The Landgraff Sweeps & Contest Queen Says "Thank You"!

As my faithful readers know, I am a bit of a “sweeper”, and enter a lot of contests and sweepstakes- usually late at night, when everyone else is apparently playing Candy Crush! LOL I have won a lot of wonderful things, and as 2015 comes to a close, I'd like to thank the individuals and companies responsible for the lovely things I've won- trips and things that Dan and I would seriously never have been able to enjoy if I hadn’t won them!

This spring Dan and I spent an amazing, wonderful month in Vietnam on the trip I won last year from Central Coast Vietnam Tourism on Facebook! My many blog posts earlier this year about Vietnam, and all the incredible things we got to do and see and eat and drink, were from that trip!

Emperor & Empress in Dalat!

Playing gongs in the Central Highlands!

Riding elephants at Lok Lake!

Water Buffalo Surfing: Wet Rice Farming!

Dan and I LOVE Vietnam, and when I entered this we were literally Dreaming about being able to go back some day- if we won Lotto- so my winning this trip was truly a dream come true!  









Please check out my posts on this blog, which have links to all sorts of great things to do in Vietnam, and also see www.centralcoastvietnam.com and "like" their page on Facebook for more incredible things you can do in Vietnam:  https://www.facebook.com/CentralCoastVN

This year I think my “bestest” win was THE most beautiful handbag ever- a $1200 cerulean blue Stella McCartney “Fallabella” Tote- from LoveGoodly, which, as their name makes clear, has truly lovely things, AND supports good causes: www.lovegoodly.com

I won a fabulous $200 Weber Grill in the #MyMahan sweepstakes from the PGA- and Dan got to pick it up at Ace Hardware in Bluefield. WV!

"Tweet-Ups" on Twitter (www.twitter.com) are a lot of fun, and this fall I got Really lucky & won a $250 Visa gift card and some great beauty products from UNT http://www.shopunt.com/eng/ a fine Taiwanese beauty brand, in the #UNTbeautytalk Twitter Party hosted by SheSpeaks www.shespeaks.com!

On Twitter I also won a $20 eBay gift card, from, yes, eBay! :-) And as I am a Total eBay Fanatic (if not for eBay, the Elkhorn Inn would look like Wally World!) this will Definitely come in handy!


I won a $50 gift card to C-A-L Ranch Stores http://www.calranch.com/  (got a cool, heated seed-starter kit for this winter!) for my photo of the Elkhorn Inn with our sunflower meadow that Dan planted... and then I won $1000 from Marlboro www.marlboro.com for two projects I submitted: Replanting our sunflower meadow across from the Inn, and building a photography platform for Railfans in McDowell County, West Virginia!

 

I won the #PSILoveYou box full of pumpkin spice yummies from the Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt Blog: http://cookiedoughandovenmitt.com And I have to say that Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter is DELICIOUS!

From Passports with Purpose passportswithpurpose.org I won a $169 Travelmate Deluxe Product Bundle provided by the blog Cloud Surfing Kids: http://cloudsurfingkids.com/

We also got to enjoy the three months of truly beautiful flowers from Bouqs www.bouqs.com that I won last year when I was awarded “Marketer of the Year” Runner-Up from www.bedandbreakfast.com  (The other parts of the prize were an award, which we have displayed at the Elkhorn Inn, and a $100 gift certificate to Lowe’s- which Dan used immediately!)

Labor day flowers from Bouqs!

 

Flowers from Bouqs!

My Award

As readers of this blog know, I participate in a number of market research projects, and one of the best is Crowdtap. As a Crowdtapper, Dan & I (and our guests) have been able to try (and then write about) some great new products, including the Litter Genie, delicious foods & sauces from Campbell's, Ricola cough drops, yummy Brookside Crunchy Clusters and Folger's Flavors, Johnsonville "Grillers" Sausages, Kleenex tissues, delicious "foodie" Sahale Snacks, Listerine, and Zep Cleaners- and this Valentine's Day Zep surprised me with a gift bag! Check out www.crowdtap.com and sign up!

I won a great Rose Face Mask from Elvis + Elvin from Beauty Undercover www.beautyundercover.com:

And I also won an Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVD set from Cartoon Network!

Since I started entering sweeps and contests in 2002, I have won us 6 fabulous trips with plane tickets (Vietnam, Chile, Israel, San Diego, Virginia, and Arizona), absolutely gorgeous  designer shoes, beauty products, makeup, and perfume, fine jewelry, clothing, kitchen things, books, gift certificates, cash, food, and lots of other cool stuff! (My friends all made fun of me until I started winning trips with plane tickets. LOL) Many of my friends insist I must be terribly lucky, but if you enter 100 sweeps and contests a night you'll get "lucky" too! :-) I always tell people interested in entering sweeps and contests my three key rules:
1. Read the rules! I cannot stress this enough, especially with regards to contests. If you are going to spend the time creating an entry, make sure you know the rules so you don't inadvertently disqualify yourself! One entry only, or daily entries? Are you eligible to win? Is it a skill-based, judged contest, or a random drawing? What are you supposed to write or photograph and how? You get the idea! 
2. Check your email- DAILY!  You often have only 24 hours to respond to a winning notification email, or the prize will be awarded to someone else! Thanks to entering sweeps and being on so many email lists, I now have to scroll through about 1800 emails a day, and yes, that it is pain, but the payoff has been pretty fabulous! Consider it part of your "job" and it will feel less onerous. LOL  
3. Only enter for things you Really want to win! Apropos this, my favorite sweeps story is about winning a giant box of condoms! Dan was incredulous- WHY, he wanted to know, did I enter to win stuff like that?! I had actually entered to win the $10K trip to Vegas- but instead of winning the Grand Prize, I had won the First Prize- and the sweeps had been sponsored by Trojan! :-) 
And I also always thank those responsible, and try to give the people and companies who sponsor the sweeps and contests I win publicity and promotion- a "bang for their buck", as it were- on this blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc., because sweeps and contests are created to SELL STUFF, and sharing is caring! :-) I learn about a lot of great products through entering sweeps and contests, and we do buy many of them!
Good luck, and have fun sweeping! 
Let me know in the comments if you've won something- whether it was wonderful or just hilarious!

Elisse

 

Elkhorn Inn's new Contest & Sweeps- enter now!

Yes, the Sweepstakes Queen of Landgraff, WV has finally launched OUR sweeps- AND a great contest, too! We have some really great prizes from the Elkhorn Inn Gift Shop, & the Contest has a Grand Prize of a $320 gift certificate to the Elkhorn Inn Inn for a two-night stay with a Chef Dan Dinner at the Inn for two on one night! In order to enter the Sweepstakes, you have to be a "fan" of the Elkhorn Inn on Facebook, so the first thing you need to do is click
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eckman-WV/Elkhorn-Inn-Theatre/53453051478?ref=mf and become a fan! Just by being a "fan" of the Elkhorn Inn you're entered in the Sweeps, but you get an EXTRA entry for each new "fan" you get us- so get us lots of new fans to increase your chance of winning! The Contest is to find (and suitably reward) the most creative and enthusiastic "fan" of the Elkhorn Inn for the most successful marketing and promotion of the Inn using "social networking" and other media... You can read all the details for both the Contest and the Sweepstakes in the "Notes" on the Elkhorn Inn's Facebook fan page. Both the Sweepstakes and the Contest end Dec.1, 2009 at midnight EST, so you've got 2 1/2 months to build up your entries! The key is: you MUST LET US KNOW that you've sent us fans, or guests who've made reservations, or if you got us media coverage, or Tweeted or Facebooked or MySpaced or YouTubed about us- we have to know what you did in order for it to count! You can email us at elisse@elkhorninnwv.com, leave a message on our Facebook fan page, or "tweet" us @elkhorninn on www.Twitter.com.

The Best news this week was the article on the Elkhorn Inn in TRAINS magazine, and that another article on the Inn is coming out in the WV State Journal. The wonderful TRAINS article by Alan Byers has resulted in tons of calls & a number of bookings, and even a radio interview on the Tom & Judy & Dan Mid-Morning Show on WMST in Mt. Sterling, KY on Sept 1- Tom is a Big-Time Railfan! Click on: http://www.gatewayradio.net/grwcommon/audiofeeds/TJ/TJ-09-01-2009.ram (You will need RealPlayer, which is a free download), go to 1:31 (a bit after the 10a.m. news) and you'll hear the train music & then my interview with Tom! I talked about Alan Johnston, Stacy Grubb, & South 52 playing at our Theatre, trains, and other things! :-)

I also had a small (humorous) piece that I wrote about my dad published on The Sweet With The Bitter blog about caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's and memory loss: http://thesweetwiththebitteralzheimersblog.blogspot.com/ Those of you who think there couldn't Possibly be anything funny about dealing Alzheimer's should read it. (Those of who are dealing with or dealt with it Know what I'm talking about...) I sent Ms. Diederich a number of funny stories about things that happened during the years my father was losing his memory, and she used one in her latest post. Yes, these stories are all funny in a sad & bittersweet way, but they are funny nonetheless. Alzheimer's & memory loss are so deeply tragic and painful to live with, that if you don't find things to laugh about you'll go mad... I remember late nights playing Scrabble w/my mom & telling "Alzheimer's jokes" to each other until the tears literally ran down our faces from laughing so hard... What else can you do? :-)

It's September, & I'm trying to (sadly) make peace with the fact that summer is just about over, but this does Not make me happy. I am SICK & TIRED of having advertisements for fall & winter clothing rammed down my throat for the last 2 months, while it rained here & we waited for summer to magically & finally appear. Fortunately, the leaves here in the mountains of southern WV are still green, and the weather (finally) has been in the 80s, so I haven't packed away my summer togs just yet, but fall looms... I'd be Fine with fall if fall hung around long enough for me to really enjoy it, but fall is never long enough & segues all too rapidly into Winter, and we get about 6 months of Serious Winter here- & it's NOT my favorite season! I'm a "summer girl", through-and-through! Gimmee the dry, arid heat of the Israeli Dead Sea & Negev Desert any day!

Our garden did Not do great this year- too much rain perhaps- and the other day Dan harvested the last of the corn and a few more tomatoes; we ate the last of the corn tonight. The other night he made a Wonderful pepper/fennel-crusted pork loin with a wine-sage-cream sauce that was dee-vine! He got the idea from the CrazyCanukBlog that I follow- and you should, too (she's on Facebook, as well)- she has GREAT recipes! Last night Dan made his amazing crunchy-on-the-outside-tender-on-the-inside latkes- potato pancakes- and we had them with our sweet, summer garden corn & roast chicken...

At least we were able to freeze a lot of oregano pesto and tomato-basil sauce this summer, as well as some of the wild-blackberry sauce we made, so at least in the dead of winter we (and our guests ) will be able to taste a bit of summer...

As you know, we've added a Cat to our Animal Family at the Inn: Tiger-the-Pit-Bull & Lady-the-Lab now have Lucky Kitty, the tiny, brave kitten that walked into the Inn like he owned it, & got to stay! Lucky, all 2 lbs. of fuzzy, purring adorableness, has another Sibyl-like side, and that side managed to kill & eat 5 birds last week before I realized where he was getting them from & Dan was able to plug the opening in the chimney & so save the rest of the nest... Finding Lucky in the midst of his, uh, "meal" was none too pleasant, and proved to me that cats really Are different from dogs... Even the tiniest of tender fur-balls has a rather terrifying "killer" instinct within it.... (L is the first cat in my life...) When I called & called him & no cat appeared I got scared- something must have happened to poor, defenseless little Lucky! And then his tiny head popped out of the high chimney opening, with an almost-dead bird in his mouth, & I nearly had a fit. (Having him later mew twice & then puke bird down my computer printer & across desk didn't thrill me, either...) But little Lucky provides hours of amusement for Tiger, who has become "Kitty Daddy", and licks the kitten like a mommy cat would; Lucky whacks at T with his paw and bites him, & chews on Lady's tail- basically doing whatever he can to try and get a rise out of both dogs- but both T & L are so amazingly gentle w/him that it gladdens the heart to watch them play... Lucky's taken to sitting on my shoulder while I work at the computer, and to sleeping on my printer; when he wants attention he simply walks across the telephone, credit card machine, & my keyboard...

Fall brings with it the Jewish High Holidays, and that's my one bright spot. I'm planning a trip to Hair Studio, my fave Aveda Salon in Princeton, WV, & a suitably festive mani-pedi @ the Mercer Mall... & I've gone eBaying for holiday things: a lulav & an etrog, a Havdallah set for Shabbat, & Hanukkah candles for our many menorot, among other things... & then, of course, there are the irresistible "bargains" I stumble across late in the night in the process of looking for "needed" things, such as outrageous Vivienne Westwood shoes with hearts on them, or really expensive cosmetics and anti-aging potions at bargain-basement prices... As I've said before, out here in the 'boonies' eBay is a quasi-shopaholic's dream-store! I follow a gazillion things on eBay daily, sometimes for months at a time: everything from outrageously high-heeled Louboutin shoes (size 38 in case anyone's looking to gift me...) to Obagi Eye Cream, WV mining & railroad memorabilia, ATV supplies, and giant, inflatable outdoor decorations...

Last week I scored Dan a gorgeous new sheepskin coat (his Hanukkah present- don't tell!) for $100, & myself a full-face helmet for ATVing (dust in my eyes while riding drives me & my contact lenses NUTS) for 99 cents! And while I have eBay, feel not sad for Dan, for he has his fave thrift shops, and the other day he came home from Catholic Charities w/yet another one of his amazing deals: a brand-spanking-new 8-bottle wine cooler for the bar room that we hope to some day finish... We've been working on it sporadically now for 7 years, and it'sa bout 3/4 done, and I have high hopes that we both might live to see it open & operating... Anyone wanna help? You help, you get dibs on having that First Official Drink at the Elkhorn Inn Bar!

Please take 10 seconds to click & vote!

This is a plea: PLEASE take 10 seconds to click on this link & vote for me- Ms. "Red Sole"- in Purple Lab's Huge Lips-Skinny Hips Contest:
http://www.purplelabnyc.com/kissandtell.html?pbb_qsi=16544190&=PBB_HugeLipsSkinnyHips_468_PPIMEMAIL
I am Ranked at Number 83 as I write this, & with your help (please Tweet it from the rooftops, Facebook, MySpace, & email the Dickens out of it, too!) maybe I can win that fabulous "fashionista" trip to NYC! Most importantly: my winning will help shatter the myth that people over 50 don't have a Clue about "viral marketing", "social networking", and other such things!
(There's a link on the right side of the blog to my entry, as well).

Travel is SO Broadening!

I've been Tweeting... with a bunch of Travel Junkies, inc. @tomtravel2 @TastyGalaxy @thetripchicks @EliteTravelGal @miafeinstein @sueyoungmedia
@Journeywoman @FillYourHotel @GoPetFriendly @princetonrt @TRACWV @wvurl and so decided, after an hilarious conversation about an article on Not Kissing The Blarney Stone For Fear of (eeeeeeewww) Germs, to post on Broadening Ones Horizons via Travel: Infections I Have Picked Up On The Road. I am 50 and still alive, amazingly enough, and still a FIRM believer in Kissing the Blarney Stone, Feeding The Pigeons, Swimming In That Rather Brown & Murky Vietnamese River, Bathing in That Hotel Bathtub After The Hurricane, and Eating the Damn Sandwich That Dropped On The Floor, as I truly believe that our immune systems need the boost and life is too short to worry about this crap! I also believe that my mother's family's genes will see me through: she is 86, a heavy smoker & drinker, and about to enter the Golden Olympics for golf AND bowling. And her brother David (my uncle) is 97. And so I am posting a few bits on the most memorable infections I have picked up along the way...

Dysentery, 1979: Sewage backs up into drinking water on kibbutz. For several days until we realized it. I am sick, but so is everyone else, so we all keep muddling along for a few days, until I finally have to Take To My bed, as they say. Not knowing, of course, that dysentery can kill you (mom later enlightened me with tales of her experiences in the WWII India-China-Burma Theatre), secretly I am happy, for I consider this my "painless" (well, sort of) way to weight loss. But no! Friends are so worried about me that they bring me a toaster from the Chader Ochel (dining hall), & soup, & a stupefying amount of bread! Challah! Soft, yummy challah, right out of the oven! And so I manage to GAIN 20 lbs- probably the only dysentery weight gain on record.

Leishmoniasis, 1984: Got bit by the Jericho Rose Fly ("Zvoov Shoshanat Yericho") at the Dead Sea in Israel In Sept., literally DAYS before my induction into the Israeli Army. Got bit because I was kipping in a friend's room at ground-level, not knowing the little bastards can't fly above one story. Thought I had a couple of really nasty mosquito bites on my ankles for several months, but by December I had elephant legs. By order of my CO, I checked into Tel HaShomer IDF Army hospital. Told to "go home & get your toothbrush". Did so. Overheard doctor's conversation about "Leishmonaisis". Phoned mom in NY. Mom goes to NYU Medical Library & phones back: "Get to a tropical disease specialist! It's "Dum-Dum Fever" & it attacks the central nervous system & then you're DEAD"! Told Doctors about this during 6a.m. rounds. Got told they WE'RE The Tropical Disease Specialists, Thank You Very Much, & that I had "cutaneous" liesh (thank G-d), and I was gonna have it for 12 months. And that It was Really Rare for anyone to get bit in Israel (apparently true: I've never met anyone else), and that it was also Damn Fortunate I wasn't bit on the face. (No freakin' kidding). Was told I would have oozing sores on my legs for 12 months & some really crappy scars. Bandaged legs, went back to the Army. July: Mom comes to visit, we go to the Dead Sea ('cause I have Psoriasis and the Dead Sea heals that), I unwrap my legs & sit in the sun, and we watch, with our mouths open, as the lesions heal inside 2 hours! The Dead Sea is THE place for healing! I am left with REALLY cool rose-shaped scars on both ankles that look like gunshot wounds! I dine out on these scars for Many years, esp. when in the company of US Marines, who think they are Very Sexy and Really Hard Core! :-D Observation: I don't Ever need to get a tattoo- I've got cool scars!

Lung infection, 2001: After the 911 WTC terrorist attack in NYC. Coughed green phlegm and took my dog's penicillin as I didn't have medical insurance & couldn't afford to go see a doctor. Me and everyone else.

E-coli blood poisoning, 2005: Working for FEMA on disaster response and recovery operations, I was on the Hurricane Katrina Strike Team that went into St. Bernard Parish, LA (truly Ground Zero) by boat after the hurricane hit Louisiana. At some point during my 30 days in St. B (most probably when I bathed in contaminated water at the OMNI hotel my last week in NOLA), I got a skin infection that was misdiagnosed (repeatedly, for 1 1/2 years, in both LA & WV) as a fungus, and treated with larger and larger dosages of anti-fungal medications. (The awful irony is that I was So happy to see finally get a hotel room & see fancy towels, toiletries and a bath tub! But for weeks the US Navy had provided me and my coworkers with wonderful lodging on their ships- and TRULY CLEAN water! And if I'd just stayed on the USS Shreveport, I could have saved myself a heart attack!) I later run into FEMA gal from NOLA who tells me "everyone in NOLA" has the same oozing skin lesions I do... And then it turns out it's NOT a fungus, it's e-coli, as in Oct 2006 I wind up in the Bluefield, WV hospital ER w/ecoli blood poisoning, from which I have a heart attack. And "code" & spend 5 days on Life Support. And have my husband be told to "call her mother and find out how to plan a Jewish funeral". And spend 3 weeks on 14 drips and 9 IVs, & get sent to Duke U Heart Center as a transplant candidate. And from which I make a rather amazing 100% recovery- thank you Dr. Chieu Nguyen! (Back to having my mom's genes...) Try to get the CDC interested in the NOLA-ecoli issue while in Duke U Hospital's Heart Center- but they couldn't care less.

Antibiotic resistant staph & strep, 2008 & 2009: Keep picking up antibiotic resistant staph & strep skin infections while On The Road Again... Had to leave WV twice in order to find doctors who would do simple skin tests, as medical care here is in the toilet. Fortunately, FEMA keeps deploying me to places like Tallahassee, Florida that have Real doctors who WILL do such tests...