Coffee and Cross Stitch

And...the winner is....??

Hello all you lovely people!

I am finally back to the land of the living (albiet barely) after being really sick all of last week.  My apologies to all of you who have been anxiously waiting for me to announce the winner of my giveaway which closed last Wednesday.

I thought it would be fun to have you all watch a lil' video of me drawing the winner, so guess what?!  That's precisely what I did!  

And then....YouTube was being a pain and I lost my patience.

So...instead of the lovely video I had planned for you all, I had to resort to a picture taken from the stills of the video --

 

The winner!!!

 

MrsCourtneyP!  Congratulations!  Email me your address so I can ship this out to you ASAP!  :-)

You can see the jar in the background where I had everyone's names who left me a comment on the post (or sent me an email). 

THANK YOU ALL for participating!!!  I hope to have another giveaway very soon....because I love making stuff....and I love giving it away :-)

Much love ~~~

Peeps - I've been super duper sick this week (if you can avoid getting both a sinus infection and bronchitis at the same time, do it), so I haven't been able to post the winner of my lovely giveaway.

I will do it asap.....promise.

Much love ~~~ J

Halloween Smalls | Cross stitch

Hello all!  I hope you had a glorious weekend!  It was absolutely beautiful here in Philly - the temps are definitely getting cooler, but that sun is still nice and warm during the day.

I took some time this weekend to do a little work on some Halloween smalls I want to put on a super cute feather tree I got at the Hallmark store on mega clearance.

One of my favorite designers for smalls is Blue Ribbon Designs.  A lot, if not all, of her designs can be stitched as one large piece, or broken into smalls for you to use as decorations.  Super adorbs.

The graph I chose for my Halloween smalls adventure this weekend is called Black Cats & Flying Bats, and has adorable motifs of which I chose four to make for my lil' feather tree. 

Here's the first one I finished stitching - 

Annnnddddd the second --

If you've been following me on Instagram, you've seen these babies as WIPs, and then as the final product.  I must've used a different filter for the one, because the fabric color looks a little different.  I used "Echo" from Picture this Plus, which I LOVE for Halloween project.  LOVE.  That and "Haunted".  Awesome sauce.

Now I just gotta finish the lil' haunted mansion one I'm working on, plus one more (i haven't decided which one i'll use as the fourth for this lil' series that i made), and then I'll do the finish work on them so I can hang them right up!  I'll be getting my Halloween decorations out very soon, so hopefully I'll have my act together enough to get this display done to put out with everything else!  HA.

Anyhooter.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!  Will you be decorating for Halloween soon, too...or are you so excited about fall & Halloween, you've already done all that????  Haha!!  

PS - don't forget  --- my giveaway is open till 19 Sept 12!  Be sure to enter!!  :-)

Preserving

So...I have a new obsession.  I know, right.  Like I need another freaking obsession.

Preserving.  I'm hooked.

I'm sick of paying astronomical prices in the winter for produce, so I'm bound and determined to figure out this whole thing called "canning".  This past weekend, I think I got the knack.

What do you do with end of season beyond ripe strawberries that you know will go bad because you can't eat them fast enough?

Why, you boil them in their own natural juices, with a smidge of coconut palm sugar.....

And you make strawberry jam...

Hoooooo boy this batch of jam is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

Oh, and yes, you read that right - the only two ingredients in this jam are strawberries and coconut palm sugar.  It is out-of-this-world delicious.  

Home preserving is making a comeback (and I found canning recipes in my great-aunt's Betty Crocker cookbook from the early 50's...you better believe I'm trying them out in the very near future....), and I plan on making a retro styled apron to complete the scene.

Right now, I have to go get my Cricut & make labels for these jars....

Until next time my friends...go forth and bake something yummy ;-)

Much love ~~~

PS - don't forget to enter my giveaway!  Head to the original post or to my facebook page & leave a comment to win!! :-)

A Shadowbox Feature

These shadowboxes are seriously becoming one of my favorite things to do.  It's such a quick and easy way (well....quick once your creative juices vibe with your brain so you can actually finish your project. i all but threw piles of paper in the air in disgust one night because i just couldn't get this to jive right.) to preserve a specific memory.  

Whether it's a wedding invitation, like I've done here and in the past for my sister and my friend, Danielle, or it's a baby announcement, a graduation announcement, whatever!  The possibilities for this type of project are endless.

This shadowbox is one I was asked to do by my friend, Erin, for her brother and sister-in-law to celebrate their first year anniversary.  (and....I hope they don't mind having their pic plastered all over my bliggity blog here......;-) )

First off, they got married in Ireland.  Ireland.  If that wasn't cool enough, they got married in a CASTLE.  A CASTLE, PEOPLE.  Castle.  I would die.

So, when I found out Erin's mom saved the brochure from the castle, I knew I had to incorporate at least one picture in the shadowbox somehow.

Recap:  CASTLE.

Ok.

A CASTLE.

The hardest part about this was trying to figure out how to embellish the empty space without detracting from the pictures and the invitation.   For the other shadowboxes I've done, I only incorporated one picture along with the wedding invitation.  This required more coordination, which I think is why I almost lit the entire thing on fire one night.  Good thing I didn't.

A castle.

The gorgeous bride and her groom.

Seriously, peeps.  How amazeballs is this?!  The castle is in the background and is just AWESOME.  The top pic is one I took from the brochure Erin's mom had saved.

I ultimately ended up deciding that the best way to embellish was to get out my trusty Cricut, and do a huge cut-out to serve as part of the background (see that blue flourish? that was the color of the bridesmaids's dresses), yet wasn't just a block of color.  

The paper underneath with all the old script was something I'd found in my stash and decided it was a must for this project, since there's a centuries-old castle in the background.  The key element serves the same purpose as the old script patterned paper - it goes along with the vintage feel of the pictures.

A castle.  For serious.

That's all the crafty I have for you today, peeps.  I'm lost in this castle (can you tell i'm slightly obsessed with it?!), and the history around it.  You know, the whole knight in shining armour deal.  The moat (every castle has a moat), the damsel in distress.  All that.

Moving on.

Go forth and be crafty on this glorious fall day!  Let your creativity flow as we rapidly approach the holidays (seriously - Halloween will be here, like, tomorrow...then Thanksgiving, then CHRISTMAS.....i LOVE this time of year :-) )!

Much love ~~~

PS - don't forget to enter my giveaway!  See my post from earlier today -- the deadline's been extended!!!

Giveaway Update

Hello my dear followers and visitors.

It was brought to my attention last night that your comments are not posting on the original giveaway post.

I have NO idea why this is happening.  I've tried to figure out what exactly caused this issue, and can't quite pinpoint it.

Therefore, I'm extending the deadline to post a comment, in hopes that eventually I'll get it to work.  In the meantime, if your comment does not post, post a comment on my facebook page on the post which has the link to the original blog post.  If you do not have facebook, send me an email (link is in my sidebar) with your comment.

The new deadline to post a comment on either my original post or on my facebook page (or to send an email if you don't have facebook) is 19 September 12 at 11:59PM EST.

Thank you, again, to the lovely follower who brought this to my attention!  

Much love (and luck!) ~~~

It feels a little fall-ish

Yesterday it really started to feel like fall here in the Philly area.  The air was crisp, but the sun was still beating warm rays through the big, puffy white clouds.

So what happens at my house when it begins to feel like fall?

I make gluten-free spice bread....

I brew a pot of coffee...

 

ohhh my this looks scrumptrulescent....

 

And I get to stitching.....

 

pattern by Blue Ribbon Designs

 

I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't wait for my first mug of mulled cider...

Until then...go forth and be crafty....or bake something yummy ;-)

Much love ~~~

PS - don't forget to enter my giveaway! Head to the original post & leave a comment there to win!!  :-)

 

Don't forget to go check out my "October Word Play" and get entered into my giveaway!

I changes the rules jusssst slightly, so head over and find out how you can win! :-)

October "Word Play" and a Giveaway!

Hello all my lovely followers!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Here in the States, it was Labor Day weekend, so most people had the day off.  I hope you were all able to have a relaxing weekend, since this weekend unoffically marks the end of summer.  Time flies, that's for damn sure.  I feel like it was just the 4th of July.

Once I got rid of a migraine that sidelined me most of Friday and Saturday, I spent the weekend feverishly stitching.  Most of that time was spent on Rachel's wedding gift, but I was able to final stitches in my October "Word Play".  I think it turned out super cute on this fabric - Antique Almond by Silkweaver.  The muted browns & oranges for fall really mixed well with the dye of this fabric, and I love how it turned out!

October "Word Play" by With Thy Needle & Thread

Oh so cute!!!!

I just love that witch.  She's all cute with her pumpkin in her hand, but you know that cauldron will be used for a spell that's beyond awesome once the sun goes down....just sayin'....

I did manage to put down my needle & thread for long enough to take the train up to NYC for the day on Sunday.  It was an overcast & humid day, but not hot, so it was a perfect day to walk through the city.  I'd been wanting to visit this trim store called M&J Trimming since I'd seen pics on Holly Becker's blog,decor8.  She was teaching in NYC, and stopped in to M&J and snapped some pics.  Since then, I've been dying to get in there and see what was up.  (btdubs - Holly is a wonderful creative person to follow - she's got a great blog & takes awesome pics that she shares on Instagram)

Garment District in NYC!

This store was seriously insane with the amount of trim, ribbon, buttons...you name it, they had it.  I had a specific project in mind for trim that I wanted (which will be shown in a later post), but I found myself wanting almost everything I saw, so that I had it just in case.  I know you all know what I mean...

M&J Trimming

 Seriously.  Does not even hold a candle to how much stuff was in this store.  It was almost overwhelming.  I can't wait to go back...next time I'm going when the fabric stores are all open....like mood....yesssss.......

Ok.  So enough about walls and walls of trim and dreams of mood fabric.  You got this far, and now you're wondering where I hid this supposed giveaway, amiright?

Well, kids, here it is:

I'm giving away the stitched October "Word Play" pictured in the beginning of this post!!  We're all about to get ready to decorate for the fall, and this lil' guy would make a perfect addition to your decorations!  You can hang it on a doorknob, or have it sit out on a table, or hang it up on the wall!  Whatever! 

To win my stitched piece:

Follow me here at this blog and leave a comment telling me your favorite Halloween memory (embarrassing costume party stories are highly encouraged. ;-)).

For additional chances to win, you will get an extra entry for each of the following you complete:

1) Share this giveaway on your blog.  Come back here and leave a comment with a link to your post which shares the giveaway. 
2) Follow me on twitter, come back to this post and tell me that you did. 
3) Tweet this giveaway. Come back here and leave a comment telling me that you did.
4) Like my blog's page on facebook.  Come back to this post and leave a comment telling me you did. 
5) Share this post on facebook to your friends and/or followers.  Come back here and leave a comment telling me that you did.
6) Follow me on Instagram.  Comment on your favorite crafty pic that I've posted to date.  Come back here and leave a comment telling me you did.
7) Follow me on Google+.  Come back here and leave a comment telling me you did.

All links to my social media sites (twitter/facebook/google+/etc) can be found in the right sidebar of my blog.

Again, you will get one entry for each of the comments you leave.  If you leave anonymous comments, please include your email address in your comment so that I can contact you if you win.  Otherwise, please ensure your contact information is included in your profile so I can contact you if you win.  

Giveaway closes at 11:59 PM EST 19 September 2012.  Winner will be chosen at random.  

Thank you all for following me and my crazy stiching and crafting!  I love sharing all my ideas and projects here with each and every one of you!  

Go forth and be crafty...and GOOD LUCK!!!!  :-)