Winner and a Photo

Before I get to my winner, I saw a few blogs doing the 25 Photos of Christmas.  I thought this was a great idea.  I will post a photo every day from the 1st of December until Christmas Day.  Don't worry I will post other things too.

I tried my hand at attempting Bokeh.  I found it here and pinned it.  I have been wanting to try it ever since I first saw it.  I am still working out the kinks, but it was suppose to make the lights look like snowflakes.  Like I said, still working out the kinks.

Now onto my winner for my Blogiversary giveaway...

Sandra from Sawdust and Paperscraps and KarenOjai!  I have decided to make two pens, since there was only two comments on my giveaway.  Sandra, keep an eye out for an e-mail, Karen please e-mail me as I do not have your e-mail.

Thanks for your comments and your support! 

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

A year ago I started out on the journey of carving out more time to discover me.

After becoming a mother, my identity changed and I put a large part of me on the back burner, my creativity.  I love to craft, draw, paint, build, photograph, etc.  I hadn't put any emphasis on doing it and wanted to put it back as a priority in my life.  Well, I did and I started this blog to document it!  I can say that I am a happier, more balanced person today than I was a year ago.  This has benefited me, my husband and my kids.

My creativity is...

• stress relief
• my passion
• a gift
• me

I have learned so many new creative things this year.  I learned how to shoot my DSLR on all manual settings.  I learned how to do stained glass with my husband.  I made a quilt the proper way for my son Colton.  There is so much more than I can't even think of right now.  It's so overwhelming to just think of all that I actually accomplished this year and I have an awesome record of it all in this blog.

As a thank you to all the wonderful people who have found me in the past year, I want to giveaway something special.

I am giving away a custom slimline pen to one lucky person! You will get to chose the color of the kit, the style in which it is turned and the preference in the look of the wood (light, dark, etc). 

All examples of slimline pens I have made

In order to enter I am requiring two things:

• Be a follower of my blog
• And tell me what you like most about my blog

(Leave just one comment)
I will close this entry Sunday at midnight Central time.
*I am keeping this giveaway open until Wednesday at 5pm central time since no one responded in time.

Thank you for every comment and e-mail.  Thank you for the praises, the critiques and the inspiration.  Thank you for this past year and I look forward to many more years to come.

My Birthday Giveaway!

I mentioned last week that I celebrated my 30th birthday and in honor of it, I am giving away one of my handmade pens. 

This is a beautiful Slimline style pen.  The wood is called Redheart.  The best part about the handmade pens is that the ink cartridge is easily replaceable. Also, the writing is so smooth, you will never want to pick up a cheap plastic pen again. 

So, if you want to win, there two easy ways to do it.

1. Be a public follower through Google Friend Connect (one entry, leave a comment)

2. Blog about the giveaway (3 entries, leave a comment for each)

The giveaway will end next Friday, July 15th at midnight Central time.  Good luck!

Happy Birthday from me to you!

I Had a Fabulous Weekend and Announcing a Winner!

My son's school had their Spring Fling Friday night.  Hubby was able to drag himself away from work early enough to join us.  The preschool bench was auctioned off and it went for much higher than I could have imagined.  You can read all about it here.  It made me feel amazing that people appreciated the bench as much as I do.  I would have loved to bring it back home and put it in my yard, but it flew right out of my price range.  Good thing I know how to build one!

There were a lot of fun and games at the Spring Fling and the boys spent a good amount of time in the bounce house.  Colton proved to be quite a bruiser and held his own among the older kids.  He had a blast.

Saturday morning I went to my woodworking club meeting.  It was eventful and it looks like our group is merging with another club!  Who knew there were two clubs in my area.  Awesome!  The leader of our woodworking club also invited us all over to his house and let us pick through his scrap pile of lumber.  Hubby and I brought a bit of it home...oh the ideas going through my head.  I then headed out to 24 hour fitness, we had a brand new one open up and it was their grand opening.  It's a few miles further than the one I normally go to, but half of the cardio equipment has their own personal tv's.  SOLD!  I think I will hit that one up more often.

Sunday hubby actually got to spend the day with us!  That was nice.  We spent part of the day at the mall shopping.  He needed more work clothes and I needed more summer appropriate clothing that fit.  I'M IN A SIZE 6 NOW!!!!!!!!

Today I also decided to paint the mailbox post.  I painted it the same color as the house.  I even used the same paint...even though in the photos it looks much lighter in color than the house.  Now I need to get the paint to do the numbers on the side of the box.  I tried to buy it today, but my ACE Hardware sucks and decided not to carry the spray paint that was on sale.  Booo!  Oh well, it will get done...eventually.

Since you have hung with me this long, I should probably announce the winner of my very first giveaway!

sabrinalauren you are the winner!

Congrats and I will be in contact with you to find out which pen you want me to send you!  

Happy 100 and a Giveaway!

This is the 100th post since I started blogging!

I am so excited and can't believe that I have made it this far!  I started this blog to help me keep track, inspire and share with everyone all the creativity that bubbles up and out of my head.  When I first started I didn't know how this would evolve or how far it would take me, but am loving the ride that the blog has taken me on so far.  I also love all the people I have gotten to know and all the awesome bloggers that I have discovered existed out there!

In celebration of my 100th post I am doing a giveaway!  (My very first giveaway!)  You have the opportunity to win one of three pens that I churned out last night for this awesome occasion. 

All three pens are a slimline style pen and the wood is redheart.  I turned each in a different shape and if you win, you can choose which pen you want!

There are a few rules to this giveaway!

1. You must be a public follower of my blog!  Leave me 1 comment letting me know you are a follower.

2. Actually, that is really the only rule, but if you want additional entries into this giveaway, blog about this giveaway!  That will give you an additional 2 entries.  Leave a comment for each entry. 

You have the chance to get up to 3 entries into my very first giveaway!  The giveaway will close at noon, central time on Sunday and I will announce the winner on Monday.

I am sharing this over at Vintage Wanna Bee.