camera strap giveaway winner!

Well, I was out late last night and didn't have time to choose my winner for the camera strap, so early this morning, all entries were thrown into the random number generator, and the winner is.....



I have an international winner! Half-pint pixie from Ireland! I will be contacting you to claim your prize! How exciting! And she chose the kaffe fassett pumpkin paperweight! It's one of my favorites, too!




I want to thank everyone who entered the drawing by offering each of you a 20% discount on your own custom camera strap from my shop. All you have to do to receive the discount is to purchase a strap from my etsy shop and let me know before you pay that you entered my giveaway and I will send you a discounted invoice through paypal. The discount will be good for one week, through November 5.

fall bloggy giveaway carnival :: you're my cup of tea

It is once again time for the quarterly bloggy giveaways carnival and I am once again participating. Yes, I am doing another giveaway while one is still going on, and no, I won't forget about those of you who have entered my other one, and yes, you can enter this one as well! Whew, I hope I answered all of your questions!



Since I am giving away one of my cute camera straps in the giveaway a couple of posts back, (which by the way, if you haven't entered, you still have time until Wednesday)I have decided to give away this adorable quilted tea cozy for those of you who drink tea. I made this a while back for one of my sewing shows, and since it doesn't match my kitchen, I have never used it. So, it will go to someone who will love it and care for it and cozy up her tea pot with it!



Now if tea is not your "cup of tea", I will happily substitute one of my equally as adorable and "green" coffee sleeves, made to slide over your coffee cup to keep your coffee hot and your hand not, and all those cardboard sleeves out of the garbage. Now you can tell your favorite barista, "Thanks, but I have my own!" You just let me know in your comments which you would prefer, and on Sunday, November 2, I will use a random number generator to decide who wins. I will then notify the winner by email and here on my blog!

And since I work from home to help support my lovely family, please take a look at my shop to see if anything there is "your cup of tea" for your holiday gift giving this year! Give the gift of handmade this season! You won't regret it!

Check out the other great giveaways as well!

a glimpse of my kitchen table

This is just a glimpse--we have been eating outside on the back porch a lot lately, however, it is getting colder here, and I guess that means I am going to have to clean my kitchen table off so we can eat inside!



This is a table runner I am working on for my show, Sew Simple, and I have to say, it turned out exactly as I was hoping! I used all Kaffe Fassett fabrics in beautiful rich fall colors and I love it! I can't wait to finish it up and use it on my Thanksgiving table.

handmade holidays aka I'm having a giveaway party!

The Nester is hosting a handmade holiday party and I decided to join in! Buy handmade this holiday season and support your local crafters!

To make it even more exciting, I am offering a free camera strap from my etsy shop! All you have to do to enter to win is to take a look in my shop and leave a comment telling me which strap is your favorite!



When the contest ends next Wednesday, October 29, I will use a random number generator to choose the winning entry and notify the winner by email and here on my blog. Your custom camera strap will be on its way to you within a week of the end of the giveaway!



Take a look at all the other terrific shops for some more handmade love, too! You won't be disappointed!

my beach vacation :: show and tell

Our family just returned from a week's vacation to Jekyll Island on the Georgia coast and if anyone knows me, they will know just how much I love the beach! We had the most amazing weather while there (aside from a few rain showers) and the last evening I had planned for a family photo shoot on the beach.



I am not a professional photographer, but I knew that I wanted photos of my family as our children are getting older and we might not have many opportunities like this to have most of them together again. My oldest daughter unfortunately was unable to make it because she is in college and couldn't miss a week of classes to go with us. The rest of our children were on fall break from school. I searched on flickr for family beach photos and I loosely interpreted some of the ideas I got from there. I loved the way all of them turned out!



Get suggestions from your kids, too. My girls had the idea for the jumping photo. I think it turned out really cute. Most of all, have fun!

We were able to get some great shots on the beach as the sun was setting and although they are not professional, they are perfect to me! As I downloaded them and began reminiscing and laughing, remembering the wonderful times we had while there, I was inspired to make myself some new jewelry. Initially, I had thought I would just make one new pendant to wear on my white/clear glass beaded necklace. But the more I looked at the photos, I couldn't choose just one. In the end, I made five, yes I said FIVE, new charms. I found some quotes that I fell in love with and put those on the back and now I can change them out as my mood changes.



If you have any of your beach photos lying around from your vacations, now is a perfect time to get them out and turn them into a treasured heirloom!

My friend Sherry and I have a business called S & S Heirloom Art and we make these beautiful pieces of jewelry and we are now having a sale where you may purchase 3 of any item and receive the 4th item free! Check out our blog and see all the details. And check back tomorrow morning bright and early when you will find more about an awesome give-away on our blog as well!

quilt giveaway

Elizabeth Cranmer over at Pigtails and Snails is giving away this beautiful quilt!

It is absolutely gorgeous, and all you have to do to enter to win is to leave a comment on her blog. How easy is that!?! You have until 7pm MST on Friday Oct 17th, so go enter!

bathroom makeover

I have been wanting to re-do the kids' bathroom for so long and finally got around to it a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely love it! This is a picture of what it looked like with just the walls painted:

And this is a picture of the shower curtain I made.

The only fabric I had to buy was the red Heather Bailey fabric. All the rest was from my stash! Woo Hoo! It always helps to buy great fabric when it is on sale at your local quilt shop. You never know when you might need it!
This is the artwork I made using some 10"x10" artist canvases, acrylic paints, and scraps of fabrics:

And last, but, not least, these are the towels which I dressed up with the leftover scraps of fabric and put loops on to hang on a new peg rack so my kids will maybe hang their towels up and not throw them on the floor on a heap. You can see from the first photo that they never used the lovely brass-finish towel bar!

I hope to put a tutorial together soon for the towels and put it here in my sidebar along with my other tutorials. I also plan on making a floor mat with another towel I purchased and trimming it with the rest of the leftover fabric scraps so it can be thrown in the wash with the rest of the towels when it is dirty.

I don't know why I waited so long to do this makeover, but I sure know it was worth it and I plan on doing many more rooms in my house this fall! I can't wait to get started!