Intrepid Thread Fabric Giveaway!

Welcome to my first giveaway!

I'm very excited about this! Back in April, Julie from Intrepid Thread posted on Facebook that she was creating a schedule of giveaways and to contact her if we wanted to host. I've been trying to grow my little blog with several linky parties and some blog updates and I thought this giveaway would be so great to help in that endeavor. I signed up for early July because I knew we were moving into our new house (photo tour to come next week) in late June. That would give me time (I thought) to make something for my house with other fabric I bought from Intrepid Thread and then I could blog about it as part of this giveaway. Ya, if you read my last post you can guess, that didn't happen because I tend to procrastinate a bit. I started the project. I just didn't finish it. Does that count for partial credit?

I will be blogging about my project when I finish it soon. But I'll let you at least see the pretty fabric right now. I bought Yellow Pillow Fort from the collection "In My Room" by Jenean Morrison.

I love the color and fun symmetrical pattern.
Any guesses what I'm making?

I also got some more fabric from Intrepid Thread but my mom is making this project for me.

We have a King size bed and none of the quilts my mom made me for each year of college are big enough to share with my husband when I'm sleeping fit nicely on the bed. So that meant she had to make another quilt for me(us)...darn! :) I chose the blues and greens from In My Room by Jenean Morrison. Mmm, I love it!

Probably my favorite print from the line--Blue Lazy Afternoon--although it's so hard to choose! I love how this looks like it was colored with colored pencils.

  Pieces cut to start making a quilt!

Here's a couple of the blocks ready to be sewn together.

I will post pictures when the quilt is done! I'm so excited. Thanks mom :)

 

And now for the GIVEAWAY!!!

The fabric bundle from Intrepid Thread today celebrates Christmas in July (and if you are a procrastinator like me, you may win this fabric and still have time to make something for this Christmas in December).

The Winner will receive 8 fat quarters

(one fat quarter of each of these prints pictured here) 

from Hip Holiday by Josephine Kimberling

You can see the entire Hip Holiday collection at Intrepid Thread's online shop.

Aren't the prints so fun!? From top to bottom they are -- Tree Shopping White, Ornament Glam in Red, Hip Forest in White, Star Bursts in Green, Star Bursts in White, Reindeer Stroll Red, Reindeer Stroll Green, and Silver Metallic Print.

How can you win this, you ask? Well, there are multiples ways to enter:

#1. Leave a comment answering this question: if you won, what would you make with this fun Christmas fabric?

#2. Follow me on Bloglovin. Leave a comment telling me you became a follower.

#3. Follow the Intrepid Thread on Bloglovin. Leave a comment telling me you became a follower.

#4. Like Intrepid Thread on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you did so.

#5. Check out any previous blog post of mine and leave a comment (on this post) telling me the title of the other post you read. Feel free of course to comment on that other post as well. :)

#6. Leave a comment guessing what I'm making with my Yellow Pillow Fort fabric.

Not too hard huh? Up to 6 entries per person. Giveaway will close at midnight on Tuesday, July 16th and a winner will be selected randomly and announced on Wednesday, July 17th.

Thank you so much to Julie at Intrepid Thread for sponsoring this fun first giveaway!

Is It Too Late?

Too late to post about my Christmas decorations? I wanted to post about the things I made and the decorating I did back in mid-December when everyone was having linky parties, but oh it was so busy with teaching, getting ready for Christmas and life. So I'm doing it now. Hey, it's still December at least!

I started with these wooden letters and spray paint from JoAnn's.

It became this! Our bathroom has a blue color scheme so I wanted to add some Christmas decoration that fit. The blue bells and white ribbon are also from JoAnn's. I hotglued the letters onto the ribbon.

 I started with spray adhesive from Hobby Lobby, styrofoam cones and red/silver/green glitter from Dollar Tree.

And it became three glittery trees! I got this idea from the blog eighteen25. Thanks for the fun idea! I couldn't find any candlesticks to glue them onto like she did and I was running out of time so they are just on a candle holder, candle lid and the top of the piano. Maybe next year I will put them in candlesticks.

I started with white ribbon and ornaments from JoAnn's.

And it became a cute way to fill the awkward "window" on our staircase. I got my inspiration for this idea from Pinterest and it was from the blog Saving Money Living Life. I think hers looks way better though. Next year I want to try it again but with some smaller balls and more variety of lengths like she did. It's hard to see, but I have dark blue, light blue, and silver balls.

I already showed you my Advent Calendar and entryway table decor here, but I thought I would include it with all the decor pictures. The wooden B on the bottom shelf was a wedding decor item and the BELIEVE basket was 60% off at Michael's.

 

 I did have a tall cylinder vase on the left side with a white taper candle in it filled with red and green mints as well. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures before our Christmas party when I lit the candle and it melted down several inches until the candle was lost in the mints and now it is all a melted stuck mess inside the vase. OOPS! Guess I should have NOT lit that candle but left it alone as un-melting decor. Still have to try and get that hard candy rock out of the vase...it was only $1.00 so if it breaks I won't cry.

 

My "mantel", which is actually the top of my piano.

 I found the mirror at a garage sale (read about it here). I downloaded the triangle banner letters from Shanty 2 Chic and printed it on dark red cardstock (purchased from JoAnn's). I used glue dots to stick it onto the ribbon...but the letters have fallen down dozens of times so next year I will need to go with some heavy-duty glue. The votive holders were a gift from my mom, the chalkboard was from my wedding, the greenery and bird is from JoAnn's, and the glittery trees are the very same from above in this post.

I got this idea from Pinterest, and when I followed the link it took me to House and Home. I do not consider myself a good drawer by any stretch of the imagination. I am actually quite proud of how this turned out.

 My "bay window", which is actually my large kitchen window sill that looks huge, empty, and ugly if I don't decorate it. Darn, huh?

The mini tree, bell ornaments, red birds, ribbon, red berries, pointsettas,and fake snow is all from JoAnn's (on sale or with a coupon!) I had saved the jars from various food items. The metal bucket is from my wedding as are the wood slices. The wooden B is from Hobby Lobby and the stand for it is from Michael's. My mom gave me the Epsom Salt which is in the bottom of the jars as well as the little greenery from trees at her house. The candles I bought at Super 1. Lesson I learned...the votive candles looked really pretty sitting on the Epsom salt inside those jars, but they do not look pretty after they burned for 3 hours and are now a flat mess of wax. Oops. They are probably stuck to the jars too (my mom pinned a tip for getting them out which I will have to try). So next time, I would still put candles in the jars but not light them. I actually plan to leave this window display up for another month or so since it is more wintery than Christmasy.

So forget the fact that it's late...what was your favorite? Is there anything you want to make/do for your own Christmas decor next year?

My Christmas Presents

Well, I meant to post this yesterday. But, I slept in until noon (maybe your jaw dropped, but it was SO nice!) and then had to finish cleaning the house before the in-laws arrived.

Here are my Christmas presents!!!

From my mother and father in-law:

Cross country skis, poles (and boots  but we still need to shop and find ones that fit us)!

 

A Sterilite 3-drawer organizer. My mother-in-law found all sorts of crafting supply goodies and put them in the drawers. I added stuff I already have and now it sits on my desk ready for projects.

Icing Spatula--guess I need to make a cake now :)

Springy whisk (I don't know if that's the technical name but it's different than a normal whisk)

  Reusable canning lids and rings! How cool is that? I can't wait to use them this summer. 

I don't know if I posted about it...but for my birthday, my husband gave me a canning pot and a kit with all the essential tools and my in-laws gave me a food mill so now I will be well-equipped for some canning.

From my brother-in-law:

 

Kurt S. Adler 10 light star tree topper
Can't wait to put it on our tree next year!

From my parents:

 

A Silhouette Cameo!!! Oh my goodness I cannot wait to try this out. Thinking I will watch the instructional DVD and play with it today! It will cut up to 12 inches wide and 10 feet long on paper, vinyl, or fabric! You can also get marker cartridges for it so it can draw! You can put a color print and it will cut it out for you. Wow, this was such a surprise and I am so looking forward to all the crafting and classroom possibilities with it!

All these vinyl sheets! Some transfer paper too. My mom got it from Expressions Vinyl

The $10 download card and the mat on the left came with the Silhouette. Then I also got an extra blade and a longer mat (also from Expressions Vinyl.)

Project Life 12x12 Cobalt Binder

Project Life Cobalt Journaling Cards

I love taking pictures and have always liked the idea of scrapbooking. However, when I took time to sit down and work on it, I just get so overwhelmed by all the little stuff you can put on a page and it took me forever to do one page! My mom heard about Project Life and thought it would be a good fit for me. Slap the pictures in page providers and write about it on journaling cards. I can add embellishments if I want to but not necessary. Fast and easy, but still cute. That's my kinda scrapbooking! I have already started downloading several different cards that I find on Pinterest. So looking forward to getting some pictures printed and working on this.

Project Life Photo Pocket Pages Design A, pack of 60 pages. It hols 4 horizontal 4x6 and 4 vertical 3x4.

Project Life Photo Pocket Pages Design D, pack of 12 pages. It holds 4 vertical 4x6 and 4 horizontal 3x4.

 

Striped t-shirt dress from Shade

Black Jersey maxi skirt from Shade. It is SO comfortable. I love the heavier weight of it and yet it is so comfy too.

 

 Brown Corduroy Jacket by Calvin Klein Jeans from Costco

Head massager--it feels SO good.

Day ski pass! We have some cousins visiting in February and now we can go skiing with them!

From my brother:

 

My brother donated school supplies in my name through World Vision! This is the second year he had done this and I think it is so great. Reading the card makes me tear up!

Naturally Knotty Bamboo Wrap Scarf in Cloud Gray from Costco

From my husband:

 

A corded USB mouse. My wireless one drives me crazy sometimes and I mentioned it a long time ago...and he remembered! 

Pie cutter/server. This OXO utensil has serrated sides to cut the pie. We tried it out that night and it works really well! Very slick.

 

Fiskars paper trimmer! It has a fold-out ruler so that I can work with bigger pieces of paper and yes, it does have the pretty blue and white flowers on it too!

3-hole puncher! As a teacher, it is so great to have a tool like this at home.

What do you think? I was a bit spoiled huh? :) I love how my family thought of things to expand the possibilities of my hobbies! I am so grateful and looking forward to the fun these gifts will provide!

What did you get for Christmas? What was the biggest surprise?

Advent Days 1-3

Here are the pictures and activities from the first 3 days of our Advent adventures :)

I used a centerpiece square of burlap from my wedding to make a tree skirt. I used that dolphin mug to trace  circle and then cut it out. Our tree is so small it would fit through that. While it wasn't super big, it was big enough to mostly cover the huge tree stand.

 Hubby putting the lights on. We wanted a small tree since we will be celebrating Christmas at both of our parents so not many presents to go underneath. We set it on our hexagon end table to give it some height.

 My  mom got me all these ornaments on clearance after Christmas last year. I have been waiting and waiting until Christmas to finally use them. I bought the ribbon at JoAnn's.

Putting ornaments on. 

Finished tree! Growing up, we got a new ornament each year based on an important event. All our ornaments had special memories and were great. I love that tradition. However, I also love seeing trees that are decorated with a theme and I have always wanted to do it. And thanks to my mom buying me those ornaments, now, for my first Christmas with my own tree, we have a blue and gold theme and I love it!!

Close up to see the ornaments and ribbon.

 An ornament we received as a wedding present--"Our First Christmas Together-2012"

 Yay for our first (cute) Christmas tree.

Day 2

  I had bought some icicle lights at a garage sale this summer. Unfortunately, they are very stiff still so the icicle effect isn't so pretty right now haha.

Also unfortunately, they aren't quite long enough. And the lights my hubby had were burnt out so we couldn't finish off and go by the front door. Oh well, at least we have some lights and we will get more on clearance after Christmas for next year :)

The view at night.

 Day 3

 Okay, so I decided to make this more this interesting/fun than just draw a picture.
Challenge 1--Draw a Christmas tree with the paper on top of your head.
Challenge 2--Draw a snowman with your eyes closed.
Challenge 3--Draw a candy cane with your non-dominant hand.
And then we drew a picture normal of whatever we wanted. This first picture is my husband's drawings. (the bottom one was supposed to be Santa delivering gifts on skis...I still don't understand the lack of hair haha)

My drawings.

More Advent Adventures to come.
How are you spending the first few days of Advent?