Saturday, May 14, 2011

GIVEAWAY TO CELEBRATE NAT'L ETIQUETTE WEEK 2011

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the shutdown of Blogger for a couple of days this week, I have extended the deadline to enter this giveaway to Sunday night at midnight, EST, May 15, 2011.

Yes, there is National Etiquette Week y'all! It was established by Sandra Morisset in 1997 and is observed May 9-13th. This is a time to recognize civility and good manners...and it all begins with you! During this week, I hope that y'all examine and improve your etiquette skills. Here's a list of Miss Janice's top five etiquette faux pas:

~Failure to R.s.v.p....will surely get your name taken off Miss Janice's party list!
~Not sending a thank-you note...how very ungrateful!
~Talking while chewing your food...so disgusting!
~Using a toothpick in public...Miss Janice absolutely cannot stand this!
~Forgetting to say "Please, Thank You, Yes Ma'am/Sir, or Excuse Me"...a sure sign to others that you have no manners!

Every year since I began this blog, I have hosted a 'Very Proper Giveaway' in celebration of National Etiquette Week.

The winner will receive their choice of either a set of monogrammed foldover notecards or flat correspondence cards, from 2PreppyGirls. Proper thank-you notes/cards are must-haves for your stationery wardrobe ladies:) To be perfectly correct, thank-you notes should be written on 'monogrammed notes' or 'correspondence cards.'

The foldover monogrammed notecards from 2 Preppy Girls are appropriate to write thank-you notes. {They may also be used to extend a formal invitation or to send a short message to a friend}. Write on page 3 of the notecard. The proper monogram for this style of card would be your first, married, and maiden name initial, in that order. If you are single, use your first, last, and middle name initial, in that order. You will be choosing from these 2 Preppy Girls foldover monogrammed notedcards here.
The correspondence card may also be used for thank-yous, informal invitations, and short notes. They are flat, heavy cards, with a name or a monogram. Write only on the front of the card. You might want to choose from one of these 2 Preppy Girls' correspondences cards here.

In addition to the thank you notes/cards, the winner will also receive a copy of etiquette expert Letitia Baldrige's book, "New Manners for New Times." This is Miss Janice's go-to etiquette reference book. Ms. Baldrige covers everything you need to know about etiquette.


Ms. Baldrige is recognized universally as the country's leading authority on business and social etiquette. She was the White House Secretary for Jacqueline Kennedy and since that time has published more than twenty books. Here's a photo of Letitia Baldrige at a White House State function in the 60's. Can you even imagine having such a wonderful job???



In the photo below, the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is arriving at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Ms. Baldrige is seen emerging from the limo. November 3, 1961. I adore this photograph!




Here, you see Miss Janice with Ms. Baldrige at the Southern Lady Event in Destin, Florida several years ago. I begged the editor of Tea Time magazine to schedule a sit-down for me with Ms. Baldrige. I was honored to meet her and receive her wealth of information regarding my role as etiquette consultant in today's world.






Here are the rules of the giveaway y'all:

~To receive one entry, you must leave a comment and tell me what you are going to do during the upcoming week to promote civility!
~To receive two entries, please let me know if you are a follower of my blog (an old proper friend or a new proper friend)!
~To receive three entries, you must post about my giveaway on Twitter or Facebook...just let me know!

This giveaway will close on Friday, May 13th at midnight E.S.T. I will announce the winner on Saturday, May 14th. Good luck y'all!!!


90 comments:

Simply Sara said...

I have been a follower of your blog!! Didn't realize it was national etiquette week, good thing to know!!!

simplysara83@gmail.com

Simply Sara said...

I tweeted about the giveaway!!!

@SimplySara83

simplysara83@gmail.com

Simply Sara said...

I also facebooked about the giveaway!!

Sara Haga Gore

simplysara83@gmail.com

Simply Sara said...

I love the foldover notes!!

simplysara83@gmail.com

Simply Sara said...

To promote civility this week I am going to try to pay more attention to how I show gratefulness, and I am going to make an effort to write out more thank you cards for courteous acts.

simplysara83@gmail.com

I love stationary anyways, so I should enjoy this!

Regarding Rehse said...

I'm so glad there is such a thing as Etiquette Week! I wonder if there are an schools that work it into the week's curriculum! How nice that would be to have a refresher finishing course for students on polite protocols! I think I'm going to get my Emily Post on and refresh myself! XX

Kim @ So Full Zest said...

I will be promoting civility on my college campus by saying please and thank you to all of my professors when I see them.

Kim @ So Full Zest said...

I am an old proper friend since I have been following your blog for about a year now, thanks for a fabulous giveaway!

Cortney said...

In honor of National Etiquette Week I am going to write some belated Thank you notes and encourage my children to do the same.

Rachel said...

What a thoughtful giveaway Miss Janice! I have been a follower of your blog for quite some time through google reader. To promote this week, I will be saying yes and no ma'am and sir, and please and thank you like it's my business this week, here's hoping my family and friends follow suit!

- Lil Miss Rachel

Suburban Princess said...

I am so looking forward to seeing your posts this week! I know we will all learn a lot!

I am a follower and tweeted!

Suburban prep said...

I will be helping the young ones in my family understand the importance of manners and kindness.

Suburban prep said...

I am a follower of your blog and have been for a bit now. I really enjoy reading.

E. said...

I will celebrate etiquette week by leading by example! And I will start by saying THANK YOU for this giveaway! =)

E. said...

And for a second entry, I have been following you for almost a year now!

I Do Declare said...

To promote civility I will take a casserole to a friend who just had a baby!

Ruth Ann said...

We live in the country. While our manners may not be the best, we are taught to say 'please' and 'thank you' when we first learn to speak.

Our pink dots are the roses on our bushes and the green is our farmland. There is no need to purchase special stationery or clothes to make our statement.

I read only 2 blogs; yours and "The Pioneer Woman Cooks'. I enjoy them both thoroughly.

Hillcrest Acres said...

What a lovely giveaway!!!

I've been amazed lately how disrespectful, rude and thoughtless children can be. I'm going to reinforce with my kids the importance of showing kindness to strangers. Just saying hello to strangers as you pass them on a sidewalk, holding doors for others, please and thank you's are a must, being respectful of others, being a good neighbor, etc. I'm hoping their kindness will rub off on some other children around the neighborhood and at school.

eas said...

This week I'm going to work a bit harder with my 2.5 yr old on table manners.

eas said...

I've been a follwer for a few months now and love your posts. Thank you for hosting the giveaway.

ABC said...

To promote etiquette this week, I will be prompt sending my thank-you note to my parents for an anniversary gift, I will encourage my husband to be prompt in sending his thank-you notes for his birthday gifts, and I will promptly send my RSVP for a wedding invitation I received this weekend!

I've been following your blog for many months now, and I always finish reading your posts more mindful of ways I can show others just how much I appreciate them! Thank YOU, Miss Janice!

The Semi-single Mom said...

I am already teaching my 4 y/o ma'am & sir along with please & thank you.

The Semi-single Mom said...

Been a follower for over a year now.

Leesa - So Georgia said...

What a nice giveaway! To promote civility this week, I will share your five etiquette faux pas posted above with my high school students. Believe me, they need etiquette help!

Leesa - So Georgia said...

I have been following your blog for the past year or so and still love it!

Chelsea said...

Good Morning, Miss Janice!
I am an "old proper follower" and an adoring fan of all your posts! Thank you for hosting this giveaway!
Best!

Chelsea said...

I also tweeted- @VirginiaBelle10!

Chelsea said...

To promote civility, I am going to write end-of-the-year thank you notes to the administrators and staff at school! They are certainly the best!

Thanks very much, Miss Janice!

AngelaV said...

I did not realize it was national etiquette week but I intend to be my normal well-mannered self and make sure that my children show good manners as well.

AngelaV said...

And I am an old proper follower.

LC said...

I'm an old follower!

Practically Precious said...

Thank you for this great giveaway opportunity. I will celebrate this week by writing thank you notes for the lovely facials I received from friends for my birthday. Two different friends presented me with certificates for facials - wonder if they are trying to tell me something! I have been a follower for almost 2 years now. Thanks for your great advice.

E said...

Dear Miss Janice,

This looks like a glorious giveaway! I am about to both turn 21 and graduate college so I should probably stock up on some thank you cards soon anyway.

This week I'm going to sit down with my little sister and help her write thank you cards for her birthday presents (she just turned 13). I know that in theory she wants to send them but since she's a little too young to go into town by herself she's reliant on one of us to take her out to buy them and somehow it seems to have slipped to the bottom of the to-do lists the last two weekends.

I'm about to post this on facebook and I just became a follower, although I have been reading for some time now.

I'm excited to read your posts this week. I feel that I'm fairly well mannered but that there is so much more for me to learn!

emrobertson63@gmail.com

Katelyn said...

I am a relatively new follower of your blog. In honor of this week, I will be posting on my own blog about the importance of good etiquette in networking in hopes of inspiring my collegiate comrades to step up and write some thank-you's and give some proper RSVP's. Cheers!

Marilyn *Pink Martinis and Pearls* said...

Thank you for the Mother's Day greeting. :) I am going to write some notes I have been putting off. I forget how I like to receive that little extra of a hand written note so I am making the point to get some out to others.

I've been a happy follower for over two years!! xoxo

Mid-Atlantic Martha said...

Thanks Miss Janice for helping us all "mind our manners" -- I bought the book last year form Amazon. It's always wonderful to have good resources. I do believe that good manners are noticed!

Catherine Wong(: said...

this week in going to say please and thank you! i will also pay more attention to my greatfulness, makesure to be nice to everyone and say hi to everyone i pass by at school :)

Beaufort Belle said...

Miss Janice, this post came at the most oportune time. I just came in and in my mail was a thank you card. After opening and reading the thank you card, I thought how proud Miss Janice would be of the bride to be and her very proper thank you note. I would think that Miss Janice would award this young lady with "5 silver teaspoons." The girl will become my cousin by marriage this Saturday evening. Her shower was 3 weeks ago yesterday and a very large shower at that. My mother, daughter, and I went in together for a substantial gift card for the shower gift as their registry is just about complete. (Yes, the hubs, my daughter and myself will be giving a wedding gift and my parents will be giving a separate wedding gift.) The thank you card was a personalized thank you foldover with a wedding dress on the left and the bride's name on the right. This was addressed to just my daughter and myself as a separate card was sent to my mother's home. The note itself was exactly the way a thank you not should be written (and please tell me if I am wrong). She thanked us for coming to the shower and for the gift card. Then she went on to say exactly what the gift card was going to be used for. She and groom would be using the card to purchase the remainder of their glassware. She concluded by stating how excited she was about seeing us at the wedding.

I was so very impressed by this particular thank you note. It seems to be that thank you's, even in the South are becoimng passe! But to write a thank you note in a timely manner, and to be written properly and with definite thought, is a rarity, especially in younger adults.

To say I am quite impressed would be an understatement.

Sorry for such a long comment on this post, but honestly, Miss Janice was indeed the first person I thought of when I finished reading.

Finally, thank you for the warm greeting and comment you left me. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Mother's Day as well.

Beaufort Belle said...

For the giveaway, I have been a proper follower for years. (On the blog itself, on Facebook, and on Twitter.)

Stephanie said...

I will be promoting civility this week by writing thank you notes for some wonderful gifts I've received recently. (These cards would be perfect for that!) I'm an old proper follower, too.

Mary said...

To promote civility this week, I will educate my junior high students about manners and etiquette and have them write about ways they can use their manners in their writer's notebooks. I will also model manners for them and remind them while we interact.

Beaufort Belle said...

I tweeted the giveaway! Will blog about it later!

Mary said...

I forgot to add that I am a "new proper friend"!

Whitney said...

I am a kindergarten teacher and I will continue to show my students the importance of good manners daily!

Whitney said...

I am a new-ish follower (the past year)!

Mrs. Kindergarten...aka...Madame Spoiled said...

This week I shall be coaching my kindergarten children on writing Thank You notes to a fellow teacher that set up an amazing field trip for us all to enjoy. We practice our pleases and thank you's daily. I actually won't let go of something until a child begins to say Thank You. This is really one of my favorite parts of my job.

Mrs. Kindergarten

Mrs. Kindergarten...aka...Madame Spoiled said...

I have been a proper follower of your blog for over a year. Your blog has given me much joy and inspiration. The give~away is lovely. Your gift to your readers is the best gift of all.

Thank You,
Mrs. Kindergarten

Christina@pluffmuddstudio said...

I am a follower of your blog! :) I never knew there was a national etiquette week. I LOVE that!

Christina@pluffmuddstudio said...

I adore the flat note cards!

Christina@pluffmuddstudio said...

To promote civility this week, I am going to order my little one her own personalized note cards for her upcoming birthday party thank you notes.

Anna Kate said...

-This week, I will promote civility by 1) writing three thank you notes for college graduation gifts I received, 2) RSVP "attending" to a sorority sister's June wedding, 3) send my regrets for an engagement party I had to miss, and 4) send a congratulatory card to another sorority sister whose wedding is this upcoming weekend.

-I have been a follower of your blog for a few months. I love reading the wise words of Miss Janice!

-I re-tweeted your Twitter post about your giveaway. http://twitter.com/#!/aksumler

Happy National Etiquette Week!

MeredithL said...

I am a loyal follower of your beautiful blog. In honor of etiquette week, and will continue to teach my children good manners as an expression of kindness and consideration to others. Thank you for sharing your creativity and expertise on your blog!!

maureennsheridan said...

To promote civility this week I plan to remind my daughter to start on her graduation gift thank you notes as soon as she finishes her last exam. Miss Janice, I've been following you on google reader for about a year now. This is the first time I have ever left a comment on a blog!

maryneustadter@yahoo.com

Shavon Hankins said...

Dearest Miss Janice,
I am most definitely a loyal follower of your blog for a little over a year now

Shavon Hankins said...

I will be promoting National Etiquette Week by continuing to reinforce good manners to my sweet 1st grade class. Please and Thank You are a must in my classroom!

Martina said...

I've stared your reading in prepartion for our move from TN to GA, just so we wouldnt stand out to much in the crowd i guess, oh boy was i wrong about the South its lost its Charm about 10 rude people that crossed my path, its littarly frustrating, but neverless my tow little Sons will have to go thru with learning Manner and Ettiquette, caus i sure dont want them to discourage someone later in life by simple being rude. Thank you for sharing your blog with us, it gives me hope that ther are still civil people out there.

Marie Francesca said...

I follow your blog, and have for years!
Last weekend I finished Taste, which I do believe was one of your recommendations. This week I am reading Mr. Gunn's Golden Rules, also recommended by you(?).
To promote civility, I am planning on presenting myself as pleasantly as possible, being as visually pleasing as possible and by showing kindness to others. My goal is to take these practices forth always!
Patricia

Sara said...

This week I will be writing thank-you notes and bringing hostess gifts!

annie said...

Miss Janice, I am teaching table manners to my two granddaughters. My hat is off to you , it isn't an easy job!
I also wanted to ask you for an update on Jan and how she is doing as I am still keeping her in my prayers and often wonder how she is feeling.

Muffy said...

Oooooh, what a divine giveaway prize! The note cards alone would be lovely, but I simply MUST HAVE that book!

This week I shall be conscious of etiquette and do my best to be as polite as I can be!

Muffy said...

Naturally, I am a long time follower of Miss Janice!

Teresa Jane said...

I'm going to ask my neighbors in a really nice way to clean up the dead tree in their yard.

North of 25A said...

I am a long time follower of your blog and promise to be kind and gracious to everyone that I meet!
Thank you for a terrific giveaway.
Best,
Colleen

jeanie said...

What a thoughtful giveaway. I have been a follower of your blog for some time now. To promote civility this week I will be stopping by a local shop to pick up a hostess gift. I'm thinking a couple of cute summer tea towels or a cute summer apron would be great hostess gift for this friend that likes to entertain.

Sarah said...

To promote civility, I am planning and hosting a get together to celebrate the end of midterms.
Also, I've been a follower for some time now.

Happy Etiquette Week!

bella said...

I love your blog and am a follower. I work with young children and will continue to reinforce my teaching of good manners to them.

Bama Belle said...

Oh Miss Janice, I am a long time friend, follower, and adore you. I actually have my children writing Thank you notes as we speak fro gifts they received from visiting relatives last week. Headed to Twitter now, i do hope my 3 entries bring me such wonderful luck. Be well Precious!

Glitterista said...

Miss Janice, thank you so much for hosting this lovely giveaway! I am excited to finish thank you notes to those who helped me successfully finish graduate school. :)

M. L. said...

Miss Janice, I'm an old proper follower of your dear blog and so glad you are having another giveaway. I'll be working especially hard this week with the youngsters on their usual manners and talking to them about the reasons we have manners. I love all your posts but especially the ones about manners. Thank you for all you do. Michelle

Bea said...

I love your posts regarding etiquette, Miss Janice! Good luck to the winner of your giveaway!

LadybugLyss said...

I am going to volunteer at the local art fair in the Children's Tent this weekend to promote civility.

LadybugLyss said...

I am on old follower of your blog and your table settings are just adorable! Love them!!! Thanks for sharing :)

Angi said...

I have been a follower for several months. It is so important to pass on the value of good manners. I have really been working with my 4yo DD about the importance of good manners (i.e. Please, Thank you, Yes/No Sir/Ma'am, Excuse me,etc.) and we are now working on table manners.

Angi said...

Shared on Facebook. Thanks so much for a wonderful blog.

emcr1229 said...

I have been a follower for some time now - I adore your blog.

emcr1229@gmail.com

emcr1229 said...

This week I made sure to get my thank you cards out in a timely fashion and reinforce please and thank you in my children.

emcr1229@gmail.com

Tammy B said...

What a great giveaway! I've been saying my thank you's and holding doors for those who have their hands full. I also have been watching my table manners, even when I dine alone. As you know, I'm a long time follower.

CHERI said...

Just found your lovely blog:) To promote civility this week I will continue to work with both my grandchildren on their manners. They are 8 & 5 and are getting better and better. I always encourage Yes/No, Mam/Sir...I'm still an old-fashioned Southern girl:) I also plan to tell them it's GOOD MANNERS WEEK and we'll do some role playing. That should be fun:)

CHERI said...

I'm a new follower:) Thank you so much for the opportunity to win such lovely prizes.
cherischatter@yahoo.com

Sarah Long said...

You remind me so much of my mother! No deed can go undone without a thank you note to follow!

Sarah Long said...

I'm a follower!

Sarah Long said...

In honor of National Etiquette Week, I will be writing thank you notes everyday for graduation gifts!

Lori said...

I am a devoted follower of your blog.

Lori said...

I tweeted about your giveaway.

Lori said...

In observance of National Etiquette Week, I tried to treat people as I would want to be treated. . .even if they drove me nuts!

Lori

Emily said...

I did not know there was a national etiquette week! How exciting, I only wish that I found out about it sooner as I would have written a blog post to help spread this word!

During national etiquette week, I was my regular well-mannered self and worked hard to ensure that my 22-month old son used his manners.

Thank you for hosting such a wonderful giveaway!

emily@naptimeismytime.com

Emily said...

I am a new follower to your blog. And, I'm so very excited to have found it!

emily@naptimeismytime.com

Emily said...

I tweeted about this here:

http://twitter.com/#!/naptimeismytime/status/69864928785334272

emily@naptimeismytime.com

Mid-Atlantic Martha said...

Good luck to the winner. I just posted about my wonderful prize from your last giveaway. Just wanted to thank you again. Love the napkins!

Kara said...

I am always civil...well not in JC Penny...but that is another story! I show it AlWaYs in my smile hello to everyone who makes eye contact with me. My Mama said that my Daddy and I 'never met a stranger'

And I will post on @kbsmith7 at Twitter and my FB page. As a Spa Lady, I travel with a little etiquette in my pocket AlWaYs..
Miss Kara