T-Shirt Give Away Results

The summer has been crammed full, and I hope to get back to blogging on a more regular basis! For the entire month of July, at least one person in the home was gone during each week ...We started the month with a family vacation, followed by my oldest son on "Trek" (I'll explain in a later post--believe me, it has nothing to do with "Star Trek"), another gone to scout camp the next week, followed by my oldest son again leaving for a scout pack trip, and myself at Girls' Camp for the Young Women in our area. It has been great fun and oh, so busy, and I am grateful to have it behind me!

So now that I can breathe again, I'm excited to share some of my t-shirts with my readers! Let's get right to it. Random.org chose the following two numbers:















Congratulations to comments 8 and 13 which belong to Lori C. and Cami K.! I will get in touch with you both for your t-shirt sizes and preferences. Thanks to all for joining in with my summer fun!

Love to all,

Brian Regan--Live! Enter for a Chance to Win a T-Shirt!

You know how we sometimes idolize famous people, and have this image--good or bad-- of what they must be like in person? If you've ever met someone famous, that image may be enhanced, or it may be cracked a bit, depending on your experience with them. Well, I'm here to tell you that my family was full of Brian Regan fans before, and our experience of meeting him bumped him even higher on our list of people we admire. He is one of the nicest, friendliest guys out there. We had a fantastic experience watching his performance and meeting him backstage!

For those of you who may be new to my blog, you can go here to learn about my story, and the amazing people out there who were kind enough to vote for a t-shirt design I submitted (thanks again! You're the best!), and why we had the chance to meet him.

My hubby and I are from a little town in Idaho. Oddly enough, Brian Regan had a performance scheduled there. By the time we found out my t-shirt design had won, all of the shows near us had already passed, so we decided it would be fun to return to our old stomping grounds to see him perform.

We were lucky enough to get tickets for the third row, right in front. Here we are waiting for the performance to begin: My Blondie, me, my sister Pam, and my two goofy sons. My hubby is behind the camera.


He had some great warm up acts: his brother Dennis Regan, as well as up and coming comedian, Ryan Hamilton who is also from a tiny town in Idaho. Ryan was recently named one of Rolling Stone magazine's 'Five Comics to Watch'. He made his national TV debut when he appeared on Comedy Central's Live at Gotham followed by NBC's Last Comic Standing as a semi-finalist . Very funny guys.

Here is a photo of Ryan and Brian in the green room at the Idaho performance we attended.


So, Brian's performance was awesome. As I've said before, his humor and expressions are just hilarious to me, and I LOVE that his act is clean---a rarity in the comedy world, I think. What also strikes me funny, is that for his encore, he will come back out and take requests for favorite jokes. He admits that it is a struggle to jump into a joke without a proper segue, and he jokes that comedy is supposed to have an element of surprise to it...something that is awkward when the audience already knows exactly how each joke ends. But he makes it work, and the audience eats it up.


My biggest regret of the whole event? We rushed to arrive there on time with cameras in hand...and I failed to bring extra batteries. From my first photo of the evening, my camera was blinking that I needed to change batteries. Aarrgh!!! How did I overlook such a thing? So I was very frugal with taking photos, knowing I wanted to take one with him when we got to meet him after the show. We also have a Flip video that my boys were using, and after a few minutes, the same thing....no more battery power. I was so annoyed with myself that I had failed to bring extras!

But anyway, meeting Brian Regan was truly a treat. He is one of the nicest, friendliest guys around. He gave me a big hug, and he congratulated me on the win. We chatted briefly about the details of the contest and about visiting Disneyland. He took time to greet each of my kids and my hubby, and to chat with each one individually for a brief moment while he signed autographs and t-shirts. It was such fun! We were able to get a photo taken with him, but sadly, it's a bit of a blur...Ah, well...we have great memories!


As a bonus, I don't know if anyone out there is interested in a t-shirt or not, but I happen to have a few extras, and would love to share them with my fantastic readers! Each shirt is valued at $20, and those that I have are Women's L and Men's M, L, or XL. You can see them HERE:


Two of you great people will each win a t-shirt in a drawing on Tuesday, August 3, so you have two weeks to enter! Please make sure you leave me an email address or a way of contacting you if you do not have a blog. Upon winning, I'll contact you to find out which size and color you'd most like (I can't promise an exact preference, but I'll do my best!)

To enter, you know the drill....

*Leave me a comment

*In an additional comment, let me know if you are already a follower, or if you have become a new follower

*Grab my new button and place it on your side bar, and let me know in another comment where I can find it

*Blog about this give-away and let me know in another comment with a link

Thanks, friends!!! You are truly the best!

Spring Flowers Give Away Winners!

Thank you to everyone who participated and entered the Spring Flowers Give Away! I always love hearing from you and I am so happy to share some of my projects and patterns. It warmed my heart to see my button on your blogs or to see a posting about this give away. Thank you so much!

I gave everyone a number according to the order of their comments and the other information they supplied, such as being a follower or posting about this give-away, etc. Here is the pool I drew from over at Random.org ...


And our winner for the Spring Flowers Pillow was (drum roll please....) number 9, Carol!


Congratulations! I will be in touch with you so I can send this out to you as soon as possible!

As for the Spring Flowers pattern and embroidery files, there were just a handful of you that expressed interest in either of them, so it is your lucky day! All of you who commented on either a pattern or an embroidery file will be getting one in your email inboxes! Congratulations to Diane H., Rainy Day Farms, Debbie B. (Debbie, will you please contact me--I have no email address or access to you! Thanks!), Simple Southern Happiness, and Shirley C. Thank you for joining in on the fun!

Have a great day, and happy stitching!

Spring Flowers...Three Items Up for Grabs in a Spring Home Decor Give-Away!!

You know that little thing called "life"? Sometimes it gets in the way of my blogging! I have missed you, but boy, has it been a whirl-wind of excitement around here...family get-aways, brushes with fame, "Lightning" victories, and contest results. Yes, pretty exciting on all accounts, but that will all have to wait for my next posting, so don't go away for too long. I can't wait to share it with you!

For today I am featuring one of my favorite patterns and designs, "Spring Flowers." One of the reasons I am so fond of it is because it represents that new life and rejuvenation that we so look forward to (and desperately need) this time of year (can you believe it snowed here this morning?). Is there anything more hopeful and gorgeous than witnessing those first blossoms of spring that poke up through the snow and the hardened ground? Don't you just love the "popcorn" trees with their tufts of pinks and white? They are my favorite! These are a few of the sights my lens found over the last week...



Anyhoo...the "Spring Flowers" design is available in a downloadable e-book format for hand embroidery, which provides step by step instructions for appliqueing the fabric flowers, as well as detailed directions for completing the pillow as shown.



This design is also available in two styles of digitized files for machine embroidery.




In addition, if you are interested in a fabulous tutorial for learning how to sew a pillow for any design, my sweet friend Kris has created a terrific one using my design here on her blog. Didn't she do a beautiful job?


And the final bit of great news? In celebration of spring, I am giving away three items to three of you lucky readers! The first is this cheery and completed "Spring Flowers" home decor pillow--no assembly required!


I'm also giving away one free hand-embroidery pattern in e-book form, and one digitized version for machine embroidery.

To enter, simply leave me an individual comment for each item you would be interested in winning. I will later group all those interested in the pillow together, all those who would like the hand-embroidery pattern together, and those interested in the digitized version together for three separate drawings.

For extra entries:
1. Become a new follower on my sidebar or continue being one of my great followers!
2. Post about this give-away and provide me with a link, or
3. Grab a button and place it on your site with a link to where I can find it.
4. Be sure to leave me an additional comment for each extra entry above with mention of the item you are hoping for. Whew! I hope that's not too confusing!

And please don't throw tomatoes, but the pillow give-away is limited to USA only for shipping purposes (I know, BOO!), however, the pattern and digitized versions are available to anyone as they will be sent via email.

You have until midnight (Mountain Standard Time - USA) on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 to enter. Winners will be announced on Thursday and items will be sent out shortly after!!!

Good luck, and Happy Spring!

The DIY Dish and a Janome Sewing Machine Give-Away!

My buddies, the Wonder Twins, have done it again! In addition to the successful DIY sites connected with You Can Make This, twin sisters, Kim and Kris have added a new site dedicated to all things crafty and more: The DIY Dish. The site will feature how-to videos running the gamut of the crafting world.

Now that's just part of the good news. The rest is that Janome is sponsoring a give-away of two sewing machines in conjunction with this launch of this site, and you can win! Go here to their site for rules and give-away guidelines. Go now. Run. What are you waiting for?!

Showin' a Little Love! V-day Pattern and Give-Away Opportunity

My friend, Michelle, of A Little Tipsy, is promoting some fun new ideas for "Showing a Little Love" as the big V-day quickly approaches. (Well, and you know, it's fun to have clever ideas for showing our love anytime throughout the year!)



I happen to be a sponsor for a give-away this week as part of her series. Head on over to her cute and fun blog to share or link up some lovin' ideas of your own, and for a chance to win this "Love is in the Air" door hanger! Grab her "Show a Little Love" button to join in the fun. And hurry quick, as the give-away closes on Thursday, January 21 at 2 p.m. MST.


If you want to create your own "Love is in the Air" pillow or door hanger, the hand-stitchery pattern is found here and here. The machine embroidery files in 4x4 and 5x7 sizes are found here.

Have fun, and get your lovin' on!

What My Gremlins Were Up To: The Mysterious Blue Square Revealed! Winners Announced!

I'm sure by now that many of you are curious about my boys' creativity in my kitchen while I was away! From the several comments that were made, I'm guessing you've either lived through teenage boys yourselves, or had mischievous brothers growing up! lol.

While I was out shopping one day during the holidays, I returned home to find a full-blown, half-court basketball game going on my kitchen! My two boys had so creatively thought to bring in the ladder from the garage, tape up their square "basketball hoop" and carry on like a couple of NBA superstars--shooting in and out and all around the furniture, wall hangings, and table centerpieces. Oh, yeah....it was a good time. Fortunately for them, amidst their shooting and "stuffing" each other's shots, nothing was broken (this time!) and the painter's tape came off the wall quite easily. Whew! I guess it's true as the saying goes: "Boys will be boys..."

So each of you who figured that it had to be a basketball hoop or backboard of some sort are most definitely winners of your free pattern or download! I also loved your other imaginative ideas that it was a post for a Quidditch match, or a preview spot for the flat screen t.v. they might have been hoping for. You all win points for originality, and will be receiving free patterns as well! Look for them in your inbox within the next few days. Thanks for playing along, and I hope you enjoy your patterns! (I'd love to see what you do with them!)

What deviously creative things have your children been up to? I'd love to hear!

What Have My Gremlins Been Up To? Guess, and Win an E-Pattern or Machine Embroidery Download of Your Choice

So, my little darlings are creative buggers...I'll give them that. While I was out shopping recently and my kids were all home during the holiday break, I returned home to find that my gremlins had added this lovely blue square to my kitchen wall.

Thankfully, they had the good sense to use painter's tape as opposed to masking tape or duct tape, so I should count my blessings, right? (Oh, my!)

Any guesses as to what they were up to while I was away? If you can accurately determine their creative intentions, you can win any E-pattern of your choice, or any single machine embroidery download of your choice! All correct answers will win!

Click here to view the E-patterns or machine embroidery downloads available, then come back and leave me a comment. In your comment, let me know your best guess as to what my kiddos had been up to, along with the pattern or download name of your choice. And don't forget to leave me an email address so I can contact you if your email is not in your profile.

You have until midnight on Saturday, January 16 to comment, so start thinking like a couple of teenage boys, and guess away!

Scentsy Candle Warmer Winner!

Welcome new followers and friends! I'm so appreciative of the enthusiasm you each displayed for the give-away that Debi of Scentsy has sponsored. I am confident that you will be pleased with her products! Now remember, you (that means all of you---even you who are reading this blog for the first time ever!) can each email Debi requesting a catalogue, and she will send you a car candle for free (a $3.00 value). Just remind her that I sent you. She will keep you updated with each month's promotional scent and warmer style. (I just received my flyer for December, which is promoting the Candy Shoppe warmer shown above, with the Cinnamint scent. Yummy!)

So now for our winner of the Scentsy Full-sized Warmer and fragrance bar (may we have a drum roll please)... The winning comment chosen from random.org goes to ...number 30!

"I tweeted about your giveaway!!

BlueRibbonXS: Have you visited @HaystackDesigns blog: http://tinyurl.com/papht6 ...she is having a great Scentsy Giveaway!!"


Congratulations, BRD girl! I can't wait for you to try out your new warmer! (She chose the Boleyn Warmer, and I think it's just beautiful.) Debi will be in contact with you soon!



Thanks to all for entering, for becoming new followers and friends, and for visiting my blog! I love having you along for the ride! And again, a special thanks to Debi for a fantastic give-away!!!

Tomorrow you'll get a peek at what I've been doing over the last few weeks...be sure to check back!

Scentsy Candle Warmer Give-Away!

I am so excited about this post! I met Debi through my blog and found out she was a Scentsy Candle Warmer Distributor. I have always loved using warming candles to give my home that yummy, cozy aroma, but mine was very functional and not so cute.



Well, that has since changed, and I now love my new Scentsy warmer! Debi set me up with this darling plug-in warmer that matches my kitchen decor perfectly, along with 3 different holiday scents to try out: Welcome Home, a homey, spicy, delicious flavor; Holly Berry, an out-doorsy, masculine scent; and Winter Wonderland, a holiday-ish peppermint fragrance. While I like them all, I have to say that the Welcome Home is my favorite holiday scent!

Now the good news? Debi is offering a full-sized warmer of your choice (holiday warmers, too!), as well as a scented bar of your choice as a give-away here on my blog! This would be a perfect gift for yourself or someone on your Christmas list, and together is a $35.00 value!



Here is a little info about the Scentsy warmers in the words of Debi:

"Our warmers melt highly scented wax over a 25 watt light bulb. There is no flame, smoke or lead, so they are safe to leave on 24/7. The wax will never get hotter than a paraffin wax treatment so you won't burn yourself. Scentsy carries over 80 scents in several categories and a variety of warmers to match almost any decor.
Each Scentsy bar has 6 cubes and each cube will last anywhere from 6-10 hours depending on the strength of the scent. The bars cost $5 each and last up to 60 hours.

We also have smaller plug-in warmers that use a 15 watt light bulb, as well as car candles, travel tins and room sprays. The car candle is an air freshener that hangs from your rear view mirror and can be 'refreshed' with a room spray.

I offer free light bulb replacement to my customers (not a Scentsy policy) and I also offer a frequent customer card: after 12 bar purchases, I give you one bar free.

Each month there is a new scent of the month and a coordinating new warmer. I send a small sample of the scent along with the SOTM flyer so my customers can smell the scent each month.

Over the holidays, Scentsy has come out with limited-time warmers (there is a link on my website)."

And...Debi has offered to send a car candle to anyone who emails her requesting a catalogue. She has been so generous. I love it.

So here is the give-away 411: (Are you so excited?)

1. To enter, first zip over to Debi's blog, peruse the full-size warmers and the bar fragrances, then come back and leave me a comment letting me know which warmer you would want to win, and which bar of scents you would prefer. Please be sure I have a way to contact you through your blog profile, or leave me your email address in your comment.

To increase your chances of winning for extra entries:

2. Become a follower on my side bar, and leave me another comment, or remind me in your comment that you are already a follower,

3. Grab my button and post it on your blog, leaving me another comment and a link to where I can find it,

4. Blog about this give-away, with yup, another comment and link to your blog,

5. Email Debi requesting a catalogue and let me know that in another comment.

6. Tweet or post info about this give-away on Twitter or Facebook, with a link to my blog, and let me know in a comment!

Wahoo! 6 chances at becoming a winner! You have until midnight on Tuesday, December 8, and I'll choose a winner through random.org and announce it on December 9. Debi will ship this out to you ASAP, and you should definitely have your warmer in plenty of time before Christmas.

I can't wait to hear from you and to see which warmers and scents you are all pining for. Good luck! And a huge thank you to Debi for your generosity in sponsoring this great give-away!

Needle in a Haystack "Black Friday" Deals!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm starting "Black Friday" a little early with some great Needle in a Haystack deals today, and extending them until Tuesday, December 1!

Machine Embroidery Designs:

Buy 1, get 1 Free! Everything in my "store" at swakembroidery.com is 50% off through Tuesday, December 1!

Hand-embroidery Patterns:



With each purchase of "Needle in a Haystack" patterns made at youcanquiltthis.com or youcanmakethis.com from now until December 1, you can receive this Joyeux Noel gift set pattern for free! Simply shoot me an email (found in my profile on the sidebar) verifying which pattern(s) you purchased and the date of purchase, and I'll send you your free e-pattern via email!

Tune in tomorrow as I have a give-away that will be perfect for your gift-giving needs...for someone else on your list, or maybe for you to keep!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving day today!

"Christmas After July" Give-Away Winner!

I want to thank each of you festive folks for participating in the "Christmas After July" Give-Away! Thanks so much for your enthusiasm for some Christmas fun when most of you are sweating in the heat and thinking about getting those kidlets "Back to School". (I just sent mine back today...imagine the happy dance going on in my house right now.)

So...the results for drawing are in from random.org, and the lucky winner of our drawing is:



Scott and Katie Ulrich Family!

"That is so stinkin' cute. You are always coming up with such cute things. I love them. I love to check your blog and see what new things you have come up with and what things I could even THINK about making."

Congratulations! (And thank you for saying such nice things! I'll get in touch with you for your postal address so I can get this sent out to you this week!)

Now, I hate for there to be non-winners. It stinks when you're one of them. I really wanted each of you to have this pillow! So after some thinking on this, I've decided that each of you that were so kind to play along with my give-away game will be receiving the instructions to make your own. (I will be happy to help any of you who are feeling unsure about this. I will hold your hand through the process if you need it, and you will have success--I promise!) This e-Book has not yet been released online, so all of you will be the first to have them in your hot little hands via the magic of email.


The e-Book contains the patterns and complete instructions to stitch and sew the "Celebrate the Season" pillow shown in the give-away, along with two additional holiday designs. The e-Book is still in its final stages, but should be completed and sent out to each of you by the end of this week. (Hurrah!!) It should be available for purchase through youcanquiltthis.com and youcanmakethis.com within the next few weeks.

So, once again, thanks a bunch for playing along, and congratulations to our winner! We'll do it again!

"A Little Tipsy" Thanks!

If you haven't had a chance yet, please click here to direct you to a "Christmas After July" home decor shelf pillow that I'm giving away to a lucky winner on Monday, August 10! You have until midnight on Sunday, August 9 to enter!

I have been a super lucky gal this week, as another new Blogland friend interviewed me and invited me to be a spotlight on her blog as well. It's been a little crazy around here!


I met a darling person at the "Moms Who Make It" Conference held earlier in July. I was sitting next to her at lunch, and as we were all getting to know each other, I was excited to learn that she had a blog called "A Little Tipsy" and I happened to already be one of her followers! She is a delightful person, and her blog is full of clever "tips" she's gathered and created, hence her blog name (it's not what you might think at first!).

You can see us at lunch in the photo above... Michelle from "A Little Tipsy" is on the far left, followed by Me Myself. Next to me is another hilarious gal named Jen who was representing Boutique Cafe. Next to her are my comrades and dear friends from You Can Make This: Kris (momentarily invisible in the chair next to Jen, but she looks a lot like her twin Kim), Kim, and Sherrie.


So I just wanted to send a huge "THANKS" her way for taking the time to spotlight "Needle in a Haystack"! Check out her blog---she's got great ideas for gifts, showers, birthdays, home decor, organizing, you name it. And if you're not totally sick of reading quirky tidbits and factoids about me, you can visit her interview of me here:

Now, on to other business....I'm guessing some of you out there are feeling rather shy about commenting about this give-away that I'm sponsoring, or that you hate thinking about Christmas in the summer, or perhaps you really hate festive home decor items, or absolutely don't want to get a jump start on your Christmas gift shopping. ...Aww, I'm just teasing about all that.

But really, I'd love for each of you to have the chance to win the holiday pillow I'm giving away. (I made it with my own two little hands!) Click here to be directed to the give away, and if you like what you see, please leave me a comment and you'll automatically be entered to win! You have until Sunday, August 9th at midnight to enter.

Thanks, and good luck!