Shabby Apple Winner and Pattern Giveaway!

I really enjoyed doing this giveaway, it is always nice to give something special to my readers and Shabby Apple was very generous in giving away one of their beautiful dresses. This week they are having a summer sale, so be sure and visit. Dresses are 20% to 80% off!

I used the random number generator and #14 came up. The lucky Winner is MelancholySmile! I will email you with the list, so I can send your information to Shabby Apple. Also, be sure to visit Melancholy's Blog, you have to see the wonderful chicken coop that she and her husband built.

This week I was lucky again, I know, you are all sick of me entering contests, lol. Actually I just happen to visit sites at the right time, this one was for the first commenter and I won something twice this week, so I will refrain from doing another;)

Many of  you may be familiar with Terrye French, she is a wonderful artists who does designs for folk and whimsical painting patterns. She also does designs for publications like Create and Decorate and goes by the name, The Painted Pear Basket.  I won her newest book, A New Day and a Little Whimsy. So many wonderful designs that I can make for our home and gifts for my friends. I also won a pattern of my choice, Terrye has wonderful epatterns too and they work well in different mediums so you don't have to be a painter to use her designs. I will be painting and working with the designs in different mediums, in the coming weeks and will share my creations with you.

And now for the giveaway! Visit Terrye's Website, The Painted Pear and tell me, what is your favorite pattern? I will choose a winner on Monday night from all of the comments on this posting. Also, visit Terrye's blog, Painting with Friends. She has a lot of wonderful freebies that you can use.

Don't forget, this is my anniversary month and I will be doing a giveaway at the end of the month, so stay tuned for more on what will be in the giveaway.

Wool Flower Mat!

First a reminder, the giveaway for a Shabby Apple dress is still going on until friday, so if you have not commented, visit the blog post and leave a comment there. If the dress is not for you, maybe something you could give to your daughter or a friend?

I started a new piece, a wool mat for my table, or maybe a gift, haven't decided yet. It was raining all afternoon so I had to take a flash photo, bad idea with wool pieces, but you can see my progress so far. I am not following the pattern, I could not figure it out and i know my pieces are off, but it is a nice project to work on while I watch tv and relax. I do the basic stitching first, then I will add the stems and details later.

We had a lot of rain and then a lot of humidity, perfect for my flowers outside. I grew Cosmos to attract butterflies. This is the first time I have grown flowers from seeds and they have grown so tall and beautifully.

It was so hot this weekend, that I got sick from paddling, too much hot sun. We paddled to the beach and I jumped in the water. Most of the time I sat in the water or under the umbrella and waited for a breeze to kick in so I could paddle back without killing myself. This weekend will be nice and cooler, so hopefully I can get  some good paddling in.