~ Special Birthday Giveaway ~

**This Giveaway has ended.**

Almost 200 posts, 200 followers this week, and a birthday! What does this mean to you? Why, a special giveaway, of course! Today is my birthday! Yes, a "Halloween baby" as everyone says to me.

To celebrate my birthday I purchased some gifts for YOU! I hope you will like them. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to thank everyone who has followed me and my little blog {thank you!}.

So, I'll bet you want to know what you're getting.

Here it is! It's a bunch of stuff actually. You have:

1. This very popular and antique-y looking 2010 desk calendar ~ it's quite pretty.

2. Where Women Create by Jo Packham. This book is filled with eye candy like you wouldn't believe.

3. Nell Hill's Feather Your Nest ~ It's All In The Details by Mary Carol Garrity. This is one to drool over.

4. Two spools of ribbon ~ one of which says "Naughty But Nice".

5. A Holiday pen.

6. Two packages of Christmasy embellishments.

7. A little holiday bucket, and

8. A holiday stamp.

Here's a close-up of the books.

To enter all you have to do is leave me a comment ~ that's it. Nice and simple.

This giveaway will run through Wednesday, November 4th.

Thomas Paul Brocade Pillow Winner

The winner of the Thomas Paul Brocade Pillow from AllModern.com, picked by random.org, is . . .

Tiffani!

Tiffani, I'll be emailing you shortly for your full name and mailing address, which I will provide to AllModern.com so they can send your pillow on its way to you.

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy the pillow!


Stay tuned for a very special giveaway coming up later today.

You're Too Good To Me!

What a surprise last night when I came across Liz from Savvy Seasons' post giving out the Kreativ Blogger Award and she had me listed! Thank you, Liz!



Apparently, the rules to accepting this award are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each.

7 Things About Me:


1. My birthday is Halloween.

2. I worked loss prevention for Marshall's several years ago {just for a few months}.

3. I am the oldest of four, but the shortest at 5'6".

4. I went to college at 35 for an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice, part-time, while my kids were in school during the day. It took me 5 years to get a 2 year degree, but I did it and made Phi Theta Kappa.

5. I met my husband when I was 19 and we were engaged 6 months later. Married at 21 and next May will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

6. I have two children, a daughter who is 22 {23 in February} and a son who is 19. {And a Siberian Husky that is 9}.

7. I diagnosed myself with Celiac Disease last November {which is good and bad in it's way}, after getting "I don't knows" or incorrect diagnoses over a 9 year period from various doctors.

My nominees are ~ in no particular order:

1. Joys of Home ~ Joy because she can decorate on a budget and make it look like a million bucks {my favorite thing to do}.

2. Cheap Frills ~ Joyce for sharing her ideas and her home.

3. Pickles and Cheese ~ Lisa has a love for harlequin and fleur de lis like me.

4. Comfort & Luxury ~ Tracy has wonderful taste and shares some great inspiration pictures with us {which often prove to be a lesson in decorating as well}.

5. Creations From My Heart ~ where Sherry shares her beautiful home and how she does the things she does.

6. Embellish ~ who makes such great projects and shares the how-to's with us all.

7. Finding Fabulous ~ where Jane has recently started a Frugalicious Friday linky party and everyone gets to show off their frugal finds.

My New Dishes Arrived!

I was so happy that my new dishes arrived in time for this week's Tablescape Thursday over at Between Naps On The Porch!! I think they are even prettier in person!




I set the table, even though I am seriously lacking in placemats, napkins or a tablecloth at the moment, but I wanted everyone to see them. I used the amber colored little dishes I picked up at Goodwill on Saturday {$2.99 for the set of 4}.


This is the small bowl that is part of this line ~ perfect for holding a vegetable.

This is the design on the dinner plates that you really couldn't see in my previous post. It's very subtle.



The beautiful salad plate. I love this design!




Here they are together. I like that they are not exactly the same, but work together.



My candles from Kohl's, Chestnut Souffle, on a long, plain platter I bought and put some leaf garland, real little pumpkins and gourds, and my wood acorns make up the centerpiece.



Maybe next week I can pull it together enough to have proper linens and even some utensils!

Don't forget to enter the Thomas Paul Brocade Pillow Giveaway! It ends Friday at midnight!

Good Grief ~ I've Been BOO'd!

I've been Boo'd by PK over at Room Remix and the lovely ghoul who started the whole thing is Toni over at The Tattered Cottage.

Here are the Blogland instructions for participating in the Halloween fun.

You have been Boo'd. Please keep the fun going by following these instructions:

1. You have 24 hours to work your spell.

2. Copy and post the Halloween Boo Poem with the instructions for playing.

3. Pick 4 blogs you enjoying visiting and tell why you enjoy visiting them, with a link to their blog and remember to link back to me.

4. Be sure to ADD your "Boo" Post back to this original post (The Tattered Cottage) so everyone can join in on the fun.

5. Let's see how fast and far this spreads between now and Halloween.

You Have Been BOO'd

The air is cool, the season is fall,
Soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...
Tricky witches at your door.

The spooks are after things to do,
In fact, a spook brought this "BOO" to you.

The excitement comes when friends like you,
Copy this note and make it two.

We'll all have smiles on our faces,
When we see who Boo'd who's places.

The following have been Boo'd:

Design Esquire ~ always leaves such nice comments on my posts and has great inspiration pictures on her own posts.

Savvy Seasons by Liz ~ fairly new to blogland, but has been sharing her beautiful decor and home, which gives so much inspiration and ideas.

The Graphics Fairy ~ a special Boo for all the great Halloween graphics Karen has shared!

The Stories of A to Z ~ because Beth can actually pull off wearing burlap!

5 Things You Didn't Know About . . .

Welcome to our weekly Wednesday feature, 5 Things You Didn't Know About . . . .

This week it's Joy from Joys of Home.

Favorite music---I have three young adult sons in my home who are constantly playing guitar/drum hero, so most days I'm enjoying whatever music they're playing and singing. On the rare occasion that I get the chance to choose the tunes in our home, I usually choose calm and soothing music. You'll find me listening to spiritual music or to artists like Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Michael Buble, Josh Groben, Harry Connick Jr. and Jane Monheit.

Where would you live---I love living where I do. We are very fortunate to live close to most of our family and good friends. Although our house is a real fixer-upper, we love it. And as a bonus, we live in an area with mountains, lakes, beautiful scenery and all four seasons. But my husband and I do have a dream of living on several acres of wooded property, with a stream, in a cottage with a lot of character. And we'd love to have several out buildings; one for his motorcycles, one as a big workshop to build things like furniture, one as my artist studio, I think I'd like to learn to weld so I'd need a building for that, and then we'd need a huge barn for big family gatherings on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes, that would be a perfect dream place to live!

Favorite cocktail---I'd have to say shrimp cocktail. I don't drink alcohol, so the only cocktails I can think of are shrimp or fruit---I would definitely pick shrimp!

Best advice---Wow, this is a wonderful question! For as long as I can remember I've collected good quotes and advice. I'm always taping up post-it notes with great quotes from all sources like "You are who you choose to be" from the movie The Iron Giant, and "Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with great and strong purpose in you heart" from a church leader.But I really think the best advice is the advice that I needed to hear at that specific point in my life. When I was pregnant with our first child a fellow school teacher advised me to make the sacrifice to be a stay-at-home mom because she wished she had done that. I took her advice and am so glad I did. Then there was the time when I was struggling with my only daughter and a younger friend of mine said that she hoped that I would be as close to my daughter as she was with her mother. I realized that I needed to take the time to enjoy my daughter and look for her good qualities instead of being so caught up in what frustrated me. I'm so thankful that I took her advice because as my daughter (and my sons) grew I found that often the very characteristics in our children that drive us crazy when they're young are the very same ones we want them to have as adults. When I was sad and mourning the fact that the dynamics of our family were beginning to change with my oldest getting married and the second and third leaving for far away countries, I really tried hard to heed the advice to "enjoy the moment." And right now, posted above my computer is the advice "Be today what you wish to be tomorrow."

Person you admire most---I have so many heroes, both dead and living. There is so much I can learn from everyone I come in contact with. But one of the people I admire most is my daughter. She makes a point of being happy. In fact, when people ask, "How are you?" her reply is always, "I'm happy, thank you!" And she has a confidence and determination that I could only dream of having! Those qualities have helped her to serve people in far away countries, Africa and Argentina to name a few. She is spiritual, faithful, kind, strong, adventurous, goal-oriented, and beautiful---inside and out, I am so blessed to be her mother.

Thank you so much for joining us! We have another blogger lined up for next week ~ you'll have to come back then to see who it is that we find out 5 Things You Didn't Know About . . .

Don't forget to enter our giveaway for a Thomas Paul Brocade Pillow ~ ends Friday, October 30th!

Decorative Box ~ From Unfinished to Finished

I had an unfinished wood, hinged lid box for 6 years. 6 years! Just sitting in a closet waiting to be made pretty. I really thought I had taken before and during painting pics of this, but I can't find them anywhere.

I had bought a package of black and white scrapbook papers and this embellishment/paper set below, a couple of months ago. This came with paper, too, but I really just wanted all the little doo-dads it came with.



I really liked the design of the "Enjoy" embellishment {I would have liked a different word, but you take what you get}. I picked out three of the black and white scrapbook paper designs, and cut them to be just a bit smaller than the sides, front and back of the box. I covered the knob feet and lid knob with aluminum foil and spray painted the inside and outside of the box black. It took two coats with some touch-up in certain spots.

I Mod Podged the paper onto the box and the "Enjoy" embellishment had a sticky back, which I just pressed onto the front. I then painted the feet and top knobs in white using a small sponge brush.

Here's a view of the back paper used. {You can just see the frame of the picture I painted black this past weekend}.




I just left the inside plain black. I've held off on doing something to the top of the lid {I just feel like it needs something} because I'm hoping to find either a pretty ribbon that will work with it or a small patterned stencil. When I'm not sure, I like to wait until I see something that "hits" me.



And here it sits for the time being.


I'm linking this post up with:



DIY Day over at Kimba's A Soft Place To Land

Don't forget to check out our new Giveaway for this week! A beautiful Thomas Paul pillow from AllModern.com!

Blog Of The Week ~ Norma Lee Good

I came across a new blogger this past week ~ Norma Lee Good. Not just a new to me blogger, but new to the blogging world. I just had to share her with you and I hope you will check out her blog.

How lovely is this? This is how Norma Lee presents her snack size chips and such for guests to her home. You can read more about that here. What a hostess!

This is Norma Lee's master bathroom. Check out the ginormous fleur de lis! You can see more here.

You've got to check out how she transformed this door!

This is in her entry. As soon as I saw the harlequin pattern she was marked as a bloggy friend! {I'm a nut for a harlequin pattern}!

I hope that these images entice you to visit Norma Lee's blog ~ Norma Lee Good. I'm sure she'd appreciate the welcome or a quick hello!

New Look For An Old Picture

After a rainy, windy Saturday, Sunday dawned bright and sunny. Still a little breezy, but I know I am running out of time to spray paint outside. So I grabbed everything that was due for a coat of black spray paint, got my spray boxes and got going.

One of the items I decided to spray paint {kind of last minute} was the picture above. This was a Home Goods purchase some time ago and, while I still like the print, the frame color wasn't doing anything for me anymore. Here's another view.

So I went to my favorite website, Ballard Designs, to see their black framed prints. I found these to use as inspiration. I figured "what the heck", since I didn't like the current frame color anyway I really had nothing to lose.

I taped over the glass with blue tape and newspaper.

I sprayed the whole frame, giving it two coats.

This is how it turned out. I love it! I think it even makes the colors in the print pop more, too. Just goes to show ~ don't be afraid to give something a new look with a little spray paint!

Linking this post up with Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch.

Don't forget to enter our Thomas Paul Pillow Giveaway!

Thomas Paul Brocade Pillow Giveaway

**This Giveaway has ended. **

AllModern.com {a CSN Store} has very kindly offered up a giveaway and I chose this pillow for you {'cause that's how I roll for my bloggy friends}. This is a Thomas Paul Brocade Pillow in Brown and I think it is versatile enough for you to use anywhere in your home, even with Contemporary Bedding.

I really love the pattern on this pillow and it's a nice size, too! It features a 100% cotton fabric Brocade pattern and Brown color, Polyester insert, Part of a Cotton collection 18" W x 18" D. This pillow is valued at $38.00.

Here are the rules for entering:

Just leave me a comment {can't get any easier than that}. Please make sure you leave me an email address if you do not have a blog. In addition, you can do any or all of the following for additional entries:

* Become a new follower of my blog and let me know in a separate comment.
* Tweet about this giveaway and let me know in a separate comment {include your @ name}.
* Write a post about this giveaway or put it on your sidebar, link to it, and let me know in a separate comment {include the link to the post}.

That's up to 4 entries! Remember, each one must be a separate comment so you are counted properly. This contest will run through Friday, October 30, 2009, {midnight} and the winner will be announced on Saturday, October 31, 2009. Winner will be picked by random number generator. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada.