Thursday, April 14, 2011

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

**Please read my comment in the comment section where I try to explain how EVERYONE who commented every day was entered to win, not just previous winners! Thanks!

Happy Birthday to ME! Let's give away some books to celebrate!

Thank you all so very much for participating in the MaNiC MoMMy March Madness Book-A-Day Giveaway! Many thanks to the fabulous authors who contributed their books as well:

Catherine McKenzie * Jenny Nelson * Lissa Rankin * Jess Riley * Michele Scott * Kim Wright * Julie Buxbaum * Jenny Gardiner * Eileen Cook * Trish Ryan * Shawn Klomparens * Shana Mahaffey * Alisa Bowman * Kristina Riggles * Susan Pohlman * Dawn Meehan * Emily Giffin * Maureen Lipinski * Laura Kasischke * Michelle Toth * Annette Fix * Allison Winn Scotch * Juliette Fay * Sarah Pekkanen * Jen Lancaster * Stacy Morrison * Rainbow Rowell * Laura Dave * Laura Munson * Stacey Ballis * Matt Logelin * Bethenny Frankel * Allison Pearson * Julie Metz

And now, here are the two winners who will take home a boatload of awesome books!



Congrats girls! Please drop me an email and we'll figure out just how you two will split the books. You can start by emailing me your list of top ten and we'll go from there!

Thank you all for taking the time to come by, and please continue to do so, even though I know you have a lot of reading to do now! And hopefully some day I'll have a book of my own for you to read too - I'm planning on sending the one I'm working on to my agent next month!

Okay, and PS, what the heck was I doing at the end of that video when I said, "Peace out" ... I just sound lame! And I was THISCLOSE to redoing the WHOLE video over! UGH!

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to the winners - Thanks for doing this contest! Jill Fay

absolutahnie said...

the contest was A LOT of fun, thanks. btw - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your yard! and the video was very cute, too.

Jenn3128 said...

Congratulations Winners!

Where are you, I want to hear some shrieking & squeals of delight in here!

Laura Kay said...

Thanks for putting this together! Loved it!

Big congrats to the winners!!!!

Casey said...

Why can't I see the video on my computer??!?!?!? I'm certain I'm a winner....

Dani In Chicago said...

I guess I misunderstood. I thought that grand prize was open to anyone who entered. Not just the daily winners. Oh, well. Better luck next time! :-)

Melissa Braun said...

I can't see the video from work, but I'm looking forward to checking it out when I get home!

AisforRandom said...

I'm gonna be a poor sport.

Kristi said...

Thanks so much for doing this! I didn't win but I did add on to my neverending list of books to read!

Michelle Mierczewski said...

Peace Out Stephanie!!! LOL

Thanks a million!!!!

Melissa said...

Congrats winners!
I loved your methodology, Stephanie. :)

DaphneSFL said...

This was so much fun and I love the video announcement!!

Sarah S. said...

Congrats to the big winners!!!

Sarah S.

Carly said...

Ahhhhh! I am so happy!
Thank you so much for this contest and opportunity. I had planned on buying a lot of the books anyway and now I don't have to.

Still in shock.

Carly Haynes

Corey~living and loving said...

AWesome! Congrats to the winners. :)

Carie Casey said...

Congrats big winners! This was really fun!

xxxx said...

We have the same laptop!!!!!!

Diva looks so cute!!

I wanna come swim in your pool!!!!

Becki**8 said...

Happy Birthday!!!!!This was indeed such fun.

Grownups don't get many surprises to look forward to!!!!!

Thanks

Michelle Mierczewski said...

Happy Birthday!

Stephanie said...

Hi Everyone! There was some confusion as to how the winners were chosen. I chose from everyone who entered, not just the previous winners. Out of my whole list, I went back to each day and did ANOTHER random.org drawing per that day, so a new name was chosen for each of those days. So basically if you entered every day, you had a chance to be picked again every single day of the month. Then that name that day went into the blue bowl. In fact, some names did go into the blue bowl twice. Does everyone understand how the grand prize winners were chosen?

Siobhan F. said...

Happy Birthday! Thanks again for the great contest and all the wonderful recommendations!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday! Hope it was a great one!! Really enjoyed the contest and although I didn't win, I have a huge list of new books to read. Thanks, Patti

Lisa justus said...

Happy Birthday Stephanie! I had a great time and visiting the blog everyday became part of my day. Congrats winners.
Lisa justus

Karen said...

Congratulations to all the winners...wish I had been one of them, but that's okay! It was enough to be part of the whole experience. Maybe April is my month! Here's hoping! Plus, you've inspired me to do a week long giveaway on my own blog to celebrate its second year of existence Sunday! I'm on Day 6 right now. To say that you put a lot of work in would be an understatement. THANK YOU! :) ktmixon315

Karen said...

It is fine, but I think I misunderstood as well. I thought that all of the people who were here everyday entered the final drawing...not just a sample each day. It is no big deal, though! :)

buttah said...

Congrats to you lucky winners!! Thanks again for this really fun contest!

Wanda Z said...

Thanks for putting on this contest. Enjoyed reading your comments as well as discovering a whole bunch of books I didn't know about before. Congrats to the winners!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for doing this! What a great reading list I have now.

Although, per your first post when you explained the rules, anyone who posted any day was supposed to be entered in the final drawing; not just those who entered every day. Totally bummed when I saw that you changed it at the end.

JillMitch

Christine in NJ said...

Love Love LOVE the video! You are the best! Thank you again for all the great book recommendations and making March fun!...

Peace Out!
Christine

Lindsay Elizabeth said...

Thanks for putting this together! Loved your backyard its beautiful!

Thanks again for adding so many books to my "to read" list!

MaNiC MoMMy™ said...

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry that the way the winners were chosen is still not clear to everyone, but everyone was entered to win, let me try to explain it again! Let's say Jane Doe commented on Good Enough to Eat and The Opposite of Me and Perfection. Her name was on all three of those lists on my excel document. When I went in to that document and did the random.org drawing that day, her name may have popped up two of the three times she entered and so that means her name went into the bowl twice. If Susie B. commented on Georgia's Kitchen, Arranged, After You and Love in Mid Air, then her name was on all four of those lists, and when I did the random.org drawing to find the grand prize winners, her name could have popped up four times and her name might have been put into the blue bowl four times. So what I did was really instead of having to cut up more than probably 2,000 little pieces of paper, is I sectioned off each book, chose one main winner from that set of comments, making sure that there was one winner represented from that set of commenters. So that if you did comment on every single book, your name had a shot of getting into that bowl every single day. Do you all understand this better when I try to explain it this way? I don't want anyone upset. If anyone else out there can explain it more clear, please do! THanks!

Lisa justus said...

The way that I understand it is everyone who entered everyday had equal chances of winning the grand prize. Some lucky ones ended up having more than one chance in the final set of names you drew from because the first drawing (from each book posting) ended with some being picked again. It's random, and something my Mom said when we were kids and lost at a game comes to mind. She said "well you just weren't holding your mouth right that time. Maybe next time." Well needless to say it was funny because we started making faces at each other during games (taking her literally). Should have made a face as I
replied =)

Chelsea Hoffman said...

The way I read the first post came across as if I commented everyday, I'd have 31 chances to win in the final drawing. And the way you did it means I had 31 chances to be picked to be put into the final drawing. I don't think it was very fair; however, I won't fret because I didn't win anyway and the drawing is over. I am thankful for this opportunity because I now have some insight into some great books to read this summer while I bake myself outside :)

Dawn from CA said...

I can't believe anyone is complaining about the "fairness" of your contest. I am blown away at your generosity and the time (and expense)it must have taken to write a post every day, do the drawings, and mail packages to the daily winners. Holy cow, people...you didn't buy a raffle ticket-this was FREE! Steph, I think you did an excellent job and I loved learning about all of the books and getting to read everyone's comments. So fun! Hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Stephanie said...

Hey Dawn, thanks for this. But I didn't mail out EVERY book, just some of them. I am just kind of upset that some people still don't understand that everyone was entered every single time, and I keep trying to explain how it worked. I even asked my husband this morning if he understood that I did it correctly, and he got it. So let's take this scenario, if there are any of you out there still questioning it. Let's say 100 of you commented daily on 30 books. That means there were a total of 3,000 entries. All 3,000 of you were entered for the big prize, but instead of puttin 3,000 tickets into the bowl, I separated it out so I didn't have to deal with 3,000 pieces of paper. Out of the first 100 entries from the first book, I chose one of you. So you were still essentially "in the drawing" I just divided it up. And some of you were in the bowl more than once. In fact, Michelle Jagow, who did win the contest, had her name chosen twice to go into the bowl. I don't know how I can more clearly explain it to anyone who is confused. Am sorry if anyone is upset, but I'm not going to try to explain anymore. : ) It's giving me a headache!

The Jagow Family said...

Let's start off with this....I am so incredibly shocked and excited that I won!

I do want to say that when I originally viewed the Grand Prize blog post I was at work and can't view video's at work....I didn't even know then that I had won, I was just excited for the people that did win and I honestly forgot about checking the blog at home until Friday evening....boy, was I surprised!

And even though I won, even if I hadn't, I get how you did the drawing and it makes complete sense (I was a little confused at first....but I get it now). I really didn't think I would win, I was just happy with the big list of books that I can't wait to read, that alone made me feel like a winner.

Heck some of the people that won the book a day didn't even come back to claim their book (what's up with that?)

Anyway, thanks so much for doing this give-away Steph! I've been following your blog for a couple of years now and I've always enjoyed your posts (personal ones and book reviews). You keep me coming back for more....now I'm just waiting for YOUR book! ;)

Still shocked and very thankful!
michelle