A pretty peacock hair clip and the winner of my contest

A girl friend of mine gave me this pretty peacock hair clip for Christmas. The best part about it – she made it! There’s a serious resurgence of DIY Christmas gifts this year, and I love it! I didn’t think the hair clip was really my style, but I wore it to dress up a black skirt and grey sparkle cardigan for two Christmas parties I had last Thursday, and I received no less than 10 compliments on it from friends and strangers. Best part about the compliments is I got to respond with, “Thanks! My friend made it!”

Second best part? It matches my blog. I love peacock feathers!

P.S. I finally used Random.org to pull a winner of my 12 Goodnesses Wrapped in a Party giveaway for a lifetime supply of Lean Pockets, and the winner was Kelly Clay! Kelly is a cute, bubbly, smart cookie I know through the social media scene in Seattle. Congrats Kelly! Thanks to all of you who played along.

Currently Feeling: Slow pokey today. It’s amazing how much food affects your mood – I ate a HUGE sandwich on French bread for lunch from my favorite East Coast deli, and I’ve been tired ever since. Ewww white carbs.
Currently Anticipating: Seeing one of my best guy friends who’s in town this week from L.A. I love Christmastime when all my friends come home from out of state!
Currently Reading: The Missing by Tim Gautreaux.

Here is where I serenade you and offer up a BIG giveaway

Last week, I was given the opportunity to host a Wrapped in Goodness party courtesy of Lean Pockets, which means I was sent a HUGE ass box stocked with Snuggies for my guests, a questions party game, coupons for free boxes of Lean Pockets’ new Culinary Creations, and $100 for additional food and wine. (That was my disclosure part). What ensued was 12 goodnesses wrapped in a party… And yes, I did really make all my guests pose with their chosen number of snacks while I sang probably the crappiest version ever of The 12 Days of Christmas, using a YouTube karaoke video. Oh the laughter! Sometimes I wonder if my life is real.

What I’m giving YOU, lovely friends and readers for suffering through my high pitched craziness is a chance to win an entire YEAR’S supply (183 coupons) of Lean Pockets. Heyo! All you have to do is leave a comment here telling me your favorite Christmas song (Here’s hoping it’s my awesome rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas). For an extra entry, you can head over to the LP Facebook page and like it, and let me know here. AND, if you Tweet about it, tag me @jeannabarrett and use the hashtag #goodnessparty & #giveaway, and I’ll throw an extra entry in there. I’ll choose the winners at random by Friday at 5 p.m. and announce by Monday! Good luck!

Currently Feeling: Tired from staying up till 2:30am to knock out that video. Once I get my mind on something, I can’t stop.
Currently Anticipating: Girl Power Hour’s Cocktail Holiday party on Thursday!
Currently Loving: That I can wear yoga clothes to work every day. Love my job.

And the lucky jam-lover is…

… Whit from Whit’s Getting Fit!

I plugged all TWELVE of you (must be some people scared to receive homemade items over the Internet. Can’t imagine why. Ha) from my mini giveaway for a jar of Easy Peasy 10-Step Blackberry Jam into Random.org and here was the result:

(The first of 12 comments). I think this is only fitting because Whit has a foodie type blog about eating healthy and working out, so the au naturel blackberry jam should fit well into her repertoire. (Plus, I love her).

Congrats Whit! Send me an e-mail with your address, and I’ll ship the blackberry jam off to you this week!
Currently Feeling: Stressed about all the stuff I need to check off my to-do list this week.
Currently Anticipating: Suite tickets for the Mariner’s game tonight and getting my hair did (for free) tomorrow because Bestie Amanda needs a hair model.
Currently Loving: The pedometer watch I bought today. It counts calories, tracks your heart rate and body fat, and counts your steps! Skinny minnie, here I come!

Easy peasy au naturel, 10-step blackberry jam

Since being unemployed, I’ve felt like I’ve had more time to feed my creative sole. More time to read, more time to design, more time to write (even if you don’t see me more here – I have 1,000 other projects going on), more time to say, “Hey, I’ve always wanted to do that… ” And then I DO IT. Go figure.

In the last couple weeks, I’ve noticed blackberries blooming into big, fat, weighted, sweet gloriousness on the various paths I take while walking, biking or running through my environment. Then I walked into Metropolitan Market last week and saw a table set-up, advertising the products they carry to make jams and jellies. Ding, ding, ding! Light bulb. (They see girls like me coming a mile away.) I decided I really wanted to make blackberry jam from scratch. And oh hey, look! I have a TON of time on my hands without that eight hours a day, oh you know, spent in the black hole of a cubicle office.

So, I bought the ingredients last weekend, and I Martha Stewart geeked out into the best case version of a housewife that I know. (A swearing, drinking, sassing Martha Stewart, which is much more fun because we’re better in bed, if you ask me). Of course, this led to me purchasing my ingredients at Metro Market. This was a stupid idea, in hindsight, that the BF was so kind to point out, because I am UNEMPLOYED and something tells me that I might have been able to find cheaper jam ingredients such as empty jars other than a place that caters to those who actually make money and can afford $4 cans of yams.

What concluded, after I obsessively read what I believe is every blackberry jam recipe and canning instructions available on the Worldwide Web, was a night of whipping up some pretty damn fantastic au naturel blackberry jam. Even if it meant I had to drag myself out to pick more blackberries in the dark at NINE P.M. cause I didn’t have enough. Here is my Martha Stewart geekiness and easy peasy instructions for you in pictures:

What You’ll Need – in layman’s terms:
Canning jars with lids
Pectin (No Sugar Needed Pectin for a sugar-free or au naturel jam)
Blackberries (Or other fruit that sounds yummy)
Splenda, honey or other sweetener of choice
No sugar added apple or white grape juice
A very, very large pot
A large saucepan
A potato masher, or big metal thingamajig
Tongs
A couple clean towels

1. Find blackberries and pick em. Just don’t tell PETB (People for the Ethical Treatment of Blackberries). If you’re really smart, you’ll enlist a boyfriend or friend to help you out since this is the most strenuous part of the adventure, and having thorn-poked fingers and brier-scratched arms sucks.

2. Pick somewhere around 8 cups (to make four 8 oz jars). If you pick only four ounces, you’ll have to go back outside in the DARK to pick BLACKberries. This is very difficult. You’ve been warned.

3. Put your jars and lids in the pot, fill it with water and heat the water on medium-high heat, but make sure it doesn’t boil. This heats the jars so they don’t crack when the hot jam is poured in.

4. In the large saucepan, mash the berries with a potato masher, or something that can equivalently mash such as the metal thingamajig I used, one layer at a time. Don’t puree them in a food processor!

5. Once all the berries are mashed, add a cup of no-sugar-added apple or white grape juice and one package of no-sugar-needed Pectin. This is for the sugar-free or au naturel jam. If you want to make jam with seven cups of sugar, you can purchase the regular box of pectin. Boil the berries and pectin/apple juice mixture until it rapidly boils and cannot be stirred down.

6. Next add the sweetener of your choice – or none, if you like. You can use Splenda, another artificial sweetener or honey, which is what I chose. If you’d like to use honey too, add one cup. Bring this mixture to another rapid boil, for three minutes, stirring constantly. While this is boiling, or earlier if you can fit it in, pull the jars and lids out of the hot water with tongs and place them on a clean, dry towel.

7. Skim the foam off the top of the heated jam, then ladle or pour, using a funnel, the jam into each individual, warmed jars. Wipe the edges and rims of the jar with a clean, damp towel. Screw the lids on tightly.

8. Using the tongs, carefully place the jars back into the very, very large pot of hot water. Make sure there is one to two inches above the tops of the jars, and bring the water to a boil with the lid on. Let it boil for 10 minutes (or the correct time for your altitude, according to the instructions in the pectin box). What you’re during right now is sealing and preserving the jam, so you can store it, and it won’t go bad.

9. While this is boiling, pour any leftover blackberry jam mixture over vanilla ice cream IMMEDIATELY. Eat it like a fat kid eats cake.

10. After 10 minutes, carefully take the jars out with tongs and set them on a clean towel. Don’t shake them, so the pectin in the jam can set. Let them cool on the counter for 12 to 24 hours. If the lid doesn’t pop up and down after this, each jar is properly sealed and preserved. Decorate them with ribbons and a label if you’re a SUPER dork like me.

TA DA! Easy peasy au naturel blackberry jam in only 10 steps. Isn’t it fabulous to have a jam that is made of only blackberries, apple juice and honey?! The stuff in the grocery store is so full of sugar and additives… I’m now inspired to try to make all types of jam from scratch – it was that easy!

So, if you made it though that entire, ridiculously long post on how to make blackberry jam, I will reward you… I’m giving away one little jar of my beautiful culinary masterpiece that I’m quite proud of. THAT’S how much I love you! All you have to do is leave one little comment, telling me you’re absolute favorite type of jelly, jam or toast topping. (Peanut butter, honey and cinnamon sugar is accepted as well). Make sure your profile links to a place that I can find your e-mail… I’ll choose the winner of the jar of au naturel blackberry jam on Friday. Good luck!

Currently Feeling: Overworked and underpaid – I’m volunteering so much, it’s taking up all my time! But it feels really great to be involved.
Currently Anticipating: Having a free day tomorrow.
Currently Loving: The both Top Chef and Project Runway have started! TV swooon!

I WON!!!

Well this day just keeps getting better and better…

Not only did I find and buy the Holy Grail of bikes, but I was just informed that I won the contest over at Apricot Tea.! (For the letter I wrote to my younger self). How neat. I haven’t won something in a very long time – and it feels really humbling and warm & fuzzy to have something I wrote recognized.

Not to mention, I was desperate to win the book, Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design because I LOVED EvYan’s (BTW, how pretty is that name?!) explanation of it:

Style Statement helps you define who you really are, in every aspect of your life: in your relationships, in your style choices, in the music you listen to, in your favorites & dislikes, etc. This book helped me tremendously when I was on the journey of discovering my true-self. I hold onto my style statement (genuine eloquence) with absolute pride.

I’m super excited to figure out what my style statement is! And, of course, I will report back here to all of you!

xoxo

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And the winners are…

All right – the contest for one of five copies of Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman’s Quest for an Orgasm is closed, and I’ve picked the winners!

In case you’re wondering how the process worked, I numbered the list of comments, adding a comment for those who were so kind to Tweet about my contest (an entry for each Tweet you made) and subtracted the comments I made in response. This was so each numbered comment would correspond with a person who entered. I then used Random.org to generate four random numbers (the first copy of the book went to Katie from Don’t Call Me Kathleen for being the first person to comment). The numbers that were generated corresponded with comments from the following people:

2. Novelwhore (Her odds were up there – she had five entries because she Tweeted about my contest every day.)
3. Nicole Antoinette from More Is Better (More ORGASMS are better! Fitting she won since she was the first person to actually respond with how many people she slept with.)
4. Single Twenty Something (Send me your address!)
5. Megan from Somewhat Voluble (Also fitting – she won this book on her blogoversary.)

I will be contacting each of you separately – except, Single Twenty Something, you’ll have to send me your address or contact info because your blogger profile says it’s private. I will try to send out the books this weekend. Thanks to all of you who entered. Honestly, I wish I had a copy for each and every one of you! I recommend picking up the book even if you didn’t win! (And those friends of mine who are located in Seattle and didn’t win, you know you have a private, reserved copy at my house).

Happy Friday!

Currently Feeling: Disappointed the weather is so gorgeous and I can’t do much.
Currently Anticipating: Possible first Mariners game of the season tomorrow. I hope my back magically feels better when I wake up!
Currently Loving: My new roommate and my new apartment!

Psst…this post is about S-E-X, oh, and a pretty sweet giveaway

A few weeks ago, I was approached by HarperCollins to do a book review of Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman’s Quest for an Orgasm by Mara Altman. My immediate reaction was, um, YES because a) I’m obsessed with memoirs and b) who doesn’t love to read/write/talk about or have sex? Not this girl!

My lovely review copy came just in time for me to pack it with me on the plane to Mexico. I started it right away while lying poolside on day one, and HELLO, I couldn’t put it down! I kinda wanted my BF to go off on solo snorkeling trips all the time, just so I could be left alone with the book. Now, if you know me, you know that I read a lot of books and a review like that should come highly coveted. [I'm not just giving a rave review for shits and giggles or suck-up points.]

At age 26 Altman realizes that she’s never had an orgasm and goes on an emotional, physical and sometimes spiritual quest for one. Immediately you’ll probably have the reaction that my boyfriend did when I told him about the book, “Not even with a vibrator?”

No. Not even that. And for the first 100 pages I was like, “Girl! Just go out and buy a freakin vibrator!” as she carefully, with the detail of a true journalist, logs all of her past sexual relationships, growing up with a sexually open “naked family,” and her emotional attachments, or nonattachments, that have prevented her from orgasming. Pretty soon, everyone in her story was telling her to just.go.out, and buy a VIBRATOR too, but for Altman, it was more of a personal journey and exploration. Altman’s quest turned from simply searching for orgasm, to searching for the sexual being in her that would let go of all inhibitions, insecurities and just LOVE being a woman, even with all the grody details that womanhood sometimes entails.

Altman is insightful, witty (even the mere chapter titles crack me up) and delightfully honest. And what keeps the book rolling, page after page, is her secret door into the crazy underworld of sex. I don’t even know where she obtained half the contacts she did, but as she searches for her orgasmic self and the MEANING OF ORGASM, she spends time with sex workers and scientists, goes to sex shows and conventions, takes off on trips with a sex colony, interviews women that have been deemed the original, ALL-KNOWING sources of the female orgasm, and regularly experiments with her “sacred whore.”

You’ll want to read this book, if for nothing else than to kick up your sex vibe a bit – if you read about sex, you’re thinking about sex, and it pretty much makes you want to have sex all the time. I think I wanted to have sex 462 times a day while I read this book. That might be TMI, but nothing like the TMI you’ll read in Thanks for Coming…

So, the book went on sale today, but I have five lovely copies to give away to you, blog readers! Isn’t that exciting? All you have to do is enter the contest by telling me in the comments how many people you’ve slept with!

Joke.

Just leave any comment, no special response necessary, and you’ll be entered. If your comment doesn’t link to a site, be sure to leave your email or send it to me privately at whatjesaid@gmail.com. If you have a Twitter account, and Tweet about the contest, I’ll give you a double entry. The giveaway closes on Friday, and I will choose five winners at random and mail out your copy of the book this weekend!

(P.S. The first person to leave a comment automatically wins a book just because your Twitter or RSS skills rock).

Currently Feeling: Groggy. I couldn’t stop watching Trading Spouses last night. Those people are craaazy!
Currently Anticipating: Checking out some more sweet condos/apartments tonight. I’m anxious to make a decision this week!
Currently Needing: To get back into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I opted for lighter reading during vacation, and now I’m not into it.