All you need to do is come up with the wining blend of tea. The contest runs from now until August 16, 2009. You just need to go to the site, look through the hundreds of teas, and create magic.

That’s not so hard is it?

There are some seriously good prizes even if you don’t win the grand prize. Besides they will sell the winning blend in their stores. Now, how many people get to say that they created a tea blend?

We created out own signature tea for the tea room. We went to a local roaster/tea blender and told her basically what we were looking for. She blended and flavored and came up with our Cameo Rose Custom Blend, which we still buy. It is lemon, blackberry and rose in a long leaf jasmine base and it makes the best sweet tea ever.

It was great fun doing that, experimenting with different possibilities and all. And people kind of look at you funny when you say you have your own custom blended tea. That’s fun, too.

So…head over to Teavana, check it out and give it your best shot. And when you win, remember us little people.

image:sxc

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Yeah, me too…Let’s see who our lucky winners are, shall we?

If you have won, please email me at maryeaudetATgmailDOTcom.  Remember to replace the AT and DOT with @ AND .

I will email you as well in the next day or so and you will have three days from the date of my email to claim your prize.  Ready?

The first winner is of the Kusmi Detox tea.  I have tried another of their teas, soon to review, and YUM!  Nice big tea leaves, wonderful mix of herbs and spices.

And the winner is Maggie!

The niext item is the amazing tea box from Teatulia.  Wow…I would have loved to keep my hands on this!  And the winner of this is Kelly Ann T!

Thank you so much for participating!  Keep reading because there are more giveaways in the works.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

Teatulia

Kusmi

image:teatulia tea

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Kusmi Tea sent me two large (and I mean large) tins of tea to review and give away.  The review is still to come but I am giving away the tin of the Detox Tea.

In this day of pollutants, toxins, chemicals, and personal stress detox tea can help keep your system clean and running efficiently.  This means that your metabolism will also be working more efficiently and, hopefully, burning more calories.

The tea is described on site as:

Blend of Maté, chinese Green Tea and lemon grass full flavored with lemon.

Tasting advice: delicious plain or sweetened.

The combination of Maté and green tea virtues — diuretic and stimulating properties, richness in antioxidant — makes Kusmi Detox the perfect companion for slimming and detoxifying diets. Known for its tonic properties, mate does not have the side effects generated by caffeine.

This is a large tin of loose leaf tea.  I have it here at the house so I will send it out within a week of the completion of the contest. This contest is open until 11:59 p.m. Feb 1, 2009

To enter:

Leave a comment for one entry

Blog about the contest and leave a link to you blog post in a separate comment for a second entry

Subscribe to the RSS feed and leave a comment that you have, or if you are all ready a subscriber leaver a comment and let me know.

ships to U.S. only

Image:Kusmi Tea

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Love your coffee? Gotta have your lattes and espressos?  Well then, you might need something like this to make life bearable.

You know you want this.  You know….I want this!

Starbucks online is having a giveaway and you can enter to win this Ascaso Espresso machine.  This machine is touted as being the flagship of the Ascaso line.  It just doesn’t get better than this..and look! It comes in orange! (I am one of those weirdos that loves orange)

You have only until December 31, 2008 to register so you better get over there!

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How cool is this?  How would you like to win it?  Read on to find out how!

It is always great to win a book.  (Link is fixed now)

The Trades is running a contest where you can enter to win an autographed copy of Tea for Ruby, a children’s book, signed by the author, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York!  You had better hurry though.  The last day to enter is November 30, 2008.

Please Note! I am not giving away the book..You will have to follow the link to go to the contest.

Image:Amazon

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If you haven’t read my news over at Baking Delights then I need to tell you…I have been contracted to do a cookbook. Yep..the contract is signed.

And..I admit it..I have wanted to do something to show my appreciation for all of you guys coming by and having a cup of coffee (or tea) with me everyday.

Because…well…my readers are the coolest. Seriously. If this is your first time here read through the comments…. It is like a who’s who of really cool people on the web.

And…It is time for the bloggy giveaways canival!

Anyway..so I have been thinking about the Coffee House Mysteries, and more importantly about the one that is coming out on the 30th of September, a mere five or six weeks away. And Amazon says it can be preordered. HOW COOL IS THAT?

And I decided that not only am I going to buy that book BUT I am going to give away a copy right (not copyright) HERE ..right on this very blog.

So..This is what you have to do….

1. Blog about my give away linking to this post on Kettle and Cup.

2.Snag the tea cup image and slap it on your post . You can use the big one OR the little one! I am flexible.

3. Leave me a link to your blog post and a comment in the comments section of THIS post.

4. If you don’t have a blog…just leave a comment and tell all your friends!

That is it. Sweet and simple.

The cut off date for comments will be next Friday, August 1, 2008 at midnight CST.

Now, the ball is in your court. Are you going to play or just stand there and hold the ball?

Image: Marye Audet

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O.k..so I am rethinking the coffee giveaway..Rather than posting a happy birthday on your blog..just comment happy birthday in the comments. If you would also link to either this post OR that post from your blog I would appreciate it. C’mon guys I want to give away some coffee!

The winner will be chosen by a drawing. If you have all ready done a special post to wish Marc a happy birthday then you are entered 3 times for your hard work! If there are 100 comments then I will give away a pound of Ugly Mug coffee every week in June. AND someone will win a cool mug like mine.

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June 2 is my husband’s 49TH birthday. Yep. I am married to an old guy. An old HOT guy. And as you can see, he likes gifts.

Anyway. We have been married for 28 years and it has been awesome. Not that we didn’t have ups and downs like anyone else but the commitment that he has shown to me, and the kids, has been over and above what anyone can imagine.

He helped me take care of both of my parents before they died. He has encouraged me in everything I have ever tried to do….and if you think Lucy (on I Love Lucy) had hairbrained schemes, you should hang out with me for a few hours.

He does not tease me about my touch sensitivity (there is a long list of things that I cannot touch, like styrofoam..they make me gag)

He encouraged me that I was not a failure when Cameo Rose went under financially.

He always kisses me before he goes to work and when he gets home and he does not raise his voice at me. I was verbally abused as a child and lived with a lot of yelling and I can’t handle yelling at all. I crumble. I am healed…but delicate.

So you get the idea? He is great.

Last June he woke up in incredible pain. He has always had trouble with his knees since boot camp, but this was unmanageable. We rushed him to the VA. After a week in the VA on morphine he came home on multiple pain killers. Since that time he has regularly been in intense pain and they keep giving him more narcotics. The do not know, yet, what is causing it.

Before he got sick he and I spent 2 hours a day at the gym. 1 hour on the elliptical, 1 hour on weights. At 6 ft 6 he weighed 220 lbs-all muscle. He could still run 3 miles in under 10 minutes.

Now, he has lost his job because he is in a wheelchair. He is working minimal hours because full time is too exhausting. He had been in jewelry for 25 years and now is working at Home Depot. Jewelry stores dislike wheelchairs. We are still fighting the VA for disability and are currently dealing with social security.

All the way through this he has had enormous faith and good humor. His trust in God has been unwavering. His commitment to me and the kids drives him on the days even the pain meds don’t work.

He is a veteran that has fallen through the cracks in the system. But we know that God is bigger than the Veteran’s Association. And He is bigger than whatever this malady turns out to be.

But…I mentioned a giveaway.

Marc and both loved the Ugly Mug coffee. And I think you will too. In honor of Marc’s birthday I am going to be giving away a pound of the coffee. Because I am so nice. \

Here is what you have to do: I have just changed the rules…New rules will be bolded.

• Give Marc a blog birthday greeting by posting a happy birthday to him on your blog. It can be long or short. It needs to say Happy 49th Birthday Marc Audet! at the very least and link back to this post. You can use images, cards, or write something more. The more creative you are the better. OR just leave a comment and wish him happy birthday here. Then let the readers on YOUR blog know about the contest…the more the better. Leave me a link to your post.
• Posts will be judged on creativity and content by Marc and I. Winner will be randomly chosen. You get 3 entries if you do a happy birthday special post on your blog, 2 entries if you leave a comment here and link to this post from your blog…and 1 entry for a comment.
• You don’t have much time…The cut off for this is Friday June 6th at 5 p.m. and I will post a winner on the 7th.

The winner can go to the Ugly Mug website, pick a coffee, and let me know what it is..I will buy it and have it shipped with in a week (or so).

I will then pick an entry at random to win a coffee mug like the one they sent me. You will LOVE it.

And…If he gets at least 100 happy birthday greetings I will give away a pound of Ugly Mug coffee per week in June.

SO, to recap…creativity will get you the coffee, but any post about this (with a comment left here) will give you an opportunity for the mug.

Have fun! I know we will…and…shhhhhh…this is a surprise~

This is linked on contest blogger.  

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Besides the pound of my custom roast coffee the winner will recieve:

A LUSH bath product(or products)

Some of my custom Lemon, Rose, Blackberry tea

A Mitford (Jan Karon) book

A copy of Victoria magazine

Chocolate

and some more really cool stuff. You just need to comment on this post or on any of the giveaway posts, and then blog about it linking to Kettle and Cup to be registered.

You really, really, really want to win this one. Promise.

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This week, on friday, I am drawing THREE names. One lb of the coffee, half pound of the Bourbon Pecan Flavored coffee….AND  I am also drawing for a package of my custom blend tea…Lemon, rose, blackberry on a long leaf jasmine base.  We use it for iced tea in the summer but it is excellent hot or cold..and it just smells so good.

Again..all you need to do is blog about the contest, if you haven’t and leave me a link in the comment section! How easy is that?

By the way..tomorrow is the last day to enter for the cookbook giveaway on Baking Delights, so if you haven’t entered for that go check it out.

Good Luck!

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