My first giveaway, featuring The Fairy Apothecary

It's finally here!  I was originally going to wait until I had 100 followers but The Fairy Apothecary had too many great things for fall to pass this up.  Plus, this giveaway is in honor of Sally's Bath Product Shop for The Practical Magic Blog Party.

So, who/what is The Fairy Apothecary?  She is also known as the Bath Fairy and she creates amazing hand make soaps, lotions and other bath enchantments out of her basement studio in Upstate New York.  The Bath Fairy draws her inspiration from the colors, sights and smells of the natural world and, of course, that wonderful feeling people get during and after a wonderfully relaxing or invigorating bath or shower experience.  All of her soaps and lotions are made from all natural materials, including goat's milk and shea butter (which is organic and fair trade).

The Fairy Apothecary and I are giving away fall scented, leaf shaped soaps.  They are infused with the spicy scents of fall and just having them in my house makes me long for Samhain and Halloween.

So, how do I enter?

Giveaway Requirements

•  Have an blog accessible through your user name or leave an email address with each entry.
• Have a mailing address within the United States, United Kingdom or Canada
• Visit The Fairy Apothecary's Etsy store , come back here and leave a comment about your favorite item.
• All entries must be submitted by midnight on October 2nd

  

Extra Chances to Win! (You must leave a separate comment for each extra entry)

• 1 entry each
• Post about this giveaway on your own personal blog
• Become a follower of this blog
• Become a follower of Wandering in the Woods on Facebook 
• Become a follower of Wandering in the Woods on Twitter
• Become a follower of The Fairy Apothecary's Blog
• Become a follower of The Fairy Apothecary on Twitter 
• Tweet about this giveaway on your own Twitter account (one tweet per day - leave a comment for each tweet)

Special Notes:

• If your blogger profile is set to private, I will be unable to find your blog or email via your profile.  If there is no email address in your comments, and your blogger profile is private, your entries DO NOT count.
• Entries submitted in one comment posting will only count as one entry
• If you're reading these Special Notes, enter a comment with simply the word "soap" for an extra chance to win!
• Spam or comments with links unrelated to the giveaway will not be counted as an entry
• Please submit all entries in English

I Feel it Coming

I woke up this morning and I could feel the change.  It's been lurking around me for the past week or so but now I felt the movement and the winds changing direction.  The humidity has left Long Island and the coolness of fall is finally here.  I went looking into my old notebooks after I woke up and found another Keats poem that I'd long forgotten about.  I thought it would be fitting to go with the seasonal changes I felt this morning. 

So, my readers, have you felt the changes yet?  Have you felt the slowing movements of our mother under your feet?  I feel her getting sleepy and ready for her winter's rest.  I feel the God growing inside of her.  I feel the final harvest coming.  I smell the beauty of fall surrounding me and I'm coming back to life.  I am a child of autumn.  I can't wait.

"Ode to Autumn" by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,---
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.