So excited to announce that we have a winner for our handmade gift giveaway! The Happy Scarf mentioned in the previous blog post will be heading out in the mail to…
(drumroll please….)
….Tomi!
Congratulations! You are the new storyteller and caretaker of this vintage sari table runner – a piece of fabric that intimately ties together at least the lives of five women, two continents, and a journey that spans over 8,300 miles.
How fun! I hope it brings many years of happiness and joy to your table.
Thank you so much to everyone who participated in this giveaway. Guesses as to the contents of the mystery box were incredibly creative and ran the gamut of possibility. My most favorite ones included a set of decorated bowls, a spice grinder, napkins, a set of bracelets, a henna kit, a mini mortar and pestle, spice seeds, a Ganesha statue, a travel guide book, a piece of Indian art, an Indian stamp set and a collection of powdered dyes. How fun would any one of those prizes be?!
In a marvelous feat of guesswork though, there were two entrants – Christine and Karen – who both suggested that the box could contain a scarf. Christine even went so far as to say a small sari for use as table decoration! If the giveaway was about guessing the exact contents of the box these two ladies would have tied as winners for sure. But alas, the contest was open to anyone who submitted a guess. From there, all names were then written down on paper and pooled together in a box. Tomi’s name was selected from a random draw, and I like to think, a little bit of fate from India:)
Cheers and congratulations to Tomi for the win and to the Happy Scarf who now has a happy new home!
Hello dear readers! The Vintage Kitchen is very excited to announce a gorgeous gift giveaway from an incredible artist inside the white box pictured above! What could it be? What could it be? Here are a few hints…
It will last forever.
It’s made from history.
There is more than one inside.
It is meant for a specific item in your kitchen.
Back in the day, they were referred to as statement pieces – now they add sparkle to any space.
We will keep you stumped until tomorrow when we reveal the contents of the giveaway, which is tied into a lovely interview with the artist that will be up on the blog this week. Submit a guess today as to what’s in the box in the comments section below, and you’ll be automatically entered for your chance to win this magical prize. And please note, you do not have to correctly guess the contents in order to win. A winner will be selected at random from the pool of comments provided. The winner will be announced on Wednesday!
Good luck and happy guessing!
P.S. If you are new to the blog, giveaways in the past are all kitchen themed in one way or another. See what fun items we have given away in the past here and here.
The first week in May is quite spectacular this year as we celebrate Kentucky Derby, Cinco de Mayo, James Beard’s birthday and a very special Paris themed giveaway all in one week. That means you’ll be hearing from the Vintage Kitchen every day for the next six days (an unprecedented amount of communication from us!) as we pay proper tribute to each event. Hope you will be as excited about the week ahead as we are!
The giveaway kicks off all the festivities with a special blog post tomorrow announcing the specifics of the prize and a feature that will transport you to life in the magical city of Paris. Enter for your chance to win between now and 12 noon CST on Wednesday, May 2nd by signing up for the Vintage Kitchen shop newsletter here. One winner will be selected at random on Wednesday afternoon and will be notified via email and announced here on the blog and on Instagram. Stop by tomorrow and see what we have in-store for all you fans of France…
Kentucky Derby weekend is upon us! How exciting! Like every year we are giddy with anticipation about the big race but something is very different this year from all Derby posts of the past.
For the first time in over a decade we will not be hosting a Derby party which means no cooking menu to plan or drinks to mix. Like the horses just before post time, I myself will be posed to break out of a gate fast and furious. It’s not a horse gate and I won’t be in Kentucky – instead it’s an airport gate and I’ll be in Washington D.C. It will be a mad dash to the hotel with just over an hour before post time but if luck is on my side I’ll make it with moments enough to spare in order to drop my bags, grab a julep and watch the horses go. Fingers crossed.
Last year’s contest and 2016’s Derby winner – Nyquist!
Last year, we hosted a contest to guess the Derby winner with a very special vintage-themed gift as a prize. Although we had lots of fabulous speculations and a couple of close calls, no one picked Nyquist as the first to line finisher. With the promise of carrying over the un-won prizes from last year to this year, we will be holding the contest again but this time during the Belmont Stakes on June 10th. That gives us a chance to celebrate the races in true party fashion. It also makes the second leg of the Kentucky Derby all the more exciting. The horses by that stage will be one step closer to achieving the Triple Crown and you’ll be a seasoned expert on the horse racing scene of 2017.
Churchill Downs Oark on left. Belmont Park on right.
This change in the contest also gives you a chance to pick two winners this year – one for the Kentucky Derby and one for the Belmont. Twice the fun! It is super easy to enter this contest. All you have to do is pick your favorite horse to win this year’s Kentucky Derby and type the name into the comments section below. This will automatically and officially register your pick. Next month, you will do the same thing for the Belmont Stakes. If one, either or both of your horses are picked as winners in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont then you will be a winner in the contest.
If you haven’t caught up with the field yet, this year holds a spectacular group of contenders. The numbers next to each horse correspond to their post position in the starting gate. If you are feeling especially intuitive select your winner via face, name or number value.
From top left: (2) Thunder Snow; (17) Irish War Cry; (6) State of Honor; (5) Always Dreaming; (10) Gunnevera; (1) Lookin at Lee; (16) Tapwrit; (8) Hence
Or if you’d like to read up on this year’s entrants visit kentuckyderby.com for all the latest information, statistics and industry commentary.
Clockwise from top left: (19) Practical Joke; (15) McCracken; (13) J Boys Echo; (3) Fast and Accurate
So many fun names make up the roster this year…
Clockwise from top left: (7) Girvin); (4) Untrappd; (11) Battle of Midway; (9) Irap; (12) Sonneteer; (18) Gormley; (14) Classic Empire; (20) Patch
…Always Dreaming, Irish War Cry, Sonneteer and Practical Joke are among my favorites… but Patch is the horse of my heart this season. He only has one eye and that makes him an unusual entry, but it sure doesn’t slow him down. A tumor in his left eye caused his handicap but he was so quick to recover and return to his normal pace that it seems destiny had decided this handsome guy’s fate long before his eye ever showed signs of sickness.
I feel a special kinship to Patch because I’m legally blind in my left eye and like him I’ve gotten along just fine all these years regardless. Many trainers believe that the power of racing comes from a horse’s heart, not their legs or their physique or their genetic makeup. It comes from their love and sheer excitement to run. One eye or two, it doesn’t matter. Patch has already proved he’s a contender in more ways than one.
Share your thoughts and your guesses for this year’s Derby winner in the comment section below. Voting closes at 5:45pm (eastern time) Saturday, May 6th, so like the race itself speed is of the essence. There is also only one vote per person allowed, so make your guess a good one! Winners will be announced next week on the blog and the vintage prize package will be mailed out thereafter. Curious to see if I’ll win the airport race in time to watch the horse race? Stay tuned to Instagram for that update on Saturday!
Ladies and gentlemen… it’s a great day to name a deer! On behalf of our statuesque stag, Ms. Jeannie is pleased to announce a winner in the Name That Deer contest!
After much deliberation, Deer is excited to say that from here on out he will now affectionately be called…
Hudson!
Named after the 19th century Argentinian born writer and naturalist William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) who wrote the gorgeous rain forest love story Green Mansions, our newly titled Hudson was taken with this name because it combined both literature and nature.
But this was not to say that this was an easy decision to make! Ms. Jeannie herself marveled at all the fabulous suggestions. The choices included gorgeous classicals: Charles Dickens, Brete Harte, Sebastian Flyte, Hemingway, Jack London, E.B. White, Clement C. Moore and Washington Irving along with super creatives: Val and Belletristic. There was a nod towards Deer’s feminine side with the suggestions of Emma and Pearl S. Buck. And there was even a funny one among the mix with the nomination of Vinnie’s Son – a play on the word venison! Such choices. Such fun.
A big, big congratulations goes out to mariedge2033 over on Instagram for contributing the winning name! A most special prize is heading your way shortly! Hudson would also like to sincerely thank each and every one one of you who took the time to help him find a name. Thank you, thank you dear readers for being so fantastic.
Dear readers, Ms. Jeannie needs your help! Her resident deer needs a name. He’s been a handsome part of the Ms. Jeannie landscape for almost a year now, quietly adding some elegance and dignity to the library where he lives. But this morning he woke up on the wrong side of the shelf. He was upset, and most rightly so.
For close to 365 days he’s just been called Deer. That was fine in the beginning but now he wants a proper name. It seems Deer will just not do any longer. Upon hearing this, Ms. Jeannie racked her brain. She couldn’t come up with anything creative except for George Eliot, which Deer reminded her was the masculine pen name for a lady writer. He wants something manly. Rhett Butler she suggested next. But they both knew that wasn’t quite right either. What then? Ernest, F. Scott, William? Tolstoy, Kipling, King? There are a million names, a billion names, centuries worth of names, but Ms. Jeannie couldn’t think of one that seemed fitting. What could a good name be?
This is where you step in, dear readers, with one of your super sensational suggestions. Deer has fabulous taste and a shining disposition. He’s statuesque in style with a head for poetry and a heart for adventure. Before he met Ms. Jeannie he lived in an attic for so long he forgot his own purpose and turned the color of dust. Now he grazes everyday on the great words of great writers and acts as shepard to a growing flock of books. Now he wants to be called something captivating… something big… something bold. Now he wants a name of literary proportions. Now, now, now he says!
Please help! Contribute a name in the comments section below. The one Deer loves the best will win a prize and a place in his heart forever and ever.
In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat 