We have a winner

Getting up close and personal with a tuba after our recent visit to an MSO performance

I had a giveaway on Segovia the other day.
The winner of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Classic Kids Sing tickets for a family of 4 is......

High Country Gourmet

I have sent you an email and look forward to arranging your tickets.
Thank you to those who entered.
Happy Wednesday one and all.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Giveaway - You know you want to SING!

We love a bit of a sing at our place.
There is singing along with Play School and with Giggle and Hoot.
We always sing the Goodnight Song with the boys. It's part of the night time ritual.
There is some singing in the shower and sometimes in the car.
Singing gets us to our happy place, usually a little more quickly than a chat.
The boys singing and music tastes are broadening as they get older.
And I admit to being more than a little chuffed when I went to kiss the Batsman goodnight in his bed the other night. He had fallen asleep, but not before he had begun playing the Black Eyed Peas in his bedside CD player.

Do you like to sing at your house?

If you do, and you are based in Melbourne, then this giveaway is for you.

I have a family pass for 2 adults and 2 children to attend the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Classic Kids program, SING! I have been to a couple of the MSO performances for kids and they really are a fabulous way to make music part of your children's lives.

Date: December 1
Venue: Iwaki Auditorium at the ABC Southbank Centre in Melbourne.
Time: your choice of 10am, 11:30am or 1:30pm sessions.

More details about SING!:
"One of Australia’s pre-eminent conductors and a passionate advocate of the importance of singing in a child’s life, Richard Gill, and singers from Victorian Opera, will join forces with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to lead a stimulating musical program for children which will explore the joy of singing and inspire aural imagination through song. "

If you would like to win and go have a SING!, all you have to do is:

1. You must be in Melbourne!
2. Leave a comment below telling me what you sing at your house. 
3. Follow Segovia - here or on Facebook
4. Ensure that you are contactable by leaving an email address with your comment or via your profile.

The giveaway is open until midnight on Monday November 12, 2012.
The winner will be drawn randomly. Prize value is $50.

Hallmark winners

Thank you all for entering the giveaway. The winners (drawn randomly) are Kate and Ellie.

Congratulations! I will be in touch to get a postal address so your prize can be mailed your way!

Smiles all round and a Hallmark giveaway you WILL want to win

Of late, I have browsed in our local news agency and thought that greeting cards are a little bit expensive. You know, for a bit of cardboard with a picture on it. To save our coins, we have done a bit of card making over here in the past - kids drawings, my appalling scissor skills and some glitter. You know the drill. And they always look....ok. Thrifty and ok.

No candles were harmed in the production of this Hallmark card

But sometimes when you send a card or give a card with a gift you just need something a little bit more special. A "wowee buckle tee" factor if you like. When the nice folk at Hallmark sent me some of their new "interactive" cards, I learnt all I really needed to know about them in the two minutes after they arrived in my letterbox.

When we opened the envelope and looked through the cards, my 5 year old Batsman simply could not contain his giggles at the dancing Carmen Miranda on one card, the Crocodile Rock music played on another and most of all the card with the "push button" dancing mustache. The Hallmark interactive cards light up, jiggle, giggle, pop up enormously and dance. And they made my boy smile and giggle. So knowing that we had smiles all round, I can only imagine what it will be like to be a recipient of one by post.

Yes, the mustache dances

And, just to increase the level of smiles around here, Hallmark have provided very generous giveaway packs for 2 lucky Segovia readers. Each prize pack includes a selection of cards from the interactive range, the licensed Disney range, the polka-dots range, and classic range, as well as a double forever friends CD featuring tracks from The Script, Michael Buble, Delta Goodrem and many others, AND a Hallmark recordable storybook. The pack is valued at over $115, and is basically a years worth of cards. Um, wow. It's a great prize and think of the time and money you will save on not buying glitter to make your own.

So here is what you need to do to win:

1. Leave a comment below telling me something good about your day. Share the happy.
2. Follow Segovia - here or on FB
3. Ensure that you are contactable by leaving an email address with your comment or via your profile.

The giveaway is open until midnight on July 9, 2012. There are two prize packs, each valued at $115. Winners drawn randomly.

Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions. I received a selection of Hallmark interactive cards to enable me to review them. You lucky people get the opportunity to win the two big prizes.

Me and my mop, we're breaking up (and a giveaway)

We were once so close, you and I.
Not so long ago, together, we loved to make those floorboards sparkle.
The winter sun would shine through the windows and not a speck of dust could be seen.
It was a magical time.
In my naivete, I thought it would never end.
I was wrong.

You and I, we made music together.
Swish, swish, swish.
If I listen in my mind, I can almost still hear it.
But that music rings a little hollow now.
The spark has gone.
I guess all good things change. Don't they?

It's so very different now, between you and I.
Since the kids came along.
The closeness we once shared has slipped away.
I find myself looking for time to be with you.
I so desperately want that sparkle, that shine.
But I have had to let it go, at least for a while.
There are other priorities in life.
The sand on the floor, the squashed sultanas, the spilled juice.
Those things don't really matter as much to me now.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that for now I have to accept we will be spending less time together.
Please understand, it's not you, it's me.
Our time will come again one day.
But for now I think we're (kind of) breaking up.
There are children who want to play with their mummy.

What is your relationship with housework? Have you broken up with your brushes? Or are you still madly in love? Love? Hate?

I received this very cute "Break up Kit" from Sabco today. It's full of no less than 9 (mostly lime green) coloured cleaning brushes and gadgets. There may have been chocolate in the kit too but.....whoops, I ate that. Being bright green, the kids were quite keen on checking out the various brushes. Little do they know, that interest may just get them a little scrubbing job helping Mummy tomorrow. *Cue evil laughter.*

Like to win one? 

• Visit Sabco Australia on Facebook here and "like" them
• Leave a comment on Sabco's Facebook wall which answers one of the questions above about your relationship with housework. 
• There are 10 "Break Up Kits" to be won.

See? Simple.

Winners will be chosen by Sabco on Friday November 27 based on creativity and interest.

Heart image We Heart It

Bread-winners

Thanks for entering to win a voucher to try out the Bakers Delight Authentic Sourdough. Yum yum.

The five winners are:
Lucy from Diminishing Lucy
Claire from Clairey Hewitt
Trish from My Little Drummer Boys
Sophie
Hope's Mama from Tuesday's Hope

I will be in touch to get your address and a Bakers Delight voucher will be winging its way to you very soon.

You can never have too many baked goods

I haven't done anything particularly commercial here on Segovia. It's not that I don't want to. I have just been focusing my energy on establishing things around here.

I believe ferociously vehemently strongly with all my heart that you can never have too many baked goods in your house at any one time. So when Bakers Delight contacted me and asked if I would like to try their Authentic Sourdough, I just knew I had to say yes.

The day the sourdough arrived at our house was a hectic one. Most days around here are like that. On our really busy days, I often keep the Batsman and Bowler's dinner really, really simple. By the end of the day they are usually only interested in eating simple meals. Minimum effort, maximum taste. So in the interests of keeping things simple, I soft boiled some lovely free range eggs, sliced some gorgeous salami I bought at the farmer's market, pitted some kalamata olives and chopped the sourdough into dippable size pieces.

The sourdough was lovely. It was crusty on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Some sourdough breads can be so strong in taste that they don't appeal to kids. Not this one. The Bowler is into foods he can dip at present so he loved dipping the bread into the egg. The Batsman made little stacks of bread, salami and olives. Sometimes the most simple meals can be really successful.

Would you like to try Bakers Delight Authentic Sourdough at your place? I have five $5 vouchers to give away so that you can go and get some. Remember, you can never have too many baked goods.

The Fine Print:
You must be a follower of this blog to enter.
Leave a comment by 5pm Sunday June 19 and tell me your favourite simple meal.
One comment = one entry.
I have no idea how to use those random things so the Batsman will be drawing lucky winner names out of a hat!
Please leave an email address so I can find you. Email it to me or update your google profile, or your twitter account so I can find you. Or otherwise like my Facebook page so I can contact you that way if you are a winner.
Ready. Set. GO!