bat mitzvah gifts handed out was the personalized name necklace, usually in Hebrew, and usually retrieved from the Holy Land, so elusive to American Jews. I want to say this was during the 1970s and 1980s, because by the time the 2000s rolled around and I hit Israel in 2008, the jewelry stores along Ben Yehudah Street were selling them second hand. I thought the trend had died, but the truth is with Sex and the City and the Carrie necklace being ever-so-popular for all time, personalized name necklaces are -- and will always be -- popular and beloved.

Although I don't have one myself, I do have the uniquely hand-crafted necklace that Mr. T gave me for our anniversary and a simple name necklace that I got years and years ago from Sima Gilady jewelry (that, honestly, I take off maybe two or three times a year at the most).

So I thought to myself, wouldn't it be nice to give the gift of personalized jewelry to one of my readers? Yes, yes, I thought to myself, it would be nice. Enter the folks at Name Factory, who are helping me give away a personalized silver necklace (value up to $42) just for you!

And because I know how much people love entering giveaways with ease, all you have to do is comment on this post telling me which of the necklaces on the site you'd love to call your own (or to gift to a friend, daughter, mother, your dog, you get the drift).



Ready? Set ... GO!

Note: This giveaway ends on Wednesday, February 17, 2016 at noon MDT. 

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

The Anniversary Gift

When I was a kid, and we went out to restaurants where they still put paper on the table and gave out crayons to the kids to entertain them, my dad used to draw the same image over and over. No matter where we went, the time of day, or the mood he was in, he always drew a tree. It was a bare-branched tree, no lush leaves, but it always managed to capture something special about my dad. As time went on, and I became a doodler, the tree became a common theme for me. It was the same: no leaves, just bare branches.

Awhile ago, Mr. T asked me to draw him a picture of the tree I always sketch. Being generally grumpy and overworked most of the time, I brushed him off and said I'd do it eventually. He started bringing a piece of paper and pen over to me and asking me to do it. He said he wanted to make a paper cut or something with it, and after several tries I acquiesced and drew him the tree.

Then, he gave me this.



Our anniversary is February 20, or Erev Ta'anit Esther on the Hebrew calendar (that means, because this year is a leap year on the Jewish calendar, we celebrate the Hebrew date in March), but he wanted to give it to me early. He'd managed to hide the whole project from me (which is hard to do), and I never thought to ask him what had come of the tree.

If you can't read Hebrew, or read really, really small writing, the necklace says the following:

  • 02/20/2013 חביבה טוביה (That's Chaviva and Tuvia written in Hebrew.)
  • אשר יצחק 12/19/2013 (That's Asher Yitzhak written in Hebrew.)
It's my very own, super unique (just like my husband) family-based necklace charm, which I'd wanted for some time. And, there's space up another branch for The Blob (that's what we're calling the baby I'm brewing). 

I was really overwhelmed and surprised! And, of course, now I'm thinking "How am I going to match this!?" Here's to you, Mr. T.