It's a Winner Extravaganza!!!

Today we have 4 winners! How fun! As you may remember, I am going to be heading out for vacation and won't be back until the 12th, but once I'm back, the reviews and giveaways will begin again! The winner of the You are my Sunshine Canvas from House of 3 is... Jillian Larty! The winner of the Golden Leaf Branch Earrings from Off Beet is... Liz Langolf! The winner of the Colorful Fleur De Lis Necklace from Kelly Jean's Beads & Things is... Ramona Aistrop! The winner of the $33.00 Gift Certificate to Note Trunk is... Stephanie Neely! CONGRATULATIONS to all of the lucky winners!

Winner of the Julia Louise Shop Giveaway!

The winner of the Jasmine All Vegetable Oils Soap from Julia Louise is...Janelle Rekker! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Kelly Jean's Beads & Things Review and Giveaway

Funky, chunky and beaded. What's more fun than that?! I am in love with my new funky, chunky, beaded necklace from Kelly Jean's Beads & Things! Different shaped beads in black, white and clear and a fun, painted zebra bead that is offset to one side make this necklace everything I love. Most of my necklaces tend to be somewhat delicate in nature and I'm not exactly sure why, so I was thrilled to add this necklace to my accessory collection. Isn't it awesome?!

I have to say though that it was very hard to choose a piece of jewelry from her shop because there was so much colorful wonderfulness to choose from. I ended up choosing the black and white because I was thinking it would go great with some of my more colorful tops. I have to admit though, I'm still dreaming of this necklace that I was fighting back and forth with myself about whether I should choose it or the black and white necklace. I mean, just look at those colorful, chunky beads!!!!

Gorgeous, I tell ya! Along with her great necklaces are some really cool beaded bracelets like this one...

She's also got earrings like these simple, with a pop of color beauties...

So much to love! Kelly has offered one of her most colorful and lovely creations as a giveaway to one lucky reader of my blog. I am tellin' ya, I'm jealous. I would LOVE to have this necklace and I know one of you is going to be a seriously happy gal when you win it. It's her Colorful Fleur De Lis Necklace...

So, get your entries in below and please be sure to heart her shop and show her some love! a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure: I was given the mentioned item for review purposes and was not compensated in any other way. All views and opinions stated in this review are mine alone and were not influenced by any other party.

Note Trunk Review and Giveaway

I am seriously so excited about this shop and the awesome items it makes! When I found Note Trunk, I was in note/letter writer heaven. I'm the kind of girl who in the days of email, facebook and the like, still likes to write a good old-fashioned letter and send it to people. There's just so much more of a personal feeling to receiving a letter in the mail and it's a nice way to show that you care enough to take the time to actually write something and send it, as opposed to typing something. It's becoming a lost art for sure. I refuse to let it die because I have been so blessed to have been able to store up dozens of letters from my great grandma when she was alive and we would write back and forth to each other. I love seeing her wobbly writing that she sat and took the time to do through arthritic hands, simply because she loved me. That says so much more than any email ever could. I have an aunt who lives only about 15 minutes away who I currently write back and forth to. Even though she lives close, we don't see each other much and it's such a nice way to keep in touch. I just love letters and cards in the mail. Ok, now to reel myself back in...Anyway, at Note Trunk, you will find all sorts of lovely things to make your letters and cards even that much more personal. We moved last year, so all of the cute little address stickers I once had are now of no use to me and I was sad to just have to boringly (is that a word?) write my name and return address on the envelopes I was sending out. Then, I saw the awesome address stamps that Note Trunk makes! I got so excited! As I looked through all of the ones they offered, there was one that I just kept going back to and to my ridiculous excitement, they told me they would make me my very own address stamp in that design to review! They even let me choose between a self-inking stamp, a wood handle stamp and an eco mount stamp. I had to choose the wood handle stamp because it just seems the most old-fashioned and therefore fun to me! Now, I'm not going to show my actual stamp because I don't really want to just put my address out there like that, but this is the style that I was lucky enough to receive...

It's simple, yet elegant and fun. I love it!!! The stamp comes in an adorable little bag like the one pictured below and mine came with an ink pad as well (they are not included with the purchase of a stamp, but are available for purchase)!!!

There are so many designs available. Not only are there address stamps, but there are cool save the date stamps too. Here are some of the great designs they offer...

These are just a very small sampling of the many awesome stamps they offer. You are sure to find something that fits your style and taste perfectly! I was thinking that this would be such a cool wedding or housewarming gift. What a cool, personalized gift! In fact, they are offering my readers 15% off of your purchase when you use coupon code blog15 and it is good until the end of August!!! As if that isn't great enough, I have some more really exciting news for you. I mean, I'm seriously excited for you, because one of you is going to win a $33.00 Gift Certificate to Note Trunk!!!! Well, what are you waiting for?! Hurry and get your entries in and be sure to heart their shop and like their facebook page for extra entries!!! a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure: I was given the mentioned items for review purposes and was not compensated in any other way. All views and opinions stated in this review are mine alone and were not influenced by any other party.

Off Beet Review & Giveaway

Seriously, how fun is the name "Off Beet"?! I just loved it when I found the Etsy shop, Off Beet. She offers unique jewelry, bags and other accessories. Not only is Bekki cool because she came up with an awesome name for her shop, but I think she's pretty cool because she so nicely allowed me to choose any piece I wanted from her shop to review. I love bracelets, but for some reason I don't have that many of them. I decided it was the perfect time to hook myself up with a cool bracelet and so I chose this asymmetrical little beauty below. I loved the colors of the beads and the fact that it was not simply just a beaded bracelet, but that it has the side with beads and then the side with chains. The brown bead is a wood bead and the blue bead is faceted. I like the dimension and interest the different kinds of beads add. The bracelet was a little big when I put it on, but given the design, I was able to wrap the chain through the toggle loop twice and then it fit perfect!

I love it! It's perfect! She's got so much more to offer than just bracelets though. We're talking earrings, necklaces, brooches, hair accessories, wristlets and more...

See what I'm saying?! She's got all sorts of goodies to offer and these are just a small sampling of what you can find at her shop! I'm happy to tell you that one of my readers is going to win this cute pair of Golden Leaf Branch earrings from her shop!

So, get your entries in below and be sure to heart her shop! a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure: I was given the mentioned item for review purposes and was not compensated in any other way. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine alone and were not influenced by any other party.

House of 3 Review & Giveaway

I have been on the search for a lovely little piece of artwork to grace the wall above my bed and I think I've found the perfect place to find it! Shelley at House of 3 creates the coolest canvases and I couldn't help but be drawn to them. She sent me her 12X12 You Are My Sunshine canvas to review and it's even cuter in person than it was in the picture!

I mean, seriously...how cute is that?! The artist canvas is wrapped and sealed with vintage sheet music. Each piece is distressed, hand cut and/or hand stamped by her, to create a really unique piece of artwork. What a lovely way to brighten a room, don't you think? As if this canvas weren't lovely enough, she has soooo many other ones to choose from. My two personal favorites are the ones below. You may recognize the lyrics on this one from a lovely little Bob Marley ditty...

This next one, you may recognize from a country singer, but it makes me think of the original version of this song that was written and recorded by Christian singer Dave Barnes (and I totally love Dave's version more, just for the record).

Now that I've shown you my personal favorites, are you ready to see more? Of course you are! Look at these beauties!

Still want more? Well you'll have to head over to House of 3 Etsy shop and check out the full array of what she has to offer and while you're there, you should definitely heart her shop and any of her canvases that you find yourself drawn to! I've got some seriously good news for you too. One lucky reader of my blog is going to win that lovely "You Are My Sunshine" canvas! So, get your entries in below! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Important News!!!

I have important news! We will be heading out next week for our yearly family vacation at church camp, so that means an exciting time of reviews and giveaways for you guys this week! You'll want to get your entries in right away, because all of these new giveaways will end at 12:05 AM on Tuesday, July 31st. This will ensure that I can notify the winners and get their information to the shop owners before I head out because internet access will be sparse. So, keep an eye out today for all of the giveaways going up, give love to these great shops that are so generously offering these giveaways and most of all...have fun and good luck!!!

Gettin' Crafty!

So, I've been dying to try some decoupaging and to just make some personalized items for my bedroom. I actually did this a little over a month ago, but am just now getting these pictures up to show you guys. I'm so happy with how everything turned out! First off, you may remember the awesome Maine State Love print I posted a review for a while back. Well, I decided it needed a frame that would really compliment the print's character, so I took a wood frame I had hanging out in the basement, sanded it, spray painted it white and distressed it with a little more sanding. I love how it turned out! See...

As predicted, my husband was both surprised and really happy when he came home from work one day to find this hanging on our bedroom wall. Such a fun reminder of our favorite vacation away together. Another fun little project I did, was I found a little wood tray at Michael's craft store for $4.99 and I spray painted it a fun, bright yellow (the accent color of my room) and then took a great little black and white scrapbook page with chandeliers and other fun prints on it and decoupaged it into the bottom of the tray as a sort of decorative liner. I sprayed the whole tray with clear coat to make it shiny and keep the color sealed in. I wanted a place to keep all my bracelets, brooches, watch, etc. contained and tidy on my dresser, so I knew this tray was perfect.

Here it is filled with my goodies.

There's my cute picture above it! I wish I would have taken a "before" picture so you could have seen how much this little tray really de-cluttered the dresser.

Lastly is my absolute favorite project! I have had one of those little, cheap wooden tables with the glass top that I had a fussy tablecloth on that I used to sit in the entryway of my last house with a little candle display and "Amazing Grace" sign on. It was nice there, but since we don't have a formal entryway at this house, I just had no use for it. I knew I wanted something to fill an empty corner of my bedroom, but I wanted it to be something functional that wouldn't just be a junk collector. Since I have a lot of jewelry and it couldn't all fit on my dresser, I thought that fixing up that little table would give me a great place to keep my jewelry in a decorative way that added a fun little touch to my bedroom! I spray painted the little table that same bright yellow as the tray, cut up several pieces of black and white damask scrapbook paper and decoupaged it onto the top of the table, printed out a Fleur De Lis template online and traced it onto a yellow and white polka-dotted piece of scrapbook paper that I cut out and decoupaged on top of the black and white demask paper. I sprayed it all a couple times over with a clear coat and placed the glass top back on. It is downright perfect!!! Look at how great it turned out!

Yay, my jewelry trees fit perfectly!

So, there are some of my most recent crafty projects and I've very happy with how they turned out. The next thing I'm really hoping to accomplish is the perfect artwork over our bed. So, I guess you could say this is a to be continued...

First Comes Love Winner!

The winner of the item of choice up to $15 from First Comes Love is...Crystal! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Michy Creations Winner!

The winner of the magnet set from Michy Creations is...Kathleen! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Ummmm, not sure what's going on.

There's something going on with my Etsy account, so if you are a shop owner who is currently working with me and wondering why you can't get in contact with me, that's why. Please email me at the email address to the right and we'll work on what we have going currently. Thank you and sorry for the glitch!

Lazy Lotus Winner

The lucky winner of the Chevron Dreams Infinity Scarf from Lazy Lotus is...Megan N Philip Sutliff! Well, I'm assuming it's actually Megan ;-) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Julia Louise Shop Review & Giveaway

I stumbled upon a lovely little shop with a wide array of goodies. I was surprised to see so many different types of items in one shop. Pleasantly surprised, that is! While checking out Julia Louise Shop, I found these earrings that I instantly loved. They are so colorful, dangly, bohemian and fun. What's not to love about them?! I especially loved when Janet told me she would send them to me to review!

Lots of fun lovliness right there!!! The beads she uses are all glass and she wires each one to make the earrings. I would imagine that's a time-consuming task, but it sure results in something lovely. She will even shorten the earrings if you would prefer for them not to be quite so long. I'm loving mine nice and long though and I'm thinking these little beauties may be making their debut at an event I'm going to on Friday. Seems like the perfect time to me!She has a lot of other beautiful earrings too. Here are a couple of my other favorites.

Another of the items that are offered at Julia Louise Shop that caught my eye is the great variety of All Vegetable Oils Soaps! I did a little chatting with the lovely Janet, who is the owner of this shop and found out some fun and interesting things about her products and how they came to be. For instance, those soaps I just mentioned are made along with her sister, Charlotte. The soaps and shop got their name from Janet and Charlotte's middle names (Julia and Louise). I love that it's a combined effort between sisters. I have two sisters and I think it would be so much fun to create something with them! Anyway, Janet sent me one of her soaps to try out and the smell is downright heavenly. It's her Patchouli Sandalwood soap. These just so happen to be two of my most favorite scents, so it's perfect for me. In fact, the package smelled so good before I even opened it! I used my soap this morning and really liked it! I typically don't like bar soap because it leaves a strange film on my skin, but this soap didn't at all and the scent is just perfect. It wasn't overpowering and just left a light, lovely scent on my skin.

In addition to the beautiful earrings and lovely smelling soaps, she offers other really great items in her shop. Lots of other jewelry and awesome stained glass pieces are just a couple of them.

I would like to call some special attention to the intricate Seed Bead Pictures that Janet does.This Betty Boop picture is made by Janet J. Griffen, many hours on a bead loom with 9,078 #11 seed beads. They are all glass beads, with a burgundy red matt around picture, and black wood picture frame and clear glass inserted in front of picture. The black wood frame measures 12 x 14 inches and the seed bead picture measures 4 3/4 " X 8 1/2 ".

Pretty darn impressive, wouldn't ya say?! It's easy to see that Janet and her sister are talented ladies and their talents result in some really great items that would make great gifts! I can think of several people in my life who would love a pair of her gorgeous earrings and love to use her amazing smelling soaps. I'm guessing that you, my readers, would love the same! The great news is that Janet is offering one of her incredible smelling Jasime soaps to a lucky reader of my blog!!!

Be sure to get your entries in below for your chance to win and please be sure to heart Julia Louise Etsy Shop too for extra entries!!! a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure: I was given the mentioned items for review purposes and was not compensated in any other way. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine alone and were not influenced by any other party.

Ruffles With Love Winner

The winner of a workout tank of their choice from Ruffles With Love is...Dana! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Winner of Wear Love Now Giveaway!

The winner of the Wear Love Now $25 Gift Certificate is...Debra Stein Jones!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!