The Lucky Winner!

Thank you all for leaving a comment and entering my giveaway. I’ve really enjoyed visiting all of you ‘old’ friends and new and reading your blogs this week too. 

This weekend has been crazy busy for me, but now the craft fair is over I hope to catch up with things I’ve neglected around the house this past week and also finally draw a winner for my giveaway!

It was the old fashioned way this time, I wrote out all your names, giving extra entries for followers too, and drew a lucky winner ‘out of the hat’  - which was actually a box . . . . .  and the winner is:

Carla from The Country Diary of a Southern Lady :-)

Carla, email me at denise at deniseschulz dot com with your mailing address and I’ll get your goodies out to you this week.

Here’s a little peek at our booth this weekend. I have to go spend some time with hubs and Kiki tonight so I’ll be back tomorrow with a bigger post about it. Have a wonderful Sunday evening ya’ll!

Extended!

Hi everyone, I got so busy on Friday night packing up the car for the craft market, then we were gone all day yesterday. I will extend the giveaway until today. You can still enter if you haven’t already – link is over to the right, and I will draw a winner later today.

I’ll hopefully get a chance to share pictures of our booth yesterday too. It was a long but fun day and thankfully the sun was shining :-) Have a great Sunday, I’m off to make a yummy breakfast for my family, I feel like I haven’t seen them all weekend!

There’s still time . . . .

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway, there’s still time! The link is over to the right at the top of the page, or even easier – CLICK HERE and leave a comment :-) 

I’ll be drawing a winner on Friday night. I’ve been super busy today creating a ‘booth’ for Cheryl and I for Saturday. I’m pretty excited as it’s all looking really nice (if I do say so myself). I’ll be sure to take pictures and share with you next week.

I won’t get a chance to post til after Saturday except for announcing the winner tomorrow, so I hope you all have a great weekend.

Come with me . . . to Tuscany!

I just have to share with you my friend Cheryl’s dining room makeover. Trouble is I don’t have any before pictures – but that’s ok, the ‘after’ shots are all you need , it is so stunning ;-)

It all started with this . . .

this is the beautiful ‘wine tasting’ station that Becca shared with us over on her blog ‘Adventures In Decorating’

It inspired me to create this . . .

a little wine station in my kitchen. You can read my full post about it HERE.  Cheryl and I had just started going to a little local winery for wine tastings each month, so I emailed her Becca’s picture to see. Her sweet hubby saw the email while she was at work and when she got home HE had created a little wine station for her too :-)

Well, that got Cheryl to thinking. . . . her ‘station’ wasn’t quite working out for her, it took up much needed counter space in her kitchen so she told me she had an idea to turn her whole dining room in to a ‘Tuscan themed’ wine room!  And when Cheryl gets an idea – you better watch out ;-) She had seen some murals on line and went ahead and ordered one, it was to cover the whole wall! I helped her one night a couple of weeks ago to paste it up there (watching my Dad wallpaper for many years finally paid off!).  As I said I don’t have any before pictures but I’ve snapped the ‘after pics from Cheryl’s Facebook (I know she won’t mind me sharing) . . . .

You may be able to click on the photos for a larger view. Isn’t it gorgeous!

Here’s a view with the lights on so you can see the mural better. It’s just breathtaking when you walk in there :)  Notice the ‘real candle sconces on the wall, deliberately placed on the columns so it gives a great 3D effect.

You may not know but Cheryl’s house is exactly the same as mine (room for room) but her elevation is different. Mine has a balcony out front which means a small window in my dining room – Cheryl has this beautiful bay window. And I’ll just mention again, for those who don’t already know, Cheryl lives right next door to me ;-)

A closer view of the mural

another shot at a slightly different angle.

It’s not completely finished yet, Cheryl still wants a couple of chairs and a small table to go by the bay window, and this wall you’re looking at (above pic) will eventually have a built in bar, with her wine fridge underneath :-) And eventually after that she hopes to replace the carpet with wood flooring.

I just love it . . . we both love it!  I was over there last night having wine and cheese with my sweet friend. She actually sent her boys over to my front door after she got home from work with a huge bunch of pink roses and a card :-) The card played the theme song from the Golden Girls, it nearly made me cry.  I am truly blessed by her friendship. I used to pray and ask God to send me a close friend, as close as next door I’d say, someone who loves you like I do Lord, someone that would feel like a sister to me – Cheryl is the answer to that prayer, and I thank Jesus for her every day.

 

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you Philippians 1:3

They’re here!

I finally finished some of my tea cup bird feeders and just in time. Cheryl and I will be doing our first ‘combined’ craft fair this weekend as ‘Birds and the Beads, and I’m pretty excited. We are still working on our display, and actually might not have it exactly the way we want by then, but after this fair we will have a few months before the ‘spring time’ ones start up and by then we should be really set to go.

I shared pictures on Facebook over the weekend of the teacups but some of my friends don’t use that and have been asking if I will be blogging about them. Of course I will . . . . here are a few photos that I took (posing with a ‘not real’ cardinal and some birdy seed). I’ll be giving away free little packets of bird seed with each purchase :-)

   

       

So what do you think? I’ve been scouring the thrift stores and estate sales for these cups and each one has to look just right. I don’t just want to pick up everything I see.

This one for instance is ‘Spode’ English China. It’s one of my favorites so far, and I actually saw one just like it on Ebay for $14! Thankfully I didn’t have to pay that much. Although I will probably be selling them for about $15-$18, depending on how much I had to pay for the cup and saucer.

I also love this big poppy cup and saucer too (I’m quite tempted to keep this one for my own front yard!)

Hope you enjoyed seeing my little feeders, I’m hope they sell well at the fairs.

It’s coming fast. . .

You know the days are going fast when your 9yr old tells you she thinks October went by really quickly!!!  When I was a kid I used to think a month lasted ‘forever’.  I’ve noticed around Blogland this past week that some of you are already getting your Christmas decorations out!  Now that seems waaaaay too early for me, but to each their own. It’s not that I don’t want to see Christmas decor yet, I love to see it, and I’m thankful for the blogs that do mention their Christmas decor and show it all off to us, it gets me excited knowing that ‘Christmas is coming fast’!

It’s still my tradition to not put up the tree or decorate for the holidays until after Thanksgiving – the very next day to be exact, and as much as I’m tempted to follow my fellow bloggers I will stick with my traditions ;-)  What I will do now though is start making lists of things I need to do, and the thing on top of my list right now is . . . . order our Christmas cards. 

It’s been two years since I did a picture Christmas card, I usually don’t send them every year, but this year I want to.  I’ve used Shutterfly in the past for ordering my photos online but I haven’t ordered cards from them before. This year they were offering 50 free cards to bloggers who wanted to take part in a ‘blog review’ about what our favorite cards are.

One of the things I thought I had to do to make a Christmas card was take a current picture of us with a holiday background. That kinda poses a challenge when you want to take the photo in November but you have no Christmas decorations out yet. I now realize I don’t actually have to do it that way. I’ve been searching the Shutterfly website and looking at their Christmas cards - http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

A lot of their samples show great photos of families but not necessarily with a holiday background… the card itself gives you the great background, so really I could use any photo of us I like.  I could use some even from the beach like this one on their site,  for instance. . .

I also like the idea of just a flat photo card http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

(these seem to be very popular with our friends and I get a few in the mail each year which I actually like displaying on our tree).

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards  There are so many choices to choose from, I am having fun browsing them all.  I’ve just discovered the pretty calendars again and I think I will have to create one to put in hubby’s stocking :) I’ve done this before but many years ago, but I know it’s something he would love to put on his desk in the office.

A Little Giveaway

Well, it really did turn much colder here this week, yesterday in particular when the sun didn’t shine and the high was only 58  - Brrrrrr!!!!!  We even had some rain too.  It feels like winter is finally on it’s way.

Recently I joined in with Kim’s ‘Snail Mail’ party. I love getting snail mail but of course I don’t get much these days, nor do I send much out either. I want to change that. I want to take the time to drop my family and friends a letter or a card much more often than I do now. 

With that in mind, it gave me the idea to put this little giveaway together.  The red background in the picture above is actually a new throw, a VERY VERY SOFT new throw ;-)  Just like the one I bought for my porch the other week (which you can see in the post HERE).

There’s also some Christmas stationary, some little votive candles, two Christmas ‘picks’ that you could get crafty with or just put on your Christmas tree, 24 gift tags, treat bags (so you can make some cookies or candy to give away to your neighbors ;),

  A cute ‘Snoopy’ mug (I know someone who would LOVE this) :-) The mug will be filled with tea/coffee/hot chocolate mixes (which I still have to buy)!

So, the idea was for you to snuggle up under your lovely new throw, light some festive candles, make yourself a yummy hot drink and write some letters to your friends :-)  I used to write a holiday letter every year to include with my Christmas cards but I haven’t done that in the past two years . . . . I need to start doing it again, it’s always fun to look back and read your ‘old’ letters!

To enter for a chance to win, simply leave a comment on this post before next Friday. 

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If you are a follower of my blog leave another comment telling me this and your name will be entered twice. If you aren’t a follower but would like to become one then click my ‘follow’ button in the right hand menu, and leave a separate comment to let me know.

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Mention this giveaway on your blog for a third chance to win and let me know in a separate comment.

I will draw a winner next Friday, November 12th.  Have a great weekend. I’ll be back on Monday.

Hugs

Denise