One World-One Heart

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART

I wanted to do my thank you to all of you via video.........if you read prior posts you know I had some technical difficulties....I now know why.......and I now have a different video camera. BUT the video hasn't been made yet. 
Time is clicking by and I decided that however I say it, typed or talking right to you, the sentiment is the same! That sentiment is GRATITUDE!!
I never thought that this years OWOH would grow as it did, I thought we'd perhaps surpass last year but when it reached 900 it was beyond expectation.  This event (I really want to change that word) is NOT about ME! It's about ALL OF YOU who took part and truly embraced the essence of what my intentions were when first creating this.  It would mean nothing if all I did was leave posts here and the link list was only mine...........so to you 910 (I make 911) I say a deepest, most heart felt THANK YOU. I wish I had more words, thank you almost seems trite for the scope of feelings I have seeing this all play out this year! I was and am overwhelmed and thrilled!
All of you have such generous hearts, amazing talent and incredible spirits.  With each new email I received wanting to jump on the Caravan from all over the globe, I felt more and more emotional..  Also before, during and afterwards I have recieved THE most phenomanal emails and comments that literally made me weep with joy and true appreciation for all the love and kindness.  I don't take any of it lightlly, it has made every moment spent on this computer over the last month a labor of love and priviledge. I can't possibly respond to each email but please know that your taking the time to say such amazing things will stay locked in my heart!

What I hope doesn't happen now is that you walk away from this and don't look back for another year. These links, these potential connections, these potential kindred spirits are here so that you can take your time now and visit or revisit...........look around, read each others words, see where we each "live" here in blogland and let one another know we've stopped by.  Just because the giveaway portion of the progam is over doesn't mean the show can't go on.  The whole reason for starting OWOH was to find a way for all of us to reach out to one another in good times and bad times. How many of you have run across a blog of someone you don't know OR someone you do know who needs a special thought, some healing either physically or emotionally or for someone they love and care about? Well that collective carries power when people send these thoughts to the Universe and they are like salve for an injured spirit.  Likewise words of joy and appreciation and kindness and support for endeavors and good fortune and so on go a long way as well.  When we are sitting in our homes in the US (or wherever you are) at our computers it's amazing that through the vastness of this medium called blogging, we can have meaningful exchanges with someone a half a world away. We can forge friendships that may begin with comments.....evolving to emails.....that could evolve to phone conversations....that could evolve to meeting in person one day!
Through OWOH I wanted to help that ball get rolling...........I wanted to hopefully create something that could be the conduit to forging these connections that may not otherwise happen if not for clicking on a link to a giveaway.  And it's happening again this year........emails have proved that these connections are already happening between bloggers again this year. And emails saying connections that began the first year of OWOH have grown incredibly.  Now that's music to my ears!
I, myself, have found some extraordinary folks with each new year that I dearly treasure.  So don't walk away! The links you see on the sidebar will go away BUT........they will remain on this blog forever in a link under Special Pages. (see left sidebar) They are all there and over time (as it's a big job) I will remove the giveaway portion of each link so that when you click on a certain one it will take you to each blogs main page. So not to worry if you didn't get a chance to get to EVERY blog.
Go and see what each blog is all about, see the talents and lovely writing and every aspect of one anothers world.
Sadly I, myself, did NOT get to go to each blog.......time constraints behind the scenes kept me pretty busy (as you can imagine) BUT I WILL get to each and every one of you.  If I didn't comment on your giveaway it was nothing personal, it was a time issue. Next year I am going to do that differently.

I know this is long winded but truly, madly, deeply I feel such gratitude to all of you for making this such a huge success!! YOU made this what it was!!  I am so appreciative that so many already can't wait for next year.  AND there will be a next year as long as people are interested.

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I have saved the emails I received to add a link or ask a question, from those I will compile a more comprehensive group of email addys for next year. IF you want to be notified about next years event you can email me and I will add your email address to the list.  If during the year your email changes you'll need to notify me. Some time around November of this year I will try to send out mass emails with dates and important information (all email addresses will be kept confidential).  By sending me your email address it does not mean you have SIGNED UP for next year.....it only means you will  receive details for the new one in 2010.   In the email PLEASE put "OWOH email list" in the subject line and of course you can watch this blog for information as well.  I've learned some things this year that need tweeking a bit for next time, each year is a learning curve as to what works and what doesn't.  Even if this grows and grows I will still do it alone, I appreciate offers to help, but you know how it is when its your "baby".  Devoting myself for a month once a year is nothing.......the rewards are far greater!!

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ONE MORE PIECE OF IMPORTANT BUSINESS...............PLEASE BE SURE YOU'VE POSTED YOUR GIVEAWAY WINNERS ON YOUR BLOG AND THAT YOU HAVE NOTIFIED THE WINNER VIA EMAIL AND/OR THEIR BLOG!!!!  

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I am so appreciative if you read this entire post............it means a lot!

Stop by my regular daily blog and say hello when you can.............I'll be by yours as well!!

With much Love,

Lisa

www.awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com

P.S. If you ever have any questions, concerns, suggestions you can always email me through THIS event blog or through my daily blog.

Some stuff.............

It looks like I won't be able to post the video i recorded..............YET! I am working on acquiring something else that will allow me to upload videos. It really meant a lot to me to talk right to you all so I am NOT giving up! It's very IMPORTANT to me that I do it this way. I will also be including info for next year. So please watch this blog for a video!!!

Also, I hope by now everyone has announced their winners! DON'T wait for them to contact you.........YOU must contact your winner and let them know they have won and ask for shipping information.

Also I received an envelope with some wonderful bits of old papers, images, cigar bands and the like but cannot find a card or note and I do not know who to thank. I do have the envelope from Mary Green................if that is YOU please email me. I feel horrid not thanking you but I cannot find any information. I've even looked through all the link submission emails and can't find one from you. HELP!!!!  It's in my nature to thank people immediately!!!! I hope you'll see this and I am right that it was you who sent it.

SEE YOU ALL VERY SOON!!!!

Love,
Lisa

VIDEO TECH HELP NEEDED!!!!!!

I recorded a video talking to all of you (supposed to be my big THANK YOU post)..........using a Sony DVD RW camcoder. The problem is I can't get it to upload to my computer as a file I can edit. It comes up as a Video_TS file (whatever the heck that is) so I can't import it to Windows Movie Maker. I've searched the net for hours and I am still completely stumped.  IF there is anyone out there reading this who knows of these things PLEASE HELP by leaving it in comments OR email me (see link in the left side bar)   It took a lot for me to even put my chubby little face on camera and after reconciling myself to just "go for it" I can't make it work.
I appreciate any help and/or advice you can give me!!! There are some things I will stick with until I finally figure it out but I am at my wits end with this one!!!

Love,
Lisa

MUST YOU COUNT????

As we near the end I am getting some questions about counting............
As far as I know Blogspot and Typepad do not have a way to assign a number to each comment.........if they do I have never found it so enlighten me if you know.   I know some bloggers who use their own web page have done it and perhaps other blog hosts do it but I don't know of any.

So here you are faced with hundreds of entries and even using the random number generator you're going to have to count.
Here's one way you can do it (this is how I did it last year too).......maybe it will help you, maybe not.  My comments are emailed to me automatically. I use MSOutlook for my email and I set up a folder that says OWOH Entries. Whenever a comment comes in on my giveaway post I  read it and then move it to the entry folder. I went in to that folder selected to sort them with the earliest date received at the top.  Tonight I will be closing comments on my giveaway post at 10 PM EST.  I will then print out that list in the entry folder (not each email, just the list of them) and number them starting with the very first comment I received.  At that time I will use the random number generator - I can then go down my list that I previously numbered and find each winner and highlight them.   NOW, I realize that seems like a lot of work and perhaps it is...........BUT to print out every single comment to pull from a hat or a bowl (especially when they've reached 700+, you'd spend more time printing and cutting than you would numbering your comments yourself. To be able to email those people that win I will go back to my folder of emails and based on the date the highlighted winners entered I can go to that date (remember they are in date order old to new) and find them easily to make sure I have their contact information)
NOW If you don't have your comments emailed to you then you will then use the RNG and count on your computer from the first comment you recieved to the number or numbers it selected.

In TYPEPAD you can go Weblogs, configure, feedback,Display order..... and click the button to show the oldest comment first........THEN go down to comments to display and there you can tell it to show up to 50 comments per page.    This may help if you have to count your comments from your blog and not via email.   You will know that starting from the first comment each page is 50, you click next and then another 50 show and so on. 

Believe me if there was an easier way I'd be doing it............SO comments are open for this post if you out there have another way you've figured out by all means let us all know!!

You also need to close your comments when you're ready tonight or tomorrow................I can tell you how to do that in Blogspot and Typepad but not the others like WordPress or LiveJournal etc.

TYPEPAD:
Go to your posts and select your giveaway post as though you were going to edit it. On the right there is a box (third one) that says comments.......click on the arrow and the drop down box appears....select closed. and then save the post again.

Blogspot:
Go in to edit posts and select your giveaway post and click edit.  Under your post screen on the bottom left you will see (in blue) post options. click on that and you can then click the button that says don't allow, hide existing or don't allow show existing.  Either one is up to  you...but if someone tries to comment after you closed them it will let them know.

There are always going to be new issues crop up and each year I learn from the last one.  Perhaps we can all contact our blog providers to find out if numbering comments would ever be an option.  OWOH isn't the only time people have giveaways and use the RNG to pick their winners.........wouldn't it be nice if they all numbered themselves as they came in?

Well I've given you a few things to think about and again if you have a better way or know things I don't (which is entirely possible)......leave a comment here!!!

FRIDAY I will be posting my THANK YOU, I hope you'll watch for it!!

Love,
Lisa
XOXO

Esmeralda has some important information re:choosing winners etc., she'd like your full attention

Next This week ALL winners will be/should be announced this Thursday February 12th.

Due to the large volume of comments/entrants people are receiving there are a couple of ways to go about choosing your winner. BUT before you do that you need to figure out when you want to close comments on your giveaway post. Night of the 11th? Morning of the 12th? Something like that, this way no one can enter WHILE you are choosing the winner. Be sure to announce on your giveaway post "comments are now closed" and actually close them for that post.
Now, to choosing the winner................

1. You can print out all your comments, cut them up and put them in something so you can draw names

2. If you received your comments via email you can print out the emails, cut them up and you can draw names

3. You can wave a magic wand and ask for the winner(s) name to appear before you

4. You can pull a rabbit out of a hat and ask for the rabbit to have the winner(s) name around it's neck

5. You can ask your husband/wife/child/friend/coworker etc to pick a number between 1 and the # of entrants you have.

OR

You can go to the Random Number Generator
This will do all the work for you....... here is how it works

Part 1: The Integers

Generate random integers (maximum 10,000). In this box you will actually replace the 100 with the number 1

Each integer should have a value between and (both inclusive; limits ±1,000,000,000). In the second box here you will replace the 100 with however many entrants you received by the time you cut off comments.

Format in column(s)  In this box you will replace the 5 with a 1

In PART 2 you will click GET NUMBERS

This will bring up another screen with the random number

IF you have more than one giveaway you can elect to do it this way too

You can generate the numbers all at the same time by changing the first box to the number of giveaways you have and when you hit GET NUMBERS it will give you a column of that many random numbers.  You would then count from the very first comment you received to the first number generated.  Count again to the next one and so on.

OR

DO IT HOWEVER YOU WANT!

ALL WINNERS MUST BE ANNOUNCED ON YOUR BLOG ON THE 12TH.........EITHER GO BACK TO YOUR GIVEAWAY POST AND ADD THE WINNERS NAME(s) THERE OR YOU CAN ELECT TO DO A NEW POST TO ANNOUNCE YOUR WINNER(s).

    VERY IMPORTANT FOR GIVERS

It is up to you to contact your winner or winners and let them know they have won. Hopefully you have contact info. Give a specific time for that person to respond to you with their shipping info both on your blog and in your email to them. If they do not respond in a reasonable amount of time you can decide to choose a new winner. So what is a reasonable amount of time? It's up to you. Just be sure you are being reasonable and not saying something like 24 hours - give it at least a couple days. Once you do have the shipping information you should be sending your parcel or parcels out immediately......IF there is going to be a delay for some reason let your winner(s) know that immediately.

VERY IMPORTANT FOR WINNERS

Once you are contacted that you have won a giveaway please respond to the giver immediately with your shipping information.

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT FOR WINNERS

When you receive your winning parcel in the mail a VERY courteous thing to do would be to contact the giver and let them know you received it.  So many last year were left wondering if the parcel ever arrived because no one contacted them to say so or to even say thank you. 

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THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ALL YOUR WONDERFUL, HEART WARMING, SWEET AND TRULY DELICIOUS COMMENTS YOU HAVE LEFT FOR ME. THEY HAVE LITERALLY MADE ME CRY.  I APPRECIATE THEM MORE THAN I CAN TELL YOU.
NEXT WEEK  I HAVE PLANNED A PERSONAL WAY TO SAY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU - SO WATCH THIS BLOG!!!


If you have any questions about choosing your winner etc. please email me!

Love,

Lisa

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

P.S. I am STILL going to try to get to each and every one of you......

The link deadline is up - no more links will be accepted for this year!!!

Who would have ever thought that this year OWOH would grow to 911 participants?

I am truly flabbergasted and blissfully happy.   This year was more than double last year and off the charts over the first year.  My little seed became an entire forest!!!!!

Thank you all so much for jumping on the Gypsy Caravan again or for the first time!!!

The deadline is up for submitting any more links but don’t fret as there is always next year!!!

Bloggers came from all over the globe and these are the countries that were represented this year (28 in total).  Isn’t it wonderful?  If only we could find peace by saying “ok everyone, drop your weapons, drop your hate and lets have a giveaway instead!”

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

Denmark

France

Germany

Guatemala

Hungary

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Malaysia

Mexico

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Philipines

Scotland

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

UK

United States

 

I plan to do a much more proper thank you later because at this late hour the tooth picks holding my eyes open are failing!

Keep visiting those blogs because that part isn’t over yet……bloggers should all be announcing their winners on February 12^th! 

Stop by my giveaway (#25)!

Sweet dreams!!!

 

Love,

Lisa

XOXOXOXOXO

I have now opened comments for this post!

I am soooo sorry

I'm sorry
I'm sorry
I'm sorry
Yesterday, rather late afternoon/evening, I didn't realize I had not increased the number of links to be visible on this blog therefore some did not appear although they WERE on the link list.  I do apologize to those wondering where theirs was. I have set the number of visible links WAY high so that doesn't happen again.  I never dreamed I'd have this many this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!
So if you didn't see yours right away look now, it should be there!!
Love,
Lisa
(sometimes a bit frazzled but loving it)

I GUESS I HAVE TO SAY IT AGAIN............

With the deadline looming to add a link by Midnight PST tomorrow night I fear some people are not paying attention to the rules. This means I am having to get tough, and I am not a "tough" person by nature.
It is imperative I repeat some of those rules and then next year will address them even further......

1. Your giveaway must be in relation to this event ONLY.  ANY giveaway that was already in progress will not be considered. If you want to create a second giveaway in a brand new post that is just about this event.......you may do so.....but I will NOT add anyone's link that part way in puts the logo in it and calls it OWOH AFTER it was something all together different.

2. You MUST have an easy way for people to leave comments - they should NOT have to sign up or jump through any internet hoops to do so.  I check each blog before adding the link and if there is a problem I will let you know and not add your link until I hear back from you. If I miss it people alert me to it and I will email you.

3. Do NOT ask commentors to answer a bunch of questions to enter your giveaway...in fact they shouldn't have to answer even ONE question. They should not have to do anything to enter but leave a comment with contact info.  I have had complaints, understandably so.  This is not about whether someone will sign up to your blog,  look at your website or shop or even change their own blog for you.......this is about meeting YOU first and you meeting THEM. The rest will come later. So to put codicils to your giveaway goes against all that this event stands for and I would hope you would remove it.

4. Each post should carry the logo and mention this event so that others who do not know about it can click and review to perhaps join in.

I truly don't think any of these things are harsh, demanding or unreasonable. With this many participating I have to keep things even and cohesive. This event is meant as a meet and greet with a bonus (the giveaway). If you were at an event party and went up to someone to introduce yourself do think you would stay long if that person said "before we talk you need to answer some questions" or "I wasn't part of this party but decided to walk in anyway and bring my own party"  or "You can talk to me if you change that dress, I don't like it" or "you need to sign up with my company before you can talk to me".   Of course none of those scenarios would be desirable and frankly they wouldn't be tolerated.
This event is meant to shake hands, introduce yourself and hopefully throughout the party (and beyond) engage in conversation and find a kindred spirit or two or many.

So please, in these next 2 days think about this BEFORE you send me your link. (You have until midnight PST tomorrow night) I HAVE had to turn people away and that is never pleasant.....and I don't feel good doing it!  If you were one of them and are willing to make a few corrections please email me again.......I WILL add you then. If you refuse to comply with the guidelines for this event and have been informed of such.... the courteous thing would be to either change it or remove reference in your post that you are a part of this event.  Again, this isn't pleasant (I like everyone happy) but you must take a look at the over 850 others who DID comply.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding, as you can imagine this event has nearly doubled in size from last year and I am doing my very best to keep it fair for everyone!

Love,
Lisa
XOXOXO

Over 800 and climbing...............

I am jumping for JOY..................I NEVER in my wildest dreams thought it would get this huge. Sure, I hoped it would, but to nearly double last year is beyond anything I could have imagined.
You still have until Midnight (Pacific Standard Time) Tuesday February 3rd to hop on board. (see previous post)

Yes, I am bleary-eyed and my bum is spreading but it's all good.............it's all worth it.....it's all exhilarating and magical.  I have only managed to get to a little over 300 blogs myself, I want to be able to thank you one by one and hopefully after Tuesday I can get to all the rest.
I do hope to see more of you stop by MY giveaway, I would so LOVE to hear from ALL of you that you are enjoying this experience......is that possible? I hope you will!

In the meantime keep enjoying your ride on the Gypsy Caravan....what wonderful passengers you are!

 More later!

There is just something about jumping on the bed when you're happy................

LOVE,
LISA
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO