Pepper Valentine - Just a working mom and her midlife crisis

November 13, 2020March 6, 2021

How to use Excel to Randomly Pick a Contest Winner

I wanted to share with you all how to use Excel to randomly pick a contest winner. Apparently there are several ways to do this, as I discovered when I did a Google search for it. For those of you that have done this before, what did you use?

I used good ol’ fashioned Excel. I’m on Excel 70% of my day anyway for work so I didn’t want to learn anything new. And, there’s something really comfortable about that spreadsheet view for me. Makes me naturally trust it, for some weirdo reason.

So, I just created a list of all the eligible entries in my spreadsheet. And used the following formula…

For a copy/paste version of it you can use…

=INDEX(B6:B13, RANDBETWEEN(1,COUNTA(B6:B13)),1)

The only thing you need to customize, is where you see the “B6:B13” – it appears twice in the formula and those are the fields where MY list is in the spreadsheet. You just change those fields to match where YOUR list is. And that’s it. You can now use Excel to randomly pick a contest winner.

Super simple, right? If you give it a try, let me know how my steps worked out for you… If I need to include more info or details, etc.

Have a great day!

November 11, 2020January 17, 2021

We have a winner!

Hi everyone!

I did my drawing for my wine giveaway tonight and we have a winner!

We only had 8 eligible entries, which meant the odds were super-good this time! Nobody entered on my FB so that was a bust. But between my blog and my IG, we had 8 eligible entries.

I used the randomizer formula on excel…

… and samosaswmimosas is the winner. Congratulations!

Don’t feel bad if you didn’t win this time. I expect to be invited to more of these wine parties, and I expect to do more of these giveaways to justify my attendance. So stay tuned! 🥂🍷🍾

November 8, 2020January 17, 2021

My First Giveaway! Wine!

Hi everyone! Trying out this whole giveaway thing and I hope it works out. Do any of you want to win some wine?!

I have a friend that sells Scout & Cellar wine. She’s having one of those selling parties this Friday and I am going. I’m going to eat her delicious food and chat with her other friends and I’m going to buy a couple bottles of wine from her in support.

But… I’m not really a wine drinker. I actually don’t like wines, champaigns, or beers. Lol I don’t even know how to spell champaign, it looks wrong to me here. When I do drink, I prefer the mixed drinks with either vodka or rum.

Anyhow, I’m still going to support my friend and buy a couple bottles from her. But one of you all will receive it instead bc I don’t want it.

I’ll randomly draw the winner Wednesday night. I’ll contact you and you’ll tell me what kind of wine you like – white, red, pinot, etc. You’ll have to give me your shipping address too (so make sure you’re comfortable giving an internet stranger your shipping address). And I’ll go to my friend’s party Friday night, place the order, I’ll pay for it, and I’ll put YOUR shipping address on the order.

You do have to be eligible to have this wine shipped to you. You must be:

1) At least 21 years old. The shipment delivery will require to see your ID as proof of being at least 21. They won’t leave it at your door. No P.O. Boxes either. If you won’t be home for delivery, you can use the tracking number (I’ll give it to you) to hold the shipment at your nearest FedEx office for you to pick up at your convenience.

2) In the U.S. only – I’m sorry my international friends! And the following States cannot be shipped to, so please don’t enter if you live in one of these States: Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Utah.

Ok, I think that’s about it. Geez, it looks like alot of rules, I’m sorry about that. I thought this would be simple.

To enter the drawing, you have to be following either my blog, my FB page, or my IG. And just leave me a comment on any of those platforms that you want to enter and that you are eligible.

So that’s all the scoop I have. I’ll draw the winner Wednesday night. Good luck everyone! 🍷🍾🥂

Here’s a photo of what I ordered last time I went to one of her selling parties. I plan on bringing these as gifts to any holiday events I go to…

November 5, 2020August 20, 2021

Truly Outrageous Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party

Just sharing a few pics of the Jem and the Holograms birthday party I threw for my daughter a few years ago. It was themed for “Jem and the Holograms” bc my daughter and I went through a phase where we watched the whole series together and she loved it. Of course I have the whole thing on DVD.

What is Jem and the Holograms?

Not alot of people remember this cartoon TV series. It was on during the 80s and definitely targeted the young girl crowd, and I was hooked ever since. But just in case you don’t believe me that it’s a real show that actually happened, you can check out all the scoop on Wikipedia. 🙂

I was mostly addicted to the music, as Jem was a rockstar/popstar and had the catchiest songs and the most outrageous fashion.

She was also a real-life person with a real-life job and real-life responsibilities raising foster kids. Her real-life persona was Jerrica, and she had to keep her rockstar persona a secret from everyone.

Holy smokes. Kinda like me with this blog. I’m using the alias Pepper Valentine here (lol, my rockstar name), and I am keeping this blog a secret from everyone in my real-life so I can be uncensored and unedited here, and have no real-life consequences for being myself.

Anyhow, the reason she had to keep her identity such a secret was because she had a secret supercomputer (in the 80s!) that created all the music and all the fashion via holograms that looked real to everyone else. And she thought that if that supercomputer was discovered, that it could be used for evil purposes. She was using it simply to be a rockstar.

So that’s a quick summary as to why I am a “Jem and the Holograms” fan. I’m a bit obsessed with the series still, and I have fun creating projects that are inspired by Jem, like my daughter’s birthday party. We even dressed up as Jem and the Holograms for Halloween one year! I have those costume pics saved on another blog post you can link to here.

My Photos of Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party

I’m happy to be able to share these pics even though it’s all over and in the past. I hope you like it too…

The Birthday Cake… 🎂

Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party / Image Source: Pepper V.

The Goodie-Bags….

And all the goodies packed into the Goodie-Bags, including a pair of Jem’s Synergy earrings…

November 1, 2020December 21, 2020

When Gifts Cause Problems

Who would ever expect a scenario when gifts cause problems? Well it happened to me when I met this lady online… and she was really going through a hard time. She never got into specifics, but overall she was incredibly lonely and felt like nobody cared about her. She was estranged from her family too which contributed to her loneliness. She lived alone with several dogs which were her only friends except for her co-workers that she enjoyed while she was at work. She also had alot of money issues that caused stress for her.

Over the summer she had to have a surgery that was really freaking her out. She was mostly upset about how alone she was going to feel during her recovery, especially since she wasn’t even going to work anymore for at least a couple months.

I reached out to her to help cheer her up. We chatted a little bit and I asked if I could send her a care package and she gave me her home address.

So I really thoughtfully prepared a package for her of things that I felt she would like, and that she could enjoy during recovery… Cookies, lotions, soaps, loofas, loungewear, slippers, dog toys, dog treats, and a fancy ladies wallet.

I went to the post office to mail it and they MADE me put my return address on it. I really didn’t want my address on it but I did it anyway, and off if went.

Note to self: next time I mail something to someone I meet on the internet, use a fake return address.

She received it and sounded very appreciative and happy when we chatted next. And I had no worries about anything. I was happy that she seemed happy.

But then I started receiving gifts back in the mail. At first, it was daily. A pretty facemask one day, a bracelet the next day, a charm the day after that, etc…

I’m really not a fan of receiving gifts in the first place, and everything she was sending me is just going into my clutter drawer anyway, so I feel like it’s a major waste of her time and effort. I mean, I’ll chat with her anytime she wants and I don’t need gifts to maintain that.

I would thank her and tell her “you don’t have to send me anything” but the gifts wouldn’t stop. About once a week, I’ll still receive something from her and it’s freaking me out bc she’s still writing online about how she’s super stressed about her money issues. So now I’m having guilt about contributing to that.

Then I stopped messaging her thank yous whenever I received something, hoping she would get the point. But nope, the gifts kept coming…

Finally today I snapped. She messaged me “Oh I can’t wait to send you your Christmas gifts!” And I messaged back “Please stop sending me gifts. Stop. Please.”

And I haven’t heard back from her since. I feel really bad about hurting her feelings but I also really needed the gifts to stop.

I don’t know what to do now. How would you have handled this?

[There’s an update of this situation posted at When Gifts Cause Problems Part 2 ].

October 28, 2020September 10, 2023

Fun Ariana Grande Costume for Kids

So we experimented with Halloween outfits some more and this time we tried an Ariana Grande costume for kids. I think my daughter nailed it!

What do you guys think?

Ariana Grande Costume For Kids / Image Source: Pepper V.

Compared to other costumes we’ve tried, this one was pretty simple to put together. Just needed the boots, the over-sized sweater, and the hair extensions for the ponytail. Easy-peasy!

So definitely when it comes to preparedness, this one is recommended because you might already have all the items you need in your closet, or, your hair is fabulous enough to do the high ponytail without the extensions. Here is an example of the look we were trying to copy:

Ariana Grande Costume For Kids / Image Source: Link Here

I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy Ariana Grande look. If you’re more interested in a Britney Spears costume instead, I have 3 variations for kids you can check out on this post here.

If you don’t already have all the items handy for this outfit, some info on how to find them follows below…

Ariana Grande Costume for Kids – Shopping Links

[Disclosure: the following links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on any resulting purchase, at no additional cost to you.]

My daughter was a size 3 in youth shoes at the time, and I had no luck finding any kids boots that looked like this they would fit her exactly. So the best I could do was find these women boots from Amazon as a size 6. They were a bit big for her but it worked for the costume and should last a couple more years if needed for other costumers. The boots in this image (as well as various colors and sizes) can be bought on Amazon if interested (link below).

And we also got the hair extensions for the ponytail from Amazon. My daughter has very thick hair, so we actually used TWO of these hair extension packages to be able to cover her natural hair sufficiently. We got the longest length of 30in. The ponytail extensions we used can be bought here:

And I’m not going to leave the link where I got the oversized sweater from since I didn’t have a great experience with the order. Basically, the shipment originated from China and took FOREVER to arrive, so I don’t really want to refer anyone else to it and risk the order not being received in time for Halloween or another costume event. But really, any oversized sweater should work for this look – you might already have one in your closet and can skip buying another one. 🙂

Anyhow, I hope this info helps with your look for an Ariana Grande costume for kids. I wish you all a fun and safe Halloween this year! And good luck putting together your outfit, no matter which costume you decide. There are so many choices and so many ways to make it your own. Have a great time!

Subscribe to Pepper Valentine

I hope you all enjoyed this costume idea and the photos of my daughter!

Make sure to subscribe below so you won’t miss out when I add more costume ideas for girls to my blog in the future, or other mom-related posts. I don’t spam. My usual cadence is a quarterly email newsletter to keep everyone updated.

October 26, 2020October 13, 2021

Scary and Haunted Leap Castle – Roscrea, Ireland UK

I am definitely a fan of Halloween, as well as ghost stories. So when I found myself in Ireland last year, I just had to stop by haunted Leap Castle – one of the world’s most notorious castles due to reports of ghostly and supernatural occurrences. But only during the daytime bc I’m still a scaredy-cat.

So I stopped by Leap Castle in Roscrea, Ireland. This is considered one of the world’s most haunted castles, and has been featured in several paranormal documentaries such as the Travel Channel’s “Ghost Hunters” and ABC’s “Scariest Places on Earth”. Do you watch those types of shows? I love them.

History of Leap Castle

I also looked-up some facts about Leap Castle for you on Wikipedia. It was built as a fortress during the civil war in Ireland in 13th century AD, most likely on an even older ceremonial structure as old as 500 BC. It has a very violent history due to rival clans fighting for it.

The most famous spirits supposedly haunting this castle is “The Red Lady” ghost that walks all over holding a dagger. And the “It” elemental spirit that does not have a human form, but can be smelled and supposedly foretells impending death if you witness it. Before their deaths, the people that have actually seen “It” describe it as a sheep with a human face, black holes for eyes and a nose, and the odor of a rotting corpse. THAT was what worried me the most about being there, that I would start smelling it. 😟

My Visit at Haunted Leap Castle

When you arrive, the owner of the castle will greet you. He’s there to answer your questions, and tell you a few stories about the history of the land and the castle itself. He’s a musician too, so he’ll play you some of his music too if you feel like attending a recital. There a isn’t a fee for the visit, but he does suggest that you leave a donation that goes towards the restoration and maintenance of the castle so that visitors can continue to tour it.

When you’re done chatting with him, he gives you a flashlight and that’s it. You’re on your own for the tour.

To be honest with you, I didn’t explore the whole entire castle bc I started to freak myself out. So I turned around to leave maybe halfway through. I feel like such a wimp about it, but I was scared! Would you have been scared?

My Photos of Leap Castle

Below are some of the amateur pics I took. They are unfiltered. Most areas of the castle had no lighting at all except from my flashlight, so please be forgiving about the photo quality…

Haunted Leap Castle Roscrea, Ireland / Image Source: Pepper V.

Haunted Leap Castle Roscrea, Ireland / Image Source: Pepper V.

And this visit to Leap Castle was a single stop of several stops I made during a roadtrip through Ireland. If you’d like a recap and photos of the rest of the roadtrip, you can see them here.

******************************

[Disclosure: the following links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on any resulting purchase, at no additional cost to you.]

Just in case you are a fan of haunted travel destinations, below is a link to a National Geographic book about the topic. Would make a great gift! 🙂