5.28.2010

le winner



And the winner of my first giveaway is commenter number 2 - Tim, who said "Inspiration: ballet."  I thought at first that his suggestion was in jest, but it turns out he intends on giving the finished product as a gift.  This theme should be a healthy challenge for me.  I plan on getting a few more details from Tim and hopefully commencing work next week.  Stay tuned for photos of the process!

5.24.2010

summertime giveaway

Much to my chagrin, I won exactly ZERO of the Giveaway Day giveaways.  Can you believe it?! 

I must have used up all of my luck landing the little lime-sized baby that's in my belly!  Well, that's a contest I was happy to win.  That's right, I'm pregnant with my first little one.  This little boy or girl will join big sister Chloe, my exuberant 8-year old stepdaughter, who has been waiting for years for us to break this news to her!  Here's a pic of her bouncing wildly right after we shared the exciting announcement:


I'm due on December 9th and hopefully we'll find out the gender on July 7th - little more than a month away!  Fortunately, Chloe will be able to accompany us to that appointment and will learn the news when we do.  She has already chosen the names Jordan, for a boy, and Sally, for a girl.  :) 

So in celebration of this great development, and despite my utter lack of luck in the giveaways, I have decided to hold my own giveaway.  I've settled on giving away a cute and functional Summertime Messenger Bag.  The best part is that the prize will be specially crafted with the winner in mind!  So leave a comment with what you'd like the inspiration for this bag to be if you're the winner. 

I'll accept comments until Thursday, May 27th at 11:59pm PST.  On Friday I'll choose a winner using a random number generator - so be sure to include your email address so I can contact you!  I'll probably solicit some more of your ideas on what you'd like the bag to look like, then I'll get to work on it after our long Memorial Day weekend at the Oregon Coast.  (ps: I'll ship internationally!)

In the meantime, here's a photo of the one project I've found the energy to work on in these harrowing first months of pregnancy!  This sunglasses case was a birthday gift for my dear friend, Sarah.  Kudos to her on snapping a great pic. :)

5.19.2010

taking notes

Have any of you heard about the amazing Giveaway Day events on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog?  Holy smokes, what a dream for me (have you noticed I'm a contest junkie?)!  If you visit the blog you'll find three hyperlinked lists.  Each list contains a TON of blogs that are participating in Giveaway Day and are raffling off sewing supplies, handcrafted items, or both.  I estimate I entered at least 200 of the contests!

I obviously didn't submit my blog for the event, but I'm interested in doing a little giveaway.  I'm curious what people would like to see given away though... You can browse back through my blog to see the projects I've worked on, but I'd also be more than willing to try out a new idea.  Feel free to comment with your suggestions, or else I'll just figure something out on my own!

I actually did a bit of sewing recently, but I can't post photos of the item yet.  It's sitting at home, waiting to be wrapped up in a birthday package.  It was nice to pull the cover off my sewing machine finally - after weeks and weeks of unproductive laziness.  Now I've got my eye on this tutorial and maybe this one, and I'm interested in making curtains for Chloe's room.

Secondly, browsing through the photographs on my cell phone always helps to remind me what I've been up to since I wrote last.  I was happy to come across this beauty:


That's right, one of our favorite local bands, The Builders and the Butchers, will be playing a handful of presumably FREE shows in the Portland area this August.  I highly recommend that if you have the chance to check these guys out, that you do.  Need a preview?  Here's a video of a song from their most recent album.  Oh man, they are so good.