Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bad, Bad Blogger...And We Have a Winner!

OK...so a week ago I was supposed to announce a winner for the purse giveaway. I had my sweet husband draw a name out of a cup to select the winner. I took pictures of the process. And then I had a crazy week and forgot to announce the winner. Bad, Bad Blogger! Sorry y'all. I had the best of intentions! I'll do better next time, if y'all promise to come back & bring a friend!

And now, without further ado...
names
in the cup
drawing
(ok..a little "ado")

And the winner is...
winner
Congratulations, Teresa at twoCRVs!

Teresa, please send me an email with your name and address and I'll pop this in the mail. My email is thingspondered (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thanks for playing, everyone! I hope to have at least one more giveaway before Christmas, so stay tuned!

Friday, November 14, 2008

New Post at Kitchen Ponderings - Brownies!

I've just posted my coworker's really yummy brownie recipe...just in time for holiday goodie plates! Check it out here.

And once again, Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!

Heart This - My First Weekly Linkage Report!

In the vein of Rocks in My Dryer's Saturday Linkage, MomAdvice.com's Amy's Notebook, and BooMama's Linky Interwebby Awesomeness, (that's a helping heapful of happy links right there!) I've decided to create a sort of favorites notebook here with the ideas and images and projects that I can't wait to try.

To that end, I've created a separate blog for my Heart This (hopefully weekly) posts. I will post my weekly webby finds here and at my Heart This blog (button in the left sidebar) on (or near - let's be real, here) Fridays.




In this, the Inaugural Edition of Heart This, I hereby link the following:




  • I love this idea from Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. What a great idea for involving your family during the holidays! h/t to Melissa at The Inspired Room.


  • Here's a creative Dollar Store Crafts gift idea for the tea lover, the bracelet lover or the crafty girl in your life. So cute. These would be darling favors for a tea party!


  • I think I'll see if my nephews want to make these fun elf hats when they come to my house at Thanksgiving. h/t to Sew, Mama, Sew!


  • This will be our first Thanksgiving to host family at our house. I'm thinking this website will come in handy. It has calculators to tell you how much turkey to buy, how much stuffing to make and how long to thaw your bird. Cool!


  • My dear friend Kirstin pointed me to this blog with the most ADORABLE turkey-day bibs & onesies! (and I love her header scripture!)

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!

Petite Purse & Presents - My First-Ever Giveaway!

All these purse pictures have reminded me of a random story. Bear with me...I'm about to give you way too much information, 'cause that's the way I roll. But hey - you're here for a giveaway...might as well stay for the entertainment (if you can call it that)!

Several years ago, I decided to use some frequent flier miles to take my husband on a surprise weekend skiing trip for his birthday. We didn't have much money, so I searched the internet for weeks to find a good deal. I finally found a deal at Breckenridge that included a Winter Fun pack (or something like that). The pack included free lift tickets and boot/ski rentals for 1 night of night skiing, snow tubing, a sled/wagon ride, and much more. I figured one night of skiing would be enough (although night skiing is kinda hard if you're a novice!), so I booked the condo and away we went. (See, I told you...TMI!)

At our condo, we heard about this fondue place. It sounded fun and different, so we booked reservations at 9 (they were full until then). We saved our appetites all day. That night, after the town had pretty well rolled up for the night, we hopped on the gondola for the ride up the mountain. It was freezing cold that night, and we were happy to take advantage of the wool blanket in the gondola! At the top of that mountain, we boarded another gondola, which took us to a second, higher mountain where the restaurant sits. Cool. We entered and were shocked to find that it was a prix fixe menu, with the adult meal costing $57. Each. Gulp.

Well, we decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it, since it was such a neat experience and a special occasion, and since we were hungry and all the other restaurants in town were closed. We enjoyed our fondue dinner. I liked it more than Brian since, well, I like cheese. Oh, and chocolate. ANYwho...At the end of our dinner, I reached for my purse and discovered it was missing. I knew I had it when we boarded the lower gondola! Thank goodness Brian had his wallet!

After Brian paid, we went to the upper gondola and asked the operator if he'd noticed it in any of the cars. He hadn't. We asked him to contact our condo if it was turned in. We then boarded and prayed our way down. When we reached the lower gondola, I asked the operator the same question. No, he hadn't seen it either. I sighed, frustrated, as we boarded the lower gondola. I reached for the blanket with my numb fingers and felt a lump. I moved the blanket, and Hallelujah! There was my purse! What are the chances that we'd happen to board the very same gondola car? Pretty slim. Fortunately for you, your chances at this giveaway are much better! (See how I did that? Pretty slick, huh?)

So you made it through my story. Thank you for your patience. Now for the good stuff!

Earlier this week, Cindy @ Still His Girl (who is totally artistically talented and has one of the funniest blogs ever - check her out!) stopped by my blog and left several really kind comments. Totally made my day!

Anyway, Cindy asked me if I'd ever done a giveaway. I haven't. Partly because I didn't think I had enough readers, and partly because I haven't had anything good to give away. Well, now I have something, and I know at least 2 people are reading...so...really good chances!

I recently posted about a purse I'd made in early October. I loved the fabrics together, but the overall result looked a little too small and young for the lady I wanted to give it to, so I just put it away in my gift closet and started over. Lucky for you, dear readers, I've decided to pull it back out and give it away. I hope it will make one of you, or some sweet girl you know, very happy!

Here's another picture of the purse...sorry the lighting is not very good.
giveaway3

But wait, there's more....

If you act now (or between now and Sunday evening), you'll be entered to win not only the cute little purse above, but also these lovely bonus gifts! That's right, the prize package includes the handmade purse, a Willow Tree Angel of Freedom ornament (slightly used - it used to hang on a display tree in our gifts & antiques store), a small journal, a cedar fall leaf ornament (leftover from our wedding favors - 7 years ago!), and a pecan beeswax lip balm from Bath & Body Works (never used! and sealed! for your protection!). Oh, and whatever else I decide to toss in between now and Sunday!

giveaway2

All of these lovely prizes can be yours for the low-low price of....

Telling all my readers your funniest purse story!
That's right...tell me about the hideous purse you had to have in 8th grade, or the time your children unpacked your purse privates at a church social. Maybe you left your purse in an embarassing place or your husband used it as a tetherball. Edited to add: If you don't have a blog, be sure to leave an email address where I can reach you!

Having never done a giveaway, I'm not going to promise I'll use a random-number-generator-thingie...maybe I will, maybe I won't....but I promise to be fair and impartial. So join in, won't you? Maybe I can help you get some Christmas gifts out of the way!

Oh, and thanks for stopping by!

Edited to add: Sorry, this giveaway is only open to residents of the US (or those with a US address, Natalie!). I can't afford to ship overseas right now. Thanks for understanding.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Another Late Night Purse...and an Announcement!

Alternate title: Why do I do this to myself?
Alternate title: The Crazy Crafter Strikes Again.
Alternate title: The reason I don't have an etsy shop...yet.

But seriously folks,

I decided to do the cute Beauty Purse pattern from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing. I bought these pretty tweedy suiting fabric remnants at JoAnn Fabrics and thought the contrast of fabrics would look good with the pleats.

Well.

What I ended up with was a series of unfortunate events.

Event #1 - I didn't take a close enough look at the fabric content. It was polyester. As in doesn't take an ironed crease well. As in pain-in-the-heinie to press and sew. Lesson learned. Check your labels.

Event #2 - I piddled around deciding on which pattern to use and didn't start sewing until 9:30. PM. Now you know why it's a Late Night purse. It doesn't have anything to do with David Letterman.

Event #3 - I sewed pieces on backwards. Twice. Yup. Brilliant.

Event #4 - I tried to iron the interfacing that I substituted for the recommended flannel. It was a soft stabilizer, and had the same weight and feel as flannel. Seemed like a reasonable substitute. BUT. It was a heat-soluble stabilizer. Disappeared into the iron. Great. That may lead to another unfortunate event at a later date!

Event #5 - The fact that I still couldn't get a good sharp press when I tried to iron the finished product. So it ended up "poofy".

Finally, Event #6 - I forgot to sew a button loop into it before I sewed the top up, so I had to rip stitches out to get that in there. I finished the project at 3:00. In. The. Stinkin'. Morning.

Whew. So much for a professional-looking finished product! Thankfully, my friends are very gracious about my less-than-perfect handmade gifts. And it gives me a chance to practice and learn and hone my skills. And next time? Well, maybe next time I'll start at 7:00 PM.

tweedy beauty1 tweedy beauty3

(Please excuse the poor picture quality and backgrounds - I couldn't find my camera, so I had to borrow one at the office!)

NOW....since you've been kind enough to stick with me through the tedious and tiresome tyrade above, I have a special announcement.

Tomorrow Morning, on this very blog site, I'll be hosting my VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY!

Tell all your friends. I don't have tons of readers, so the chances will be pretty good! I'll announce the prize tomorrow...so please check back in!