GYB Party Prize Winner

February was the start of the Grow Your Blog Party at Two Bags Full. 

I joined in the festivities and announced a give-away to add to the fun.

During the entire month of February, every comment and every blog follower

of my blog was entered to win.  The time has come to pick a winner!

The winner was chosen by a random number generator and the winner is...

The Woven Spoke / So Many Baskets, So Little Time 

Congratulations!

I'll leave a comment on your blog in case you don't see this.

Please email your address to me and let me know which wonderful scented

lotion bar you would like to receive from Kamaleis Naturals.

Choose from one of her Moon Faced bars

OR

You can choose to receive a set of five samples in your choice of scents.

It even comes with a coupon for a future order.

Just follow the links above for details about these wonderful lotion bars

and all the wonderful scents they come in.

Thank you to everyone who follows my blog regularly.  I appreciate each and every one of you.

And, thank you to everyone who visits and leaves comments.  Your comments and kind words

mean more to me than I can put into words.  I feel like I've found a lot of wonderful friends.

You make blogland a wonderful place to be and blogging worthwhile.  Hugs!

Busy, Happy Life!

Life has been full and busy and wonderful around here!  I'd love to blog more about it but much of what's been going on has been busy-ness and preparations.  That's not always blog worthy.

However, some of the things we've been working on are definitely blog worthy.

One of those things occurred last weekend...my daughter's junior harp recital.

She's been working for over a year on some of the pieces she performed.

And, we've been working for months on the details.

It took place on Saturday evening in a recital hall of the university she attends.

She did a spectacular job!  Her many, many hours of hard work and practice made her shine.

I was so happy for her about how it turned out and so proud of her.

She's never performed better or looked more beautiful!

The event was recorded and she's hoping to post it on YouTube

for everyone to see who wasn't able to attend.  I'll be sure to post a link when it's up.

I've been keeping up on my minimum five days per week workouts of running.

It gets tough sometimes and I've thought about figuring out another short term incentive

but my pace time improved this week and that feels really good.

I'm trying to keep with regular weight workouts too of at least once or twice a week.

And, whenever possible, I like to break it up with something different and extra fun like a hike or

bike ride.  Hubby and I went mountain biking on Valentine's Day morning.  :-)

Speaking of Valentine's Day....look what my sweet hubby gave me....

I was so excited when I opened the box!  I fell in love with this belt at Boot Barn last November.

Hubby and I were doing some boot shopping there a few weeks ago and I showed it to him and oogled over it.  He went back a couple days later and got the very last one...

which happened to be my size.  I'm normally not a glitzy type of person but I love this!

I think it's so pretty!  Hubby and I go line dancing sometimes and I think it'll be perfect for that.

I can't wait to wear it out on the town!  :-D

For those of you who've been following my blog and wondering how my husband's grandparents are doing....they're doing great!  Grandpa was moved to a place that could assist in his care around the clock.  He celebrated his 94th birthday while he was there.  He told us that he had a gift for all of us...that he was going to walk.  And, he did!  Here he is walking down the hall to his party...

He had lost so much weight that his pants weren't staying up.

So, my father-in-law held them up for him and stayed close by in case he needed assistance.

Amazing!  He hadn't walked in at least a month and we almost lost him weeks earlier.

He hadn't been eating much for weeks and weeks.  It was amazing that he survived that!

He literally lived off very little bits of juice and "Muscle Milk".  He had refused to eat.

But, just before his party, he had started eating a little bit of real food.

Some of his favorite foods were brought to the party and he couldn't wait to dig in.

He had a piece of shrimp cocktail in his hand before he was completely scooted up to the table!

He had some of my mother-in-law/his daughter's famous marinated mushrooms too.

And, of course, he had to have a beer!  He was one happy Grandpa!

Here's Grandpa and Grandma together that day.

Such an inspiring couple.  Married about 72 years and still very much in love.

They decided they needed to move closer to the family and bought a house here.

We got grandma moved in and that inspired grandpa so much that within a week he improved enough to go home!  Since then, he's gained over 20 pounds back and is feeling better and better.

I accomplished something this week that's been on my to-do list for a while.

I studied the California handgun safety booklet on Monday and took the test.

I got every single answer right...100%...and now have my handgun safety certificate!  Woot!

I've shot rifles before...even did some biathlons years ago.  That was SO much fun!

They weren't the cross country skiing type...they were run, shoot, run shoot, run.

We live in Southern California and there's not a lot of snow around here.

I wish they still had those races!  Anyway, I've been thinking it's time to get a handgun.

So, now I'm legal to buy one.  I plan to learn a lot about it and start going to a local shooting range.

I've been doing more knitting and crocheting lately.  Yay!  I finally found some patterns that I like.

I posted the mohair shawl last week.  I started knitting a hat too.  I'll post more about it when it's big enough to get a good look at it (it's made with sock yarn and size 2 needles...so, it takes a while).

I've been working on some other exciting stuff and I'll post about it when I can.

Just one more week to enter my Grow Your Blog Party give-away.  How's the party been going for you?  My blog following grew a lot last year from the party but has hardly grown at all this year.

But, it's been fun to visit lots of blogs and hear from lots of new people.  :-)  The give-away is still on...every comment posted on my blog (comments left on Facebook don't count) for the month of February and every follower will be entered to win.  There's about a week left.

I'll pick a winner on March first!  :-)

Wash 'n Dry

I knitted up some small projects over the past few weeks...

I made a couple of hand/dish cloths to send to my blog give-away prize winner, Roxie.

She wanted me to choose a multi color yarn.  So, I picked one of my favorites, Countryside Ombre.

I love the lavender/purple and green hues.  So pretty!  I hope she likes them too.

I also knitted another Basket Rib Hand Towel.  I've knitted a few of these and love them.

This one is knitted with a ball of Sugar N Cream yarn that I bought just because the colors were pretty.  Actually, that's my main reason for every ball of Sugar N Cream that I buy.

The color name on this one is "Emerald Isle".   I have to admit that I don't like it as well knitted up as I did when it was a ball of yarn.  I'll enjoy using it though.

I just love cotton and making things with it.

I'm currently in the middle of making a giant doily/table cloth with some natural color

Handicrafter Cotton.  I hope to have it finished soon.  I'll post pictures when I do. 

Blue Finch

The recent "Grow Your Own Blog" party hosted by Vicki at "2 Bags Full" was so much fun!

And, the fun continues...  One of the blogs I visited during the party was "Blue Finch".  I enjoyed her blog and began following it and left a comment.  I don't think I realized that she was giving away

a pair of earrings to each person that commented, followed her blog or emailed her.  But soon after I had left a comment, she emailed me to let me know she'd be sending me a pair.

After receiving her email, I popped over to her blog for another look and noticed that she had over 60 comments on that one post.  That's a LOT of earrings to give away.  Not to mention that it would be costly to send all of them.  I wanted to ease her burden and asked that she not send any to me.  But, she insisted.  I think she had a LOT of work ahead of her as she was just recently able to finish all the earrings, pack them up, and ship them.  I received mine this last week.

They're pretty!

They arrived in a fancy box and the earrings were attached to a cute little card stock finch...

I'm excited to wear them!  I really need more earrings as I always wear the same few favorites.

I think these will become part of my regular rotation!

It turns out that Rachel makes lots of beautiful jewelry.

She sells it from her online store... bluefinch.co

Thank you, Rachel, for your generous gift!

March Give-Away Winner

I promised a March give-away to show my appreciation of everyone who takes the time to read my blog and leave comments.  When you leave a comment for me it brightens my day.  I love hearing from each and every one of you.  Your kind words, your opinions, and your thoughts matter.  And, I so appreciate you sharing them with me.  It's a big part of what makes blogging so much fun! Thank you!

I try to respond to every comment through email but I often cannot because of "no-reply" tags and lack of email addresses.  So, if you haven't heard from me after leaving a comment, that is probably why.  But, thank you!

Every comment left on my blog during the month of March was entered into the drawing.  

I used a random number generator to choose the winner.  And, the winner is...

Sweet Posy Dreams

Her blog is filled with cozy, yummy, and beautiful things.  She shares recipes, her beautiful hand made projects, her cozy and pretty home, nature, her adorable dog, Alfie, and much more.  

And, I noticed on her profile that she likes NPR.  That's very cool!  I love NPR and listen to it just about every day.  Stop by her blog for a visit when you get a chance.

The prize is a set of hand knit wash/dish cloths in the color of your choice.  Just let me know what colors you like and I'll get started.  I'll send you an email to find out about colors and

get your address so I can send your prize to you when it's finished.  Congratulations!  

And, thank you again too all my blog friends.  :-)

Happy April!

Lucky Me!

The "Grow Your Own Blog Party" has been so much fun!

We're all making new friends, following new and wonderful blogs and prizes are

being delivered to lucky recipients.  I sent a prize yesterday to the lucky winner of my blog give-away.

And, I received the prize that I won on the "Knitalatte" blog.

The hat was cute on her blog but when I opened the packaged I gasped at how beautiful it is.

Just look at the pretty colors in this soft, squooshy yarn...

I tried to take a picture of myself wearing it but just couldn't get a good one.  

It's hard to hold the camera just right and hold my head at the right angle to get a good shot.

So, here's a picture of the hat laying on my buffet...

An added plus is that it's a little slouchy.  I've been wanting to make a slouchy hat.

Thank you so much, Karen!  I love it!  

I'm planning to wear it to knit night tonight.  :-)

Hop on over to her blog for a visit.  It's a beautiful blog with lots of wonderful hand knit projects.

You'll love it!  Be sure to say, "hi" when you're there.  

Blog Party Prize

Vicki's "Grow Your Own Blog Party" is so much fun!

I've found many wonderful blogs to follow.  I have a lot of new followers on mine.

I'm making new friends around the world.  And, for me, the party has just begun.  I still have so many more blogs to visit from the list of almost 400 participants.  It's not too late to join in on the fun.  Just stop by Vicki's blog, "2 Bags Full" for a visit, more information and links to participating blogs.

As part of the fun, many of the blogs are having give-aways.  This blog included!

To enter, just leave a comment on at least one January post.  You can receive an entry for each post you comment on.  You can receive an additional entry for being or becoming a follower of my blog.

The winner will be announced on Friday, February 1st, 2013.

I've been trying to figure out a prize that would appeal to anyone.  But, since we're all so different, I decided to provide the winner with some choices.  That way, the winner will receive something they'll truly want and enjoy.  And, the prize will be made especially for the winner.

Here are some ideas I've come up with...the winner will chose one...

A set of hand knit wash/dish cloths in your choice of color.

A ruffled bottle sleeve to catch drips on your wine bottle.  These work great!

 A pretty, needle felted, rose ring.

A sweet little nest ring with tiny blue eggs.

A cozy cowl.  In a color of your choice.  You can see more photos HERE, HERE and HERE.

As you can see, I've made quite a few of these.  They're cozy, warm and pretty.

 

Or a fun and chunky, cotton, crochet doily.  HERE's the original post with another picture.

HERE's another pattern possibility.  The picture of the green one isn't the best but I love this pattern and have made a lot of them.  They work great as place mats and they have a really neat edge on them.

I had planned to have several give-aways this month.  Some for the party and some for my birthday.

This month has been incredibly busy for me though and I haven't even had much time to blog.  

So, I'm planning to have another give-away next month.  The party has just begun!

Thanks for stopping by.  And, as always, thanks for all of your wonderful comments.  I love getting each and every one of them.  I so appreciate you taking time to leave them.  I try to respond to each and every one of them.  However, because there have been so many, it's been a bit confusing knowing which I've responded to and which I haven't.  Plus, many of them come through with a "no-reply" on them and no email to respond to.  For those comments and anonymous ones, I may not be able to contact you if your name is drawn for the give-away.  So, please be sure to leave a way to contact you or check back on Friday to see if your name has been drawn.  Good luck!