Gratitude from me...and a giveaway for you!

The Giveaway is now closed.

Hi Beautiful Friends,

I can't believe I am FINALLY composing my 100th post. YAY! First, I'd like to acknowledge some pretty wonderful people I've met through blogging. You are all awesome, but these gals have given me presents recently, so I do need to give them a special shout out!

I won a fabulous giveaway over at Paula's Castles and Cottages. She hand paints these beautiful Pottery Barn inspired plant holders which she made (or maybe DH made them, I can't remember), available in two sizes, and personalizes them with whatever your heart desires in whatever font you would like. She generously gave away the smaller one (which is still a substantial size) and personalized it to my specifications. After a few mock ups back and forth via email, I got this incredible piece in the mail. It is WONDERFUL. I haven't decided on its final hanging place, so I have used Paula's pic that she took when she finished it for me, but you will see this beauty again once it is hung (I'm very slow at making up my mind) and has something cool in its little holder. THANK YOU Paula from the bottom of my heart. You are incredibly talented and you'd better believe I will be coming by your way should I have any signage needs (and I'm thinking I just may).

Next, I was fortunate enough to win a sweet little giveaway over at Rhonda's place, A Little Bit French.  She is a very talented lady as well who hosts a monthly French Friday giveaway.  March was MY MONTH!  Those of you who read my previous post about never winning anything will note that perhaps my luck did indeed change.  Yippee! I hope so.  Anyway, this precious little bag came my way last week.  I absolutely love it. THANK you Rhonda!  Rhonda is headed to France in 11 days, so I'm going to refrain from being green with envy in light of your beautiful tresor you sent me!  LOL!

Lastly, I participated in the Pay It Forward project that I read about over at Michelle's beautiful blog, Petite Michelle Louise.  I was one of 5 commenters to her blog who were sent this beautiful handmade stamped seam binding by Michelle.  In return, each of us "paid it forward" by blogging about the project and sending a handmade gift to our first five commenters.  (And BTW, if you were one of my 5 commenters, your tresors are on the way as of Monday.  Hope you like them).   This is the pretty package that Michelle sent me:

Inside was this darling card.  There was also a pretty little hand stamped bag tucked in the back which had beautiful punches from old ephemera-I look forward to crafting with them, but I forgot to take a picture of them.  Trust me, they are wonderful as well.

THANK YOU, Michelle!  You know I'm a huge fan of yours anyway, but your generous spirit is something I'm also a fan of.

Okay, now if you've stuck with me this far, it is time for us to get to the GIVEAWAY which will commemorate my 100th post.  First, I will send you a pretty little lavender sachet, handcrafted by moi.

I may eventually add some of these to my Etsy shop, but my kiddos are on Spring Break this week, so probably not until next week. 

THEN, the piece de resistance....your very own copy of Fifi's new book, Romantic Prairie Style!!!!  I had pre-ordered mine AGES ago but I have to confess, the hype that was swirling around Blogland made me skeptical...you know, like when EVERYONE tells you how great a movie is or is going to be and you go and see it and you think...it's OKAY.  Too much build up, ya know?  Or maybe that's just me.  So, anyway, I kind of thought it might be like that.  AND, I have to say, over here at French Laundry, my style is a little more fancy than what I perceived the prairie style to be, so I figured it would be a bunch of interiors that maybe I didn't totally relate to.  Alright, all of that being said, when the book came, I was BLOWN AWAY!  Yeah, it's that good.  Not only are some of the ladies I've been cyber-stalking reading with enthusiasm for quite a while featured here, but also some folks I don't know who have the most amazing homes.  And the cool part is, the interiors truly run the gambit from ranch to cabin to elegant farmhouse (Wow!  That's a great name, maybe I should open an Etsy shop called that-oh yeah, already did!). It has been one that I have absolutely salivated over on page after page.  Glad to say, the hype was justified.   As you will see,  it is an awesome book and is being provided as a giveaway from the great publishers at CICO books.  If you aren't the lucky winner here, you can order your very own copy from them here.

HERE'S HOW YOU WIN:

1.  Leave a comment on this post for one chance.

2.  Become a follower of my blog or if you are already a follower, just let me know for another chance.

3.  Give my giveaway a shout out on your blog or on your sidebar, on Facebook, or Twitter.

You MUST leave a separate comment for each of these.  You can do one of them or all of them, for a total of 3 chances to win.  The giveaway will be open until midnight MDT on March 31st and the winner will be announced on APRIL 1st (no foolin'!).  Good luck and thanks for being my pals and listening to my rambling over the last 100 posts.  I am full of gratitude for all of the wonderful folks out here that love and support, pray and lift up, and beautify and inspire, day after day.  You guys ROCK.

Linking up with Kathleen's White Wednesday because it's the place to be!  LOL!

Until next time,

Pretty But Random

Hello Friends,

Thank you so much for your uplifting positive comments after my last post.  You guys rock!  It really makes me feel like I am not alone...many of you have experienced not only job loss, but other trials in your life (I guess we all have-DUH!), but you keep your sunny outlook and you keep your face turned to the one who holds all of the answers...the architect of the universe.  I am feeling much better today and wanted to share with you some random prettiness.  I realize that we all have an area or two in our homes that we love and, hence, we take lots of photos of that area.  For me, I guess it is my white mantel.  I realize that I have showed you a ton of pictures of it in various reiterations, and here is....TA!DA! one or two more.  But this time, there's a catch.  The two tall candle holder things were created by little moi.  I read a tutorial here by the talented Rosemary encouraging me to use the little holy candles that you can find at, of all places, Wal Mart. I then dug through my stash of antique laces and found some pretty things to wrap around the candles. I put one crepe paper frill that I got from Etsy from sweet Angela's Etsy shop.  I finished one off with a scalloped heart made out of a page from an old French dictionary and added a punch out of an image of mother and child by Bouguereau that I just love and on the other one, I tied on a tag that I simply adore that was in my package from the very talented Michelle and her Etsy shop (seriously, what the heck did I do before Etsy???).  I think they turned out nice and they certainly go with the theme of my mantel, don't you think?

On a completely unrelated subject, here is my next bit of random pretty, the beautiful Bella.  She got her first shave haircut the other day.  It was pretty shocking since all of her black baby hair was cut off and I brought home a white and silvery gray dog.  We're getting used to it and, if I do say so, she is still a real cutie patootie.

 

I leave you with another mantle picture which shows exactly why I don't much mind cold winter nights at my house, despite the drafty old Victorian and the endless to do list.  Winter is a season and it is a part of life.  And you know, without it, we probably wouldn't appreciate spring and summer so much.  Hmmmm, good advice I say to myself.  My son read a book last year in school called Trouble Don't Last.  And winter doesn't either.  I think I will try to enjoy it and experience it, and then rejoice in the spring.  But I still feel a bunch of nights sitting in front of the fireplace are in my future.  And that's okay, too.

I'm linking up with Kathleen's White Wednesday.  If you love white, you need to stop over and check it out.

Until next time,