giveaway winner and last chance to order

by Sharon Santoni

early-morning-in-the-garden-my-french-country-home

So here I am heading home after my week of book tour and speaking engagements…… and   I have to tell you that if you want to know what it feels like to be treated like a princess, then go on a book tour!

I have been bowled over by the kindness and the warm welcome I received in Dallas and in Omaha.
Never has the cultural difference between the States and France been more apparent to me, as the warmth and friendliness of my new american friends made everything so easy.     In particular at Lauritzen Gardens where I spoke yesterday and where I was amazed to watch the army of staff and volunteers come together to organise the Spring Luncheon in an atmosphere that was fun, friendly and super efficient.
While signing books I also enjoyed telling people about My Stylish French Box , and showing  them first hand what the February box looked like, and giving them hints as to the contents of the imminent May box.
And today I am also happy to announce the winner of our giveaway:
Rié Moratto of
Portabello Design
Congratulations Rié, please get in touch by email here, and we will be very happy to send you a complimentary box in early May.
The theme of our May box is roses and gardens, and without wishing to spoil the pleasure for those of you who love to unwrap surprise gifts, I can tell you that the May box will contain our very first item custom-made for the box, and that you will also receive something to make your house smell divine as well as objects that will simply be pretty in your home.
The May box will be prepared and shipped at the end of April and there are still a couple of boxes available, but not many!  As you know, the boxes are limited edition and the May box has almost sold out now.
If you want to put in an order for yourself, for a girlfriend or sister, or if you’d like to sign up for the year ahead, then just pop over to My Stylish French Box and follow the instructions to purchase or subscribe.
I’m on my way home now and eager to see how my garden has changed in just one week, because of course Spring is the time when the garden gets pretty excited and seems to grow each day.
I’ll take a day to turn myself around and by the weekend it will be back to business as usual.
And finally, thank you so much to everyone who reads the blog and who turned up to see me in Dallas and in Omaha.  It was lovely to put faces to names.   I never cease to be amazed at how much the blog has changed and enriched my life.

32 comments

Susan April 6, 2017 - 12:34 am

Love to win the May box!
I’m from Texas and people are just plain friendly here. Friends who have verified that time and time again.

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Kandy Sims April 6, 2017 - 1:38 pm

I would love to win a May box! I’m from Mississippi and have followed your blog for over a year! Would love for you to come sign your book in Jackson, MS at the everyday gardener! Follow us on Instagram!!

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Mark Jones April 7, 2017 - 12:05 am

Bonjour! I am Mark from Pays de Galles. I would love to win your May box to give to my wife Jeanne on our 24th wedding anniversary, May 1st.

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Tiffany Irene April 23, 2017 - 8:50 pm

Greetings from Atlanta Georgia! I would love to have a piece of France by winning your May box! My inlaws are all French and they tell me the beauties of the region and I have yet to make it there. Work, my husband and our my new son have me so tied up, I’m on mommy overload right now…but my plans are to visit soon, but until then winning one of your amazing boxes would help me be there sooner than later! ❤️❤️❤️

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Judy April 6, 2017 - 12:37 am

What a fabulous gift to look forward to…congratulations, Rie! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed your visit to the states, Sharon!! With everything going on here at the moment, it makes my heart happy that your welcome was so warm! Wished I lived close enough to meet you & get my book signed! 🙂 Safe travels and Happy Spring!

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Rié Moratto April 6, 2017 - 1:08 am

Thank you Judy, how kind! I couldn’t be more thrilled. All the best of everything to you and yours! xx Rip

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Vicky from Athens April 6, 2017 - 12:39 am

So glad your tour was a success and that you had a great time in Dallas and Omaha. I knew it would be a wonderful time for you and also everyone who got to meet you!

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Debbie April 6, 2017 - 12:41 am

So sorry to have missed you in Dallas, Sharon. Glad you had a wonderful time in Texas!!!
But I still see the similarities with my cousins down in Languedoc.
Debbie in Austin TX

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Kathy Juracek April 6, 2017 - 12:50 am

Would love love love that beautiful gift!

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Barbara McCormick April 6, 2017 - 12:56 am

Like be your blog! And love the boxes! Glad you had a great visit to the USA!

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Mary Anne April 6, 2017 - 1:07 am

I would love to win the box Sharon and would love for you to come to Canada on a book tour. I have purchased your book as gifts to my two best “sister” girlfriends. We live your blog.

Mary Anne

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Debra Mc Cabe April 6, 2017 - 1:24 am

I hope she comes. I have given her book as gifts to friends as well. Love her book and blog!

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Penny Kweder April 6, 2017 - 1:10 am

Come back to the Bay Area, Sharon! We would love to host you!
Fondly, Penny

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Rié Moratto April 6, 2017 - 1:11 am

Sharon,

Thank your for the May, My Stylish French Box! I couldn’t be more thrilled! Thank you for always being an inspiration! I pray the best of everything to you and your lovely family! Best regards, xxRié

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Debra McCabe April 6, 2017 - 1:19 am

Please come to Toronto. Canada would love to have you!

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Botanic Bleu April 6, 2017 - 2:42 am

Sharon,
Meeting you at your Blue Print store book signing was a highlight of my Spring. Your warm smile and gracious manner puts everyone at ease. I’m sure every person who met you came away feeling the same way as I did; you devoted your time and attention with each and every person making us feel like we have known you for years. All of which is an extension of the grace and beauty of your blog.

Looking forward to all the wonderful things you have planned for your readers in the future…

Judith

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sandi April 6, 2017 - 8:50 am

I am in Vienna, Austria but also have a home in the Austin, TX. area that needs some of your garden influence. I will be starting it soon & love, love, love what you have done w/your home. I hope to “copy” some of your work in my garden! Thank you for the inspiration.

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david terry April 6, 2017 - 12:43 pm

Well, Sharon, congratulations on a successful book tour (did you ever think, even just five years ago, that you’d be going on fun book&speaking tours in the USA?).

As for the gift box? I wonder how you decided on the winner…..you had so many just-really-nice responses. I suppose I would have taken the ten nicest ones (the ones in which someone talked of how she would be giving it to or sharing it with someone else), toss them in the air, and grab the first one that came down.

As for gardens?…..I’m still in appalled shock (and I’m not kidding) concerning mine. This house, and most of the back garden, is 220 years old. A good friend “gave” me, as a present, the services of a woman I’d never met, who apparently is some sort of “professional landscaper.

She’s alright (and there certainly was a lot of weeding, basic clearing that needed to be done in what I refer to as “the back forty” (which would be the perimeter BEHIND the enormous hemlock and holly hedges that line the huge backyard.

She got started, after I walked about with her, pointing out problems, a few days ago. She came back, unannouncedly, two days ago. I spoke with her before going back into the house to work for three hours that afternoon. I came out later to find that manic-her had chopped, butchered, and hacked-off all the bottom limbs of the hemlock-tree hedge (which is about seventy feet long…..hacked them all off up to a height of about five feet. She had chopped enormous holes all through the back holly hedges so that, as she wildly informed me, “Now, you can SEE through it all!!!!!”.

As I stood there, pretty shocked and appalled at the destruction, she grinned wildly and informed me “I don’t like bushes touching each other!” and “I don’t like bushes touching the ground!”.

I thought “This woman is just…….mentally-ill.”

We bought this old place precisely because we fell in love, on the first visit, with the complete privacy, here in the center of the historic district.

That’s all gone now….in a single afternoon when this manic/compulsive woman wasn’t supervised. The worst moment was when I finally spoke and said “What have you DONE???? you can see EVERY other house now..”. She grinned wildly without making eye-contact, and declared “You can plant morning glories!!!”

As you might guess….I’m just shocked, as of now. I hope you don’t find any remotely-similar surprises when you get back to your own home.

Thanks for listening to me vent…..

David Terry (who, with grim irony, is also going to have to pay someone to haul away the three enormous piles of what used to be attached to the lines of old hemlocks and 20′-tall hollies bordering the yard and gardens here).

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Vicky from Athens April 6, 2017 - 2:32 pm

Can you sue this woman for ruining your yard? She butchered history!!! Without permission!! I can’t believe she just did whatever she wanted to do without discussing it with you first!!!

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Sharon Santoni April 6, 2017 - 5:11 pm

so sorry to read this David, I would have been livid!! And once it is done, that’s it, you’ll just have to wait the necessary years for it to grow back!

Always love your comments and your tales, so sorry that your hat did not come up in the random draw, I know how badly you needed that box 🙂

xx

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david terry April 10, 2017 - 9:27 pm

OH…….as for the butchering/hacking maniac? One of the worst parts of this has been trying to tell the friend, who “bought” her supposed services as a gift for me, to keep her the hell off this old property. God knows what she would have done if she got her hands on the dogs.

Amusingly enough?…I’m taking a tip from Vicki Archer (of all utterly not-from-here-in-North-Carolina folks). I’ve seen what she cannily did to surround her pool area in St. Remy (Herve and I visited once, about six years ago)…..and I just ordered six large, deer-stalking-blind camouflage sheets from Walmart (of all classy retail outlets). From a distance?…..you can’t tell that they’re not foliage. They block the suddenly-exposed “view”. They’ll be attached to the 7′ tall deer-fencing that encircles the actual property boundaries.

Presumably, as the hedges grow back and my eyesight fades (I am, after all, 56, at this stage of the game), they’ll do well enough if one doesn’t ever look too closely or go too near. It’s all about 1/2 an acre from the kitchen/dining room windows, after all. Still?…I doubt anyone will ever again (or any time soon) say “Oh…..can we throw our wedding here?”.

In the meantime?…I remain pretty upset over all this business of a woman’s ruining, in three hours, what took at least fifty years to grow.

ugh, but thanks for letting me vent. I particularly resent having to keep my mouth shut about the business in this very small town, since I gather this is how she makes her living and supports her two young daughters.

David Terry

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Taste of France April 6, 2017 - 1:16 pm

I am so glad, but not at all surprised, that you had a warm welcome in Omaha. The Lauritzen Gardens must be bursting at this time of year.

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Beverly April 6, 2017 - 2:01 pm

It was such a pleasure to meet you in Omaha after reading your blog each week. What a lovely, inspirational start to spring!

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JUDITH April 6, 2017 - 2:38 pm

I’m a relative newcomer to your blog and book which I plan to purchase soon! I can’t remember how I found you but likely through another blog. I really wish you had the time to make it to Houston, but hopefully you’ll return! Thanks for the giveaway and congrats to Rie’!

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Joan von Weien April 6, 2017 - 4:21 pm

I have been enjoying your posts for longer than I can guess…loved the book, and re-read chapters, as some ideas catch my eye later than when first read.

I especially like the inclusion of the animals in the way these ladies live…a full life!

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Our French Oasis April 6, 2017 - 8:40 pm

So happy you had such a fabulous time, I know how hard you work and I cannot think of anyone more deserving of the princess treatment! Now you’ll be back to reality, horses, dogs and gardening shoes!!!

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david terry April 10, 2017 - 9:30 pm

Great (and warrantedly insightful?) comment, “our French Oasis”.

I expect that Our Miss Sharon will have her hands full the moment she walks back into her own house…..

Thank you,

David terry

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Daphne April 18, 2017 - 11:12 am

Good morning Sharon, how exciting that your world has changed due to your beautiful blog.
My daughter is English and lives in Chicago with her American husband and I have found the people to be very kind and generous of spirit.
We visited Chicago during Christmas time and friends who live in New York drove 8 hours, with 2 young children, to meet up with us as we hadn’t seen each other for 6 years. When We saw each other it was as if We last saw each other only yesterday. The 6 years apart just disappeared. We had a wonderful time together.
I would love to enter your May competition. Good luck to everyone, because I know the winner is in for a wonderful treat.
With warmest wishes.
Daphne

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Elaine Miles April 18, 2017 - 4:40 pm

Cannot wait to get your new book. Your first book is my favourite coffee table book and I am always looking through for inspiration and re-reading it.

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Mary Stawarz January 12, 2020 - 11:16 pm

Sharon I think it’s a great idea for a giveaway. The golden key is also exciting. Happy your book tour was successful.

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Donna Mitchell Hedges March 19, 2023 - 6:57 pm

Let be to win this lovely spring box for May! Sorry, I tried to enter on Instagram but fifty find the link. In any case, posts are wonderful & going to travel to Paris in July!! Minimoon with my daughter & her soon to be new husband.

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Donna Mitchell Hedges March 19, 2023 - 6:59 pm

Love to win

Tried to enter on Instagram

Autocorrect did weird & not do wonderful editing !!

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