Challenge and Giveaway: The Morning Routine

Y'all play a little challenge game with me. The last time we did this it was a lot of fun!

I'd like you to tell (and show) us about the first 10 minutes of your day excluding the use of restroom facilities. Successfully rising to the challenge (and therefore being entered into a drawing) means you have done the following:

• Step us through the first 10 minutes of your day (excluding the use of restroom facilities)
  
• Show us some pictures of your coffee center, your closet, your unmade bed. The goal here is to learn something about you.
  
• Post your Rise To My Challenge on your blog by Thursday, Feb 26th at 10PM.
  
• Let me know you have done it by commenting here.

That will get your into the drawing for lovely prizes detailed below. It's a game! Let's play!






The first 10 minutes of my day focuses, mainly, on making coffee and goes something like this.

1. Look at my phone and see what time it is.
2. Decide if I really want to get up or not.
3. Get up.
4. Shuffle to restroom.
5. Put on robe or my favorite big denim shirt and my house shoes.
6. Open Violet's crate door.
7. Listen to Violet making her crazy morning stretchy noises.
8. Watch Daisy trying to get Violet to play with her as soon as crate door is open.
8. Trip over dogs while walking to back door.
9. Open back door and let dogs outside.
10. Walk into kitchen.11. Put water in coffee pot and pour into coffee maker.
12. Put filter and coffee in maker.
13. Pick out my mug for the day.

14. Start coffee to brewing.
15. Put some water in a cup.
16.Take my hormone pill and a Vitamin D.
17. Chew up 2 Flinstones Complete Multi-Vitamins.
18. Either go back to bathroom to dress or sit down with computer. Sitting down with the computer is dangerous. When I do (like right now), it'll likely be much later in the morning before I get dressed. This is a hazard of both having a big bloggie addiction AND working at home.
19. Shuffle back to kitchen.
20. Put creamer in mug.
21. Put Splenda in mug.22. Pour coffee into mug.
23. ahhhh... caffeine.

You know, a central line would be so much more effective.


Here's inside cabinet above the coffee maker. I did some rearranging this week. I fell in love with those mugs and that cream and sugar about 6 weeks ago. I tried, without success, to do without them. I was not able to. On Sunday I went and bought 4 mugs and a salt and pepper. Yesterday, I hunted down the cream and sugar.

But, in accordance with our "downsizing" goals, I can't get new mugs without getting rid of something else. So, my other mugs have been relegated to a box that is labeled "RV". We're gonna be needing stuff in that RV we are purchasing this year...right? So, the mugs I can't stand to get rid of, like the one that Trevor bought me and the one I got in Big Bend; those mugs are going to the RV.

With the exception of the PRIZE MUGS! Whoever wins the drawing will have THEIR CHOICE of either...

This mug and coordinating plate. I painted these babies myself. It is obvious, is it not?



I am not a talented ceramic painter.

When I was on a trip to Taos with a friend (Hi Tamila), we found a ceramics place that had all the green ware cleaned and fired and ready to paint. A person just sits down and paints.

And you come back the next day and they have fired it and it's ready to go.




OR

you can have two mugs from someone that really does know how to paint ceramics. Sherry Smith is an artist from the Hill Country of Texas. She and her husband made their living selling her hand painted dishes and other pottery pieces. Her stuff is super neat.



Also included in your package will be other, currently undetermined things. It'll be a really nice package. I promise. You do want to win. You do want to play. It'll be fun!

When YOU win will you choose this:

or this craziness:

My feeling WILL NOT BE HURT no matter what you choose. In fact, if I were you, I would pick Sherry's stuff. Because, well, just LOOK at the silly, crazy, goofy alternative.