February WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi of Measi's Musings.

The main focus of my WIPocalypse this year will be my "13 in '13" a list of 13 projects I want to complete in 2013, click on top tab for the list.

Unfortunately February has been the month of illness and obligation!  I stitched a couple of days of Green Goddess at the beginning of the month then intended to stitch Julie's Large Mira RR but caught a cold which resulted in 3 days of illness and 2 weeks of early stitch-free nights.  Then I stitched on my Scarlet Letter project because it's just outlining and relatively simple for a convalescent.

Then Sophia's Band Sampler arrived with only 1 week until posting date so I figured I ought to stitch that instead.

So all that and the only thing from my 13 is a couple of days on Joan Elliott's Green Goddess!  Here she is:

Finally, it's edging closer to Spring and Easter, so I've launched my Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop.  A few people have signed up already so we'll have a longer Mystery Phrase than "egg" at least!  All you have to do is post a picture with a Spring/Easter/Seasonal theme, no matter how tenuous, on Easter Sunday along with the letter of the alphabet I will allocate you after you've signed up.

I'm putting together a list of Spring and Easter freebies to help you along so there's no excuses!  Just email me or leave a comment if you're interested. 

Theme-a-licious Looking Back and Forward I

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

This month it is

Jardin Janvier

The holidays were a little stressful...let's relax in a nice garden. Work on any piece with flowers or gardens.

Green Goddess was the main project for this theme.  Here she is at the start of the month:

And here she is now:

Not quite as much as I'd hoped but I've had a stinking cold and have gone to bed early all this week!  I'd hoped to complete both olive leaves at the bottom this month.

The other Jardin themed piece is my Joan Elliott Round Robin based on her Flower Fairies.  Here's another picture, this time taken during the day so the colours are a little better than the previous one.

Looking forward to next month:

Figural February

Who are the people in your neighbourhood...your WIP neighbourhood, that is? Give your people-populated projects some face time this month.

Lots of scope there!  I have the Large Mirabilia RR to start, I received Julie's piece "In the Arms of an Angel" last week and I'm really looking forward to stitching on this one.

Of course GG is a person, and the JE Diary February design is a chubby cherub so that count's too.

Talking of Julie, she has a new blog called the Red Couch Stitcher so pop over there and say "Hi from Jo"

Finally, the now obligatory mention of my Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop.  You really have no excuse for not knowing about this event!  Click on the Heart on my side bar for the post with all the details.  Open to all, the more the merrier.  Spread some Love!

January WIPocalypse

Welcome to the first WIPocalypse post of the New Year courtesy of Measi's Musings.

Once again my WIPocalypse has three parts; my 13 in '13, the Monthly Challenges and the Theme-a-licious challenge.  As Theme-a-licious is due to be posted on the 31st I'll concentrate on Parts 1 and 2 for this post.

Part 1 - 13 in '13 (13 projects I'd like to finish in 2013)

  1. Papillon - Around the World in 80 Stitches

  2. Joan Elliott - Green Goddess

  3. Marie Suarez - My Lovely Sewing Tools

  4. Prairie Moon - Thine is the Trick and the Treat

  5. Nora Corbett Cottages - choose one out of three

  6. Lizzie*Kate Seasons - (from Sarah)

  7. With my Needle - April Word Play (from Jenny )

  8. Andree Langhorn - Fairy (fabric from Mouse)

  9. Stitchers' Hideaway - Hear the Sea Call (from Riona)

10. Snapdragon (from Lesley)

11. Beehive Needleworks - Sunflower and Acorns (from Linda)

12. Double Double (from Gracie)

13. A Mon Ami Pierre - Noel Blanc (from Kathy)

I've worked on one of them this month - Joan Elliott's Green Goddess and here is my progress picture:

I'm just stitching the plain DMC at the moment.  I'll go back and complete the Kreinik once that's all done.

Part 2 consists of my Monthly Challenges

Dragon Dreams - 12 Dragon Days of Christmas

JBW Cat from JCS - one a month in themed colours
Joan Elliott 2013 Diary SAL - 12 designs from the diary which came with WOCS magazine issue 198
Hallowe'en Ornie SAL - 12 different themes

Very successful here.  I have completed three out of the four and have made good progress on the Joan Elliott January picture.  Here are the three finished pieces:

Isn't Pumpkin Kitty super-adorable?  It's a freebie from Silver Cute Dwarf's blog.  It's actually quite big and wasn't an easy stitch, there are lots of vertical and horizontal stitches rather than 3/4 fractionals which made counting tricky.  There's alot of stitching hours in this one!

Finally, I'm taking sign-ups for the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop on Valentines Day.  Very simple - just email me a stitched picture suitable as a Valentine for a stitching friend and I'll do the rest!  You'll receive an email picture just before the 14th that you must post on your blog.  Then we all hop around to find out who got our picture!  Click on the heart below for more details and to sign up.

Theme-a-licious January Update

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

This month it is

Jardin Janvier

The holidays were a little stressful...let's relax in a nice garden. Work on any piece with flowers or gardens.

So out of hibernation came Green Goddess!!  Embarrassingly I haven't stitched on her since last Jardin Janvier!  Here is the picture from that last update:

And here is today's photo for comparison:

And here is the second piece that fits into the Jar din theme, the first in the series from Dragon Dreams 12 Dragonlets of Christmas, Partridge in a Pear Tree.  They are only available through their Facebook page.  This is tiny, only 2 by 1 inch stitched over 2.  I'm stitching the 12 designs one a month over this year as part of Silver Lotus's ornie challenge.  The Large Boy has requested they be finished individually so they can be added to our display board one at a time next Christmas.

So that's it for Jardin-ing.  In other news, I received a batch of threads from Kathy as payment for a magazine I sent her.  I now have every single plain DMC colour, even the ones added randomly in the middle of a run (777 bought last week).  So now I can stitch this:

Isn't it amazing?  To find out more click on Hardcore Stitch Corp blog.  I saw this on Mr. X-Stitch's blog and just loved it.

Finally it's less than a month to Valentine's Day so it must be time to launch the 

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Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop

 

It's really very simple, all you have to do is email me a picture of something you have stitched which is suitable for a stitching friend on Valentine's Day.  It could be a heart, or a pair of cute creatures, or the word "love" or anything which warms your heart. Really anything you think a fellow stitcher would like to receive in her email Inbox.   It can be something you've stitched in the past or something you've made especially for this year.  It could also be quilted or sewn this year as I know some of my followers do other crafts too.

Send me the email by 10th February.

When I have all the emails I will randomise them and send one to each participant on 13th February.  Then on 14th February you must post the picture you receive onto your blog under the heading

 Secret Stitching Sweetheart. 

There will be a list on my blog of everyone joining in, so check out all the blogs and find out who got your picture and identify yourself  in their comments as their

Secret Stitching Sweetheart. 

Does that make sense to everyone?  I hope so!

If you'd like to be involved then leave a comment on this post, I'll be putting little reminders up from time to time and will email on 9th February to make sure you send the pic in time.

Theme-a-licious Looking Back and Forward plus another Secret Surprise Giveaway

The Theme for January was Jardin Janvier, so I stitched Green Goddess.  She is all leaves and flowers so most appropriate for the theme.  I haven’t stitched on her since my update on the 23^rd so the pic on the right hand sidebar of this blog is the latest one.

The Theme for February is Fan Girl February.  So of course Joan Elliott's Green Goddess will be top of the list!  I also have a Just Nan Round Robin to stitch on and there's a Teresa Wentzler Dragon SAL on FB to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.  I'm thinking of stitching one of the small freebies for that one.  I really should stitch a Nora Corbett just to complete my quartet of Favourites.  Trick or Treat is on my 12 in '12 list and I have the fabric.  Maybe just one little weekend.  What a shame February is such a short month!

For Jardin I also stitched a Birthday card from WOCS for a member of the Needlecraft Haven featuring a February violet.  I can’t show that one until the Birthday Gal has received it.

Speaking of Birthday Gals, it was Mouse’s Birthday this month so I stitched her a little Margaret Sherry design featuring, what else, but two little mice stitching a picture.  I used my delicious fruit tea dyed evenweave.  I used two bags of Echinacea and Raspberry tea and soaked the fabric for quite some time.  That is a technical term for “I’ve forgotten how long but it was a while”.  The smell while I stitched was amazing!  I don’t know if it lasted until Mouse received the card, I hope so.  I used some lovely De Havilland silk for the purple and an Oliver Twist for the pink.  This was slightly variegated and lovely to stitch with.  The needle is, of course, a gold needle.  Only the best for these mice.

The design is a freebie from the Cross Stitcher website found here.  Please note, that link takes you to the magazine freebie page but the Margaret Sherry designs are ONLY available to subscribers via the special Craft Circle pages.  Sorry!  There are some lovely freebies on the page I've linked to make up for it.

Here’s another delayed gratification finish:

This was the January Monthly Freebie Challenge chosen by Christine on the Needlecraft Haven board.  The original blog Les Chroniques de Frimousse showed several difference colourways but all three of the finishes so far chose the blue and yellow.  Great minds stitch alike!  I used some scraps to make some extra snowflakes and scrapbooked it with some silver snowflakes too.  It is currently on display in my box frame but will go into the book when I complete the February Challenge.  I added the Russian for Happy New Year myself.  At least I hope that's what it says and not "Potato Soup".  The Large Boy's Russian classmate was on holiday that week so I couldn't even check with her.

The more eagle-eyed of you may have spotted my followers have multiplied to over 200 now!  I decided to have another Secret Giveaway for the monumentous event.  I went through the last 200 comments on my Dashboard and tallied up how many times each person had commented.  (Fun Things Statisticians Do In Their Free Time No 95).

77 different people commented in all.  I’m so pleased with that because it means a lot of my followers are still here and still talking to me!  There were 4 people out in front with 9 or 10 comments each.  Out of those 4 –

Christine

is the lucky winner of the Secret Surprise Giveaway!

If you pop over to Christine's blog using the above link you will see her version of the Russian Doll.  I'll be sending a little something to you very soon Christine, so look out for an email asking for your address.

I just spotted this in my Blog Roll - you'll love it!  A little something from Stitchin' Kat and what a surprise - you can make it into a biscornu!!  Fortunately it's a full size one not the dinky tinies she stitched last year.  If you don't know what I'm talking about then read her blog and marvel at all the tiny biscornu (biscorni? biscornues?)

Finally, don’t forget the Secret Stitching Sweetheart activity for Valentines Day.  Email me your stitched pics by 10^th February to join in the fun.  More details here.

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January TUSAL and IHSW

Here it is, my very first official TUSAL post.  I first discovered the TUSAL a year ago when I was a mere blog-stalker.  I was determined to take part this year and share the fun so I started a blog of my own.  Here we are several months later with a loyal following and a folder full of photos.

My TUSAL does not have a name sadly, I love Morticia but can't remember who she belongs to (blush) but here it is posing with Green Goddess and my page-every-other-day calendar:

I'm having a little break from GG as I now have five letters of the Dark Alphabet and three Round Robins to stitch!  Two of the RRs are mine so there's no deadline really.  The rainbow band sampler has "been around the world i, i, i" (apologies to Lisa Stansfield!) and now just needs the red band to finish it.  I charted the red part months ago and had to rummage to find it today.  Surprisingly it was in a safe and sensible place!

The other "my" RR is the Joan Elliott Flower Fairies, I have to stitch the centre of this one while the other 6 stitchers will each do a Fairy.  The final RR is Kathy's Just Nan sampler which is lovely but I haven't even chosen my bands yet!

IHSW was, as usual, less stitchy than normal.  The bizarre thing is, I sign up every month for it and every month something comes up.  Either I have a rare night out, or I have to work, or one of the boys stays awake.  Either way IHSW never seems to coincide with alot of stitching!  I spent Saturday at work and most of  Sunday scrapbooking my smalls and making a prize.  Saturday evening I was so tired I did half a blog post and a small amount of "P", Sunday some more "P".

Just wanted to say Calamity Jr aka MJ is so happy with all the complimentary comments you left about her work so Thank You for being as lovely as I expected you all would be.

Finally, Valentine's Day is looking fab already!  The signups are growing and the pictures are rolling in already.  For more details see this post.

Giveaway Winners and Theme-a-licious Check-in

As part of the 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland activity organised by Evalina, I had not one, but seven Giveaways on the same day - Epiphany.  So that didn't make the draw complicated at all!  I used the untechnical method of putting all the names in a cup and getting the large boy to pull them out.

Without further ado, here are the winners:

Giveaway 1, the cute charts booklet - won by Sarah-Beth
Giveaway 2, the Calendar - won by Topcho
Giveaway 3, the Vintage charts booklet - won by Blue Star Stitcher
Giveaway 4, the little house decorations - won by Anna the Stitch Bitch
Giveaway 5, Maderia Metallics - won by Kat
Giveaway 6, the ornie stitched by moi - won by Terri
Giveaway 7, the San Man quilt shop - won by Lanybleu

I was so flattered by the number of people who wanted the stitched ornie, especially given my self-proclaimed lack of finishing skills!  So I've decided to invite everyone who entered Giveaway No 6 to send me an email with their Birthdate and address so I can send them a card on their special day.  You know who you are, send me the details!

The booklets, kit and metallics will be posted out after the 20th (payday!) and the two stitched pieces sometime this year hahaha.  Thank you to everyone who entered.

The second part of this post is dedicated to Theme-a-licious, Jardin January.  Hosted by Heather, click on the above link for details. 

I've been stitching on Green Goddess by Joan Elliott and here is the progress so far:

I'm "rounding" her face out with fractionals.  My Mum saw the piece and didn't like the "stepped" look using whole stitches.  It's one of my only criticisms of Joan's work, her skin is often "stepped" and blocky.  I much prefer Nora Corbett's limbs!!

This also fits in with the Jardin theme.  It was actually stitched in December for a Birthday Card Exchange.  We received the list of Birthdays on 20th December and the first one was on January 1st!!  So I had to work extra quick to get this one out on time.  It's a method I've used before, just stitch the backstitch then colour in the shading with felt-tipped pens.  The design is from WOCS, part of their Year of Flowers.  I've used aida because it's easy to colour.

And finally, just when I've made the decision to "Stitch from Stash" this year, Just Nan go and send me an email with a link to this Snow Flowers.  Why would they do that?  Why?  Don't they know I have enough Just Nan charts for my Just Nan-a-thon already?  Anyway there's a little poll in the top right of my blog - how many of my existing Just Nans do I have to stitch to justify buying this new one?  Please help.....

January WIPocalypse

Bit of confusion on my part.  I signed up for both WIPocalypse and TUSAL noting that you had to post on moondates.  What I didn't spot is that WIPocalypse is on Full Moons and TUSAL is New Moons.  So opposite ends of the month and two dates to remember!!

Here is my first WIP for 2012, Joan Elliott's Green Goddess:

I started stitching her back in September 2011 almost as soon as I got the book-a-zine she was in.  The fabric is a piece of 32 count Murano dyed specially for me by Crafty Kitten (Hi to Dawn and her new Christmas Day baby!).  I'm using all the recommended DMC colours because Joan just picks the best combinations, I feel there is no need to change anything!

The face will be filled in but I only have half a skein of that colour and I'm paranoid of running out halfway through and getting a different dye batch so it will wait until I order some more threads (after payday).

My other two WIPS are The Dark Alphabet:

And My Lovely Sewing Tools from Gift of Stitching online magazine:

Neither of these have been stitched this year so far.  I am a OAAT gal at heart and enjoy my stitching most when I can keep on with a project until it's done.  Rotating is not really for me, I tried various forms last year and it didn't really do it for me.


I did take a picture of my TUSAL thinking it had to be posted too, so here it is:

As you can see it's a TUSAL dish at the moment and the jar is empty.  I put my ORTS in the dish besides the sofa and empty them into the jar periodically.  There doesn't seem to be much in there and it is mostly yellow, as I frogged one shade and replaced with another for the Needlecraft Haven freebie.  I think I must have emptied some of 2012's into 2011's jar as there is no red at all and I know I stitched red this year!

The WIPocalypse is run by Measi and by coincidence she is the latest member of the Stitcherhood of the Travelling Pattern.  This TP is the Lizzie*Kate Life's a Stitch, remember this post?  I asked you what stitch your life would be and Measi said:

"I think I would probably be the rice stitch - complex at first glance, but honestly quite simple underneath. :)"

So the Travelling Pattern is off on it's travels again, back to America.  I have to Google the address Measi gave me as I have no idea where in America it is going to!!

Famous Cities mini competition and a new SAL

This month's World of Cross Stitching magazine came with a little Christmas booklet of designs by Maria Diaz and some Madeira metallics to stitch them.  There is a lovely range of 10 city skylines each with Santa's sleigh and some reindeer above them.  9 of the cities are London, Edinburgh, Sydney, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Rome, Liverpool, Glasgow and Paris.  Can you guess what the 10th one is?  No prize for this bit, it's just for fun; the answer and the competition are at the bottom of this post.

Here is my progress on Joan Elliott's Green Goddess.  You can really see the curve of the design starting to show.  There are two gaps where the dragonflies will go, they are partly stitched in metallics so I'll leave them until later.

The new SAL is from the fantastic Gift of Stitching online magazine.  I found this magazine a while back via various blogs.  They were offering 3 issues for $3 which was too good to resist so I signed up.  The magazine pops into your email box at the beginning of each month full of tempting designs.  They are very keen on part works (encourages people to keep buying each issue!) which is great because it makes the larger designs easier to stitch.

I saw a post on Kathy's Blog A Stitcher's Heirlooms about her indecision regarding which project to start next.  I said I wanted to start My Lovely Sewing Tools myself and we went from there.  If you'd like to join us pop over to Kathy's Blog and let her know.  We're also posting our progress on FB if you're a member.  Just search for Gift of Stitching and their page comes up.

I decided to use the DMC conversion as I don't have any Valdani threads.  They are £2.29 each from SewandSo which isn't the most expensive thread but I am supposed to be on a stash diet until Christmas!  I used my Willow Fabrics' voucher to treat myself to some 40count Newcastle linen.  The service was great, I had a glitch on the computer so phoned up the old-fashioned way, had a nice chat with the lady about the project and my fabric duly arrived, nicely packaged and labelled.  It was £13something for a FQ plus P&P so not the cheapest but not bad, and the service was good.

Here is my progress after one evening.  I've started in the middle as I always do.  This is actually Part 3c of the chart.  The charts start at the top left of the piece but I like to start in the middle.  I've used an anonymous variegated thread for the darkest red.  The label is long gone but it came from my now closed LNS.  One strand is about the same as 2 strands of DMC so where the chart calls for one strand I will use the DMC 315 they recommend.

The finished design will be a sampler with various sewing tools (as the name suggests!), the alphabet sprinkled across the sampler and some buttons and charms added.  I'm enjoying stitching on the 40 count, it doesn't feel small at all.  In fact I had to measure it to check it really was 40 as it seemed bigger.  There is some over 1 stitching which looks amazing and is quite tiny.  I'm quite accustomed to 28 over 1 but that's the smallest I've tried.

Back to the competition.  The 10th city is .......Coventry.  Yes, Coventry.  Not New York or Dubai or San Francisco or Rio de Janeiro or even Cardiff (2 from Scotland but nothing from Wales or Ireland?  I detect some favouritism, Maria!).

So the mini competition question is:

1. For my overseas followers: Have you even heard of Coventry?  If yes, then tell me a fact about the city.  If No, then say No and make something up!

2. For my UK followers: Have you even been to Coventry, or been sent there?  If yes, then tell me why, why on earth?!!  If No, then tell me something you do know about the city.

3. For anyone who lives in Coventry: please don't be offended, I'm only teasing, please tell me something wonderful about your city.  If you can't think of anything then tell me why you haven't moved!

The small prize will be a stitched City Skyline of your choice from the booklet (you don't have to have Coventry).  The winner will be plucked at random from all the commenters who mention Coventry before Saturday 22nd October.

Birthday Stash

It's been a busy week here, back to school means back to running my Toddler Group and Road Safety Club.  I also had a couple of appointment including a haircut!  So here we are, nearly a week after my Birthday and I still haven't posted pics.  In fact it is the Large Boy's Birthday today.  He was due on 28th August, then they changed the date to 11th September and he finally arrived on 23rd September, weighing in at 8lbs 3oz.  So 9 years ago to this minute I was puffing and panting having "an active birth".  He arrived at 12.50 lunchtime.

Back to the stash!  This is just a selection of what arrived on/before my Birthday.  The Just Nan is from the large boy, he chose it from my Wishlist on SewandSo's website, great idea, I select half adozen charts I'd like and he chooses one so I still get a surprise.
The charms are the small boy from an Ebay company called Ang's Attic, only 99p to £1.39 for a bag of 10.  Now there was some confusion here as some of the bags are mixed (the nautical and Christmas ones) and some said you could choose from a selection.  I picked and chose thinking I was getting 2 witches, 2 crows, 2 pumkins etc when actually I was getting 2 PACKS of each!  Luckily Ang was very understanding and deleted the extra packages for me, refunding the money.  It does mean I have rather alot of Hallowe'en charms so will be popping some into any stitching parcels I send out!
The books are from my brother, apparently werewolves are the new vampires.  He also gave me the Twilight plasters (band-aid to Americans), the way to wear them is on your neck to suggest you have been nibbled by a vampire!



My parents are paying for Bluebeard's Mermaid to be framed, so my brother chose mermaid themed wrapping paper for his presents, he cuts the tags out from the paper itself so they co-ordinate.  The paper is too lovely to throw away!

Here is my cake, it is a fruit cake with hard icing and marzipan, my favourite cake.  We used food-colouring pens to write on the cake.  The large boy decided we should use all my names and did the writing for me (except "daughter" and "sister" which I did).  The red splodges are icing sugar which I put too much food-colouring in, it looked great and tasted vile, glad we didn't do the whole cake!

My in-laws gave me money and I treated myself to a grab-bag from The Crafty Kitten (four random pieces of 9x12 fabric) and this chart: light-and-shadow-firewing-designs  Four silhouette dragons which fit perfectly onto the grab-bag fabrics!  Dawn has a small range of charts with a discount available if you buy the fabric at the same time.  She is testing to see what is popular and is very open to suggestions.  Particularly mine, which is why there are a number of Firewing Designs, I can't find them anywhere else in the UK.

I also have some fabric on order from Sparklies' sale which will hopefully arrive soon.  Hubby is paying for the frames for my Just Nan Seasons and also anything random I added to the credit card in September!

I almost forgot to add some stitching pics (blush):

Tree of Stitches:

 Gazette 94's Autumn Heart

 Joan Elliott Green Goddess:

 Periphaeria Star SAL:

These are all WIPS so I will talk more about them later, fabric, threads, links etc.

And finally, this week's random question (no prize!) is : 
Which are you:
a. Team Edward
b. Team Jacob
c. Haven't a clue what you're on about.

Sheepie Dance and Green Goddess

Happy Dance down on Sheepie Farm!  This cute little design is a freebie from Bronny's Bits.  She is having a sheep year.  Have a look at her blog if you want to see lots of cute sheep.  Last year was Snowmen, who knows what next year will bring!  Her entry for 7th August tells you how to get the chart.



Stitched on 28count pale green evenweave.

I have changed the colours and one of the sheep into a piggie.  The reason is the book under the photo.  The small boy has 4 favourite books which we read every bedtime.  They are all published by Barefoot Books and written by Clare Beaton.  The illustrations are all photos of fabric collages and are lovely.  I really recommend them for pre-schoolers.  The theme of How Big is a Pig is opposites, each animal is shown representing a pair of opposites - so "some cows are thin; some cows are fat", "some dogs are quick; some dogs are slow" with the same refrain "but how big is a pig," then a rhyming question "can you answer that?" "Do you think you know?"  Slightly less repetitive than many books!

And here is the progress on Joan Elliott's Green Goddess after 4 evenings:

Stitched on 32count hand-dyed Murano

She's getting her own Progress Page now!  I am moving the pages back upto the top of my blog, I don't think they're very noticeable down the side.  I like having all my followers up the top too, I can see ALL your smiling faces!  The giveaway is going well, 25% of my followers have joined it and the prizes are all popular which is good.  Don't forget, I will be giving away TWO prizes, one for the game of skill guessing our names and one will be a random draw of everyone who enters.  This gives everyone an equal chance of winning something, even if you get all the names wrong!