{Worldwide FABRIC GIVEAWAY}

For all loyal readers in 184 countries, as a Thank You, I offer here another Worldwide GIVEAWAY. This time I got some French print burlap style fabric for you. One yard (or 91.44 cm) of this 88% cotton 12% rayon fabric from Ballard Design. It is 55 inch wide or  139.7 cm and enough for a pillow or whatever you want to use it for. That's up to the happy winner.

French Document style being printed all over. A very nice burlap look and feel.

How to enter:

* Make sure you follow me and leave a comment.

(Those that currently follow; please leave a comment that you are already following.)

* To double your chances, put the 250 pixel wide GIVEAWAY BUTTON below, as a picture in your sidebar as well and leave a comment telling me you did so. 

* Another chance, put the 500 pixel wide GIVEAWAY BUTTON below, as a picture in your blog and post about it. When posting about it, please do put a hyperlink of this very post: Click on the blog subject line and copy that link for putting it into your blog. But let me know about it in your comment so I can verify if it indeed is a working link.

* Another chance you get if you start following me on Twitter AngelsnRosebuds; let me know you did  so and give me your Twitter name in the comment section.

* Another chance if you Tweet about this giveaway and letting me know. This is also valid for those that follow me already on Twitter.

* One more chance you get if you clik the Like button on my Facebook Page Mariette's Back to Basics LLC; again let me know if you did so! Posting about my giveaway on FB, counts as another chance, this also counts for those that already Like my FB Page.

* Additional chance for those of you that use Google+ just add me to your Circles. You find my Google+ link below this post. If you mention this giveaway on Google+ that's another chance!

Good luck. Giveaway ends by midnight on November 16.

<center> <a href="http://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2012/11/worldwide-fabric-giveaway.html"><img border="0" src="http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae37/MariettesBacktoBasics/FabricGiveawayMariettesBacktoBasics500pixel.jpg"/></a></center> 500 PIXEL BUTTON TO TAKE  FROM MY BLOG TO YOURS (CLICK ON ▼ AND SCROLL DOWN; COPY ENTIRE TEXT, THAN CLICK ON HTML, PASTE IT AND BACK TO COMPOSE!) 

<center> <a href="http://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2012/11/worldwide-fabric-giveaway.html"><img border="0" src="http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae37/MariettesBacktoBasics/FabricGiveawayMariettesBacktoBasics250pixel.jpg"/></a></center> 250 PIXEL BUTTON TO TAKE FROM MY BLOG TO YOURS FOR ON SIDE BAR: CLICK ON ▼ AND SCROLL DOWN FOR COPYING ENTIRE TEXT. CLICK ON DESIGN; ADD A GADGET AND PASTE INTO HTML/JavaScript Related links: Giveaway hos Mariette | ASTRIDS HANDARBETEN blog Rainy Day | Tammy@ T's Daily Treasures blog

{Did YOU Ever Touch Baby Elephants?}

On August 7 of 2010, I did post a comment on Beate's blog in reply to her question: 'Are Elephant babies hard and rough to the touch?'

They are surprisingly fuzzy and soft! Very cute, smart and mischievous creatures:

Loved those fuzzy babies!

Travel back with me to March 11 of 1990. We were working as consultants for Pond's India and on Sunday we left the hotel very early at 6:30 AM, together with a staff member from Pond's, Sarath Chandra and his lovely wife Sudha. Wish I could get back in touch with them again... Her mother lived in Hyderabad, that's all I know as they moved away from the Ooty area in the South of India.

On this map, you will find Ooty towards the bottom (to the right of NH 67!). That's where we stayed, an old British Hill Station high in the mountains.You can find out more by clicking on the hyperlink.

The Doddabetta is Ooty's highest peak at 2,623 meters, one of the highest in South India and a famous tourist place.

We drove through the Mukurthi National Park to spot the Asian elephant and other wild life as we went on our way to Mysore, you can see that city straight above Ooty on the map, as we were making our way through two more National Parks.

Here we stop alongside the road that led through the Sanctuary. Just a tea break + snack... with sweet Sudha and her husband Sarath Chandra.

If anyone knows where they are now: PLEASE get in touch with me!

Sarath Chandra, Sudha his wife, husband Pieter and me...

Our excellent driver and tour guide!

We are good to go after this tea break.

The mountains in the back are in a mist...

Looking down from that bridge, we could see the elephant droppings, lower left corner alongside the dried up stream. It was a very dry season and that meant those elephant bulls would be dangerous due to the lack of water... 

We got lucky! Alongside a hill we spotted soon some bison and elephants! Just look for the elephants above the letters Ele... This is zoomed in from quite a height. Very exciting to see and hear them.

A wild peacock crossed our path...

Here a Muntjac deer or Barking deer looking at us...

Oh and here we have the baby elephants!

Demonstration how those soft and fuzzy babies pick up money with their trunk.

One man didn't give any fee and the baby-elephant grinned with a twinkle in its mischievous eyes.
It gave some change of its own, by squirting mud from his/her trunk - soiling the man...
I swear that it laughed for doing this; they are very intelligent!

Fuzzy and frolicking baby-elephants... so cute!

Now they get their reward; a nice bath. 

Baby-Elephant SPA...

Will show you another time about Maharaja's Palace in Mysore!

{184 Countries Visited and Info about Google+ Custom URL}

Wow, on Halloween I had Country 184 visiting. A Big Welcome to the Aland Islands! I also would like to share some Google+ data with you and how to create your own Google+ Custom URL.

October 31, Aland Islands visited. 

Any guess where that is? 

In the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Finland and the language spoken is Swedish.

Today I did check my Google Analytics and found an interesting surprise that I want to show you.

Both, my Zen Cart powered on line boutique: Mariette's Back to Basics and my Mariette's Back to Basics.blogspot.com do have a Google Analytics number. This is important so you can track what you are doing. That's what I like to show you with the following screenshot... 

Traffic to my blog is being generated by:

1. google.com

2. blogger.com and 

3. plus.url.google.com or Google+ that is.

Are you using google+ already? 

For the four months that I have been using it, I am impressed so far by its ranking 3.

To those that not yet know how this works, I will show you my Google+ URL: 

https://plus.google.com/u/0/100490423051043047646/about That's it, a long string of numbers...
If you scroll down, you will also find my favorite blogs listed there.

BUT after I read Getting Started with Google+ Custom URLs ←click it
I did change and now it looks neat like this: google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedder

If you copy and paste that into your browser, it will take you straight to my google+  but it will be real easy to remember by anyone if not at hand.

If you like to get one yourself, go to the above link and follow the instructions; easy peasy!

Try it out, it works as shown in my Google Analytics of today, ranking 3rd in a short period of time.