Giveaway Day: LaRue & Bamboo

Happy Sunday to you! It's strange to be posting today, because I usually take a break from the computer on Sundays. Today, though, I have a very good reason for being here. It's my Junebug Mom's birthday!

In honor of my mom, who not only loves plants and is an excellent gardener (in fact, she's a Master Gardener!), I am including a plant fiber yarn in our giveaway.

Today's yarn/hook/T-shirt package features The Yarn Place Vivace, which is a 100% bamboo Dk-weight yarn. This skein is from the #30 colorway and has 250 yards--enough to make a flirty, soft summer neckerchief.

Here are the rules to try to win this package. Good luck to you all!

 And happy, happy birthday to my mom, Margie LaRue (in a picture with me on my wedding day)! She's actually going to wince when she reads this because she has dropped the Margie and just goes by LaRue now. She even loves LaRue so much better that she gave it to me as my middle name. It's good to have an unusual name. The fact is, though, Mom, those of us who still think of you as Margie LaRue just can't help it. Please bear with us.

Here's another fabulous picture of my mom with one of her very favorite cousins, Wanda Nell, who is the mom of my cousin Vicki, who I wrote about on June 2. They have always been best friends as well as cousins, just like me and Vicki. Don't they look stunning?

My mom grew up in a lively household with one older brother and a passel of cousins. My grandparents took in all of my mom's first cousins (Granny's sister's brood) when their mom died, and they all became a bunch of sister/cousins and brother/cousins. My mom always complained of having to wear too many hand-me-downs and always being the little sister, but she loved them all.

Mom loved to play softball and loved to swim--even synchronized swimming--when she was young. After she had me and my sister, however, she went on to become an executive in the telecommunications field during a time when it was especially hard for a woman to climb that ladder. She is a tough lady, though, and made quite a success of it.

These days you can find her in the hills of NW North Carolina in her 100-year-old farmhouse tending her garden and researching family history, among other things. My mom is and always has been an inspiration to me to be strong, be yourself, and never give up.

I hope your day is going super well, Mom! Happy Birthday! I love you!

(Oh, and I am working on that blanket. I should have it knitted up just in time for your next birthday!)