Happy Birthday, Bloggy Blog! {and giveaway, of course}

**UPDATE: The giveaway portion of this post is closed, so the comments are closed.  Stay tuned for a winner being announced tomorrow, Sunday, July 11!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Holy Cow, Sluiter Nation is THREE today!  Well, the blog Sluiter Nation, anyway.

When I stop and think about it, I can hardly remember not blogging.  I started this blog on July 7, 2007 after seeing my friend Trisha's blog about her family. Back then hers was on blogger and she had started it to sort of keep people afloat of the goings on of her family.  I thought it was a GREAT idea since almost all of our friends from high school have moved out of state and our extended family is so big it's hard to keep everyone up on all the information without hundreds of phone calls, emails, or visits.  And that just means repeating ourselves a thousand times.

So, Sluiter Nation was born.

My first post was about our trip to Montana.  I had no idea what I was doing. My pictures were all over the place and the writing was blah. I had no idea there was a whole "blogesphere" out there of other women and men who were recording all their thoughts and doings for the internets to see.  In fact, I was pretty sure the internets were not even paying the slightest attention to Sluiter Nation.

It wasn't until this spring, when I got a comment from someone I didn't know, that I realized that the internets might just be checking in on me every now and then.  And I did have some bloggy friends already.  I had never really been one to leave comments, but by this time, I was definitely a regular on a LOT of blogs.

The blog world is where I read symptoms of PPD for the first time and realized I was looking in a mirror.

With the support of Emily (DesignHerMomma), I was able to tell about my PPD.  I knew from the minute I found her blog that we were being thrown back together after all these years for a reason...and it wasn't long before one of those reasons was apparent.  She has been a HUGE supporter of mine.

I have LOTS of bloggy friends now who I feel have helped me be a better (more frequent for sure) writer here in this "little" space.  All of your comments and all of your tweets and all of your blogs inspire me to keep writing here every day.  But really, Missy, you have been my number one fan (at least as evidenced by the sheer number of comments you leave) since the beginning.  You never fail to comment on my posts...I know I will NEVER have a post that says "0 comments" because of you!  You are THE Sluiter Nation groupie and I LOVE it!

This blog has gone from seven followers for about two and a half years to 101 Google Friend Connect followers and 107 Network Blog Followers! Woot to all of YOU!

{Giveaway!!!}

And to THANK YOU for reading faithfully, my wonderful twitter friend, Tricia of g6 scrapped and I are going to give one of YOU something!

Tricia is a graphic designer who creates the COOLEST scrapbook  layouts and card designs ever!  My favorite is the Punk Rock Daddy layout--you know I have a soft spot for all things rock n roll! So what is she so graciously offering to one of you?

• One card design of your choice (It can be birthday cards, thank you cards, invitations, announcements, all-occasion cards, really ANYTHING!) using YOUR pictures!
• 25 cards printed of the design she creates for you.

This is an AMAZING deal!  You KNOW you want to win this!  Seriously?  I WANT TO WIN THIS!  So...how to enter?

MANDATORY: Go to Tricia's blog OR her etsy shop and find what you like best about her work and come back and tell me.

What?  You want to enter more than once?  Ok....
 In order for the following "extra" entries to count, they MUST each be left in individual comments.  It's like putting your name in the raffle more than once that way!

• Follow Tricia's blog via Google Connect and come back here and leave a comment that you did.
• Follow Sluiter Nation via Google Connect and come back here and leave a comment that you are.
• Tweet this:  "GIVEAWAY! card design and print giveaway by @ksluiter and @g6scrapped at http://bit.ly/cWVr4e" and come back here and leave a comment that you did.

That is it!  Four chances to throw your name in the hat for this awesome giveaway!  So what are you waiting for?

Giveaway Terms and Conditions:  Anyone can win this giveaway as long as you have a valid email address for notification of win.  If you leave an anonymous comment or your comment is not a valid entry, I reserve the right to delete your comment/entry.  Please read directions.  Giveaway will run from Wednesday, July 7 until Saturday, July 10 at 6pm est.winner will be announced and contacted on Sunday, July 11.

Disclaimer:  I received warm fuzzies and a new friend by doing this giveaway.  I am so grateful to Tricia for wanting to team up with me on this!  Show her some love!