Today is I Heart Guitar’s first birthday. That’s right, one year to the day since I decided to follow Mrs I Heart Guitar‘s suggestion to chuck a couple of stories online and see what happened. That first story is right here. And birthdays need birthday presents! But since the blog itself is not a person, it can’t really accept presents. So how would you like to win some instead?

To get your hands on this sweet sweet booty (and there might be more to come – I think DiMarzio may also be sending some shirts and other stuff in addition to what’s listed above, and Chris from Riot said he’d throw in some CDs and posters but he’s on holiday this week!), email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com with your name and location. Winners will be drawn at random on September 16. I promise I won’t use your email for any purpose other than informing you if you win.

There are a lot of people, sites and companies to thank for making the last year so freaking awesome. Premier Guitar, Guitar Edge, Jon at Guitar Noize, Laurie at Truth In Shredding, Lewis from Japan Guitar Journies, JP from Strat-O-Blogster, Ava from the Jemsite blog – in fact, just check out the blog list on the right side of the page and click on all those links, cos everyone there is awesome.

Huge huge huge thanks to Mr Kosta Linardos, my editor at Mixdown magazine, for not having a problem with me using Mixdown stuff on the site.

Others who have hugely helped me out include Taylor Guitars, Jim Dunlop, Guitar Toyz, DiMarzio, Peterson, Grover Allman, IK Multimedia, Waves, Zoxsy, Native Instruments, Australasian Music Supplies, CMI, RJM Music, Shire Music, Rob at 1988 Media, Bob at Roadrunner, Andrew at Melodicrock.com, Mitch at Bravewords.com … and if I forgot anyone I’m really sorry, my brain is fried today but if you send me an email I’ll add you to this list!

And let’s not forget lovely gents like Bryan Beller, Paul Gilbert, Steve Turner, Joe Matera and Nick Brown! And anyone who has ever left a comment, followed me on Twitter or sent me an email about the site.

Most of all though I’ve gotta thank Pilgrim because she’s gorgeous and beautiful and super-supportive and I don’t know how the heck I got so lucky!

And our son (almost 3 years old) gets special mention for being really cute and funny and for getting almost as excited about pedals as I do.