announcing…blog giveaways on maneki!
Want a chance to win the first ever maneki blog giveaway? All you have to do is comment on this entry and tell me what you like about summer! We are having a heat wave here in Austin, and it would be nice to be reminded of all the good things about this time of year! One winner will be chosen at random, and that lucky person will receive this locket:
A couple of rules about the giveaway:
♥ Be sure to leave a good contact e-mail in the comments form (don’t worry; your e-mail address won’t be visible to anyone except you and me). Entries without a valid e-mail address will be disqualified–I need to find out how to get you your necklace!
♥ Only one comment per reader, please
♥ This first giveaway is open to US addresses only
♥ Winning entry will be chosen using the random number generator at random.org
♥ All entries must be received by Monday, July 6, at 5:00 p.m. CST.
Good luck!
June 29th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Summer is great because it’s a time to be spent with friends. It lacks the distractions (if you’re a student that is) of all the school nonsense.
Plus sprinklers are awesome!
June 29th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I love that we have so many options to cool off in this Texas heat: Barton Springs, the Greenbelt, Lake Travis, Lake Austin. Wonderful!
June 29th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
For me, summer is all about the smells, tastes and sights…BBQs, lighter fluid, charcoal, fireworks smoke, citronella, sunscreen…watermelon, root beer floats, cold lone stars, strawberry shortcake. i love tan lines on my feet from flipflops, freckles on my shoulders and nose, lightning on the horizon, sundresses and gigantic sunglasses. i love the languid feeling that seeps into you at 4pm on a saturday afternoon when you’re debating how to spend your night, or wondering if maybe just staring at the sky with a cold beer in hand on your back patio isn’t the best option. i basically live for the summer! good thing i’m in texas…
June 29th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
When I lived in Tucson and my car didn’t have air conditioning, I thought of summer as more of a nuisance than anything, except during the monsoon season when everything was beautiful and smelled amazing. But now that I live in Brooklyn and the summers aren’t as intense, I love them unconditionally. Sitting on the porch when the whole neighborhood is out, the Mister Softee truck playing its signature song endlessly as it rolls up and down the streets, the block parties where people still open up the fire hydrants, the old men playing dominoes and barbecuing on the sidewalk. I also love the fact that everything seems to be on hold on a nice day. Work and obligations cease to matter, and it’s all about enjoying life.
June 29th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I like the endless nights of summer, that darkness doesn’t fall until late (it’s even more pronounced on the East coast where I grew up). One thing we didn’t have on the East coast was the neighborhood pool. That is heaven!
June 29th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
south carolina peaches. big red tomatoes @ the farmer’s market. fireflies. sundresses. sunsets on marshes. long days. being a lady of liesure. fireworks. birthday celebrations. i heart summer.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Summertime in Austin means outdoor recreation for a lot of people. I’m all about staying in doors keeping cool. I love to read books at The Steeping Room in the Domain or getting a cookie from Borders.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I live in the country and love the sounds and sights at night of frogs, crickets and lightning bugs. Fresh breezes in the shade, cold things to eat and drink such as ice cream, iced tea, lemonade, watermelon. Independance Day fireworks. Reasons to go swimming, grilling and picnicking with friends and family. Fresh berries to pick in the countryside, wild flowers around the perimeter of the yard (right now there’s tons of daisies and lilies!), growing calves and colts frisking around. Cats and dogs laying in the sun or shade. Naps in the afternoon and late sunsets, cool early mornings.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Monstrously huge flavored drinks from Sonic & a stack of library books!
June 29th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
THE HEAT! it makes everybody crazy – in the good way. being in water, and just not caring!
June 29th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I love going out on my porch in suburban long island and seeing the first explosion of the morning glories in their flower boxes. I like that they sleep under the soil all winter and show up on the surface when summer comes, unscathed. I also like that I get to see them as an added bonus for waking up early for the job I am not so fond of. Their color is unbelievable, electric fuschia especially that early in the morning. This year, with all the rain we’ve had, most of the plants seem water logged, and the morning glory is no exception. As a result, so far, there is only one part of the crawling vines with a bud on it. It has a lone trumpet shaped morning glory which makes it even more special.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Best thing about summer… that’s a toughie. Probably the highlight of my summer is the annual family reunion on the shore of Lake Michigan. A week of camping, relaxing on the beach, campfires, potlucks and games. Definitely fun. Plus, you’re on Lake Michigan. Swimming there rocks.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I love the green trees of summer and the cool breezes off of Lake Michigan and days like today where the sky is grey, white, blue, and orange (the sunset) and the temperature is mild. It’s nice to just walk outside and feel good to be alive. And it is especially nice when I remember that just two months ago the trees were bare, there was snow on the ground, and I was tired of freezing. Summer means rejuvenation!
June 29th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Best thing about summer in the Pacific NW is that on the hottest day of the year, I can at least for a moment imagine that I’m in Austin, even if only in winter.
Really, though, the best thing about summer, hands-down, is watching my kids on waterslides for the first time of the season.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
My favorite color is sunshine.
And one of my favorite words is summer.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:01 am
I love summer evenings. There’s nothing better, than spending an evening with your best friends on the balcony, chatting about god and the world and drinking too much red whine…hmmmmm!
June 30th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
summer is for rejuvenating. in austin that means lots of swimming, hiking on the greenbelt, kayaking and snowcones. there’s definitely an element of creativity involved in keeping cool with such grueling summers.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
We’re pretty lucky here in Austin with a wide range of fresh and yummy fruit coming our way in the summer. Right now the peaches and cherries and blueberries are in season and they’re all delicious. It’s a good time to hit up a farmer’s market and see what treats you can find.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Summer is great in Austin for bike rides to Casey’s SnowBall stand, Barton Springs free night swimming, classic movies downtown at the Paramount, happy hour margaritas, and bar-b-ques in friends’ backyards.
June 30th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
When I was a kid, I’d go diving for mussels in a lake up in Quebec with my best friend and her family. Her uncle would pay us money to bring these things back by the pound, so we’d spend hours out in the lake, harvesting them from the bottom. Only it wasn’t really work; it was like some kind of game to retrieve the sunken treasure. I’d start to associate mussels with diamonds because of the way we’d bring them back out of the water and everything would sparkle — our legs, or arms, our hair — before we’d dive back down again for more.
Even though I don’t do it anymore, that’s summer: the glint of the water off of skin as we came back from a dive.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
You can have a snowcone everyday of the week…
For example: Coconut and Orange delicious
Rootbeer and banana with cream
Watermelon and Grapefruit
Silver fox…. this list could continue forever really
mmmmm ice and sugar
June 30th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
One of my favorite things about summer is the outdoor movie series at Central Market. What’s better than lying on a blanket outside with a cold beer and watching old school movies?
June 30th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Unsweetened iced tea. Honeysuckle. Lilacs.
Bare feet. Cool grass.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Summer is the best time for good clean kid fun like jumping in the sprinklers, water balloon fights, eating delicious snow cones, biting into an ice cold piece of watermelon, taking long naps and diving into Barton Springs. Lately, the best part of summer is walking in the rain after several consecutive days of blistering hot weather.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 am
I love it when you’re stuck inside a freezing building and then you get to walk outside and feel the sun and heat and Texas all around you. (that is before you start to feel like an ant under a magnifying glass.)
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
The best thing about summer is having time off from school. I really like school, but time to just relax and do nothing is faaaaaabulous!
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
The best thing about summer is leisurely bike rides with friends to the sno cone stand. Almond Coconut is my favorite.
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Two words for teachers: summer. vacation.
July 6th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I love spending time reading in the shade with a fun drink from Sonic. Then when it get unbearable jumping in the pool!
July 6th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I love being able to take the kids to the pool and not have to fight to get a jacket on them!
July 6th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Sno Beach is open!!! I love riding my bike down to the nearest Sno Beach. That way you feel the summer breeze in your face, you get really hot, and sweaty… you build up that thirst for something cold… and then… ta da! The best sno cone in the world, Sno Beach!
July 6th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I love that everything is more relaxed. Offices have summer schedules, kids are always around playing and traffic is less congested
July 6th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
i work for the school district…so i love summer because i don’t have to work for 2+ months. and it gives me time to read and sleep!
July 6th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I’m 27 but I still get ridiculously excited for summer because the snow cone stands are back!!
Margaritas are much more exciting to drink on a patio, porch or pool side when it’s nice and hot outside!