It’s Black Friday and not a minute too soon!  Or wait–is it too soon?

People ask that question every year.  Is Christmas pushing its way into Thanksgiving?  Creeping in on Halloween?  I don’t know about you, but I found it odd to walk the aisles of my nearby Lowes Home Improvement store where ghosts and ghouls littered the one side, while Santa and his reindeer pranced along the other.

Odd.  It was a tangle of confusion, resistance.  I was having a hard enough time as it was dealing with the fact that October was halfway over, let alone I had to start thinking about Christmas!

But what’s a gal to do–other than leave the kids at home when she goes shopping anywhere this time of year?

“Mom, can we get some more candy?”

“Because you didn’t get enough, traipsing through the streets the other night?”

“Can we buy some pumpkin pie?”

“Don’t you think you ate enough over the last three nights?  I know I did!”

“Mom–we NEED that ginormous Santa Claus balloon decoration for the front yard.  Can we get it?”

“Are you kidding me?”

Virginia!  Congratulations on winning my garden-inspired giveaway ~~ the sure-fire way to get you fired-up for the garden season. :)  And thanks to all who entered.  I appreciate you stopping by!  And the grand prize winner…

YJ!!  Woohoo ~~  the eReader and $25 gift card are yours!  And just in time for the summer vacation.  You’ll be kicked back and relaxed as you read from your slim and trim, sleek new tablet.  Ahhh…  Don’t let the waves hit it!

And congratulations to ALL who won across the 70 author sites.  Not only did you gain a bounty of gardening tips, fab new recipes and wonderful new authors, many of you won prizes along the way!  For a full list of winners, head on over to A Cozy Reader’s Corner where Tiffany will post the entire list of prizes and winners.

Thanks again to one and all for making this First Annual Authors in Bloom Spring Blog Hop a HUGE success (yes, you read that right  — there will be more to follow!).  Without energetic readers like you, we authors would be nowhere.  Okay, crazy ones like me would still be writing, forcing their daughter to read, baby, read!  But honestly, without loyal readers? Authors go nowhere fast.  Hopefully you all enjoyed your “hop” and will join us again next year. :)

Can’t wait.  Until then, happy spring and wishing you the discovery of many wonderful new books and new authors.  It’s an addiction, I know.  One I can’t seem to kick!

Welcome to the First Annual Authors in Bloom Spring Blog Hop!  It’s that time of year again when the sun comes back to shine, the birds begin to sing and the flowers burst with the color of life!  It’s a time where we forget about getting more Facebook likes in order to focus on what’s really important. To celebrate this momentous occasion—okay, momentous may be a STRONG word, but not for us gardeners, it isn’t!—some of my author friends and I are sharing our favorite gardening tips and spring fresh recipes.  How great is that?  It’s like a having a gardening encyclopedia and cookbook in one!  LOVE it.  But more than gardening know-how and gourmet delights, you’ll receive over 70 chances to win stuff from this shop!  Woohoo!  I don’t know about you, but I love anything FREE.  So hard to come by these days, isn’t it?  My garden-inspired giveaway for this hop includes a wax melter for your fragrance tarts (a Cilantro Clementine tart included), Vera Bradley napkins and matching pencils, sugar scrub by Deep Steep (grapefruit & bergamot scented ~ mmmm….), custom-seed saving packets, a garden “help” booklet, adorable little “cauliflower” poodle figurine from Enesco and more! ($55 value, plant & plate shown in photo not included) Now to my gardening tip:  If you’re like most gardeners, tomatoes are on your list of must-grow or must-try.  And who can blame you?  Rich, ripe, ruby-red tomatoes are not only delicious fresh, but the key ingredient to the infamous “red sauce” ~ a recipe handed down through Italian generations like Blue Bloods hand down silver spoons and Southern folk’s dish out middle names.  Italian by injection is what I am and red sauce is something I’m working to master. :) So how do you grow these bad boys without spots, blemishes and cracks?  Epsom salts and eggshells.  Yep!  Go ahead and start them from seeds indoors and then, when you transplant them into the ground, add a crushed eggshell and a tablespoon of Epsom salt mixed into the soil around your sproutling.  No more spots!  (a.k.a blossom-end rot.) Got cracks?  (We’ve all got problems, I know.)  Watch that water schedule, because cracks are due to uneven watering–something awfully hard to prevent in Florida.  Just when you have the automatic timer attached to the hose attached to the sprinkler head which is positioned just so all figured out—WHAM! Mother Nature blasts you with a good soaking.  She calls it a sense of humor.  I call it bad timing. But like I said, we’ve all got problems.  And I like to look at my relationship with Mother Nature as a challenge rather than a curse.  Helps me keep the stress levels down, if you know what I mean.  So what do you say?  Aren’t these tomatoes gorgeous?  Willing to give it a try?  For more gardening tips & fresh recipes, visit my garden blog at BloominThyme! (You’ll find the template for my custom seed-saving packets there, too!) Now, for the really important stuff:  to enter my giveaway, you have more than one opportunity.  You can leave a comment here, follow me on Twitter (make sure I know it’s you by giving me a mention along with the Authors in Bloom blog hop, ie. *Authors in Bloom rock!* @DianneVenetta), “like” my author page on facebook and fan me on Goodreads ~ be sure to leave a message regarding the same!  For all you gardeners out there, here are a couple of more ways to enter:  you can subscribe to my garden blog:   BloominThyme and like it’s facebook page.  How’s that for increasing the odds?  Six chances to win PLUS a whole heck of a lot of garden fun! Phew, that’s a lot of entries per person.  Did I mention I like free stuff?  I like giving it away, too. :)   And if you’re a bloomin’ warrior, or if you’ve already done any of the above, please let me know in the comment section of this post and you’ll get credited for the extra entries.  (No penalties allowed here.) So what are you waiting for?  Grab the phrase below and hop on to the next author—you’ll find the entire crew listed in the linky list below.  (You may have to check the blog section of their website.)  Remember:  to be eligible for the grand prize, you must visit each and every site—but you have 10 days to do so! Line 1: Springtime is the season of blossoms. Line 2: Buds burst open, leaves unfurl, Line 3: and young flowers mature into gorgeous blooms. And as a reminder, if you have any questions how this hop works, especially how to win the grand prize, get full details here:  Authors in Bloom Spring Blog Hop.  While you’re here check out my novels!  JENNIFER’S GARDEN recently received 4 1/2 stars from RT Book Reviews…  Available for $2.99 on both your kindle & nook. :)