(Thanks to the random number generator) Poster #4:
Lulu Sparkles!
(I've sent you an email Lulu, so be sure to check your inbox).
Sorry for being a bit late in posting the winner, I had forgotten that I had agreed to pick my Dad up from a doctor's appointment and then take him home. Thanks everyone for 'playing'. I've got some exciting news to share, hopefully I'll get it up tomorrow.
I hope that each of you had a great weekend. For you US readers, I know that you had a long weekend. Did you do anything fun? Here in Canada it was just a 'normal' weekend <smile>. However, there was nothing 'normal' about the one Rick and I had. We had an unscheduled trip to the ER on Sunday as Rick was having chest pain accompanied by flu-like symptoms. Come to find out that the man has been having sharp chest pains for the past month and hadn't told me....niiiiice. Long story short, after tons of tests, looks like his cardiac health is good and they're wondering if it's his gall bladder. So he has some specialist appointments coming up so that we can hopefully get it all figured out.
As a thank you for your continued reading, I have a little giveaway for you. Up for grabs is one copy of 'Haven' by the decorator Chris Madden. This beautiful book walks you through three decorating styles; romantic, adventurous and serene. It helps you decide which one is you and how you can achieve the look. So if you'd like to add this book to your bookshelf, please leave a comment and I'll draw a name on Friday morning. As I will be paying for shipping, this draw is open to Canadian and US addresses only (thank you for your understanding).
Well jeepers, you sure know how to make a group of girls feel special! I want to say such a huge THANK YOU for the incredible welcome you gave Postmark: LA. To say that I feel humbled and warmed by your comments is an understatement. From the bottom of my heart, I really do appreciate each of you!
Thanks to the random number generator, the lucky winner of the embroidery project I made for Postmark: LA is ANN who posted on May 16 at 7:58 PM. Congratulations girl, I've sent you an email, so check your inbox.
-----------------------
Thursday morning Rick and I drove down to Seattle for a few days. Our plan was simple, to relax, hit a few antique and salvage stores and go to a Mariners baseball game. We did all that and more. Still love spending time with my man. He's a peach and humors my meandering through antique malls at a leisurely pace as I examine each treasure. He even spoiled me by purchasing a few things that I thought were a bit pricey (but I loved!).
Once again, thanks for your support and encouragement. It means the world to us!
Do you ever download photos from you camera and feel your breath hitch because you captured a moment so precious that it takes your breath away?
This past weekend my side of the family celebrated Rick's birthday combined with my nephew Daniel's birthday. Rick's celebration was a few months late (poor guy! trying to get the whole family together with everyone's schedule is crazy hard), and Daniel's was a week early. As you can imagine with Rick being a police officer, he is the hero of our nephews. They mimic him, ask him for police stories and are pretty much always pretending that they're police just like Uncle Rick. At one point during the evening Daniel asked to pose for birthday photos (he loves to see himself on the screen of the digital camera) after I did a few with him, I asked him if he wanted a special photo with anyone else...well surprise, surprise, he wanted a photo with Uncle Rick. The two of them fooled around a bit as I was snapping away, and I discovered as I downloaded the imaged today, this gem. It's horribly out of focus, it's in no way a good photo, but I feel it - it really speaks to me of the relationship Rick has with Daniel.
-----------------------------
If you'll remember a few posts back, I talked about inspiration and how I've been feeling so inspired lately, so I thought I'd share a purchase I made which has been inspiring me.
Laurie Meseroll is an artist who specializes in folk art pieces. I first discovered her work in the home of my friend Sally, and I was instantly enamored. It became a goal of mine to purchase a piece or two for my own home. A few weeks ago the site that sells Laurie's pieces, Earth Angel Toys, had a sale, so I finally began my collection. I plan to hang the painting in my studio at some point. For now it's in my kitchen.
-------------------------------------------------------
Before I leave, I need to let you know whose name I drew for the stamp giveaway. KIM HARTER you're the lucky winner! I'll be sending you an email for your address as soon as I've finished this post.
Have a great day everyone!
I am beyond thrilled to announce that I will be celebrating National Scrapbooking Day with a class at MELROSE VINTAGE in Phoenix, AZ Phone: (602) 636-0300 on May 3rd. Diane the lovely owner of Melrose Vintage and I have talked for three years about having me come do a class. Three years people!! The stars have finally aligned and we've done it. My ticket's booked, the sample's made and we're set to go. All that's needed is some of you delightful people to come spend the evening with us.
If you've never been to Melrose Vintage you're in for a treat. I can honestly say that I have never been in a store like it before. It's inspiration on hyper drive. Imagine the home you'd like to have, full of Shabby Chic furniture, beautiful crystal chandeliers and vignettes that inspire you to accessorize and style your own home. But wait, then you round a corner and behold, a carefully selected assortment of scrapbooking products is also available. Specializing in shabby chic and vintage products, Melrose Vintage's scrapbooking department is a hidden jewel for those who adore romantic, vintage style. Can you tell that I love this store?!! I'm sure you'll find it as wonderful as I do.
I invite you to join me on Saturday May 3rd from 6:30 - 9:30PM. We will have the store to ourselves and Diane will host us in perfect style. Our class? Designed specifically for those who love vintage shabby,the 'Glittery Memory Board' class is a delight. We'll be working with gesso, acrylic paint, scrapbooking papers, a charcoal pencil, luscious ribbons, German glass glitter, vintage ledger and book pages, a set of classic brocade acrylic stamps and crepe paper. You will learn background collage techniques in addition to 2 different ways to create those popular rosettes that are used frequently in shabby chic projects. Each student will have the choice between completing the project in two different color schemes; soft and pastel, or bold and vintage. Your finished project will be a home decor piece that will look beautiful hung on a wall or door. For those of you who are local, Diane has the class sample in the store if you'd like to check it out!
To register please call Melrose Vintage at (602) 636.0300. Class cost is $65
I can't tell you how excited I am about this. Let me know if you're coming...I can't wait to see you!
To close out the week in grand style, here is a wee giveaway from me to one of you! Leave a comment to be entered in a draw for these two rubber stamps. As I will pay for shipping, giveaway is open to those in Canada or the USA (thanks for your understanding). Giveaway will be open until 10AM on Tuesday morning. (April 22) Good Luck!
1. Vintage White Buttons, 2. Hanoï old door and lock, 3. European Antique Market, 4. The Ultimate Shabby Chic Bowl of Thread, 5. .Reflections., 6. Shabby Chic, 7. shabby chic tri colour roses, 8. Pretty Vintage Seam Binding, 9. Fabric flower with vintage button, 10. pearlblingfind, 11. Marie Antoinette style, 12. Antique Chippy Bench, 13. Flower cupcake / shabby chic cupcake, 14. pink peony, 15. doll 3, 16. Crystal chandelier bokeh
I hope that you've each had a wonderful long weekend. As a Christian, Easter weekend is such a special holiday. For without the resurrection, our faith would be empty. Especially in spring, when the natural world seems to be waking from a season of death and decay, the power of the Easter message seems perfectly timed. I hope that whatever your faith, this weekend was a blessed one for you and your family.
For the past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the word 'inspiration'. As a crafter we find inspiration in so many things. Anything from visual to auditory stimulation can trigger a moment that becomes a catalyst to creating something wonderful. I feel so blessed to have a circle of creative friends who inspire and encourage me, we've been working on something special that I can't wait to share with you....we just need a wee bit more time...In the meantime I have been experimenting with the photo sharing site Flickr. I've heard such great things about it, but I haven't explored it and all its functions for myself. So I set about trying to learn about it over the weekend...Many hours later (after being sucked into visual overload) I don't think I've even scratched the surface. However, I did figure out how to create a 'Favorites' collage. So at the top of my post, you'll see the images that really spoke to me. I hope you enjoy them.
For those of you who are somewhat local to me and are looking for a fun scrapbooking class to attend, I have a class announcement to share with you. I'm pleased-as-punch to share that I will be teaching a class at Treasury of Memories in Bellingham, WA on Saturday, April 12th at 1:30pm. I look forward to seeing some of you there.
Finally, I have a little something that is looking for a home...While checking out one of my favorite thrift stores a few weeks ago, I found a brand new, in packaging x box controller. I wasn't sure if it would work on our system, but for $4, I couldn't pass it up...well, it turns out our x box is a 360 and the controller is for the older system. So, if you have an ORIGINAL XBox (NOT the 360 version) and you want a free controller, please leave a comment and this sucker will get sent out to the first person who asks for it. I will ship to Canada or the US, if you're international and would like it, I'll ask you to chip in for the shipping costs (thanks for your understanding).
I just did the Drawing for the Winter Cheer Giveaway #4 courtesy of Melissa Frances and I'm pleased to announce that the winner is: CATHERINE who posted on Dec 18th at 1:46. I'll be emailing you shortly Catherine. I also chose two other winners who will each receive $20 worth of product. So Leesha (Dec 18th, 1:37 AM) and Patricia (Dec 20, 1:15PM) check your emails for a message from me.
Today I'm battling a cold and feel really yucky. So I'm going to make today's entry short and sweet.
Birthday wishes go out tothis sweet girl & this sweet girl. Love you Kim & Pam!
(wonderful cameo stamp courtesy of Heather from Poppy Ink - they've got some fun rubber over there!)
Rick and I got home yesterday night after a really fun 2 days in Seattle. It was so incredibly enjoyable....everything from the concert, to the shopping to the eating and spending time with my parents was just what we'd hoped. The weekend started with Rick and I heading out Sat mid-morning and driving down from home to Seattle with a brief stop at an outlet mall to hit the Sony outlet (for him) and the Restoration Hardware outlet (for me!). From there we drove right through to a mall that houses a few of our favorite restaurants where we were going to meet my parents for an early dinner before the concert. I've got to say, I hardly ever willingly choose to go to malls around the Christmas season. I'm one of those who tends to Christmas shop all year long, so come December there is no rush to find that perfect gift. As such, I was completely amazed at the crazy amount of people at the mall. We were lucky to even find a parking stall in the lot! After parking we headed through the mall only to discover that our chosen restaurant (P.F. Chang's) had a 2.5 hour wait for a table. Not exactly what we'd been anticipating! A quick change of plans had us eating at the Cheesecake Factory (which had been on the agenda as our lunch destination the next day) as their wait was only 30 minutes. Due to the wait for dinner, we chose to drive with my parents directly from mall to the Michael W. Smith concert. The concert was beautiful, such melodious music with a 65 piece orchestra. What a treat and a great way to celebrate the reason for the season. From the concert we headed to the hotel that my mom found on-line. It was really, really nice. My hubby's favorite part was the 42 inch plasma TVs in each room. Gotta love that! Sunday saw us leaving the hotel and doing some shopping before heading to P.F. Chang's for lunch (after Saturday's mix-up, we booked a lunch reservation). Yummy food! It was a wonderful mini-holiday and it made it very special to share it with my parents. We had a lot of laughs and my dad said that it needed to be the beginning of a new seasonal tradition.
I thought I'd share a few things I found on the trip with you. Unfortunately we didn't do any antiquing, but I did find 2 crafts stores and brought home 4 stamps. The scallop oval in the middle is by Paper Source, the other three are by Impress Rubber Stamps. I can't wait to use them!
Now here's what I'm sure many of you are wondering about....what do I have up my sleeve for the Winter Cheer Giveaway #4. Hmmmmm, well I knew that I wanted it to be big, crafty, and fun. I also
know that many of you come and visit me because of my job at Melissa Frances, a crafting product line. Sooo...after talking to Melissa, it's my pleasure to announce that Melissa Frances is sponsoring Giveaway #4!!!
The winner of this draw will receive a whopping $150 worth of Melissa Frances scrapbooking products. We're talking scrapbooking paper, acrylic stamps, and embellishments galore. What an awesome Christmas gift to one lucky winner!
So cross your fingers (and your toes). Giveaway open to those with Canadian/US mailing addresses (Thanks for your understanding). Please leave a comment to be entered in the draw for the prize. I'll accept comments until 12 Noon on Friday (PST). Then, we'll do the draw and select the winner.
What a Fun Giveaway! It was neat to see how many of you are already familiar with the Canadian Scrapbooker, and how many of you didn't know that we had our own scrapbook publication this side of the 49th parallel. I also wanted to say how much I appreciate the kind words that so many of you had regarding the column I work on each issue. You made me blush!!
Without further ado, the winner of this week's Giveaway is:
I will be sending you an email as soon as I finish this post Wendy! Way to go....and because I'm having SO much fun with the giveaways and I happen to have a few of the Winter 07/08 issues around the house, I also chose two other winners who will receive the Winter issue to peruse. Those two lucky ladies are: Debbie, who posted Dec 11th at 4:43PM, and Holly who posted Dec 11th at 3:11. I know you'll each enjoy receiving the issue!
In vintage treasure news, the other day I picked up the buttons that I'd told you about last week from the antique store. Right now they're still in their boxes sitting on my kitchen counter. I get such pleasure from looking at them, they're so pretty. While I was there, I also found a darling photo and a another spelling primer with a beautiful notation on the front page. Here are the goods:
This weekend I'm really excited about going to this guy's concert. I've never been to one of his Christmas concerts before, so I'm really looking forward to it. My parents are coming too, so I'm sure it will be a blast. We'll stop at some of our favorite Seattle restaurants and hopefully an antique store or two as well. I hope that whatever you plan to do this weekend, you have safe travels and a wonderful time. Be sure you check back on Monday for the launch of the next (HUGE) giveaway!
Today I'm excited to announce the details of Winter Cheer Giveaway #3. The winner of this week's giveaway should buckle up their seat belt and get ready for a year of inspiration, education and eye catching paper crafts. Yes, indeed!
I'm so happy to share with you that my friends at the Canadian Scrapbooker are offering a ONE
YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to the lucky winner of this week's draw! Just imagine, one whole year of an amazing magazine being delivered to your mailbox completely free of charge! Gotta love that!
The Canadian Scrapbooker is really unlike many of the other scrapbook publications out there. It's real. I'm so proud to be a small part of their team and I want to give a HUGE 'THANK YOU' shout-out to Jackie and Katharina (the co-founders) for the gift that they're offering to one of you!
Giveaway open to those with Canadian/US mailing addresses (Thanks for your understanding). Please leave a comment to be entered in the draw for the prize. The Giveaway will close this Thursday at 5PM PST.
Here's a peek at a layout I did for the Winter 2007 issue. It's called 'Snowman Addict' and it's all about my snowman collection. Enjoy & Good Luck!
