A Winner!

Thanks to everyone that entered my cleaning contest! It seems like the bathroom is almost everyone's least favorite place to clean.  So I chose the right cleaner to give away :D

Our big winner (chosen by random.org) is:
Number 7: Jennifer@ The Middleton Family
(If you don't know Jenn, you should check out her blog.  She has two adorable, and quite humorous, kids and they are in the process of adopting a child from China).

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

7

Timestamp: 2010-05-03 15:50:08 UTC

How appropriate that:

Jennifer said...

Great giveaway Heather! I hate cleaning the bathrooms!!!! Ugh!

APRIL 29, 2010 5:21 PM 

Jennifer, I have your email, so I will email you to get your address.

That was fun! I might have to do another one soon! Jenn, I'd love to hear what you think of the cleaner!!

The sun is shining today and we are cleaning a bit before heading outside to enjoy it.
Have a blessed day!

A Clean Giveaway

I've teased you long enough; the giveaway is here!!

It's hard to believe it's been over a year since I joined the blogging world.  I still remember my first comment from Amy.  (If you don't follow Amy, you should. She's crazy talented and inspirational.  I also happen to know her IRL so you can believe me when I say she's awesome.)  This past year has been one of major change for us, that included some valleys, but mostly a year of amazing growth for our whole family.  Thank you for sharing in our journey and I hope you'll stick around to see how God continues to work in our lives.  

To commemorate our blogiversary (and writing more than 100 posts), I'm giving away an amazing product to one of you.

Since we all love to clean...

What? you don't love cleaning? 

That's ok, you can still enter to win.  In fact, you may even find you enjoy it with this product!

A little history:

When Skylar was one month old (to the day), she had an allergic reaction to the chemicals in dryer sheets and actually stopped breathing.  Scariest moment of my life.  After that I started researching all the chemicals in the house and I was shocked by what I found.  Majority of popular cleaners contain carcinogens.  Also, one of the most caustic of all cleaners is laundry soap! If a child drinks laundry detergent, he/she will have 3rd degree burns within a matter of minutes.  I grimace to think that I used CLR with my kids in the house! (the fumes alone from that one can cause respiratory damage).  So we started using "greener" products and homemade concoctions.  The green products were expensive, but worth it.  The homemade concoctions just didn't work all that well.  (Peroxide just couldn't remove all the hard water stains on my shower doors).

Just recently I was introduced to a company called Melaleuca that is non-toxic, and affordable!

Rest assured I was skeptical because I thought it was just another Amway type of thing.  Now that I have used their products for 4 months, I can honestly say it's not.  I have been amazed by all of their products and I love that I can have the girls "help" me clean without worrying about the chemicals in the cleaners. I'm not interested in making it a "business" and getting folks to sign up.  I am, however, interested in showing folks a good alternative.

So- I decided to give away one of my favorite cleaners.  It's called "Tub n Tile".  It cleans our bathrooms like nothing I have ever used! The main ingredient is Citric acid so it smells like oranges. :) One person will get the Tub n Tile cleaner and spray bottle.  It's concentrated (just add water) so you are actually getting SIX bottles of cleaner!

How to enter-each item gets one entry:
1. Leave a comment telling me the thing you most dislike cleaning.
2. Follow our blog (or let me know you already do!).
3. Tweet about the giveaway.

Be sure to leave a comment for each one that you do.
Good luck!
I will choose a winner at random on Monday, May 3rd.

I am not being compensated by Melaleuca for this review and giveaway.

Thursday Tidbits

We went to the dentist today and all three girls did SO well! The hygienist said they were the best patients all week!  And there were no cavities so it was a successful visit.

We are starting to plan Reagan's birthday party.  She wants to have it at the same place we had Skylar and Bailey's party last month so it makes the planning easy.  She wants to invite her entire class so we are working with her on dwindling the list. It's hard to believe she's going to be seven.

This week Reagan brought home a sheet of paper with "tips to keep up with learning through the summer." Seven more weeks!! Come on Summer!!

You wouldn't know Summer is on it's way by the weather we have had lately though.  It's been FREEZING (yes, I understand I'm a Californian and "freezing" might mean something different for you, but "freezing" for me is mid-60's and lower).  We've had a few days of rain and I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it.  I know the Summers here are dry and hot so I'm soaking in the rain (pun intended) as much as I can.  There's just something about the sound of rain that soothes me.  Don't get me wrong though...I couldn't live in the NW.  I enjoy the sunshine after the rain even more.

Bailey has started talking in her sleep. It's seriously funny to watch! Last night she sang almost the entire ABC song!! Wish I had videotaped it.  She's pretty cute singing it without being asleep so maybe I will record that instead.

Our garden is growing!!! We are official farmers! (I know, those of you that actually live on a farm or near one are laughing right now).  This whole "growing" process is fascinating for the girls (and me too!).  I accidentally decapitated one of our pea sprouts the other morning so Brian has officially declared that I should just "leave the gardening to him." :D  Gladly.

I have a giveaway coming but I need to wait until closer to the end of April. But I promise it's coming.

Tomorrow is Friday and I'm so excited! This week has been a whirlwind and I'm ready for a weekend to recoup!

I hope your week has been blessed!!

Sharing my Winnings!

A while back I said I would highlight some of my amazing blog giveaway wins.  I've been SO blessed and love when I find a great product (and a great deal).  Here's another one! I won this super sweet dog collar from Amy over at Priddy Creations. (She's crazy talented and has a great etsy shop herself, but also hosts some amazing giveaways from other etsy shop owners). I was lucky enough to win one!

This is our sweet little rescue pup Sophie.  (Isn't she so cute?!) She is nine years old (but we have only had her for 7 years), and she has always hated collars.  She used to run and hide when we wanted to take her on a walk.  She would scratch at the "webbed" collars (and even get her claws stuck in it!).  But when I won this awesome collar from Tiffany at Bailey Brooke Designs (how can you not love something with the name 'Bailey' in it?), we decided to give it one more try.  

She. Loves. It.  

It's made from pure cotton with a ribbon sewn on for sweet detail.  Our groomer took it upon herself to match Sophie's bows to her awesome collar.  We love it so much we had to order a second one for our other pooch, Cali.  

If you have a need for a great dog collar, go visit Tiffany! Great products at a great price (and great customer service!). 

Random Wednesday

Why does the week before Spring Break always feel chaotic?  Is it because I know that there are days of sleeping-in? It's like the weeks before you have a baby; you know it's coming but seems like it takes forever to get here.

I actually haven't even logged on to the computer since Sunday! I had over 25 blog entries to catch up with on my reader.  I have lots of blog post ideas but not the time to write them.  So today you get some random snippets about our home.

Reagan lost her first tooth!! She was so excited! It was VERY wiggly for a few days and I told her "why don't you just grab and pull it out?" So she did.  Easy peezy! The tooth fairy left her a gold dollar coin in her "tooth box" that was on her nightstand.  (It was also really dark and the tooth fairy almost woke her up by dropping the porcelain top to the box onto her nightstand and making a large crash!) The following morning, she asked if she could put her gold coin in her BGMC (mission fund for our church) box.  What a sweet and giving heart she has!

Since Reagan lost her tooth (and has been getting attention for it), Skylar has decided that she wants to lose a tooth too.  She eats apples almost daily to try and make her teeth wiggly.  I don't have the heart to tell her she has at least a year until her teeth start to fall out.

We finally got rid of the cold bug in our house...only to have it revisit us this week.  I'm praying it's just a short, last hoo-rah before spring finally sets in.

Speaking of spring, we are loving the warmer weather and spending more time outside (and the fact that it's lighter later).  I can almost smell summer.

I spent most of last weekend pulling weeds (and dead trees) out of our backyard.  It's no where near finished.  It's a much larger job than I ever imagined.  I had to stop because our trash can was full (and my back hurt like crazy!). After all the weeding is done, I still need to re-plant, and mulch.  *sigh*

I haven't forgotten about the "Ten Dollar Healthy Dinners".  I just want to do it for an entire week so look for it starting Monday.

After the week of recipes and ideas, I will host a giveaway in celebration of our one year blogiversary and over 100 posts! Woo hoo!

Tomorrow is Reagan's "Open House" at school.  She is so thrilled to show us what she's been working on.  It's no coincidence either that the Book Fair just "happens" to be going on.  I guess we will have to make a stop there to check it out on our way home.

I was able to find more peppermint mocha creamer so the crazy week has been a little easier to handle. :)

I hope your week has been going well!
Be blessed!

WHAT?

I just realized we are coming up to post number 100 AND my one year blogiversary! I think a giveaway is in order! What do you say?
Stay tuned....

A win-win!

I have been SO blessed with blog giveaways lately! I plan to highlight a few of them here so you can share in the awesomeness.

The first one is a giveaway I won from Kelly (fellow mom of three and all around super designer).  She did a review for Capture Your Memories Stationery and gave away address labels.  After looking at Norma's site on etsy, I knew we just had to have the family note cards also.

Norma was a dream to work with!! She contacted me right away and asked me to pick out my "caricatures" for our labels and cards.  Within hours she had a proof for me to review.  After I sent the "ok" she printed away and I received them three days later!!

Her prices are super reasonable and I think they are GREAT personalized gift ideas.  I love to find great deals and love to support those that do creative work from home too!!

Here is the artwork from our cards:

Cute huh?! I couldn't leave the doggies out! :) I even let the girls pick their characters and colors.  Great product AND customer service....you can't go wrong. :D

This is not a paid endorsement. I'm just a grateful winner that wanted to share!

We have a Winner!

Wow! What an amazing turnout for my first giveaway! I secretly decided that for every ten entries I received, I would pick one winner (never assuming I would get past 19), but there were exactly 20!
So, I have TWO winners to announce!! I used random.org to generate two numbers for me.

But before I announce them, I wanted to extend an offer to everyone that participated.  My normal charge for a blanket is $15 plus $3 shipping.  If you entered, but did not win, I am waiving the shipping until January (just a little 'thank you' for participating).  Simply email me and I can send pics of my current fabric options.  Then, I will put it up on my etsy site with a listing specifically for you!

The two winners chosen by random.org are:

Jaimie at The Wonder Years
and
Julie at The Peapod Four (plus one)

Yay! Congrats ladies! Let me know if your blanket will be for a boy or a girl and I will send you the fabric options.

Have a blessed weekend!

My First Giveaway!

UPDATED: POST IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED TO MORE ENTRIES.  A WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN.  WATCH FOR DETAILS. THANKS!

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, I've decided to do a giveaway! I figured since my fabric is spread out across the dining room table, it's as good a time as ever!

I've been making baby blankets for a few years now (and even sold a few). I've learned a lot along the way, and I'm still learning the ins and outs of my machine. My blankets are perfectly imperfect, like me. Each one is unique and one of a kind. Here's one I just finished this week:





If I can find a way to be creative with the name embroidery, I try to. Otherwise, it's just a block or a rounded applique like this one:



I make them a generous size so they work for tummy time, and can be used even when baby gets bigger. And yes, I do make boy ones too (the two I just finished this week happened to be for little girls).

If you would like to win one for yourself (or give one as a gift), then simply leave a comment. I will choose a winner at random on November 5th. Then, all you need to do is let me know if the blanket is for a boy or a girl, and the name you would like embroidered. (I'll also send pics of the fabrics I have on hand so you can choose one that you like).

Good luck!

Sew Sweet Giveaway!

In case you didn't know, I have an etsy shop (Sew Sweet for Baby). Don't go looking for it though because there isn't anything in it right now :D

I've been busy sewing like crazy lately! Not on projects for myself though. There seems to have been a baby boom around here lately! So, I've been doing what I do when friends have babies...making blankets!
Here's a sneak peek at one:



Since I'm in the sewing mode, I thought I would let you know that I'm going to be doing my VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY!! My next post will have all the details, so be ready! You could win your very own personalized blanket like this one!

See you soon!!