401st post! Unknown give away! That makes the 18th

Wow, what a way to end the year. Good friends, good food, and my 400th post.
This is the 401st.
I for one, am very surprised.
I didn't even want to do this blogging thing. I needed to find a way to promote myself and my hubby's store with out spending gobs of money. I needed to get back into the swing of things after several hits to my heart and ego. I had to find the self that I had lost and find new people to believe in and trust again. I have gained so much more.

It has been a long journey, this blogging road. It has been interesting, the people I have met are very unique and so very talented. I ended up making friends, many of them. Kindred spirits with light in their eyes and so much to share with others on the same path. It feels good. I don't mean to get maudlin, but I need to do this, I need to see how far I have come, because to tell you the truth, when you are I am standing in the midst of your my own life, the everyday caca can sometime swamp you or I should say me. I call those Sh_t tsunamis. Standing so close to everything it is hard to see anything but a huge wave of it.

I got to have this forum on my terms, posting the things I want to post, with the products I want to use and do the projects I want to do. I did it my way ;-D, right or wrong.

All in all it has been very rewarding now that I look back at the year. I guess this why we do this at this time of year, to take stock of all the events positive and negative to see what we can keep and what we can toss, to make the next year better than the last. I am wondering if I should even label them positive or negative? Some of the things that I thought were positive have turned out different and vice versa. So maybe I should just call them speed bumps or even just events and remain as detached from any outcome as I possibly can. Not to judge but to just be there for all of it.

Baring unforeseen events, I can move forward in to the rosy future.

I feel I have grown, I have been scared a lot of the time, felt that I had no net most of the time, and found out that all I need is inside. I have tools. I have learned new things, one day at a time, I am still learning and I want to keep going. This is good, this is very good!

I am so sorry if I haven't been by, I have an almost 2 year old that runs my life now. I drop by every once in a while and read, maybe comment, but everyday I think of you and I am grateful for you. I am hoping some day I will get this kid thing all figured out, I mean after all, I did it before. I am just a lot older and she is just really smart and really busy, a good girl! She says "Hi".

She smiles at me and says "gamma, hand" and I have to put mine in hers and go. To follow where she leads and to see the world through those bright young eyes!

I am going to have a quick giveaway before One World One heart comes at the end of this month, so if you want to win something (I haven't decided what yet) put your name in this post.
I will get the rules up later, I just want to say thank you and Have a wonderful New Year all of you!
Know that I think you are all perfect and you have something beautiful inside of you!
Share that with those you love.
We will all be better off for it.
And please keep sharing with me. I am better because of all of you.
Thank you!

I am going to leave you with something one of my new blog friends said to me. It rocked my world.

"Create your life like you create your art - you have that power. -Donna, the Woodwife"